Home security cameras

SixPapaCharlie

SixPapaCharlie

May the force be with you
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Aug 8, 2013
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So this little fella shows up at my neighbor's door at 3:10 AM this morning.
He walks up to the door, rings the doorbell, stands there, Wraps a towel around his left hand.
My neighbor flips on the porch light and the guy leaves on foot.

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My knee-jerk reaction just now was to go to Fry's and buy this doorbell cam that has 2 way audio and streams to your phone.

Then I see the Arlo wireless IP cams and pick up a set of those. I have 1 wired camera in my driveway but it is not the best quality.
So now I possess 3 different camera systems and I am thinking about getting a do over and consolidating.

Maybe I did this wrong. Obviously the Arlo thing will have its own app and the doorbell camera will have its own app.

The doorbell one is nice because it uses ships power. Arlo uses batteries.

What I want is 4 cameras that stream to my phone. One of which I want to have 2 way audio for the front door and all should have motion detection.

What do those of you that have cameras use? I'd like to stay under $500 for 4 cameras.
 
If you are a member of sams or Costco they have some systems that fit your budget that are good quality and meet all of your needs
 
mulligan said:
If you are a member of sams or Costco they have some systems that fit your budget that are good quality and meet all of your needs
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hmmmm. I have a family member that is a member. I will do some searching there. Hadn't thought of that.
 
I just installed cameras. I was looking at the Arlo and Nest. As far as I could tell (i'm not a techie guy at least compared to the people i work with), the only practical difference was batteries or plug in. I went plug in with Nest so I didn't have to deal with replacing batteries and the cameras were close enough to attic eave vents that I could just install two outlets in the attic for power and not have terribly unsightly wires. The only issue I have had with Nest is when changing settings from multiple devices, just reset them and wife and I agreed to settings (zones, notifications, etc).
 
My primary system is hard wired. Most newer stuff is wireless. I bought a couple of FLIR FX wieless cams for my office but they don't pick up the wifi signal where I need them installed. Beware of that potential. I'm still a fan of hard wired. I can view them via app and look back for 24 hours from the DVR. It ain't broke so I'm not changing it.
 
We have an Arlo for our driveway. Has generally worked okay, although it suffers from the problem some have where the night filter gets stuck resulting in the picture being red during the day. It corrects its self periodically. I created an IFTT macro with it plus the Weemo switch for our porch lights such that when the Arlo detected motion, the porch lights would go on. This was all well and good, but the IFTT options at the time weren't complex enough such that I couldn't have the rule only active at night.

The new Arlo Pros look nice (if expensive) and take rechargeable batteries. As-is, we replace the batteries in our regular Arlo every 4-6 months. I recall not going with the Nest since a bunch of owners of the model prior to Nest buying the company were upset with the reduced features and there was some concern of having to have an paid account at some point to get it to work.

I have a bunch of disparate home automation tech in the house..going to unify it one of these days: Arlo cam, Weemo switch, Hue bulbs, GE dimmer that does z-wave.
 
Holy cow that is sketchy! Wonder what he was gonna do....
 
I setup an old computer as a camera server. Blue Iris is the software. It records, allows live viewing and can be accessed via app. Pretty inexpensive as well. Currently running 21 cameras off of it at the office (POE, wired).

I will will use it for the house when I get around to it. That will probably be 5 cameras.

http://blueirissoftware.com/
 
Hi.
You get anything make sure it's wired and Digital. If you see BNC it's analog camera and they are not very good. The specs are misleading even the digital cameras are Not capable of full 1080P on all cameras, verify and confirm with the manufacturer before you purchase.
For Night most are monochrome and you can expect about half the distance that they are advertising, you would want at least 100Ft.
 
Have 4 Arlos outside, batteries last several months (buy in bulk from Amazon), a little latency with recording after motion sensed, pretty happy in general.
 
I have 2 of these and love them - https://www.amazon.com/SecuPlug-Megapixel-Resolution-Compatible-Milestone/dp/B01KKC6XCG

I got them on eBay, open box for $150 each. I would have had to get 4 fixed cameras vs 2 PTZ. They can connect to motion detectors and point where the motion is, autopatrol, 2-way audio, send emails, upload directly to the cloud, etc. Plus, they look badass. With the 22x optical zoom I find myself doing some birdwatching, and the night vision lets you see all kinds of crazy stuff. The other really neat thing about PTZ cameras is that spiders have a tough time making a web on them, which is nice if the camera is in a hard to reach spot.

Those Arlo cams, Ring and just about anything else wireless can be a lot less reliable. Personally, I stick to wired security systems.
 
I've got a Ring (which I believe is probably the one that you were mentioning originally). Understand that it requies a pretty high bandwidth uplink to work. I had the "pro" version originally and that didn't work at all on my measely 1.5M up DSL. Ring sent me a standard one at no change and that works adequately.
 
flyingron said:
...my measely 1.5M up DSL.
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Those RING doorbell cameras work kinda like a Windows 10 PC. They work great, right up until it really counts. Then its "Wifi signal lost". The Blink cameras are better. But, make sure your WiFi is good enough in the location you plan on putting it.
 
