Introduction
A few years ago after I bought a house, I decided I wanted to install security cameras. The problems with mass-market syst...
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Wow. Thanks for this tutorial. I will do something like this. I probably will do a Linux-based system and spare the money that you give for the Mac Mini.
Thanks again!
What DVR? The computer is the “DVR.”
I recently set up a DIY home security camera system, and it was surprisingly easy! I wanted something reliable without the hassle of professional installation. After some research, I went with a Vivint system. It's super user-friendly, and I could set it up myself in no time. The app is great for monitoring everything remotely, which gives me peace of mind whether I'm home or away. Plus, the quality of the cameras is top-notch.
Using old phones for cameras requires that they be near an electrical outlet, or you have to run new 120V wires, or you have to run really long USB (max 50' for USB3) cables to keep the phones powered. (The long USB cables are probably best since that's no worse that running ethernet cable for PoE.)
Phones are also only really suited for indoor use since they have no infrared night-vision for outdoor use.
The company's AlfredCam Plus looks to be much better suited for outdoor use. It's not clear what the video quality is, but if you used my 3.63 Gb/h value with the camera's 64Gb microSD card, you'd get only about 17 hours of video. To get 24 hours, you'd have to drop the data rate to 2.7 Gb/h, so the quality would have to be worse. Whether that's noticeably worse, I can't say (but presumably you can). But that's still only one day's worth of video. My system stores one month's worth.
Also, constantly writing to solid-state drives decreases their lifespan dramatically. For some things, such as constantly writing streaming video, spinning disks are still better. It's also not clear what the camera's 10' cable plugs into on the other end (presumably a 120V outlet, so you need exterior outlets on your house).
I couldn't find anything that said AlfredCams support the ONVIF standard or whether their software supports other ONVIF cameras.
You can purchase a DVR board ( i can only find them at Walmart,com from China) instal it in any plastic container, then simply plug in HDD, cameras, power, etc. About $40 for the board depending on which you want, wireless,wired, number of cameras capability. It's simple, cheap, plug an play and same quality video, internet, recording as any store CCTV home security systems
I've not heard of DVR boards, but after a cursory search, many want direct video input. Some accept ethernet, but those have to support ONVIF cameras. But you still need a hard drive to store the video to. It's not clear how that's done. Also, what video monitoring software do you run? And where? On the board directly? And how can you run an app to access video from your phone?
If you still need a computer either to attach a hard drive to or run video software, I don't see how a DVR board helps. You'd need to specify exactly what the set-up looks like.