Home security & CCTV options whats available.

[macabethiel]

When we move back into our home am looking at installing some sort of CCTV security set up.
Not sure what is on the market and what to go for. There are local Companies that will install a system but I have no idea what sort of cost is involved & would prefer to install it myself.

I have a high apex roof to my double garage where I currently have a LED spot light that illuminates my back yard & garden via motion detector. The Garage is at the bottom of our garden so this would make a high safe mounting point to cover the rear of our property/ driveway. Our front door is on the side of the house opening onto the drive.

Can anyone in our community give me some pointers as to options/cost/wireless/recording/using a Ethernet connection etc?

I have hard wired Ethernet in my Garage to my Office/Man Shed/Aquarium Room. Is it an easy option to view via my Mobile when I am away?

[jims-terrano]

I have a mate that is a mine of information regarding cctv. Drop me a pm with your phone number and I’ll give you a call over the weekend.

[Wheelie]

I have 2 nest cameras that work off WiFi, 1 for indoor and a waterproof outdoor, I’m pleased, they work well, I get a notification on my phone if it detects someone and their £150quid each downside is there’s a subscription for a 30 day video history or a 10 day history.

[Lazy-Ferret]

After the break in, we have just installed a CCTV system. You definitely get what you pay for...

My Neighbour has a Samsung 1080 System, and he gave us some footage from his after the burglary. What I found was, during the day, it has a nice picture, but once night kicks in, while you can make out people etc, there is no definition, and the chances of getting anything you could use is next to impossible. Even the cars going past were really just a blur.

We ended up going for a Lorex 4K system from Costco, partly because of the price, but also because when we looked it up on line, it seemed to be the sort of system Techno nerds were raving over. It came with 6 very high definition cameras, and an 8 channel recorder. The cameras are also low light, so if there is any ambient light, they still record in colour until it gets truly dark, then the cameras have long range infrared built in, which works very well. The resolution is so high, you can zoom in up to 4 times, before it starts to pixelate.

The cameras use PoE (Power over Ethernet), so you only have to run one RJ45 cable to each of the cameras. In order to make wiring a lot easier, and not have to try and run all of the cables back to the recorder, which we wanted near the TV, I purchased a separate PoE network hub, which is installed up in the loft, and most of the cameras link into that, so I only had to run one cable down to the recorder, and because our internet is at the other end of the house, another down to the internet router. To be honest, wiring is what takes the time, but the way I did it, I poked the wires through the eves, into the loft space, and used conduit to bring the cables down the outside wall of the house to the living room. It gave me a chance to sort out some other TV/Satellite/Phone/light cables at the same time.

The hardest part after working out the best locations for the cameras, is the actual setup of the recorder, as they can do so many things, and you have to work out what features you actually want/need. I have been playing with something each night, just to see what it does, and the documentation can be very frustrating.

It has a Masking feature, so if one of your cameras should overlook some ones window, you can mask that area so it is not recorded.

It also has alarm zones, where you can set it up to send you an Email if anything in that area moves. It takes a bit of tweaking setting the sensitivity and trigger thresholds to stop false alarms, but has proved very good.

One big tip... where ever you put the cameras, spiders will move in, and for some reason one will want to sit right on the lens... I have had to put a duster on a telescopic pole so I can knock him off every so often.

Before we got this system, I experimented with some wifi cameras, but found that they would loose connection to the wifi too often to be reliable enough for a system that you want to go to in an emergency, which is why I decided to go for a hard wired system, and Ethernet is much easier to work with than having to use coax based systems.

There are many ways to view the cameras, either via software they manufacturers provide, but I found that for my Android system, an App called TinyCam, which works very well for me.

To view it remotely, you will need to sign up for a DDNS service, and there are no longer any online free ones that I could find, but luckily Lorex do provide their customers this as a free service, and the recorder updates it automatically.

I forgot your other questions now! Doh

[kitchenman]

Bargains to be had at Maplin looks like a liquidation sale

[Jay666d]

I'm with Clive, PoE is the way to go.

