Outdoor Camera & DVR Advice

H

Hari_Seldon

Member
I am building a new home and I have wired for 4 outdoor security cameras. The amount of camera and DVR options are overwhelming, so I am seeking advice from experts, or those who have recently installed a similar setup. I would be happy to purchase a system through an expert if it saved me from having to design the system myself.

It seems that CollinR is commonly recommended for this type of work, however I am afraid he may be too busy to spec out a system for me.

Here are the details:
* 4 outdoor camera locations + 1 doorbell camera. All locations are under roof eaves.
* All locations wired with Cat5e + 18/2
* Smaller cameras are better, aesthetics are critical
* Warm climate, ideally no camera enclosures necessary
* Low light support would be nice, I've read that IR cameras aren't recommended here
* DVR with internet access
* Ideally I can stay below $1000 for 4 cameras + DVR, but I'm open to spending 20-30% more if necessary

In our neighborhood the most common crime is when people leave a bike unlocked or a garage open, someone walks off with something. There is the rare car burglary and a few times where doors have been kicked in during the day.

Specific questions =
1 - What camera should I use?
2 - What DVR should I use? I'd lean towards a non-PC solution (to avoid maintaining another PC), but I could be convinced otherwise.

Thanks to any who can offer some advice.
-HS
 
Get any camera with a true HQ1 sony board...vari-focal lens 2.8mm-12mm.....
its a very low lux camera 0.002( stays in colour even at night) i believe the HQ1 is a 500+ tv line res
(remember to focus your camera at night or put tinted glass in front of the lens for focusing)

Dvr???? Well i get mine from intellux... they make pelco's 4ch embedded.. pretty rock soild .. if you have 4 cams get a 8ch that way you have more frame rate to play with thus you can crank up the res D1 at 30 fps on the recording side of the dvr for crisper recording...

For intercom I always use the teledoorbell from www.logenex.com

cheers
Bryan
 
oh and $1000 bucks aint gonna cut it for everything.....YES.... its out there but will you be happy, thats a whole different story

cheers
Bryan
 
I just finished installing a 9 camera system from Q-See (QSD6209C9-250). 9 color cams with IR, 250G HD in DVR unit with motion recording and internet connection for remote viewing. It was on sale for $800. Although this is definitely not a commercial unit I am not disappointed with what I received and how well it works for the money paid. I have discovered a few things in the process
- Infrared night vision is a beacon of light to every bug in the neighborhood
- Motion detection recordings are triggered by every bug in the neighborhood!
- My black car doesn't trigger motion detection but my silver car does (on medium sensitivity)
- You can run video through Cat-5 cable for short distances (30') without baluns without any noticeable artifacts (I had to do this for one camera and it worked out ok. I was going to add the baluns later but I may not bother now)
- The cameras are not as wide angle as I would like but it is not a serious issue.
I guess it depends on your expectations, for $800 this was a great value
 
Thank you all for the input. I think the 9 camera Q-See system might do the job, but I'd rather not have IR, and I don't need 9 cameras.

If I increase my budget and spend ~$1000 for 4 cameras, can anyone recommend a specific camera model?

-HS
 
Go with a PC-based solution if you have the extra low-powered PC laying around. An AverMedia NV3000 will be awesome, it's only ~$150-ish. Gives you a lot more $$ leftover for cameras.

FYI - good call on staying away from integrated IR-cameras. The IR bounces off any damn thing, i have to constantly sweep the cobwebs/spider webs off mine or else I can't see the target even though it's under the eaves. Getting a seperate IR emitter negates that issue.

I don't have a camera suggestion, as i bought the wrong god damn cameras. Well, i do have a mini-armor dome, but it's ugly and highly visible as I mounted it right on the outer front door, which was the intent given some of the street crime around here lately.
 
Good point on the IR. It looks like the AverMedia PC DVR solution is widely recommended on the forums.

Do these require a dedicated PC? Or could I use a single P4 3GHz machine for security cameras and also to run CQC or act as a media server (for example)?

If I build a dedicated PC for the DVR it will have to be low power.

Regarding non-IR Cameras, has anyone used the PC337HR from SuperCircuits?

http://www.supercircuits.com/Security-Came...Cameras/PC337HR

Is this a good outdoor day/night camera?

Thank you,
HS
 
Don't need a dedicated PC, I used to use an older 2.6GHz as both CQC server and CCTV server. The only thing you can't do is use it as a SageTV server, as the AverMedia app doesn't like non-CCTV cards in the same machine. I think it's got something to do with making sure it's a secure CCTV stream so it can be used in court (or something like that).
 
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