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  • Home CCTV options/experiences
  • letmetalktomark
    Full Member

    I find myself looking more frequently at home CCTV systems.

    We are looking at the possibility of installing a couple of external cameras.

    For ease my go too would be something from Google. Their cost seems to be falling but they are far from the cheapest nor most expensive.

    So what are people experiences with home set ups – especially low light solutions.

    M

    scrumfled
    Free Member

    Start by asking what you want it for. Is it just to see, is it for ‘evidence’, what distance does it need to cover, does it need to work in the dark, what sort of image lag can you tolerate etc.

    WorldClassAccident
    Free Member

    I fitted some. We had footage of the young scroate looking through the window of the garage, forcing the door, looking around and taking a bike.

    The police response was “Oh, here is the number for your insurance”

    They didn’t even come to visit, let alone ask to look at CCTV. They also advised against posting the CCTV on social media for fear of reprisals that they would also ignore.

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    Painey
    Free Member

    I’ve also been looking into this but I can give you all the explanation you need as to why the police won’t even come to visit. My wife is part of the force and there just aren’t the staff numbers anymore to do anything on such things. Which is shocking but not their fault at all. You have to look at their funding for that alongside the fact they’ve effectively had a pay cut over many years plus their pensions slashed. It’s the fella in No. 10 whose to blame for why police can’t attend such crimes.

    djflexure
    Full Member

    I imagine for the most part its very difficult/ not possible to identify people from home CCTV cameras. We have a wireless Arlo/netgear system that is fine. No hastle of wires. You can see who comes and goes, take a look if you hear something odd at night (usually cat, fox, badger). Nightime vision is good. The app works well, stores images in the cloud for a week FOC. I hooked ours up to the small solar panels that they sell so I dont have to get up a ladder and change batteries.

    dovebiker
    Full Member

    I bought a Wifi camera on Amazon last week (actually bought it to film the 🦔 🦔 in the garden) but quite impressed. Has night vision, send alerts via your wifi and also records to an SD card. Has integral battery so no need for wiring. Has IP65 rating too – has survived a couple of deluges already.

    My wife is part of the force and there just aren’t the staff numbers anymore to do anything on such things. Which is shocking but not their fault at all. You have to look at their funding for that alongside the fact they’ve effectively had a pay cut over many years plus their pensions slashed

    I’m not sure what having a pay cut and pensions slashed has got to do with being selective over what crimes to investigate

    simon_g
    Full Member

    I like Reolink, their “AI” person detection was the only (affordable) one I tried that would alert when someone walked onto the drive, and not when a tree moved in the wind, or a shadow fell in the wrong place, or a car drove past with headlights on, or a moth flew in front of the lens. Records to local SD card (which is what you can review from your phone) but can send to elsewhere, email/FTP or send the RTSP stream to a recorder.

    I use it much more to get early warning of a courier, or to be aware of someone snooping about, than any realistic crime prevention.

    Ewan
    Free Member

    I have the reolink 5mp PoE cameras – really very impressed. Tons better than the ‘full hd’ ones i’ve had before. AI function means you can quickly get to sections of interest.

    Let me work out which of my cats butchered a rabbit on the door step yesterday!

    Painey
    Free Member

    I’m not sure what having a pay cut and pensions slashed has got to do with being selective over what crimes to investigate

    Quite simple really. It means there’s less people willing to stay in the police. Which means there are less police officers to investigate crime full stop. The knock-on effect being they have to be selective as to which ones they can give available resource to.

    Killer
    Free Member

    So many options and things to think about.

