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Anyone have a home security video system?

TheBigCountry

Green Weenie
Supporter
Full Member
Minuteman
  • Dec 9, 2013
    3,064
    4,232
    Gotta love waking up to go to work in the morning and finding your car burglarized; bastards stole my iPod and other things and went through my glove box. Between this and the Christmas Present Thief (Stole a package off the front porch with homemade wine and cheese inside, hope they enjoyed it), I want to put up a surveillance system.

    Who has one? How hard is it to set up? Are they cheap or expensive?
     
    Ive heard good things about simplysafe, there are alot of web based systems you can hook to a smart phone if you have one...im pretty old school, i just put up a deer cam...
     
    Get ahold of a security system installer. Not so much a 'salesman' but an actual installer. Believe it or not, there is a market for 'used equipment' when facilities 'upgrade/expand' their systems.

    You can get good deals on used 8 or 16 (or even larger) channel DVR's, and also some camera deals. I know this on good authority. The money you save buying a used DVR (about half the price) allows you to purchase higher quality cameras, and/or more of them.

    Personally, I am only an advocate of "wired" systems, and stay away from "wireless" like the plague. But that's just me/us here, and your mileage might vary.

    Setting it up yourself, installing camera's yourself, running the needed wires yourself is easier than you might think. Or, if you're rich, just pay to have it all done, and share with any stranger you want, what you want protected.

    (nudge-nudge-diNozzoslapupsidethehead ;) )

    Hope that helps.
     
    We went with the night owl hd setup from the walmarts. 4 cameras and dvr installed myself for under $350. It's all wired but can connect to wifi for viewing from your smartphone while away. Dvr stores for 30 days then starts over. Luckily we haven't needed it but it's good piece of mind.



     
    I installed a Samsung system . Had to have customer service set it up via a VPN connection / remotely on my laptop and thru network on home router . It was pretty painless and works great . 1080 p resolution . Works so well that the shit bag next door who is on parole saw the cameras n moved out .If you are doing yourself I would highly recommend . I did a lot of research and this looked like the best for my app. .
     
    We went with the night owl hd setup from the walmarts. 4 cameras and dvr installed myself for under $350. It's all wired but can connect to wifi for viewing from your smartphone while away. Dvr stores for 30 days then starts over. Luckily we haven't needed it but it's good piece of mind.

    What do you have if the burglars take the DVR with them?
     
    I installed a Samsung system . Had to have customer service set it up via a VPN connection / remotely on my laptop and thru network on home router . It was pretty painless and works great . 1080 p resolution . Works so well that the shit bag next door who is on parole saw the cameras n moved out .If you are doing yourself I would highly recommend . I did a lot of research and this looked like the best for my app. .

    Is this system storing video off-site?
     
    One thing I want to do if I do install a video system is to put something that looks valuable in plain sight and set it up so the thieves will look right at it.
    Maybe a valuable looking gun (Sig's airgun comes to mind) screwed to a wall mounted rack, with a camera hidden in such a way that when the asshole is trying to get the gun out of the rack he's looking right at it for his closeup.
     
    I use Simplisafe and it is really a great system. It is easy to install and very cost effective compared to the others.

    The camera is awesome.



     
    Yes and yes. You can store video for up to 30 days I think. You pay $4.99/month for the video storage. It is all explained in that link I attached
     
    With regards to the DVR referred to, in my post, it too can be hooked up to the Network, as well as have an external hard-drive located 'somewhere else'. A lot of it though, comes down to where you locate the DVR to begin with. It can be placed anywhere you want it to be.

    The ability to watch the 'home video cameras' on a smartphone is another thing that these units do. And hooking up to the innerwebz also allows one to save to a 'cloud', if so inclined. One of the main points though, to going with a 'used professional system' is you can add pretty much anything you want for cameras. This is opposed to "only adding another camera of the same style/quality/ability" from the same supplier. Maybe things down there in the South are different, but particular company 'packages' aren't exactly "versatile" up here.

    Indoor cameras are one thing, but outdoor cameras with a temperature swing tolerance are a whole other situation. Another thing to consider.

    2 Tb hard-drive with motion-activated/control settings stores a whole whack of video.
     
    This is what I use. You can check the cameras live on your smart phone. All video is stored by the company . I used it to catch a prominent person in my community show some undesirable scumbags my house (convicted felon). It was real fun calling his ass out in public then showing everyone the photo of him with said shit bag in the front seat with him.

    Also piece of mind if you have animals you can check on them. When I'm away, I have doggy cam to check on my pups.
     
    Running ARLO here.
    Two external; three internal cameras.
    You become your security monitor, you receive an email when a camera trips with a link to the video. Cameras are connected to a router which is linked to the internet modem. Video is stored for a week in Arlo's routers, you may download to your HDD. In addition to the proximity trigger you may monitor the cameras at any time. IR for night. Best part is that it is wireless. I am running the non chargeable version (123 batteries) so far running since February, down to 35% on one camera.
    You may also designate additional "monitors" who may view/monitor but not change parameters.
    One camera keeps being triggered by the neighbor's cat, wind moving rose bushes, mailman, salesmen.
     
    I recently installed a system where I did all the wiring myself. Like someone else said, stay away from the wireless systems - wired is a much better alternative.

    I installed these cameras from Ubiquiti (https://www.ubnt.com/unifi-video/unifi-video-camera-g3/); I simply bought them on Amazon. You can purchase an IR extender for them, which adds a good deal of range at night.

    Their NVR software (which is free) is quite good and has a good iOS app. I assume it also has an Android app, but I haven't tried it out. The NVR software is meant to be installed on a "server" machine - meaning it's always on - but I was able to pretty easily install it on a Synology NAS box. It works like a charm and I've been able to look at my live views, recordings, set up motion or other event triggers and even get recording mailed to me when an event requires it. I've set up my wife to be able to see the cameras as well and I can control the amount of recording that I keep (how far back I go).

    Highly recommend.
     
    Not to derail the thread, but a camera/video system takes pictures of the folks as they take your shit. How is this an improvement over an alarm system that notifies someone within a minute or so of a door/window being breached? Curious...
     
    Not to derail the thread, but a camera/video system takes pictures of the folks as they take your shit. How is this an improvement over an alarm system that notifies someone within a minute or so of a door/window being breached? Curious...

    Not an either/or. Both is best. Agreed that it works after the fact, but consider the flipside of your question: What if, even with an alarm, someone quickly steals your shit? Would you like to be able to see what they looked like and what they did in your house? Also, with the video system you can check if an alarm tripping is a false alarm or really an intruder.

    I have both and put the video system in when there were some recent car break ins in the neighborhood.
     
    I would advise anyone building a new home to add Ethernet cabling to every room when you are pulling the wires. You can do a lot with POe devices in the AV world, and it's a neat way to run power and data over the the same cables.
     
    Lots of good info here, and thanks to all. Got a call from the detectives today, so that was a good sign.

    Going to do some hard looking at what y'all have suggested. I'm kinda a cheap SOB and the trail cam option is a good one; but also a good surveillance system is something that seems due spending the money on. The one consideration is the weather here in Florida; it gets humid and sticky quick and we can also get freezes during cold spells.
     
    I would advise anyone building a new home to add Ethernet cabling to every room when you are pulling the wires. You can do a lot with POe devices in the AV world, and it's a neat way to run power and data over the the same cables.

    I'm pulling 2 coax and 2 ethernet to atleast 1 point in every room.
     
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    Reactions: Tucker301
    I like being able to snoop on the house even when I am in a different continent. There is also an intruder hard wired alarm.