Holistic thoughts on realistic residential system

[cab938 0]

Hi,

 

I'm planning out a simple home system for myself after a couple of neighborhood annoyances. I've got a couple of gaps in my knowledge I'm hoping people can fill in for me. First, my background is that I understand video compression/image recognition/etc. and have developed some non-security solutions for video capture from things like BT787 chipsets which are pretty common in security cctv solutions, as well as a working knowledge of things like mjpeg, h264 compression factors, etc. I also have a little bit of a (hobbiest) background in optics; fov, hdr, etc. What I don't have is practical experience with the security products (this forum has been great, props btw).

 

My requirements are pretty simple and probably similar to others, except I've come to love quality and want to make my buck stretch as far as I can. Understanding the tradeoffs is important to me, I'm not really expecting a "just go buy this" (though I'll take it if you have it!).

 

Problems:

- I want to monitor my front yard fairly inconspicuously with relatively decent quality. Don't think I need license plates, but I would like to be able to ID the person at the door.

- I want to be able to expand later into monitoring my backyard, but that's not part of phase 1. This mostly comes into play when considering if I need a DVR/etc.

- I don't want to write any custom software; I have no idea if I should just buy a dvr or a card and run some software. Windows or linux solutions would be fine, but I'd like something that can do motion detection (image comparison based is fine, I don't need real motion detectors) and start recording then. I don't need 24x7 monitoring. I'd love to have remote access, or be able to fire scripts off of detected events. I just want it to be easy; the geek in me wants to hack away but the soon-to-be dad in me wants to keep it real.

- I would be willing to spend up to $400 or so on the camera if an IP camera is needed. Am I deluding myself into wanting to purchasing something more than I "need"?

- I need something that works in the cold. PTZ isn't important. I'd like to be able to set focus and fov on the camera once its in place if possible. The cold weather thread was useful in suggesting to me that maybe this isn't a big issue to worry about.

 

My biggest question is to choose between IP or non IP cams. If I end up doing the backyard in 3 years, m I going to be annoyed that I sunk money into an ntsc-based solution when IP cams have fallen in price?

 

Or, when I get the solution installed with an IP cam, will I be kicking myself that I went the the extra expense when I could have done multiple angles for less with an ntsc solution?

 

What does one usually record with when using an IP solution? Software? Are there open source things out there, or am I stuck buying something proprietary (in which case I would probably convince myself to hack scripts off mjpeg feeds, but I hope I don't have too...)

 

Is the h264 encoding on-camera usually a really low bitrate? Is this something that is usually configurable?

 

(I'd prefer a fat feed and compressed on my machine as cpu cycles are cheap and bandwidth is plentiful in this environment; for that reason most of my day to day work has been with ntsc cameras because we can get tiny h264 files with a real machine behind the encoding. But in this environment maybe my desires are not aligned with products?)

 

I prefer the look of dome cameras, but they seem to be a bit more expensive; is it a waste of money (or maybe I've just seen a bunch of cheap bullet cams?).

 

I don't really want to buy a QSEE from a big box unless everything else is wasting money. But being able to get four cams and a dvr for $400 seems...affordable. Should I resist this urge (I don't need four cams now, and my overall budget is probably closer to $600 after shipping costs. But maybe I'm being unrealistic again in what I can afford.). Or is there a good reason to buy a dvr+cam pack - should I just spend for this now and try and get back and front done at once?

 

I was eyeballing:

 

$310 ACTi ACM-3401

- 1.3 Megapixel IP dome camera, Two-way Audio, 0.5 LUX - MPEG / MJPEG 1280x1024 @ 8FPS

 

$410 AirLive OD-600HD

- Wired H.264 / MJPEG IP Outdoor Pan / Tilt / (Digital) Zoom camera - 1280x1024 @ 15FPS, two way audio, 4.3mm fixed lens (digital zoom)

 

On the composite side I looked at:

 

$210 KT&C KPC-VNE101NUV18

- *700TVL* Armored Dome Camera, IR LEDs, Color, Varifocal Lens (2.8~12.0mm), Vandal-Proof & Weather-Proof (IP66)

 

I welcome suggestions!

 

Chris

[Numb-nuts 1]

If you like quality megapixel cameras are the way to go and the least expensive way to go is IP. I have limited IP cam experience

but I know that you can start with one or two cameras and save recordings to your Hard drives or NSD. Later you can add more cameras

and should you require it a dedicated NVR with embedded OS and control software. You are confident with computers, for what it's worth

I would recommend you stay in an area you are comfortable and have a head start. You can start if you like with just one or two cameras and use a software like Vitamin d (which is an application that I know, there are many more) The first camera is free then you pay for a two camera license and then an unlimited licence as your number of cameras grow. You may them want to have a dedicated NAS drive for your footage and then you could migrate up to a dedicated NVR.

 

You talked about motion detection, well Vitamin D and other applications of that type have far more advanced motion detection that analogue DVRs which can be set off by rain, shadows of trees moving on the ground and even passing clouds changing the light. It should be called pixel-change detection. IP software on the other hand has a more intelligent way of tackling motion as you would see if you look at the Vitamin d website and watch some of their videos. I used the single camera free version, but if you like high resolution you may be better to start with the two camera license at $49 it's a steal. One word of warning, do check IP camera compatibility with the website. Remember this will get you started and you may end up spending over £1000 over a period of time, but you will have one helluva system that most homeowners could only dream about and you will understand the system structure because you will have built it. What's more you will be familiar with Cat 5 cabling.

 

Let us know which route you take and how you plan things

 

The only disadvantage I can see with going IP, is that there are fewer options in terms of camera types but you'll get over it

 

PS I just checked the cameras you mentioned and two out of the three are directly supported by Vitamin D, the third you will have to configure yourself but the support team are really helpful.

[tomcctv 187]

Hi away to go would be hybrid DVR/NVR. if you intend to do your install in stages. use a mix of standard and ip. for a domestic install you dont want the cost of a licence to use ip which some do charge for. most hybrid systems will take most ip cameras now and its also something they update all the time.

 

if you are just looking to protect your front door at the moment then you could just save yourself money with using good standard cameras.

[mike_va 0]

What we did was run RG59 and ethernet to each spot, and use a few pairs of the ethernet for power for analog cameras. I used solid core, twisted the wire ends together and then soldered at each end.

 

Now if we ever get around to finishing the basement we won't have to worry hopefully about obsolescence. I think Cat5/6 is going to be around a while...