The Official Home Surveillance Systems Thread.

[CantRepeat]

So I'm looking at putting in a home surveillance system and want to know what other people are using.

What DVR/computer recording system software, phone alerting/calling reporting software, capturing uploading to offsite server?

What cameras, types, indoor, outdoor, fixed stationary, pan-able, IR, thermal--brands?

Cables, type routing, redundancy.

Possible professional monitoring companies.

What kind of long term usage reliability you are having with your equipment?

Adding this link to the legalities of home surveillance. Lots of good info for all states.

http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/...ance-laws.aspx

http://www.jlmmerchandise.com/survei...egalities.html

[blakekrone]

Tim, a big question to ask yourself is what type of system do you want to use? CCTV or IP Based? CCTV requires that you run coax cable with BNC connectors to all locations. The initial hardware is much cheaper and is easier to get into because they are a dime a dozen on cameras and such, but the problem is getting coax to all locations.

I have a bunch of Linksys Wireless IP based cameras around the house (1 looking out the back via a 2nd story window, 1 out the front via 2nd story window, 1 in the garage, 1 in the shop) and they work well. Most IP based ones don't do well outdoors unless you get the high end Axis cameras. I like the IP based ones as I can get to them remotely very easily via iphone/android/etc. Linksys has software that runs on Windows computers that acts as a DVR.

Most of the time you want to have a pan/tilt camera on your yards, things like a garage or shop camera don't need to be, but outdoors should usually be pan/tilt. I've used this one up at the parents cabin and it works well:

http://www.smarthome.com/75790/Smart...-Vision/p.aspx

[CantRepeat]

Hey, thanks for the feedback.

Running the cables won't be an issue for me as I already have flood lights at each corner of the house. I do need one long range camera, about 125 feet to cover the shop and the boat.

I'm kind of thinking a combination of 3 outdoor cameras that cover each door, 1 to cover the shop and then one indoor camera to cover the main living room.

I figure I'll go with someone's DVR, don't know which one as I have no info on brands. It seems most have auto back up features to back up to a NAS box or computer. I'm sure I want phone notification on motion.

What about camera resolutions. I see a lot of 480s, 600s and what not. I assume higher res offers more detail at the cost of drive space. How much drive space is taken up by 4 or 5 cameras on full time record? IE how many days do you get before it starts record over old video?

[TayMC197]

Get an izon, it's cheap, easy to move and pretty fair quality for 50. Not a serious system but I like it.

[JimN]

Originally Posted by TayMC197

Get an izon, it's cheap, easy to move and pretty fair quality for 50. Not a serious system but I like it.

Fair quality is OK, as long as you don't need to see who did what. The only thing that's worthwhile is high quality video capture. Period. New cameras are true HD now- why bother with a $50 POS when you want to see who broke in on a pitch black night?

[CantRepeat]

Anyone using QSEE systems?

http://www.q-see.com/products/produc...id=131&pid=110

[onewheat]

Originally Posted by CantRepeat

Anyone using QSEE systems?

http://www.q-see.com/products/produc...id=131&pid=110

I have a 16 channel, 1 TB DVR, 8 camera Q-See setup with 600 line cameras. I'm still figuring the system out, so can't really rate a lot of it yet. It records on motion and daylight resolution is pretty good - facial recognition at night time is maybe 50-70 feet at best as far as I can tell. I haven't played with any of the settings or changed anything from the defaults though, so I'm not sure if I am on the highest resolution or not. I just hooked it all up and haven't really given it the time to mess with it.

[GoneBoatN]

To add another question to the list:

How useful is the video image in a low light situation? In my case there is a street light about 100 ft away providing limited lighting at night. Could faces be identified under this circumstance?

[CantRepeat]

Originally Posted by GoneBoatN

To add another question to the list:

How useful is the video image in a low light situation? In my case there is a street light about 100 ft away providing limited lighting at night. Could faces be identified under this circumstance?

I've not used or seen anyone's video but some of the 120 foot cameras say face recognition at 70 ft.

Hopefully someone has some cameras in their home they can recommend for long range video. I need one to cover my shop and boat.

[CantRepeat]

Originally Posted by GoneBoatN

To add another question to the list:

How useful is the video image in a low light situation? In my case there is a street light about 100 ft away providing limited lighting at night. Could faces be identified under this circumstance?

Here is a video with a 0 Lux IR camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=BD3-lnpzUDI

Sure looks like you could get identity from it.