Good morning fellow forum-goers. Looking for yet more advice, this time on home security cameras (that won't break the wallet preferably) Long story short, we have a neos v2 camera in the house, sits in our living room shows up our pathway to the front door, the neighbor at the end of that path was robbed (90-year-old woman living alone), another neighbor asked me if I could check my camera to see if they came up the path, they didn't unfortunately, but to do this i had a micro sd card in it (seems the only way to record all the time unless doing it and recording to a device that has the app which isn't convenient), so i moved the camera upstairs so i can see the end of the path, entrance to her house but i didn't put the sd card back in the camera until I went to bed that night. She was robbed a second time that day which my camera without the Sd card did not record. A few things i noted from this tho. - My camera paid service would only have caught this if it was in armed mode (which its not when we are at home, it would go off every 30 seconds if that was the case) - Even if I found footage, doing so was painful, 24 folders for each hour of the day, and 59 1 min videos of each min recorded for each folder. I ended up making a vlc player playlist to scrub through it which was a pain and very time-consuming. - day mode is only ok, it's an indoor camera, so it gets reflections and glare from the window. Night mode cant be used because of the ir lights reflecting Whilst im concerned for my neighbor (we all kinda look out for her). It has made me think about our home security. I have a toddler and alot of expensive toys and so forth. So i wanted something a little more robust. Wanted something that i can access from my phone, preferably with an app, something that might let me view the recorded footage in a timeline fashon (scroll-like scrubbing feature) without having to go fish out an sd card. And since i wouldn't benefit from some of if not most of the features, i don't want a subscription. I have been watching videos all day and been on amazon looking at prices, and quite honestly I'm pickled, there is just so much choice, I wanted to get ones that all link in, the missus always fancied like a camera doorbell, but i didn't want to pay the subscriptions for it and other cameras in the house, it adds up and then you have an app for each of them. Whilst people detection and notifications for motion would be really beneficial as well, i came across a few that seem to be ok-ish ..... for the prices, ideally, I'm looking for 2 cameras, one front one back, probably power them with Poe from a switch in my attic. like the look and spec of the ones below, does anyone have or use these or any they can recommend. Mainly Reolink cameras https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08F7C37NZ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ARGDLBF91D6J6&psc=1 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reolink-De...b8199&pd_rd_wg=9qjIW&pd_rd_i=B08F71V8SH&psc=1 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reolink-Me...8742&s=electronics&smid=ARGDLBF91D6J6&sr=1-25
take a look at hibbert home tech on youtube, the guy has done reviews on most of the wifi cameras. (he is a little ott btw) RE: Doorbell etc, if you want to go over the top Unifi do some nice cameras, but it's all POE and cabled in so not cheap.
I have cheap outdoor Yi cams, which works similarly to your current camera, but with free zone movement notification and 6s cloud footage of it. This works for me. I'm also looking for good no-subscription video doorbells. Eufy camera and doorbell seems to get good impressions. It can have a home base for localised recording and processing for quick timeline searching, without subscription. Its doorbell have a separate chime indoors to record to SD card so you will still have footage in case of theft. I'm considering this doorbell, just unsure about its integration into Home Assistant. Unifi is the top end, Smart Home Solver (youtube) uses it and seems to be the most feature rich, ticks every possible box, but it's also most expensive.
Thanks for that, I was looking specifically at their 2k doorbell camera, I'm gonna need time to watch detailed videos on each app more than anything i think, the outdoor cameras they seems to do are ok, but quality-wise, i cant really find anything that compares to the reolink 410a for the price point (but they don't do a doorbell yet sadly)
To throw another possible idea into the hat. Any decent network camera to a linux box running shinobi . Open source and free....
