mxmaniac

It was a PM5 model, was on sale. Looks like they drastically went up in price from what they were a couple years ago. I guess the main point I'm trying to make is HD sensors are cheap. They are in all sorts of cheap cameras, phones, webcams, etc. So I don't know why these old 640x480 sensors used in seemingly just about every ip camera under $100, when it should really only cost at most a buck or two extra to put a decent HD sensor in there instead. Especially considering the image from these 640x480 cameras is practically worthless for security purposes.

Well as far as the comments about licensing of h.264, and marketing, etc. The $40 camera I referenced uses h.264, it was marketed, etc. So I don't see how that makes much of a difference. It has its own firmware that was developed. In the end, its image is 10 times as good as any cctv camera I've seen anywhere near its price range, even though the cctv or IP camera just needs to simply stream the video, no screen, battery, buttons, memory. It "should" be cheaper.

Just to clarify, these aren't cheap chinese cameras I'm talking about. One example is a sony bloggie camera I picked up a couple years ago for $40 shipped. Its an actual video camera, contains lots of things that "should" make it more expensive, such as a battery, a screen, internal memory, etc. It takes 1080P 30fps, and 720P 60fps, all processed by itself. Video quality is quite respectable. Now what can you get in the cctv world for the same $40. A cheapo chineese low res 640x480 cam that records blobs of movement. I just don't understand why there is such a huge gap. If a manufacturer took the screen, battery, memory out of that sony camera, and replace it with an ethernet port or wireless chip (wireless dongles can be found for 99 cents retail, so its not expensive). The camera should actually be cheaper to manufacture, and 10X better than any other cctv cam in that price range. So why on earth do any cctv cameras that could even come close to that image quality cost $300-$400?

Maybe its just me, but why is it security cameras seem so ridiculously overpriced, and extremely outdated technology compared to cameras in general? The market is flooded now with cheap webcams, and other small video cameras for about $50 that can take respectable quality 720P and 1080P video. For a CCTV camera though, it seems you have to pay around $300 before you approach the quality of those other $50 cameras. Despite the fact its just a simple streaming device, doesn't have a screen, buttons, menus, controls, battery, onboard memory, like those video cameras do. It really feels to me like security cameras are made from a 5 year old pile of leftover discarded ccd / cmos sensors put into a housing and sold for 5X what they should cost. Why?

I might have to try out that blue iris. Really looking for something which is freeware though, without limits. I thought I'd share what I found recently, after hours more searching I found a program called contacam which is supposedly totally free and unlimited and seems to have the best reputation. Followed second by yawcam which is free without limits but didn't seem as feature rich. (These are just based on what I've read, haven't tried any yet. Others I limited out were... Vitamin D - which has a good reputation but think it only allows 1 camera. Ispy Connect - very popular, seems good, but restrictions on remote viewing are unacceptable to me HomeCamera - might be good, didn't look into it too much. It at least allows up to 4 cameras. Personally even though I plan on using under 4, I'm looking for freeware with future expansion. So it looks like I will just take Contacam for a spin, and possibly yawcam, and compare them to zoneminder. If I'm still unhappy I'll give the blue iris trial a try. I will try to report back my findings, as it seems difficult to find unbiased cross platform comparisons. If anybody has any experience or recommendations to add. Anything I may have overlooked, please let me know.

I'm just wondering if there are any good cameras out there that provide an HD image, have good compatibility with most of the software out there, and also have a pretty small, yet good lens? Doesn't have to totally be a "pinhole", but the idea is I'd like to be able to just drill about a 1/4 hole, and stick the lens through, or something similar, so that the camera is pretty effectively hidden. Any out there I should look into? Technology wise I know there are all sorts of hd keychain cameras out there capable of good quality video at 720P, with tiny lenses, for under $40, but when it comes to looking at cctv cameras, in my shopping it always seems like they are far behind, lower resolution, for higher prices.

I've spent so much time searching, the options are just mind boggling. Looking for some suggestions as to what would be the best free CCTV software out there for my needs. It does not matter if it is windows or linux, I dual boot both. My needs are pretty simple... Up to 4 IP cameras of various brands, motion detecting, remotely accessible for viewing events and administration tasks, and also I care a lot about security and stability. Ideally I'd like it to be able to not only record the events to the PC hard drive, but also have the ability to automatically FTP or otherwise transfer them to a remote location or seperate drive in case the PC running the software is compromised (and not a paid cloud service, something free that does not rely on a 3rd party) Any suggestions? For reference I'm currently experimenting with Zoneminder for linux, which in my previous search people spoke very very highly of. Had a high reputation, but so far I'm honestly not all that impressed. Its ok, but I get hundereds of false alarms just from ambient light changes, have been unable to properly set up PTZ controls on my maygion camera, and general setup overall requires a ton of research. I can do it, but its definetly not that user friendly.