    I avoided the online Nest type, as they required a montly subscription and i was happy to do the install myself.
    Four reasons to have CCTV and to think about where to site your cameras
    1) to collect evidence for prosecution.
    2) to deter possible intruders to go elsewhere
    3) to provide evidence to the insurance company something really happened
    4) to be nosy away from the home

    IP cameras or BNC connectors.
    IP cameras so muuhc easier to fit if you alreayd have a cat5 network through teh house. BNC connector types mean running a shotgun cable all the way from teh camera to the DVR, but are much cheaper than IP ones. I used CAT5 cable with adapters to keep cable cost down and to be able to upgrade to IP cameras in the future

    the DVR – so many brands. I picked a HiLook one as it had an App, and coudl remotely connect to it anywhere ion the world through their secure portal, but costs me nothing monthly as i’m recording back at home (i hid the DVR somewhere non-obvious too to avoid intruders stealing it!). I specifically picked one with 8 BNC connectors and cna also add on 4 IP cameras, some have more or fewer connections so make sure you know whether you want to upgrade in the future or not

    Camera quality. focal length, IR range, number mega pixels all link to the siting and the first question all over again. i bought a bacth of cheaper ones as a bundle and added more expensive Hilook ones for the key areas

    Plenty of cheaper deals out there for wifi ones or expensive monthly setups. all depends on your interest in installing it yourself, how customised you want it, how many cmaeras, where you want them etc etc etc.

    in summary, as, ever it depends! 🙂

    cheddarchallenged
    Free Member

    I would have recommended nest up to now but the latest cameras all require the Google “home” app.

    By contrast to the nest app, Google Home is a complete load of bobbins and even lacks basic functionality that the nest app has had for years e.g. rewind 15 seconds on a live feed.

    For anyone that’s already got nest cams, the new Google nest cams require you to have both apps.

    FuzzyWuzzy
    Full Member

    As has been said, at lot depends on what you want it for. I have a dual camera (Hikvision 6MP, PoE) linked to a Hikvision NVR (I think 6TB, enough for around 12 days of continuous recording – footage then just auto-overwrites but you can ofc save and download anything you want to keep). Was around £950 installed (inc. 24″ monitor wall-mounted in a cupboard)

    I got it due to on-going issues with an ex with mental health problems (damaging my car, breaking windows and breaking a restraining order) and have provided the footage to police several times and it’s been used in court (she was denying everything but it was clear to see from the footage).

    Can’t say I’d have gone to the expense for just general security/peace of mind but I like that it’s hassle free and no on-going costs (nothing’s broken yet anyway…). Also handy these days when WFH to just have the footage live streaming to my iPad on my desk so I can check if whoever’s knocking on the door is a delivery driver or cold caller who I can ignore etc.

    Sui
    Free Member

    this is timely after my car was broken into and wallet stolen (yes i know – but don’t normally). So i’ve currently got a Vuebell door bell camera, which is OK, it was mega cheap and i don’t subscribe. However after the theft, missus has gone a little protecive so looking at this now, but again don’t want monthly subs.

    That Reolink stuff looks quite good, but getting new wires round the house is a pain – it’s a chalet with no access to the eaves – i have got 8 core alarm cable going outside and to lots of points in the house, but that’s it. The CAT5 i could pick up at the back of the house, but not front..

    slightly off-topic – is anyone aware of any devices that could render cheaper cams ineffective? Reason i ask, is that on the same night my car was done over, my neighbour was as well! With my doorbell camera and their 2 standalones you would have thought something would trigger, but no video/motion was picked up, really odd! – other neighbours dog went ballistic apparantly.

    commencaltr29rider
    Free Member

    You can jam WiFi but it is not child’s play. I tested some software utils on my own WiFi network to see if the Ring devices would be effected and couldn’t get it to work reliably at all. You have to target the network specifically, so a criminal identifying exactly which network to jam could be problematic. I certainly wouldn’t want to be relying on it.

    Perhaps there are some specific idiot proof devices available though.

    scrumfled
    Free Member

    Wifi is easy to screw, google de-auth attacks. Thats why most folks recommend a wired camera (plus you can usually PoE them too).

    Similarly most consumer cameras can be blinded with a laser pointer.

    Nothings foolproof, the fools just get better 🙂

    commencaltr29rider
    Free Member

    Wifi is easy to screw, google de-auth attacks

    Have you actually tried it though?

    As said above, it is not that simple. Mesh networks, WiFi repeaters, needing to identify which networks you need to jam, having to jam multiple simultaneously.. having to be close enough with multiple laptops to get a decent signal.