In my last house I installed the best cameras at the time which were 700 TVL... They look hopeless compared to the 1080 version I fitted at my Dad's house a year later.

My Dad's 1080 ones look hopeless next to the 8 Mega Pixel PoE ones I fitted at my Mam's late last year.

I want to fit new ones at the house I'm at now, so I know I will be going PoE! (Probably 16MP [5K] Cameras from HikVision... I'm going to need 8 of them)

[Lazy-Ferret]

Originally Posted by kitchenman

Bargains to be had at Maplin looks like a liquidation sale

We looked at theirs as we wanted another camera with audio, and even with their closing down sale, they were more expensive than most other places...

Also, I can't give a first hand reason or justify this, but I was been told several times to stay away from Swann, which is the other make they were selling.

[Jay666d]

To be fair, the ones my Mam bought were Swann cameras (Same as the 2TB set in Maplin, but cheaper in Costco) and they have had no issues.

After they were installed, the guy who fixes our alarms at work said he would steer clear of them too, his reason was that they were just rebranded from another company... Can't remember which!

But like I said... No problems with them so far. Plug and play with plenty of features.

[Lazy-Ferret]

Originally Posted by Jay666d

To be fair, the ones my Mam bought were Swann cameras (Same as the 2TB set in Maplin, but cheaper in Costco) and they have had no issues.

After they were installed, the guy who fixes our alarms at work said he would steer clear of them too, his reason was that they were just rebranded from another company... Can't remember which!

But like I said... No problems with them so far. Plug and play with plenty of features.

That's good to hear.. like I say, I can't justify it, other than I was told by a couple of people who were supposedly in the know, but then, they were trying to sell me a system

[jims-terrano]

Right after getting my head into gear. A friend of mine fits CCTV and he highly recommends Hikvision equipment with 5mp cameras. As said run cat5 which in case anyone isn’t sure it’s network cabling what is used for computers. He also sent me links for various adapters and a power supply.
He advised me not to locate the DVR (main control box and recorder) in a different room to the tv or basically hidden from burglars. He did recommend a monitor screen in the room you spend most of your time, personally I don’t like that idea but as most systems have a web interface I feel any device such as a tablet or laptop will be able to view the live feeds at any point or even connected to main tv setup. He also said if you think you’ll use 4 cameras get an 8 channel dvr basically so you can expand.
Ask away about cat5 cabling as I’ve got the tools to do it and maybe now is the time whilst building work is being carried out to run your cables even before you get a system.

[solarman216]

CAT5 is like phone cable but better, but still cheap as chips, as Jim says run any cable you can now from all possible camera positions to recorder, just one cable for each as the power and vid are all catered for, but keep from running them with mains cabling to avoid interference, Rick

[macabethiel]

The Missus was taken into A&E at 8.00am ish this morning have just left her having a heart scan whilst I nip home to let the dogs out and grab a sandwich.

When I went to the Hospital Car Park Pay Machine it wanted £25 for being just over 3 hours in a short stay car park as they recently changed Car Park 1 into short stay only!! They let me off with £4.10. Three people behind me also had £25 demands!

Not sure when they changed the rules but Car Park 1 is closest to A&E.

Nothing life threatening but she has some severe back & right arm pain at the moment and has lost some pen grasping use in her right hand. I think it's the left arm that can be more serious have to wait & see.


Grrrrrr.....£25

[johnb5177]

Very sorry to hear the news on your Lady, I hope there is nothing serious and wish a speedy recovery.....

Hospital parking fees are a total scam, from which it seems the hospital does not necessarily benefit.....only the modernday highwaymen operating it.....

The very last thing anyone needs during an already stressful event in A&E, is a bunch of legal muggers trying this on.....

[macabethiel]

Heart scan was fine now they think it's a trapped nerve so she is on the wait for a spine scan to see if a disc is causing the problem. They gave her a load of Codeine plus Liquid Morphine to take home.

With a bit of luck it might go on it's own it has got worse over the last 8-10 days with stuff like Deep Heat not doing anything to help.

[jims-terrano]

Hope she gets better soon mate, you two have had such a bad time of it lately.