1st Post from Tampa, FL. - Burglary ring, this is gonna get expensive?

[Paranoid_Loyd]

First, thank you for taking the time to read this. We've got a burglary ring operating in our neighborhood and everytime someone gets them on camera, you really can't see their face (These are all nighttime events).

I had been shopping around and decided I wanted the best quality camera out there. I was going to get 14 cameras (it's a large property), each running 4K@30fps for 24/7 and storing that data for up to 30 days (preferably).
-Glad I found this site and discovered that's not likely, nor the "need" for 4K cameras. Especially love the advice on mounting heights, which cameras tend to work better at night and when to use bullet, dome or turret.

Asking for opinions here. Should I build my own system with the capacity needed to handle this much data?
I was thinking that I could use lower res cameras in most areas and only use 4-5 4K cameras to cover areas of greater distance, but even then, I still am generating too much data!

Last resort is to use 2 NVR's and split the system to handle all that data.

I might be over thinking this and my wife will freak when she see's what I'm thinking. What does this community think?

14 camera's is the minimum. House is large and has many entry points. My lot is 8/10 acre.

 

[bp2008]

You probably know this now, but forget about 30 FPS, at least on most of the cameras. It forces you to use a higher bit rate to maintain good quality. Higher bit rate = larger video files. Properly tuning the camera's encoder is key to achieving the best results with the smallest bit rate. Use VBR instead of CBR, and consider actually not using the highest possible quality setting (this will allow the camera to save disk space). A fairly long i-frame interval (3-4 times the frame rate) is another thing you can do to slightly improve compression ratios. Hikvision/Dahua cameras have something called H.265+ or Smart Codec which further improves compression ratios and can save a substantial amount of storage, although it can affect compatibility with 3rd-party NVRs or recording software.

I store about 7 days of video from 17 cameras, most of them actually quite high bit rate, on one 8 TB drive. Hard drives come up to 16 TB now, but those are not as cost-effective, so multiple 6-8 TB drives is probably the cheaper way to do this. I don't know what your recording options are with an NVR, but the way I would recommend is to record some cameras to one drive, other cameras to a different drive, etc. This way you don't waste money on extra hard drives for a RAID setup with redundancy, and in the event you lose a hard drive, you don't lose everything from an entire time period because you have other cameras recording to different drives. This type of recording configuration is something you could set up with Blue Iris quite easily.

 

[Paranoid_Loyd]

Thank you for responding! Yes, I see 30fps may not be the way I end up going. I sure would like it though. Although I wanted 30 days recording time, I think if I can get 2 weeks or even just 10 days, I should be ok. That will cover the most time spent away from the home at any given time.
Regarding BI, I saw that but wasn't certain how to setup with my desired config. Is this something I can load on a PC, then attach my PC to a POE switch and expect it to run normally? If so, that would be an awesome route. I guess I haven't looked at all the resources yet. The real question is do I need an NVR or will BI on a PC do everything I need?
Is there a reference page for BI specs and limitations? You know, limits on incoming channels, HDD capacity, etc? I can't seem to locate that.
Thanks again!

 

[mikeynags]

The short answer to your questions is yes, Blue Iris can do all that. Check out the wiki for great info:

Choosing hardware article

and

Cliff notes

 

[SouthernYankee]

--------------------------------------
For face identification, mount cameras at 6 ft. If you mount then on the soffit all you get is the top of the head. Read the wiki section on camera placement.
Use good night time cameras. Record no more than 15fps. I have 13 cameras, 2 MP and 4 MP cameras, recording on and old AMD (not the best) use blue iris.

If you do not have a good monitored alarm system get that first. I installed my own 25 years ago, and pay for monitoring. Cameras are NOT an alarm system. Cameras are for what happened and who did it.

Read study plan before spending money.
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My standard welcome to the forum message.

Please read the cliff notes and other items in the wiki. The wiki is in the blue bar at the top of the page.

Read How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!) | IP Cam Talk in the wiki also.

Quick start
1) Use Dahua starlight cameras or Hikvision darkfighter cameras or ICPT Night eye cameras (https://store.ipcamtalk.com/) if you need good low light cameras.
2) use a VPN to access home network (openVPN)
3) Do not use wifi cameras.
4) Do not use cloud storage
5) Do Not use uPNP, P2P, QR, do not open ports,
6) More megapixel is not necessarily better.
7) Avoid chinese hacked cameras (most ebay, amazon, aliexpress cameras(not all, but most))
8) Do not use reolink, ring, nest cameras (they are junk)
9) If possible use a turret camera , bullet collect spiders, dome collect dirt and reflect light (IR)
10) Use only solid copper, AWG 23 or 24 ethernet wire. , no CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum)
11) use a test mount to verify the camera mount location. My test rig: rev.2
12) (Looney2ns)If you want to be able to ID faces, don't mount cams higher than 8ft. You want to know who did it, not just what happened.
13) Use a router that has openVPN built in (Most ASUS, Some NetGear....)

Cameras to look at
IPC-HDW2231R-ZS
IPC-HDW5231-ZE
IPC-HFW4239T-ASE
IPC-T5442TM-AS
IPCT-HDW5431RE-I
DS-2CD2325FWD-I


Read,study,plan before spending money ..... plan plan plan
Test do not guess

 

[mat200]

.. The real question is do I need an NVR or will BI on a PC do everything I need?
Is there a reference page for BI specs and limitations? You know, limits on incoming channels, HDD capacity, etc? I can't seem to locate that.
Thanks again!

Hi @Paranoid_Loyd

We have a lot of good resources in the wiki section - do check it out, it will cover a lot of the questions you are asking about.

Also bp2008 recently posted a nice review worth checking out
Review: Dahua IPC-HDW5442TM-AS (Loryta IPC-T5442TM-AS) (4MP Starlight+)

I would recommend starting off by picking up one decent varifocal IP POE camera and a small POE switch or other POE power source and playing a bit with it to get a better understanding of what is possible before jumping all into a 14 camera setup. ( see sourthern yankees list of cameras, start with this model for consideration of one to learn on: IPC-HDW2231R-ZS )