IP Camera Options?

Hey guys,
 
I am planning my new home, already built, but need to figure out cameras.  I have been loyal to onvif cameras with a hikvision NVR and 99% of my cameras (maybe an exaggeration) are hikvision units.  I have had a TON of problems with the Hikvision NVR, to the point where the software runs like a dog on decent hardware.  Also the cameras about 5 years old now are starting to have lens issues where they are off color.  I believe the IR Filter is stuck.  Happening WAY too often and a reboot doesn't fix it.
 
I have seen arlo cameras, google nest, wyze?
 
I might just go these route - reduce the heft of a local NVR and easier install?
 
Any thoughts?
 
Thanks,
 
Neil
 

Personally I would stick with 2k and 4k cameras that have the Sony Starvis sensor.  This sensor is used by various manufacturers and is called by many different trade names.  I'd ditch the dedicated branded NVR and go with something like BlueIris. Yes it's Windows based, but it has much more functionality and expandability than most NVRs.
 
I think Arlo, Google Nest, Wyze and other similar cameras are consumer quality gear designed for simplicity over functionality.  I would not use them in my house.  

Yeah I jumped in on the IP Cam forums and bought and install blueiris now for my current NVR - to test.  The hikvision cameras really are a disappointment.  I have a box (5 or 6) that need replacement.  Unfortunately I think they and dahua are the "standard" for these ip cameras.  Just can't all be this bad?!

I have 17 active cameras and most are Hikvision.  In about 7 years I think I only lost 1 to failure - I consider that a pretty good rate.    I gave up on Dahua after 3 problems in a row.  I've also used a range of quality and price - Axis, Vivotek, DLink, Panasonic, Amcrest and a few more I cannot recall, as well as Avigilon and Axis at work.
  
In my experience if you get 10 years out of a high quality camera ($400-600), you did very well, especially outdoors.  At least 5 years with a lower grade ($100-300) camera should be easy.  So doing the math, I'd rather replace the cheaper ones.   The other reason is that technology changes so fast, that you probably don't want to miss out on that with the 10 year camera.  My first cameras were 1 megapixel - now 3 or 4 MP seems to be the standard, and night-vision has gotten so much better over the years - such that I have replaced cameras for those reasons, not failure.
 
In my opinion, Hikvision is the best price to performance ratio I have found for home use.  They are not perfect, but they are feature-rich for the price.  If I lose a Hikvision, replacing it doesn't hurt too bad, but replacing an Axis or Avigilon hurts.  Everyone has different experiences, so I am not minimizing yours, just offering my experiences as a benchmark.  I do not buy the cheapest Hikvision cameras - I usually buy the mid to higher end Hikvision lines based on the "you get what you pay for" strategy, and it has worked for me.

IR cut filters are bad on 6 cameras.  Im fed up.  Some of those cameras are HARD to get to and really a niusance to replace.  Others are the same model so its a failure in the hardware.  I have send them in for RMA repair,.  Not fun.  Theyre junk.  Support sucks big big hairy balls as well.

Recall that you were by salt water / much lightning.  Maybe you should consider a marine IP camera. 
 
Here since going to the wireless Hikvision doorbell camera have been purchasing Hikvision IP / POE camera boards mostly to tinker.  
 
I have had one of three boards on now 24/7 for over a year with no issues.  The firmware on these have facial recognition and the cloud app connection features which I will not be using.

You might look into the Ubiquiti Unifi IP Cameras. I've used their network gear for years and am completely happy with it. IDK much about their cameras, but the pricing is good. They recently introduced a doorbell camera and have more 4k stuff coming (currently available to their early access clients.)
 
Wyze cams are good for what they are: cheap, portable IP cams. They have an official alternative firmware that enables RTSP.
 
I also have a few Blink cameras, but they are only worth it for a specific use case: no wires! They will run 6 months to 2 years on batteries (no kidding). But, and its a big but, they are completely proprietary. You have to use their mobile app. Until recently, their cloud storage was free but recently it went to a subscription model with a very constrained local storage option. If my account wasn't grandfathered for free cloud storage, I'd bail in a heartbeat. If their local storage option improves, it might be worth re-considering.

I would caution anyone that many of the hot new camera brands are proprietary - they only work with their software or cloud systems.   Even Ubiquiti does not support the ONVIF standard, which I believe means they only work with Ubiquiti hardware.  If you want flexible cameras that will work with an off-the-shelf NVR or software like Blue Iris, you may want to stick with ONVIF cameras.

Mark S. said:

I would caution anyone that many of the hot new camera brands are proprietary - they only work with their software or cloud systems.   Even Ubiquiti does not support the ONVIF standard, which I believe means they only work with Ubiquiti hardware.  If you want flexible cameras that will work with an off-the-shelf NVR or software like Blue Iris, you may want to stick with ONVIF cameras.

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Just to clarify - a camera does not need to support the ONVIF standard to work with other DVR systems like BlueIris.  Sure the ONVIF standard does usually make some extra features available (like camera based motion detection), but all you really need to ensure the camera offers is a recordable video feed - most commonly a RTSP feed. If the camera sends a reliable RTSP feed, BlueIris can record it just fine and use its internal features like software based motion detection.

Of which at times, the BlueIris motion detection is actually better since it can have more granular based controls; smaller zone and contrast support.  Many time what a camera offers for motion detection has bigger zones and contrast cannot be adjusted.  Plus you can even require BlueIris to have two cameras trigger before motion is reported.
 