Look into the IP Cam Viewer app for your iDevice. Works with a wide variety of cameras and servers. If you do a server, make sure it and your network are locked down, at least one brand that I heard about instructed you to open ports on your router :O. Remember that anything that uses a cloud service will be sending video to the cloud server where it can (and will) be saved and mined, and employees of said company will probably have access. Like with home-based servers, security is only as good as your passwords.

Some security companies offer video server services. Some, including Alarm.com offer the ability to remotely view cameras in the home on their app.
 
Just the camera won't cut it, may I suggest a .45

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
Stewartb said:
I would have opened the door and politely said "Hi, can I help you?" Everyone deserves a cheerful greeting at 3:00 in the moring.


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In this kinder-gentler socks-n-sandals society, you better be in a very pro castle doctrine state. And, I'd recommend you join something the Self-Defense Fund. I would never answer the door at 3am unless I knew for certain who was there. I'd wait till they bust the door down and then do what I had to do. The old "tried by 12 vs carried by 6" thing sounds nice. But, the way it works these days, you shoot someone and you, your spouse and all your children just might wish you were dead.
 
You should focus on your own situation. i'm doing fine with mine!
 
I'm a big fan of POE cameras, specifically the HikVision 4K's. The night performance I get from the HikVisions is phenominal. It outperforms my infrared cameras - in full color. And they're relatively cheap.

Have a few of them up with Blue Iris around the house. Blue Iris is accessible from all my phones anywhere and you can view any/all of the cameras, as well as the recorded history.

With POE cameras you just need to run Ethernet cables, no need to worry about power.
 
We have a Ring doorbell, its not perfect. There are times that we get notification with substantial delay, but, I still like it. It still gives us a record of whom comes to our door.
 
Mine too are POE(Hikvision and Dahua) have to run a power cable anyway even wireless, so may as well just run one single cable. Right now I'm using an android tablet for the motion detect and recording. Mostly the only thing they detect is animals, luckily.
 
I have the Night Owl system. Came with four cameras, dvr, all cords etc for I think $400. Auto records any motion, keeps data for 30 days or so, streams to my phone, has desktop app for more editing. Can also get extension cables and additional cams for reasonable cost. Has good night vision and fair/good daytime quality. I think it has inputs up to 8 cams.

It's definitely consumer grade stuff, but more than sufficient for home monitoring in my view. Only downside is having to run the cords to the cams, and the field of view could be a bit wider. OTOH replacing batteries in the cams would be a PIA too.

Here's a screenshot of the streaming app with live view of me typing this out, as long as all of you promise not to put this on the internet...
 

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Have no doubt that guy was there to break in.

There must be something about your neighbors house that says, "break in here please". He needs to find out what that is and change it.

And who breaks in at night when everyone is at home. Late night activity attracts attention. The best time to break in is around 10am or 2pm.

And bean bag rounds hurt. I mean hurt, but don't usually kill humans. Cracker rounds are fun as well.

I have a wired camera system, with night vision, soon to be connected to my cell phone. My wife wants me to add two more cameras to make a total of 6.
 
ytodd said:
Look this way, smile and wait for the flash!
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Mount some remotely triggered laser pointers on the PTZ cameras and light up a few vital organs. On a remote speaker say in a stern voice "State your intentions!"
 
JonH said:
IWith the 22x optical zoom I find myself doing some birdwatching, and the night vision lets you see all kinds of crazy stuff.
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Bird watching. At night. Suuuuuuure. Birds. LOL.

Shepherd said:
I want a doorbell buzzer with a Claymore mine attachment.
Is that a thing? Will I have to make it myself?
Where can I get a doorbell switch? I think I have everything else I need.
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This side toward enemy.
 
With the way politics are going I'd want something where I had more control over the files on the server, maybe encryption or something, or a rolling delete that was not reversible. I'd say having footage of all the going ons at your house on someone else's server ripe for the illegal or big brother says it's legal pickings, heck that's more of a legal danger than standing your ground with those burglars .
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Holy ****!!
I didn't even notice the gun before, I was just frightened by he Hairy, Robin Williams-esk forearms.
Did y'all see there was a gun?
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Next time I'll grab my 500 Magnum for the selfie. What arms? BTW, if my wife answers the door at 3:00 AM? Same view with less hair on the arms. :cool:

If you ever see me flying or boating or driving to and from? I promise I have my 500 with me. The Glock is my city buddy. Alaska is a Constitutional Carry state. No concealed permit required. I have a couple of nephews that are police officers. Two neighbors, too. They all have one mindset. Assume EVERYONE is armed.
 
wilkersk said:
In this kinder-gentler socks-n-sandals society, you better be in a very pro castle doctrine state. And, I'd recommend you join something the Self-Defense Fund. I would never answer the door at 3am unless I knew for certain who was there. I'd wait till they bust the door down and then do what I had to do. The old "tried by 12 vs carried by 6" thing sounds nice. But, the way it works these days, you shoot someone and you, your spouse and all your children just might wish you were dead.
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QFT ... I have policies from US Law Shield and USCCA ... as USCCA continues to improve, I'll probably let my US Law Shield lapse. NRA recently introduced a policy that, in my opinion, needs improvement, but is a good start.
 
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