Absolute best bang for the buck ip camera?
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fenderman
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save time and flush the money down the toilet....faster, easier...
Philip Gonzales
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I'm pretty new here but I like helping people out. From what I understand the IPC-HDW5231R-Z is the best bang for your buck IP Cam, especially for it's low light performance.
NVR would be recommended for a majority of the people. More reliable than windows, cheaper vs buying a high performance machine, plug and play. More than likely you will have less headaches with an NVR and it will generally last for years without issues besides maybe needing to replace a hard drive after X amount of years.
Dedicated PC if you already have a powerful machine that can be dedicated for software such as Blue Iris. In this case this route will be cheaper. I feel that Blue Iris has an advantage in that it is more flexible in how you can configure it. But I am biases as I have never used an NVR.
I run several R710's at home and I love tinkering and configuring servers as I am a Systems Admin, so naturally I went with a windows box running Blue Iris. Going to be adding more drives in a RAID 10 array soon.
Cameras with a SD card do not require an NVR, such as IP cameras that don't have an SD card do not require an NVR. Basically if the IP camera didn't have an SD card you don't have to buy an NVR, you just won't be able to record anything.
That being said an NVR will give you a single interface to record, manage, view all of your IP Cams at once. It's not recommended to use an SD card as primary storage as someone could easily destroy or steal a camera and there goes your footage. SD cards are also less reliable. What I do is record everything using Blue Iris and also record everything via SD card. This way 90% of the time I can go to my server and pull footage. Let's say my server rebooted, then I could pull a clip directly from the SD card.
Hopefully this helped you out a bit.
Thanks, it did help!
So basically the SD card in the camera is just a backup to the NVR or pc HD? so even if you had cameras with sd slots it woulnt mean you HAVE to put a sd card in them?
also what is the go to NVR people are buying? something that can cope well with these new high data cameras....
Philip Gonzales
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That is correct, you do not have to use the SD card slot if you choose not to. Also SD cards specifically designed for recording over and over are preferred. They are usually labeled high endurance and usually run a bit higher in price as they are not as prone to failure. I would rather have an SD card installed and not need it, then to not have one and need it.
As far as the best NVR, I will let someone else reply as I am not familar. I would be interested to know as well. It may be helpful to know how many cameras you are wanting to run, if you want the NVR to have PoE ports built in, how much storage space you desire, etc.
To maximize your investment, purchase the varifocal 5231 and use it to best determine the lens ratings you want in each camera position. Then purchase fixed-focus 4231EM-AS turrets for those positions with the appropriate lens. It takes a little more time, but gets you the best view and economy for each position. Or, if money is no object, just buy the varifocal 5231R-Z for every camera position.
I can't find the post I was reading yesterday but someone was discussing the differences between the IR coverage for the fixed being broader than the varifocal, which IMO would be a plus as well.
I have the 5231s and indeed see more of a "spotlight" effect with the IR bright in the center, especially if set zoomed in somewhat and the outer areas are darker and less visible.
I do not have a fixed version to test against in the same spot but it would be interesting to see how much IR coverage difference there is between the varifocal and fixed camera in the same location.
I have the 5231s and indeed see more of a "spotlight" effect with the IR bright in the center, especially if set zoomed in somewhat and the outer areas are darker and less visible.
I do not have a fixed version to test against in the same spot but it would be interesting to see how much IR coverage difference there is between the varifocal and fixed camera in the same location.
tigerwillow1
Known around here
I don't see how there can be a simple answer to the original question. It depends on what the requirements and expectations are. I've got a few locations where using the 5231R-Z would be flushing money.
SouthernYankee
IPCT Contributor
If you have not already done so read the CLIFF NOTES in the WIKI. The WIKI is in the blue bar at the top of the page.
Read, study, plan before spending money.
With CHEAP you will get to pay twice, look at all the post on chinese hacked cameras, that will not upgrade or are missing needed features.
You need to develop a detailed set of requirement. Is the camera inside or outside? Is the camera in a well lighted area? What software are you using to record and view the camera? How smart does the camera need to be? ........
Read, study, plan before spending money.
With CHEAP you will get to pay twice, look at all the post on chinese hacked cameras, that will not upgrade or are missing needed features.
You need to develop a detailed set of requirement. Is the camera inside or outside? Is the camera in a well lighted area? What software are you using to record and view the camera? How smart does the camera need to be? ........