Home Security System Reccomentation

[BigguyZ]

I appreciate the update CWS.

Anyone else have any familiarity with these types of systems?

[tommyt654]

Just a quick comment,before we moved to C-Ville I had mounted a few fake cameras I had purchased off E-bay as we had some kids loitering around our property and a bike was stolen (pre-accident). After mounting them those kids never, ever came around again,just a thought and they were easy to mount, they were adjustable as far as positioning went and had a small red light powered by a 9v battery that went out about every 4 months. Cost was less than $20 for 4 camera's as I recall and even UPS guy commented on it when delivering shortly after installation. Just a thought on the matter.

[atgcpaul]

OP, any update that you can provide on what you ended up installing?

I have a wireless camera but the low light pics suck. I'm looking to install two outdoor facing cameras.

I'm interested in knowing what types of cameras and how you are dealing with the monitoring ie remote monitoring, DVR, cloud storage, etc

Thanks
Paul

[cwsmith]

I took back the HF 4-camera/DVR system that I mentioned in my earlier posts. Problem was simply poor night resolution. If you can't tell the color or get a license number it simply doesn't do you much good. At times, I couldn't get a decent idea of even the shape of a vehicle at night. They were great with picking up a face if it came to the door, but chances are someone would try to hide their identity.

There was some talk, two years ago, that new, higher resolution, low cost cameras were coming out but I haven't seen those yet.

We finally got that particular neighbor evicted, so the big problem went away. Still, a video system would be nice. I just don't find anything decent resolution affordable yet.

CWS

[RAV2]

Qsee and Swan are big names in consumer camera systems.

BJs also carries good packages.

I purchased my QSee 8 channel, 1TB, wired, 700 (TVL) system from HomeDepot during a 'deal of the day' sale. They come up about every other month offering $200 off on the systems. My $500 system cost $300 and I added 4 additional 600 TVL cameras for some less critical areas that were $29 each at MicroCenter.

My system connects to the 'world' thru the web (DNS server from QSee for free) and I can see the cameras in my house on the LAN, away on my pc on the WAN, and on android and apple smart phones.

The system records alot - even though I have the areas properly masked - but the system automatically overwrites the data every 3 month (at my data useage) - enough for me to go back if needed.

It is not set to trigger me by email or alarm, I just use it for monitoring outside, garage, shed, and basement.

Wired is more work but wireless can have connect/reconnect issues.

Cameras are color, day/night, with surprising resolution and color with acceptable light in the day and the IR emmiters on the camera throw a ton of IR all around the area. The cameras are surprisingly sophisticated and can see in the dark with IR even when pointed directly at a outside light source.

Friends are amazed. Family is somewhat interested and annoyed. For a surprise party, we just hid away from the closed windows and watched the guest of honor arrive by camara (lots of compliments that day). Daughter got perturbed the other day when she came home at school lunch with a new friend who is a boy and I did not recognize the strange car in the driveway and began to take action - but a quick call to my kids and a reminder to let me know about 'unusual occurances' was warranted (the discussion about boys in the house comes at a later date).

For $300 starter package, about $150 in extra cameras and longer cables, and some time (with occasional assistance from more network savvy friends), the system is very enjoyable.

Nothing better than snuggling up in bed, reading my tablet, and checking the grounds before I roll off to sleep. In the future, if an issue arrises, I'll safely check it out discretely and can choose my path to solve the problem - with the local law enforcement and/or other means of self protection.