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?

Where's a good place to get the cameras? or a supplier from aliexpress?

JoYork, I'm interested in buying some Dahua camera off AliExpress. Can you let me know the supplier you used and the model you brought? Thanks

Does hikbsion do dome camera poe x4?

Looking for a CCTV system for home and after some reading looks like 1080/4MP Hikvision are the best to go for.

Can anyone recommend where to buy from and also to buy cameras and NVR separately?

Junk

Yeah, I wasn't criticising your example, just how out-of-hand this whole fake review situation is getting. Agree with everything you said.

Credit to you for sharing. :man:

JoYork - good info but foscam do provide outdoors waterproof cameras. I just bought a dome outdoors one. The ir led is seperate to the camera lens which solves the reflection problem.

It was only an example, plenty other similar kits available. Noticed a lot of funny reviews on Amazon myself actually, at then end of the day if it's Amazon fulfilled you can always return it hassle free if it turns out to be rubbish.

The reviews for that item on Amazon are weird; lots of 5-star reviews in a short space of time with very similar grammatical errors. Could be a coincidence, but I'm not convinced....

I have this on order https://www.hdcctv.co.uk/products/hd-ip-cctv-security-cameras-nvrs/complete-high-definition-ip-cctv-security-cameras-hd-ip-kit/hd-ip-cctv-kit-2-camera-external-bullet-4mp-wide-angle-xipk1bvp4mp.html?___SID=U

It should come next week after 3 weeks wait. Its not cheap but I wanted the quality no point getting a mickey mouse camera if you cant actually see detail. They have good video and info on that site to show you. By all means not cheap but I hope you get what you pay for

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.

Can you link to what you recommend, thanks

I paid a lot more for a 2 camera system with is POE and 1080p (4 megapixel) along with 2GB NVR, My main reason is to record my parked car outside the house despite living on a quite no through road, I have had my car hit 3 times in 8 years, one my neighbour and two by hit n run. I have my order on back order from http://www.hdcctv.co.uk. Rather have a decent system that I can read number plates. I am sick of paying out for incompetent numpties who are incapable of driving properly then drive off when they make a mistake. I seen similar systems and often video is slightly distorted and cant really zoom in, never see point if having a cheap cctv that you cant really see things properly

There is nout wrong in installing a cctv system, it gives peace of mind, especially to those that are vulnerable. Its provides evidence, should you be burgled & its the first thing police ask you when they are called. A friend of mine was broken into while at work, thanks to the cctv, the person (neighbours son) responsible was arrested & charged, if the cctv had not been present, they would not have been aware who done it. When you have been broken into, you will change your tune & wake up!

Amazon Annke 1080p Poe system,buy a separate hard drive.
I have just installed one at home,fantastic quality,doddle to set up as well.

Fantastic reviews!

LOL I'd love to but it's too expensive.

I would say IP cctv is the way to go but finding a good quality and reliable one is quite tricky. I have heard Hikvision are very good but I suspect you pay for that. I have bought a Foscam which seems very good! I might just buy a NAS or hook it up to my computer.

You might want to move. Lol :smile:

as a total novice in the market for CCTV will someone explain the pro's and con's for this please?

Well if you've had 3 cars stolen, tyres slashed, cars keyed I'm sure you'd want to find the person who's doing it and seeing as the police just take a report and nothing else, we have to get the evidence ourselves or at least deter them from doing it again.

What about power source to the camera. Is the camera powered by the Ethernet cable?

I have this installed , includes 2tb Hd, works well

click here

OR petty crime that normally goes unpunished, the police can finally do something about. i.e. my auntie's x5 got keyed randomly one night along with 3 other cars on the road - her cctv caught the culprit's face in HD quality. with the video, the police identified her and she was charged with the damage to the cars. Normally something like that never gets justice as there is no proof to work with and the culprit had no connection to the vicims or motive - she was just being a d*ck for no good reason. price of 1 cctv system more than paid for itself in recovering the damage done to the car not to mention the neighbours cars as well.
personally, I had 4 wheels and tyres nicked from my back garden while we were away on holiday - all the police said was "do you have cctv? otherwise we can't do much about it".

We have more reason to fear being burguled than fearing what the media tells us too.

Absolutely.. We are maxed out with fear, people need to relax, everything is OK!

I need to purchase an 8 camera system as we have a lot of public areas and we had outside items stolen last month (believe it or not they stole a chicken house and a foot ball goal).
it is very hard to find any cctv system that actually looks like it will be quality and the Amazon reviews do apear to be mostly fake - the only thing that we have actually decided on is the POE makes sense and 1080p would be nice!

We all don't trust each other. we want to steal, harm, abuse each other. with the aid of the conservative party and media we are at war with each other.

get a camera and post the best bits to youtube.

Thanks for that. I had no idea PoE systems have come down to sub £150 now. Used to be pretty expensive last year. There's another brand with a 1TB WD Purple drive installed for £50 quid more, I'd probably go for that.

Thanks for the heads up again.

I was thinking that as the English is bad in all of them and the same grammatical/language errors in all of them. I even started reading them in a foreign voice..... :confused:

​Re: the standard hard drive bit, yes it is. You only need a surveillance type drive if you're running say 16 cameras at 1080p at 24fps constantly.

For home use you'll be looking at say 4 cameras and only recording when there's motion which any drive can handle.

As others have said I'd go for Hikvision IP cameras, plug them into your desktop via a PoE switch, install the free PC-NVR software and you're away.

These are very poor cameras compared to IP systems

No thanks, no evidence at all that CCTV makes your home any safer. There is also a possibility that CCTV on your home makes you a target for vandalism etc from any local riff raff and can sometimes cause bitter neighbour feuds . On top of that do we really want a world where every move anyone makes from whatever angle is captured on camera? That is the paranoid world our kids are growing up in and I dread to think how it affects their sense of freedom and innocence. Rant over, not for me!

Those reviews are fake!

Full HD

Can't seem to find a decent 4 camera all in one system with a min of 720p, the one in the OP isn't the best to be fair.

Also want some camera's as the standard ones just stick out too much.

Any recommendations ?

Poster thieves aparently.

A standard desktop hard drive really isn't up to the job of constant recording, you need a WD Purple or Seagate Surveillance drive.

Yes, it says PoE, but PoE is 48v, not 15.

Therefore this is using a bespoke Power-over-cable system, so if a camera dies, or the NVR fails - good luck getting a compatible replacement, as even if it is ONVIF compliant, the cameras wouldn't be powered.

I personally use Hikvision IP cameras, the picture quality is far superior to anything else in the same price bracket, plus there's a healthy network of individuals on various forums, more than happy to help with the setup. Pair with a cheap NAS or PC on 24x7 and you have a very capable security system.

My wired system is purely left on for deterrent purposes and to provide additional IR lighting for the Hikvision cameras.

mike

Really.... Even in Pyongyang?

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

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

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.

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 !!

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

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

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