Home CCTV system

330d

330d said:

One further questions, where is the best location for the DVR box?

I assume it's best to hide the box rather than have it on show like in the study?

Any views on this?

Nearlyold

Yes better to hide it if possible otherwise thieves can just take the box with all your footage of their break in.
Ours is in one of the bedrooms attached to the underside of the bottom cabinet of a wall unit right at the back, you can't see it unless you get your head down to carpet level, I may fit a kickboard to hide it completely. Put some black tape over any indicator lights as well. 

bengalknights

Better to place the NVR in the attic or cellar away from eyes if you can and hook up with HDMI over cat5 or wireless HDMI transmitters.

For your £1k budget you can literally get a 16 port Hikvision NVR, 2x6tb hardrive,305M of cat5 external cabling and 4 8MP Pig eye turrets with a bit of change left over. The perks of the extra ports are if you need extra cameras simply plug them in and off you go.

cymruchris

bengalknights said:

Better to place the NVR in the attic or cellar away from eyes if you can and hook up with HDMI over cat5 or wireless HDMI transmitters.

For your £1k budget you can literally get a 16 port Hikvision NVR, 2x6tb hardrive,305M of cat5 external cabling and 4 8MP Pig eye turrets with a bit of change left over. The perks of the extra ports are if you need extra cameras simply plug them in and off you go.

Yep - it was going to be Hikvision stuff I'd have recommended - but the OP seemed to disappear. I wouldn't be buying this and that on Amazon - there are some decent suppliers that will supply you directly, often at better prices than Amazon. 

And yes - put the NVR somewhere where you can get at it from a maintenance perspective - but as much away from prying eyes, and a less obvious place if possible. With most modern NVR's you can save footage directly to your phone - but if you want to download a large piece of footage/multiple cameras - the best way is to put a USB stick into the NVR directly - so that's another reason why it should be 'reachable', but definitely out of view - and not next to the window in your back kitchen. 

330d

Thank you all for your advice. I will have a look at the Hikvision items.

Another one I have been recommended is Reolink. 

cymruchris

330d said:

Thank you all for your advice. I will have a look at the Hikvision items.

Another one I have been recommended is Reolink. 

HIKvision work with a variety of other branded cameras - all mostly plug and play - you're not tied to the brand.

Reolink is different - you're tied - and only Reolink stuff works. 

Ant555

330d said:

Thank you all for your advice. I will have a look at the Hikvision items.

Another one I have been recommended is Reolink. 

I Installed a Reolink 8 channel/4 camera PoE system about 1 year ago this week at the beginning of lockdown 1. Quality is pretty good and I specifically wanted cameras that you could see the red glow of the IR sensors as my main purpose is as a deterrent to send any opportunists to the next street.  Note that playback of footage on my PC seems far better than playback or live view on my mobile app.

I did loads of research (too much really) but this came out as a decent all in one  'system'.  As already stated, you are tied to Reolink cameras but thats no big deal for me as my thinking was that I might add a camera or two and they are readily available on Amazon but im not really planning on doing anything that isnt available out of the box so for me, it doesnt matter at all.

My only regret is not putting one of the cameras slightly lower down on the front wall to get better view of faces approaching the house - I ran the ethernet cables to weatherproof boxes and loop to the cameras from there so although its a straightforward thing to change, its a bit of a faff and I have been putting it off.

CoastingHatbox

A couple of thoughts.

Anyone looking for an NVR, should consider the Synology range of NASes and their Surveillance Station software. I think you can use it with one camera free of charge, but you need to buy additional licenses for additional cameras. The LIcences are a one off purchase and relative cheap to buy.

If you are using IP cameras, please ensure you are keeping the firmware up to date, setting good passwords on them and ensure that uPNP is disabled on you home router so that they are not accessable from the Internet.

Here is a bit of gumpf on them:
https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2020/06/disable-upnp-on-your-wireless-router-already/

Many IP Cameras and even NVRs are inherently insecure. There has been a spate of dDOS attacks using insecure IP cameras in recent years. It is important to try and secure these things. My personal preference is to put IP cameras on an isolated vLAN, but I appreciate that is not practicable for everyone here.