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Home Security Cameras System

Ortndal

May 2, 2015
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We live in MN, USA, and would like to acquire a high-definition analog home security camera system.
We don't want an IP system. We want to install and monitor the system ourselves, don't want to hire a security firm.
 

davenn

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Sep 5, 2009
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hi there
welcome to EP :)

so what searching online for equip have you done so far

how about showing what you have found so far .... show links
and possibly some of the guys here can give you ideas on how they look


cheers
Dave
 

Ortndal

May 2, 2015
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Q-See doesn't have domes that are weather-proof; they are indoor only. Lorex has poor customer ratings for customer service and product ratings.
 

hevans1944

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Jun 21, 2012
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I use a Toshiba Model No. IK-WB16A.

It connects to a wired port on my local area network (LAN) router and can be viewed on any PC in the house that is also connected to the LAN. With the right software I can view "real-time" images on my cell phone. It has very good resolution (1600 x 1200 pixels) with remote zoom, pan, and tilt controls through a built-in server. It is a little pricey, but you get what you pay for. Should the need ever arise to file a police report,you will be able to actually visually identify the "bad guys" with this camera, while still obtaining adequate area coverage. This is not the grainy, low-resolution crap you see on the evening news that is virtually worthless for perp identification. Dedicate an inexpensive PC on your LAN to security and record video continuously on a solid-state drive. Or get fancy with motion detection, cell-phone dial-out, yada yada yada. Don't pay to get ripped off by a "security" company who can do little more than phone the police.
 

chopnhack

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I use a Toshiba Model No. IK-WB16A.

It connects to a wired port on my local area network (LAN) router and can be viewed on any PC in the house that is also connected to the LAN. With the right software I can view "real-time" images on my cell phone. It has very good resolution (1600 x 1200 pixels) with remote zoom, pan, and tilt controls through a built-in server. It is a little pricey, but you get what you pay for. Should the need ever arise to file a police report,you will be able to actually visually identify the "bad guys" with this camera, while still obtaining adequate area coverage. This is not the grainy, low-resolution crap you see on the evening news that is virtually worthless for perp identification. Dedicate an inexpensive PC on your LAN to security and record video continuously on a solid-state drive. Or get fancy with motion detection, cell-phone dial-out, yada yada yada. Don't pay to get ripped off by a "security" company who can do little more than phone the police.
Do you suffer any bandwidth issues with the camera recording on high resolution? I know that it becomes an issue with more than one recording at high def. lot of data moving!
 

hevans1944

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Do you suffer any bandwidth issues with the camera recording on high resolution? I know that it becomes an issue with more than one recording at high def. lot of data moving!

No effective bandwidth limitations I can see on the LAN, but connecting to the Internet via cell phone slows things way down. I only could afford the one camera. I've never tested to see if anything else on the LAN is affected by streaming from the camera. If that turned out to be the case, I would just run a dedicated Ethernet connection at 100 Mbps to the security PC with the SSD recorder. Toshiba sells a WiFi version that they claim supports up to sixteen cameras, but clearly that requires deep pockets and not a little bit of paranoia. There are four switches on the back of my camera, so I assume that if I got a 16-port Ethernet Switch I could connect that switch to a LAN router port and add fifteen more cameras. The effective frame rate probably goes way down with sixteen cameras streaming data.

There is also a microSD slot on my camera for on-board recording, but it is empty for now. I can purchase quite a few effective weapons, to go along with my existing collection, for the kind of dough required to add fifteen more Toshiba cameras. However, I may add one or more external cameras later this year, probably with less resolution, just for early warning purposes. The high- resolution Toshiba is just to identify intruders who actually survive entry.
 

Ian

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We don't want an IP system.

Is there a reason you don't want IP cameras? Just yesterday I installed an HD IP camera on our garage, and it was a piece of cake. I can monitor it from any PC or phone in the house and because it's an IP camera there are lots of config options such as motion tracking, event e-mails, etc...

I went for one of the D-Link dome cameras, which sounds very similar to the camera that hevans1944 is running. It's PoE (Power over Ethernet), so there is just a single cable running to the camera which plugs in to a PoE router inside the house.
 

hevans1944

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Analog cameras (NTSC analog video) are virtually obsolete and mostly unobtainable, especially in resolutions sufficient for security purposes. I have one that I installed in my detached garage several years ago. It uses a wireless RF analog link to a special receiver in the house. The receiver outputs NTSC color video, except at low light levels the output is monochrome. No microphone, so no sound. This rig is totally useless IMHO. Limited RF range from camera to receiver, poor signal-to-noise ratio, NTSC low-resolution image, no motion detection. It does work okay in the dark with built-in near-infrared LED illumination on the the camera, but that's the only thing it has going for it. I think I purchased this from X10 Home Automation for around sixty dollars.

The X10 latest camera offerings are only IP cameras, mostly WiFi connected. Check it out here. The D-Link cameras that @Ian mentioned also appear to be a good deal (I get e-mail offers for them from D-Link on a regular basis), although I have yet to purchase any cameras from them. My wireless cards are D-Link, my wireless LAN router is a Cisco-Linksys E3000 with four wired ports, and the Ethernet switch is a Cisco-Linksys SE1500 that adds four more ports while using up one of the four router ports. The LAN connects to the Internet via a personally-owned Motorola SurfBoard SB6141 modem connected to a Time-Warner cable service with "up to 20 Mbps" bandwidth. All this works together pretty much flawlessly... until someone fires up the 1200 watt microwave oven in the kitchen. Some of the D-Link wireless cards go off-line when that happens, hence my desire to use Ethernet wired ports for some of our PCs and the Toshiba camera. My wife's MacBook Pro and her iPad and my HP laptop don't appear to be affected by the microwave oven, so go figure.

Please re-think your desire for a non-IP camera. They are easy to install, the prices keep coming down, and you do not need the "services" of a "security" company.
 
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davenn

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We don't want an IP system. We want to install and monitor the system ourselves, don't want to hire a security firm.

you seem to have a misunderstanding on IP systems .... they DONT necessitate the hiring of a monitoring company
its just another type of connection system between camera and recording/monitoring unit, usually a PC

Dave
 

hevans1944

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Q-See doesn't have domes that are weather-proof; they are indoor only. Lorex has poor customer ratings for customer service and product ratings.
Q-See claims to have "weatherproof" cameras for outdoor use, but caveat emptor on that. It is difficult to make a camera "weatherproof" and keep it competitively priced. The outdoor weatherproof dome enclosure for my Toshiba camera costs almost as much as the camera itself. It does, however, include an internal heater and a blower which will keep it from freezing up in the winter.

You may be right about the Lorex products: they received a lot of bad reviews. I have no experience with either Q-See or Lorex, so maybe you should consult a "video security specialist" in your area for their recommendations and perhaps some live demos. Of course they will try to sell you their most profitable system, but maybe you can get them to divulge a list of "satisfied customers" you can contact. Refuse to do business with anyone who won't provide a list of customers you can contact. Don't sign any contracts. You may have to fight your way out of the sales room, so be prepared for a "hard sell" attitude. Or continue looking on line and hope someone here can recommend something that suits your fancy, whatever your fancy happens to be.
 
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