Spec me a CCTV System

Associate
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Stoke
Filthy oxygen thief, freaks me out knowing they are scoping out our hard earned properties in the night and its why I'm on the verge of buying CCTV now its getting darker but I still cant decide on what to get. Glad to see yours worked as intended there.

What are you using and what are you replacing them with?

Im currently running 4 cheap Chinese IP cameras (<£30 each) and Zoneminder cctv server software. Im hopefully picking up some better Hikvision cameras next week for free as work as had a massive upgrade.
 
Caporegime
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21 Jun 2006
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Are these the Yi WiFi cameras that are £65 on Amazon? I would potentially be interested in a couple but I dont need five. I also think I could run a network cable to the camera location quite easily but cant for the life of me find a POE Smart Camera, they all seem to be WiFi only

they are £30-£40 each last time i checked indoor wi-fi cameras with an SD card slot.

so through wi-fi you can view them on your phone anywhere in the world. they have a mic and a speaker so you can talk and listen to the camera too.

sd card is for local storage. you can buy cloud recording for a cheap monthly fee which does up to 5 cameras. as this was a cheap solution for me i used SD card until i go on holiday then i bough a subscription for a month. then cancelled it when i came back. so i had cloud recording whilst i was away from the home for longer than a day or two.

they are dome cameras with 360 degree movement. so you can move them left and right from your phone. you can also move them up and down. you can also set

it's a very flexible system. for the price you can't really go wrong with smart wi-fi cameras.
 
Soldato
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they are £30-£40 each last time i checked indoor wi-fi cameras with an SD card slot.

so through wi-fi you can view them on your phone anywhere in the world. they have a mic and a speaker so you can talk and listen to the camera too.

sd card is for local storage. you can buy cloud recording for a cheap monthly fee which does up to 5 cameras. as this was a cheap solution for me i used SD card until i go on holiday then i bough a subscription for a month. then cancelled it when i came back. so i had cloud recording whilst i was away from the home for longer than a day or two.

they are dome cameras with 360 degree movement. so you can move them left and right from your phone. you can also move them up and down. you can also set

it's a very flexible system. for the price you can't really go wrong with smart wi-fi cameras.

Ah ok I pictured the outdoor ones. I'm after an outdoor one because I can fit it from my bedroom window and drop a network cable from the loft

Is there such thing as a smart camera that uses POE? I'll need a switch and a camera that I can control via an app. Everything seems to be WiFi which would be fine until you read all the reviews and people complaining about connection issues
 
Soldato
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Just to update I went with the Blink XT2 in the end, fitted on Saturday and as of this moment I'm very happy with it for the price

They are meant to be bringing out a door bell which would be great because of the free cloud storage but I can't see it happening as it would eat into Ring sales
 
Soldato
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Haven't checked on the thread for a while and skimming through and seeing the above video made me realise I need to get on to installing some cameras.

Can anyone recommend a dome POE style camera for outdoor use please? I'd been thinking of the H.View 5MP IP one on the rainforest for £63.99 but hadn't used that brand before.

I have a couple of Foscams for inside (monitors for kids rooms) and are rubbish but do the job, just.
 
Soldato
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Dundee
Haven't checked on the thread for a while and skimming through and seeing the above video made me realise I need to get on to installing some cameras.

Can anyone recommend a dome POE style camera for outdoor use please? I'd been thinking of the H.View 5MP IP one on the rainforest for £63.99 but hadn't used that brand before.

I have a couple of Foscams for inside (monitors for kids rooms) and are rubbish but do the job, just.
I was looking at this :
HiLook IPC-D140H-M 4MP 2.8mm Network Camera H.265+ White for around £70 from the rainforest.
Seems decent enough.
 
Soldato
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Just to update I went with the Blink XT2 in the end, fitted on Saturday and as of this moment I'm very happy with it for the price

They are meant to be bringing out a door bell which would be great because of the free cloud storage but I can't see it happening as it would eat into Ring sales
How are you finding the battery life? Bit too early to tell I'll wager.
 
Soldato
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How are you finding the battery life? Bit too early to tell I'll wager.

Yeah too early, they've been on since Saturday with no issues, I'm hoping the people that complain about battery life have missed the point on these which is to only arm them when you need them and set them up properly IE not pointing at a main road
 
Soldato
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Yeah too early, they've been on since Saturday with no issues, I'm hoping the people that complain about battery life have missed the point on these which is to only arm them when you need them and set them up properly IE not pointing at a main road
Hmm; I suppose. I've been umming and arring about these and others for some time and would like something I can stick up high, set up the activity zone and then only revisit every 6 months or so to replace/recharge batteries.
 
Soldato
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Hmm; I suppose. I've been umming and arring about these and others for some time and would like something I can stick up high, set up the activity zone and then only revisit every 6 months or so to replace/recharge batteries.

Pretty much why I bought them but only time will tell, in terms of the Schedule its like the opposite of your thermostat, on when not in and off when you are apart from at night. The motion zones seem to work well, only one false alert so far since Saturday and thats because it picked up a reflection of another car moving on my neighbours car
 
Soldato
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Replaced several of my home cams this past few months with Hik colourVu turrets. Best cameras I’ve tested and a major game changer in the world of cctv. Remarkable image in low light with no external light or onboard white light leds. With lighting enabled, full colour image at night is breathtaking. Great to be to able to identify the colour of a car going past, the colour of clothing someone is wearing at night etc. Days of b/w IR cameras are a thing of the past. Wish there was a better selection of lens though. Slight changes needed with the firmware which I have requested.
 
Soldato
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Dundee
Replaced several of my home cams this past few months with Hik colourVu turrets. Best cameras I’ve tested and a major game changer in the world of cctv. Remarkable image in low light with no external light or onboard white light leds. With lighting enabled, full colour image at night is breathtaking. Great to be to able to identify the colour of a car going past, the colour of clothing someone is wearing at night etc. Days of b/w IR cameras are a thing of the past. Wish there was a better selection of lens though. Slight changes needed with the firmware which I have requested.

Out of interest are these colourvu cameras only full HD 2 megapixel? What model is it you've got? I am seriously considering these after briefly hearing about it and seeing a YouTube video, does it have a decent +30m night vision distance?
 
Soldato
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5,594
Replaced several of my home cams this past few months with Hik colourVu turrets. Best cameras I’ve tested and a major game changer in the world of cctv. Remarkable image in low light with no external light or onboard white light leds. With lighting enabled, full colour image at night is breathtaking. Great to be to able to identify the colour of a car going past, the colour of clothing someone is wearing at night etc. Days of b/w IR cameras are a thing of the past. Wish there was a better selection of lens though. Slight changes needed with the firmware which I have requested.

Which model did you get?

Looking at this - https://cctvdirectonline.co.uk/4mp-...ision-fixed-turret-network-camera-13861-p.asp
 
Soldato
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DS-2CD2347G1-LU like in the link above. The ‘U’ has the built in microphone. Also one of the other colourVu cameras has a speaker which now lets you upload a custom message and it will play it out at the intruder and flash the led lights as a deterrent which can be of major use.
 
Last edited:

JRJ

JRJ

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DS-2CD2347G1-LU like in the link above. The ‘U’ has the built in microphone. Also one of the other colourVu cameras has a speaker which now lets you upload a custom message and it will play it out at the intruder and flash the led lights as a deterrent which can be of major use.

Fingers crossed these get released in grey.
 
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