My thought is you determine what NVR/DVR you plan to use and then buy cameras around it, but don't look at proprietary only systems or a camera that is only supported by one or two NVR/DVR's.
 
If you look at the cameras that can use BlueIris, you have a lot to choose from.  Then look at the ones that cannot be used and you know what to stay away from.
 
Personally I wouldn't look at things from say Nest, Ring, anything from a DIY alarm or Ubiquiti.  Ubiquiti seems to work for some people but every so often they have an issue and then they need to tinker with it some more.  If something doesn't work out of the box or if firmware updates cause you to tinker with it, then I'm not interested.  You want something that works and the time you need the footage is when it will be broken.  Nothing is worse than waking up and finding it broken.

Personally any IP camera that will do RTSP / ONVIF and is not a closed app in the cloud type of camera you should be OK.

The whole IP camera thing has evolved much over the years. Smaller and faster these days the IP cameras are all mini computer boards.
 
Here prefer to utilize a software based CCTV NVR.  There are benefits to using a hardware based NVR but typically the hardware NVR is sold with same MFG's IP cameras.
 
Nowadays many of the cloud based IP cameras have cloud recording.  Initially it is offered for free then later there are fees for storage.
 
I always preferred using the wire (network POE) type of connection to the IP camera. 
 
For the first time here have tried a wirelessly connected camera which is the Hikvision Video Doorbell camera.  I am not using the cloud features on the camera (disabled) and do JPG, RTSP and ONVIF connectivity to the camera and it has worked OK for me.

It's been running fine now over a year 24/7.  Somebody wrote an ONVIF to MQTT app such that I can use it with my automation software.

Today only utilize VPN to call home via cell phone, tablet, laptop or desktop configured with a VPN client.
I can see my automation, security and CCTV this way just fine.
 
Testing another set up these days in a second house using Ring.  Somebody wrote a RING to MQTT app which lets me control and see video and connect the Ring system to my home automation software.  That said here get the benefits of a wireless alarm with backup and service and able to manage it locally sans the cloud or phone app.

BlueIris can record ubiquiti (or at least last time I tried) despite not being ONVIF; however I find the Ubiquiti cameras too expensive.  I actually like the Lorex and the Hikvision cameras, and have found the Amcrest ones to be a good value as well.  I would never get into Ubiquiti's closed ecosystem just because their camera options are so limited.  I also am not a fan of the little packaged NVRs - they're way too underpowered and simplistic - either get into BlueIris or get a professional NVR with some horsepower behind it - I've used the ones from SnapAV and they're really good - but not that accessible to everyone as they're a dealer item.  Also I have some Synology recording going on - I just don't like how expensive their licensing is - but the interface is good enough and it's reliable.

Work2Play said:

BlueIris can record ubiquiti (or at least last time I tried) despite not being ONVIF

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The reason why I mentioned Ubiquiti and Blue Iris is because of this:
 
https://community.ui.com/questions/UNIFI-G3-Video-cam-and-BLUE-IRIS/7148b235-342d-4988-b2ed-fda8b617e062
 

I have tried in a few RTSP players and with VLC I get a dithered picture, the other ones never seem to load at all.

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I am having the same issue. VLC will not steam either. We are using the RTSP to feed our 3rd party monitored Security NVR. Since the firmware change there is not a usable RTSP stream from any of our cameras.

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RTSP issue in 1.16.0 will be fixed with a future beta release.
https://community.ui.com/questions/Unifi-Protect-RTSP-Broken-in-1-16-0/f5e76a31-a654-477f-bf7e-4a084e027ba7
Question for people who use blue iris with protect rtsp streams:
I use two G3 bullets in Standalone mode with the latest blue iris and it works fine however if I switch the cameras to use protect on my cloud key gen2 + with the protect rtsp urls, blue iris no longer records on motion.
The two cams in blue iris are exactly the same (using a 1080p main stream with a 480p sub stream) and I just switch the rtsp url of the cameras.
Is there some other settings I need to change? I just want to use protect as a backup.

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So it is clear that "testing" for compatibility is not part of their process as they didn't even test to make sure streaming still worked.  Probably works fine with their products though; outside integration....not so much.

lanbrown said:

So it is clear that "testing" for compatibility is not part of their process as they didn't even test to make sure streaming still worked.  Probably works fine with their products though; outside integration....not so much.

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While I do like Ubiquiti and use their switch and wireless AP, they have been known for a lack of software quality control and releasing software bugs - much to the chagrin of their customers.  Their more-mature networking gear suffers less from software buggery today, but has been flawed in the past.
 
It isn't clear to me what benefit bringing the IP security cams under the Unifi umbrella would have.

I'm looking to start a small h265 4K POE camera system with night vision, and would like self-host storage and remote access.  I have a windows machine with a RAID array for storage, and will probably run Blue Iris, although I have also heard of ZoneMinder and Shinobi.  For remote access I can VPN in from outside my network using a smartphone or other device, although hopefully Blue Iris can handle streaming and scrubbing through video to a client outside the network.
 
So far my impression of Amcrest and Hikvision are pretty good.  Features I would like are motion detection that can alert my phone, night vision and one-way audio.  For one of the cameras a motion-sensor light and two-way audio would be nice.  Also a doorbell model would be helpful as well.  It isn't clear that I could make much use of PTZ feature.
 
Any suggestions for me before I start buying the wrong parts?