    Having had a go I strongly suspect this isn’t actually happening in the real
    world. What’s the point in all this hassle when the police don’t have the resources to use it anyway.

    oceanskipper
    Full Member

    Meraki – very very spendy; very very good. Needs PoE  and cat5/6. Cloud managed with onboard recording in case your Internet goes off. More enterprise than home use TBH but still good.

    Greybeard
    Free Member

    I bought Hikvision IP cameras and DVR, installed them myself, all with power-over-ethernet so just one cable to each. They have been trouble free. The Hikvision app works well.

    Decided to get them after Halloween vandalism, but mostly use them for seeing what our cats are up to.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Similarly most consumer cameras can be blinded with a laser pointer.

    I doubt commercial ones fair any better.

    Buy a 1W laser off EBay and you can fry the sensor in any camera at 30 yards.

    Realisticly, if someone is going to target your property, prepped to defeat security measures, insurance is your only defence.

    batfink
    Free Member

    may be worth mentioning that if you buy a synology NAS it comes with “surveillance station” already installed, to act as your PVR/interface with a load of compatible camera hardware.

    Haven’t used it myself, but it might be a cost effective way of doing it, as you also then get a NAS to use for other stuff too. Comes with an App/alerts too I think

    tomd
    Free Member

    Also consider your neighbours privacy.

    Basically if your cctv can pick up images or audio of them going about their business you’re effectively collecting their personal data and they can gpdr your arse.

    It makes sense really, lots of these doorbells and CCTv in folks’ gardens are keeping a detailed log of their neighbours exact daily schedule and interactions.

    Info here https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/domestic-cctv-systems-guidance-for-people-using-cctv/

    FuzzyWuzzy
    Full Member

    Yeah privacy issues are certainly something to be aware of, audio has stricter rules around it (my cameras don’t record audio, I looked at options but GDPR really does apply then). I let my neighbours know before installing mine (it does include a shared road in the field of view) and said I was happy to provide sample footage on a USB stick or DVD if they wanted it (none took me up on the offer), I also mentioned I’d happily provide footage if they themselves were the victim of a crime and it could help.

    reeksy
    Full Member

    Are there any options for outside wifi range?
    Our place is isolated and 350m from the road. You can’t see the house until the last 30m.
    We had a driveway alarm years ago about 100m from the house. It didn’t last long and tended to trigger unnecessarily.
    I wouldn’t mind something but assume it would need its own sim card… or maybe it would have to be something that stored images and had to be checked manually.

    yourguitarhero
    Free Member

    Possibly as well putting up some fake CCTV domes and a “CCTV recording in progress” sign at the gate or something. Still gives you the deterrent factor and costs about £10

    Rich_s
    Full Member

    Yeah privacy issues are certainly something to be aware of, audio has stricter rules around it (my cameras don’t record audio, I looked at options but GDPR really does apply then).

    Yup:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-58911296

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Half my street has Ring or nest door bell cams, as I walk down the road I’m filmed and recorded every step of the way!

    On the one hand it’s a bit creepy, on the other I suspect burglaries will be down as every scrote can see he’s being filmed.

    We have Neos cameras all over the place. Quite cool, we were on holiday the other week and my neighbour went into our back garden to put our bins out and I sent her a thank you txt before she’d even finished!

    FuzzyWuzzy
    Full Member

    Are there any options for outside wifi range?

    A PoE camera theoretically has about 100m range so if running a cable was feasible it could be an option – you can also get PoE extenders (that don’t need their own power but generally need to be protected from the weather) and they can be chained I think so you could probably get to 350m…

    reeksy
    Full Member

    Oh, that’s good to know. Might need to look into this a bit more then.

    jon1973
    Free Member

    Half my street has Ring or nest door bell cams, as I walk down the road I’m filmed and recorded every step of the way!

    One of the issues with ring doorbells and privacy is that people don’t configure them properly to stop their activation at the perimeter of their drive/property. None of them need to be filming people walking along the pavement.

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