Please help me decide...

Hello guys, I'm starting from scratch on a new CCTV system and was hoping you could give me your opinions on what I should buy. (I had very outdated equipment that was recently removed and discarded in favor of an updated system.)

I have read so much on this topic over the last few weeks and have a good idea of what I want, but have read so many different things that I'm a little confused on what the better brands are, and what to completely avoid.

Here's what I know I want:

Digital 1080P

POE IP Cameras (at least 2 of them will be outdoor PTZ's)

Min. 16ch.

HD NVR with min. 8poe's, preferably 16poe's.

Internet access without fees (pretty standard now)

If you were to build a new system from scratch right now what would you choose and why?

Thanks!

You actually already list out what you want.

Digital 1080P

POE IP Cameras (at least 2 of them will be outdoor PTZ's)

1080P ( 2 or 3 Megapixel) IP Cameras that support POE.

2 of them outdoor PTZ.

Min. 16ch.

HD NVR with min. 8poe's, preferably 16poe's.

8 or 16 Channels NVR with min 8 POE.

Just bear in mind, if you are looking at recording at 1080P live for 8 cameras, you'll need around 6TB of storage for every week of recording.

So if you want around 1 month of recording, you'll need to put in around 24TB of harddisk. Largest HDD size is 8TB, so you'll need ard 3 HDD slot in your system. And NOT all system support 8TB (just launched not long), mostly only support up to 4 (according to their manual), so you might need something with 6 slots for storage.

Internet access without fees (pretty standard now)

You mean taped on your neighbour's internet connection ?

I rather assumed you mean without EXTRA fees on top of what you are paying for internet connection now.

Most don't need. Just need to configure the NVR and your Router for external access. Also ensure that your ISP doesn't do any port blocking/traffic filtering/shaping/proxy on your current internet connection.

Thanks for your reply.

As far as recording 1080P, it will only start recording when activated by movement correct? And there's a cache that captures 30 seconds before the recording is activated and up to 300 seconds after right?

So if this is true I think a single 4tb drive should be more than sufficient, or am I missing something? (It's doubtful that I will EVER need 16 cameras, but I don't want to be limited to 8 by the NVR, and I want them all to have POE regardless.)

Are there certain brands of NVR's to avoid, or better yet what are the brands that I should consider?

Same for the IP cameras.

Video Motion triggered are never that precised. You might always miss some recordings that are crucial no matter how you tweak the settings.

Nowadays I normally advise continuous recording at lower quality and higher quality recording when triggered.

This reduced the numbers of calls from customers asking how come there's "missing" recording.

Storage is relatively inexpensive nowadays. Just go for more storage.