I've been round the houses with cameras... around the houses. From wifi, to a DIY solution involving hikvision, tried a few different applications server-side, then went for Unifi Video (old NVR) and was content. I then switched over to Unifi Protect and was initiall nonplussed, but it was early days and the maturity has increased massively. I then moved and started the analysis paralysis all over again and eventually went Unifi again very recently, and very happy I did. The latest Unifi Protect is a very good system IMO, and doesn't have to be expensive... minimum cost of entry is a very inexpensive G3-instant camera and a UCK-G2-Plus for recording. It's generally more expensive than more DIY oriented alternatives, though it is a fully bundled cost - hardware, software, no subs etc. But it's not the be all and end all and isn't for everyone either. Before looking at cameras/NVRs, you need to have in your head the right answers for you to these questions, because they'll narrow down your selection massively. - Do you want to record on-camera, locally centrally or to cloud storage? - Do you want to record all the time, or on specific triggers? (noting that triggers are not infallible, as you've found) - Do you want an appliance/system, DIY components, or a science project? - Can you cable? (sounds like a yes, which is good)
Ill look into that one man, i have a few spare older machines that might be up to the task, maybe even a pi or 2 Thanks for the detailed answer buddy. -Local/cloud storage ( i have no problem linking it to one of my cloud accounts and letting the pc do the backup of the footage every night or so)(also the system or storage location can be hidden anyway within the home( -Id like it to record all the time but have triggers when we leave the house when its armed or i choose to arm it at home for any reason (sleeping or noise cancel headphones in the office ) - system im happy to try anything... as long as it works and easily. -----My experience of getting recorded footage off my current one was time-consuming and clunky. It needs to be easy to scrub through, if it could show motion detection points (using ai stuff) then even better. ( i did look at setting up an nvr with blue iris and deepstack AI) - And yes. (any reason to use a drilll ), i can cable happily
Start thinking about NVR first then, cameras second. All of these point to Unifi as a good option apart from the backup bit - AFAIK there's no way to identify a NVR as secondary/backup, though you can have a third party NVR just pull the RTSP stream at the same time. So you could have Unifi perma-recording and then a secondary NVR just recording events for instance. As for other negatives, If you want "smart detection" (you do), its the G4s @ ~£180/camera on top of the ~£180 CK-G2+. The CK can chug a little bit when scrubbing too, even with just two cameras. I was running network on it as well, but suspect this is more a function of the 2.5" drive struggling to keep up (and correctly prioritising recording over playback). No such issues on the UNVR with 8 cameras. The biggest plus though is that it's in my experience idiot proof, which even if you're not an idiot, is a fantastic thing. A small Synology with surveillance station would tick the boxes as well, and two licenses are included with the box itself so if you're not going for more than two cameras there's no need to buy additional licenses. Plenty of cameras will record directly to a share, but in my experience retrieving footage is a pain of trial and error, especially if you're not sure when you're looking, so you'll want some sort of management front end. Any camera that supports RTSP will work here, but I'd just pick whichever Hikvision matches the budget and requirements and be done with it. I tried Blue Iris for a bit, and every step of the way there were red flags saying "NOT FOR YOU" that I chose to ignore. In the end I burned a bunch of time setting things up, never really got what I wanted out of it, and never had a warm fuzzy feeling that it was working how I wanted it to work, and it's far from easy to use. I'd put this in the science project category. There are undoubtedly more options, but these are the ones I've tried out and can comment on. EDIT: but from a usability point of view, you've pretty much nailed the description of Unifi Protect out of the box:
A lot of excellent advice in their man than you, and i think your right, im very much swaying into the unifi products, despite the price tag, I think from a tick box standpoint its the closest to what I want, but not at the price I want, which is more my view of its worth to thiers i guess, i think ill pick something up that's better than i have currently to do me whilst saving for some of their decent products. Ive always liked there other gear, maybe throw in a dream machine and tell the missus that its part of the sec system even better
I have a much more modest Unifi setup than Mister T, which records 3 weeks worth of footage from 4x cameras before it overwrites - more than enough to cover a holiday (what are those??) for example. Doing it this way, I've kept the cost to a minimum and not needed to upgrade the HDD capacity inside the Cloud Key gen2 plus either. If I added more cameras or wanted to record at 4k, then that'd be a different story but for us, this covers all we need to, both inside and out. I had a pre-existing Unifi network and just added the Cloud Key Gen 2 Plus (think Unifi controller and pseudo-NVR in a tiny box), 4x cameras (three of which bought used on this forum) for under £400 in total. That's 1x G3 Bullet with IR range extender for our front, 2x G3 Flex internal cameras covering vulnerable points looking outside and a G3 Instant in the hallway. The Bullet camera I have set to record 24/7, the other three only record on motion detect to save space but they've not missed a motion event yet so take some peace of mind from that. If you require a full CCTV type setup, then going down Mr T's route with the NVR is your better option but for general home security, the CK gen 2 plus will definitely suffice if you need something a little more wallet friendly. The CK-G2 does indeed chug a little and I agree, it's more likely the drive than the machine given it's low CPU usage when I've checked but it's never been a real issue for me. The latest firmware updates have certainly sped things up anyway. Unifi also now have a video doorbell in their range which you can run from a CKG2 or NVR without subscription, which may meet your Missus' requirements. I'd do this in addition to any cameras, rather than instead of, personally. The absolute best thing about Ubiquiti's Unifi range is it's scalability. You can start small and grow it as your requirements grow. You needn't have a large initial outlay at all.
