I'm thinking about upgrading my current shambles of a CCTV system and I have about £400 to spend.
I have three cheap unbranded cameras from my FPV days and an unbranded 4-ch DVR I bagged off ebay, in total about £40 worth including an HDD pulled from the bin. Despite the low cost the lot has worked surprisingly well for the last three years;
- The lot runs through existing CAT5e cables (via baluns), I wired the house with cat5e when I moved in
- I can view the individual cameras very quickly via RTSP, using VLC and a shortcut on the computer desktop
- Reviewing footage over the DVR's web interface is easy enough, but I don't like the activeX component requirement
- I don't trust the DVR's security, I've effectively blocked it from the web and off-site access is over VPN only.
My objectives;
- Improve video quality [EDIT: Will certainly need new cameras]
- Initial 2 camera requirement, additional camera capacity welcome but not required
- Enable access over smartphones, e.g. good app support.
- Retain quick individual camera stream access using VLC or similar
Recommend a CCTV system ~£400/$600
in General Digital Discussion
Posted
Hello,
I'm thinking about upgrading my current shambles of a CCTV system and I have about £400 to spend.
I have three cheap unbranded cameras from my FPV days and an unbranded 4-ch DVR I bagged off ebay, in total about £40 worth including an HDD pulled from the bin. Despite the low cost the lot has worked surprisingly well for the last three years;
- The lot runs through existing CAT5e cables (via baluns), I wired the house with cat5e when I moved in
- I can view the individual cameras very quickly via RTSP, using VLC and a shortcut on the computer desktop
- Reviewing footage over the DVR's web interface is easy enough, but I don't like the activeX component requirement
- I don't trust the DVR's security, I've effectively blocked it from the web and off-site access is over VPN only.
My objectives;
- Improve video quality [EDIT: Will certainly need new cameras]
- Initial 2 camera requirement, additional camera capacity welcome but not required
- Enable access over smartphones, e.g. good app support.
- Retain quick individual camera stream access using VLC or similar
- Utilise existing CAT5e wiring
- Ease my security concerns
So, what can you suggest?
Thanks!