[Pancham]

Hey Guys. I want to get CCTV set up for my apartment including one camera on the balcony that overlooks my car.

However, I have no clue where to start. Can anyone suggest me a good brand and how to get the whole thing installed? Any help would be appreciated.

[viXit]

List out the features you require so that we can help you out better. Pls tell us your needs regarding the following points.

Modern systems offer many things such as
-view feed on smartphone from anywhere.
-number of cameras
-quality of image
-record offline to a hard drive or a PC you can remotely access
-cameras with single ethernet cable (PoE) or video and power individually


There are just where we will need to start at.

If you just need two cams recording to a drive that you can lookup later and not any live feed. Then you can pick up any basic system from hikvision or Godrej for less than 5k

[Pancham]

Originally Posted by viXit

List out the features you require so that we can help you out better. Pls tell us your needs regarding the following points.

My apologies for not specifying the details:

1. Number of cameras: 5

2. Locations: (i) One will be right outside the main door of the apartment overlooking the staircase. So a good low light (night vision?) camera would be useful. (ii) One will have to be placed somewhere in the balcony so that it can give me a good view of my car/s. This should ideally have good low light capabilities too. (iii) the remaining 3 will be inside the house at different places.

3. View feed on smartphone from anywhere - YES

4. Some form of recording capabilities will be preferred. Like in our car dash cams which keep deleting old clips. Will that be possible?

5. Cameras with single ethernet cable (PoE) or video and power individually - What will be more convenient? Dont have much idea about this.

[atulsian]

Originally Posted by Pancham

My apologies for not specifying the details:

1. Number of cameras: 5

2. Locations: (i) One will be right outside the main door of the apartment overlooking the staircase. So a good low light (night vision?) camera would be useful. (ii) One will have to be placed somewhere in the balcony so that it can give me a good view of my car/s. This should ideally have good low light capabilities too. (iii) the remaining 3 will be inside the house at different places.

3. View feed on smartphone from anywhere - YES

4. Some form of recording capabilities will be preferred. Like in our car dash cams which keep deleting old clips. Will that be possible?

5. Cameras with single ethernet cable (PoE) or video and power individually - What will be more convenient? Dont have much idea about this.

For outside cameras, go with proper outdoor cameras (IP xx certificied and good nigh vision) and yes 3 and 4 points are possible. I persoanlly prefer POE, though the setup will costlier than the regular one. If something goes wrong with the wiring, it will be easy DIY work.

[Pancham]

Originally Posted by atulsian

For outside cameras, go with proper outdoor cameras (IP xx certificied and good nigh vision) and yes 3 and 4 points are possible. I persoanlly prefer POE, though the setup will costlier than the regular one. If something goes wrong with the wiring, it will be easy DIY work.

Thanks for the tip. Can someone help me on where to start? Which are the good brands? Where do I buy it from? Amazon? or should I look at their website? How do I get the installation done?

Too many questions.

[vinu_h]

Originally Posted by Pancham

Thanks for the tip. Can someone help me on where to start? Which are the good brands? Where do I buy it from? Amazon? or should I look at their website? How do I get the installation done?

Too many questions.

Use your apt's association to reach out to nearby apt's and find out which service provider they use. You will need someone you can trust and can attend to you regularly. That way you can get your hands on a ref architecture, capital costs, AMC etc.

[deep_bang]

Folks, our society is adding a few new cctv cameras. Since these are in various locations we plan to keep a camera + recording device together to avoid having to lay wires all over the society as in the past we have had challenges maintaining the wiring.
We see that there are 2 possibilities.
1. Normal camera with dvr
2. IP camera with NVR.

IP cameras are more expensive. Almost to a point that a 2MP IP camera costs as much as a 5mp normal camera. Now, can anyone please help me assess the quality difference between a 5Mp normal camera system + DVR and a 2MP IP camera system with NVR?

Secondly, is there any advantage of going the IP camera route?

[Fillmore]

Query.
Has anyone setup a Hik Vision Acusense NVR ?
I have been trying to get one, but no one seems to have stock. Also not sure about the rates.

[JMaruru]

Originally Posted by deep_bang

Secondly, is there any advantage of going the IP camera route?

AFAIK, the main advantage of NVR vs DVR is of having access to video feed on your mobile phone from anywhere on earth.

[Fillmore]

Originally Posted by JMaruru

AFAIK, the main advantage of NVR vs DVR is of having access to video feed on your mobile phone from anywhere on earth.

Not true. Even from a DVR setup you can access the CCTV feed on your mobile phone.
Ethernet cables are more flexible to install than Co-axial (for DVR).

[neerajdan]

This is a specific question related to HikVision camera servers.
I can see my camera feed on my tv which is connected directly to the dvr but cannot see them online through my phone.

I have heard from several people that the HikVision servers are down but it's been about two weeks so wanted to check with others outside Pune.

[Fillmore]

Originally Posted by neerajdan

This is a specific question related to HikVision camera servers.
I can see my camera feed on my tv which is connected directly to the dvr but cannot see them online through my phone.

I have heard from several people that the HikVision servers are down but it's been about two weeks so wanted to check with others outside Pune.

What you need to do is delink the devices on your phone app.
Then use the + and go for manual adding
you can try the options.

[batish]

Originally Posted by deep_bang

Secondly, is there any advantage of going the IP camera route?

Here's the difference

the difference

for you. IP cameras as I have heard from the sellers, are smarter than the analogue ones.

To be honest, it's better to buy a 5MP camera with CMOS than getting a 2 MP IP camera, since no amount of smartness can beat the clarity and picture quality.

[Fillmore]

Originally Posted by batish

To be honest, it's better to buy a 5MP camera with CMOS than getting a 2 MP IP camera, since no amount of smartness can beat the clarity and picture quality.

That's were you are wrong
Clarity is good no doubt, but smartness takes it at a whole new level and beats a clear dumb system hands down.

With a clear dumb system there is zero intruder detection and action. You have to scroll manually and search backwards if you want to view what happened. And folks who used it know what a pain this is.

But the new SMART systems have a lot of intelligence built in
- Configure a perimeter - any motion can trigger an email / set off an alarm
- Set time slices when the perimeter tracking has to be active
- Vehicle detection - trigger mail only if it is a vehicle ignore cat/ dog etc..
- Human detection - trigger mail only if it is a human
- Line Crossing - draw a line , and if anyone crosses the line trigger an email.

The Email comes with 3 pics attached of the intruder violation.

So you see a SMART system makes all the difference.

[manim]

Originally Posted by deep_bang

is there any advantage of going the IP camera route?

Advantages of IP-Camera setup:

The video signal is transmitted digitally from the cam to the nvr, so there is zero signal loss during transmission.

The cabling used is same as for computer networks, that is CAT-6 (or equivalent). So this cabling can be used for other networking purposes if required in future. Also with PoE (power-over-ethernet) the cabling becomes thinner and easier to install.

I have an IP-Camera setup.