I've spent ages recently looking into CCTV so I thought I'd share what I've learned.

Firstly, forget analogue. Most have very poor image quality, and to get halfway decent quality you end up spending as much as an IP-based system, so there's no point.

IP cameras are the way to go. They're generally good quality and they're more flexible in terms of what you can do with them.

I spent ages researching and I decided against FOSCAM-type devices because they come with poor security and in many instances deliberate back doors. There are lots of videos on Youtube of people logging in to them and spying on people over the internet. Also they're only good for indoor use as they're not weather sealed and the IR bulbs can't shine through glass.

You can get a pretty decent camera for not a lot of cash if you look on Aliexpress. I picked up a Dahua 3MP camera for half the price I could get one from Amazon. You take your chances with import taxes, but even with I'd say it's still slightly cheaper. If I hadn't bought a Dahua (which I'm happy with) I'd have probably bought a Hikvision.

OK, so you have a shiny new camera... now what? Well, unless you want to power it with a separate adaptor (you don't!) you need to either buy a Power Over Ethernet (POE) switch (Currys sell a good one for £40) and use a device on your network (server, PC, laptop, etc) to record onto, or you can pick up a dedicated DVR device which has POE built in.

There are pros and cons with each. A DVR is a simple option - it's a low power device which records video from one or more cameras continuously and (if you connect up a monitor and mouse) allows you to review the footage etc. Just make sure your cameras are compatible with the DVR - some newer cameras might require a firmware upgrade on the DVR.

I opted to record using my laptop initially, but I plan to use a Microserver in the near future. There are lots of free and paid NVR type software available to download. I spent a few weeks evaluating them...

Windows software:

- Contacam (freeware) - works great if you have a camera that sends its stream via http. If you want to use the more common RTSP protocol then you need to use VLC as an intermediary and it gets complicated. A shame, because the motion detection with Contacam is excellent.

- Blue Iris ($30 for 1 camera, $60 for full version) - seems to be one of the most popular programs and seems very feature-rich. I must admit, I found it a bit overly complex compared to Contacam, and I never felt entirely happy with the motion detection side of things. If you are prepared to put in the time to learn how to use the program properly I'm sure it's good, but I just never clicked with it properly.

- Sighthound ($60) - this is my favourite so far. What I really like is the clever motion detection algorithms - it can differentiate between a person or just a moving object (e.g. dog or ball). It even puts a colour-coded box around the object it is tracking.

Wading through hours and hours of footage trying to find a 10-second event is really painful, which is why good motion-detection is important.

You can set up email alerts, FTP alerts, and have it save video clips of motion-detected events to your Google Drive or Dropbox account in case thieves steal your PC.

For Linux users there's something called Zoneminder but I never got round to trying that as I liked Sighthound so much.

Image quality from the Dahua camera is top-notch. You can tell the camera to broadcast in full resolution (in my case 2048×1536 at 20fps which gives you a 4x3 aspect ratio) or drop it down to 1080p at 30fps (or lower if you wanted to save on disk space). You can specify how many frames per second you want the camera to transmit at (10fps is actually pretty good and doesn't require as much overhead from your computer's CPU) and even at what bitrate so you can tinker and customise things until you're happy.

Currently I have the Dahua camera monitoring the back end of the house and have re-purposed an old smartphone to monitor the front (it only gives a clear image in the day time but it's better than nothing). Most NVR software programs won't care what type of camera you have.

One other thing - the nightvision from the Dahua and Hikvision cameras is really good - the cameras have lots of IR LEDs which turn on when it gets dark and really light up the area you're filming (but if you put the camera behind glass you'll just get them reflected right back at you like a camera flash).

Hope this is helpful to some of you. I'm still learning but I thought I'd try to distil 3 weeks worth of reading and experimenting into a single post.

Really, if you want a decent CCTV kit you should go for an IP system.

One example:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B013GAWTLS/?tag=ho01f-21

Where all you need is one Eithernet/Cat5 cable running from the camera to the recording box. No loss or signal interference and a genuine 720p Image. Plus Ethernet cable is cheap as chips.

no I posted because I'm in the market for one. crime has increased dramatically where ever you live !!
I wanted advice.
and yeah, what's the point posting if it gets cold !!

Really.... Even in Pyongyang?

Looks like it's this kit - https://youtu.be/XSyK7UBs9Ng

I posted this, but got lot of negative heat so was removed.
anyway I typed in CCTV cameras on search bar and decent ones appeared from Amazon £149 for 4 cameras

​Negative heat? That'll be cold then. :laughing::wink:

no I posted because I'm in the market for one. crime has increased dramatically where ever you live !!
I wanted advice.
and yeah, what's the point posting if it gets cold !!

Really, if you want a decent CCTV kit you should go for an IP system.

One example:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B013GAWTLS/?tag=ho01f-21

Where all you need is one Eithernet/Cat5 cable running from the camera to the recording box. No loss or signal interference and a genuine 720p Image. Plus Ethernet cable is cheap as chips.

I'd be looking for a NVR based system, which are POE (powered over ethernet). You have a single cable from the NVR to the camera, for both data and power. Much simpler install. Combine with 1080p IP based cameras.

No HDD, and it's not "true" PoE (15v DC in).

£37 for a Seagate 1TB drive - Says PoE in the specs and most of these systems have 16-18v Input anyway.