Thanks for the input man, appreciate it, being honest my original budget for this was very underestimated for good gear, it will be a few months before I pick any of this up, but I'm liking the ubiquity gear more and more from everything I read and see for it, very very scalable and reliable, had not come across the doorbell so ill get that looked into as well, if I can id like to get I all in the one go, I'm only thinking 1 camera front and back atm, as we don't really need any cameras within the house, but we haven't yet decided if were selling or not (remortgage due, and we would quite like a house with a back garden for the little one) but an upgrade regardless is needed. I have a few on the watchlist on the bay, if i happen to get some used gear cheaper, im happy to do that to achieve the security im looking for
Ubiquity does do a doorbell: https://eu.store.ui.com/collections/unifi-protect-cameras/products/uvc-g4-doorbell It is everything I want from doorbell, I just don't have the infrastructure to get it.
No worries buddy. Stick a wanted ad in the sales forum here. There's a few IT professionals and plenty of enthusiasts that have a good rotation of Unifi equipment. I got all mine from SASPro and he does semi regularly shift Unifi stock so may have something that fits your needs. If you want to buy new, check out BroadbandBuyer.com based down in MK. They're a good retailer and very helpful/knowledgeable if you need to ask a human being which option would be best for your specific needs. If you're just after 2 external cameras, a G3 or G4 Bullet or G3/4 Dome would be ideal, depending upon what range and FOV you require to cover. If you're in a particularly low light area at night, the IR ring addon for the Bullet cameras are worth every penny too. The difference is literally night and day, pun intended. You *can* also get weatherproof housings for the Flex cameras too but they're not really an outdoor camera IMO and the IR range for night isn't up to the job for outdoor use either, so avoid that trap if you see a bargain. I have a mate who has two installed outdoors but under the eaves of the roof, so they're well sheltered from all but driving rain but I don't expect them to last through too many winters to be honest...
Ok dudes, so my son has made the choice for me, a lot earlier than I would have liked but the neos smart cam is no longer, he pulled the cable, hit the floor. Dead So I don't have any savings atm to buy the cameras I want, I'm just gonna buy one just to do the job and decently, for the budged ideally i don't want to spend more than about £60 all in so I have narrowed it down to 2 cameras, I have never used Poe so looking for recommendations on a cheap injector that will do the job. Camera-wise it's reolink,i like the app, pc software and can be used with blue iris (altho from what i read motion detection would not work) or their own NVR if i ever upgrade with them. so I have the reolink rlc-410 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reolink-Surveillance-Waterproof-Detection-RLC-410-5MP/dp/B07C75C47B/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=reolink+410a&qid=1624874482&refinements=p_76:419158031&rnid=419157031&rps=1&sr=8-4&th=1 And the reolink rlc- 520 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reolink-2560x1920-Surveillance-Waterproof-RLC-420-5MP-5MP-Dome-PoE-IP-Camera-Fixed-Lens/dp/B07F3CH6QQ/ref=sr_1_14?dchild=1&keywords=reolink&qid=1624874140&refinements=p_76:419158031&rnid=419157031&rps=1&smid=ARGDLBF91D6J6&sr=8-14 I'm going to clean the outside of the house and repaint some areas today but I'm not sure where it's going yet, either under the canopy at the front door and facing down the walkway, or up high and that way it can see the cars as well. From what I'm reading with these 2 cameras there essentially the same spec, I just wanna make sure before buying, but I am probably aiming more towards the 520 and the cars are about 80ft away, and not in a well-lit area, anything that we will catch i assume would be unusable in identifying someone. However I have never used Poe, and to keep costs down I just need something that will work. Found a TP-link one on amazon, for a decent price, people complaining that the power is not isolated, however, I assume cause I'm using a POE camera that won't matter in this case, and its 802.3af which match the cameras ? https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL-PoE10R-TL-POE10R-PoE-Splitter/dp/B001PS9E5I/ref=sr_1_17?dchild=1&keywords=poe+injector+802.3af&qid=1624874658&refinements=p_76:419158031&rnid=419157031&rps=1&sr=8-17&th=1 @Sentinel-R1 @Mister_Tad
If you've not ordered an injector yet, these are pretty cheap new... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ubiquiti-Power-Adaptor-802-3af-U-POE-AF/dp/B07FB72GJ3 But they also come bundled with a variety of Unifi APs, and end up unused, so you can find them for less than a tenner s/h. They're also a bit tidier than the one you linked - integrated power supply so no wall wart, and a mounting plate too.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164905148123?hash=item26651cdedb:g:67UAAOSw~q9grhM6&LH_BIN=1 this one work ? , I assume since I dotn see from the pics, one side is power, other is eth in and eth out ? EDIT, actually for the price difference I think ill just buy it new from amazon if it will do the job EDIT 2: . Rlc 520 and poe injector ordered, now to get up the loft for the 20m cat cables that Im sure are up there
What's with generic statements and first time posters? Those 2 posts are just saying the same thing using different words.
