Is the Starlight Turret IPC-HDW5231R-Z still the best starter camera to go for?

[freddyq]

Hi everyone, I apologise in advance for creating a post for this but hopefully it's a quick answer.

About a year ago I was researching the best PoE security camera to install around my house and ended up on this forum. After lots of reading of posts here and help from @fenderman and @nayr it became apparent that the Dahua IPC-HDW5231R-Z (2mp varifocal turret) was an excellent camera and my best option, although slightly above my original budget.

Due to other priorities I didn't end up purchasing the cameras and other kit back then so I'm just trying to find out if this camera is still the recommended one or if anything new, either from Dahua or other manufacturers, has bettered it? I see it is still listed in the sticky post by @nayr but curious to know more about the Eco Savvy models which are apparently a little cheaper and also mentioned in that sticky..

I understand there is no "best" camera and it all depends on your usage and requirements but my requirements were fairly standard in that I would be using 3 around the front, back and side of my house for security. I'd need PoE as I have the wires run already and something with good lowlight imagery to have a good chance of recognising facial features and number plates when required.

Any help will be much appreciated!

 

[aristobrat]

In general, the Dahua Starlights are still the models that do the best in low-light. Hikivision has Ultra Low Light models that use the same technology, but they don't seem to have as many models as Dahua.

The 5231R-Z has been replaced by the 5231R-ZE:
Review-Dahua Starlight IPC-HDW5231R-ZE 800 meter capable ePOE

There's a less-expensive 2231R-ZE model now (no microphone, one 1080P feed):
Review-Dahua IPC-HDW2231RP-ZS Starlight Camera-Varifocal

I have this model on my front porch and really like being able to PTZ it around:
Review-Dahua SD1A203T-GN Starlight Mini PTZ

Capturing number (license) plates at night usually requires a dedicated camera where the settings are adjusted in a way that the camera will generally only see reflective things at night... everything else (people, landscape, etc) usually won't be recognizable from that camera. There are big threads on the forum here where folks talk about their techniques for being able to capture plates...

If you haven't already, try playing around with the IPVM Camera Calculator V3 to get a feel for if the cameras you want will give you the facial recognition feature you want. You can type your address into the calculator and it'll pull up a Google Maps image of your house. You can then add cameras around the house and it will show you a simulated image from X number of feet away.

 

[freddyq]

Ah thanks! I did some more searching on here and saw some stuff about the ZE replacing the Z so glad you've confirmed that.

I'll check out that calculator too.

A few other questions which have come to mind:

1. Is the ZE the same price as the Z and is EMPIRETECANDY still the best person to get these off?
2. Can these cams be setup with 2-way audio?
3. I was planning on setting these up with the Dahua NVR5216-4KS2 - assuming that is still the latest NVR?

TIA!

 

[awsum140]

1 - I believe the price is very similar, still, and Andy at EMPIRECANDY is still the best source, hands down.
2 - The 5231R-ZE has a built-in mic but no way to attach a speaker. That will take additional hardware.
3 - I don't use NVRs so I have no idea. A dedicated Blue Iris PC is far more flexible and not difficult to build up.

Check with Andy for the latest and greatest cameras and NVRs. He knows the Dahua line very well and has a thread in the vendors area here on IPCT.

 

[freddyq]

1 - I believe the price is very similar, still, and Andy at EMPIRECANDY is still the best source, hands down.
2 - The 5231R-ZE has a built-in mic but no way to attach a speaker. That will take additional hardware.
3 - I don't use NVRs so I have no idea. A dedicated Blue Iris PC is far more flexible and not difficult to build up.

Check with Andy for the latest and greatest cameras and NVRs. He knows the Dahua line very well and has a thread in the vendors area here on IPCT.

Fantastic, thank you. I will check in with Andy now.

I have to say, the one area I've always been a bit split on is the NVR vs PC one but the reason I went down NVR route is because I have a small area under my stairs on the ground floor where I have my broadband router, switch, CAT6 cables all running to so adding an NVR there would mean a clean setup hidden away from everything else. The downside being that it seems much less flexible than the PC route. I will search here for a thread discussing NVR vs PC

If I wanted to take time on the storage decision could I just buy the cameras and at least get them setup around the house? Granted there would be no recording until I get the storage sorted but would allow me to stagger the purchase as well as setup and spend time making the right decision on storage...

 

[aristobrat]

If you have a PC you don't mind leaving on 24/7, you could try the free Blue Iris trial (14 days, I think?). Dahua used to have software called PC-NVR that ran as a background service on a Windows box for the cameras to record to. You'd interact with it with SmartPSS, which is the same NVR front-end you'd use to interact with their traditional stand-alone NVRs. I just spend a minute or two looking for the latest version of PC-NVR and didn't easily find it... not sure if that means Dahua doesn't support it anymore, or it's just buried within their website.

You could also pop a SD card in the cameras and have motion clips record to that, but I'm not sure if you'd use the SD cards after that, so not sure if it's worth the money.

 

[freddyq]

If you have a PC you don't mind leaving on 24/7, you could try the free Blue Iris trial (14 days, I think?). Dahua used to have software called PC-NVR that ran as a background service on a Windows box for the cameras to record to. You'd interact with it with SmartPSS, which is the same NVR front-end you'd use to interact with their traditional stand-alone NVRs. I just spend a minute or two looking for the latest version of PC-NVR and didn't easily find it... not sure if that means Dahua doesn't support it anymore, or it's just buried within their website.

You could also pop a SD card in the cameras and have motion clips record to that, but I'm not sure if you'd use the SD cards after that, so not sure if it's worth the money.

Hmm OK will look for that software on Dahua's site as well but to be clear, I can just setup the cameras without any storage solution and that'll work...? In that scenario I expect all I will be able to do is view the live camera streams either via an app or PC.

 

[aristobrat]

to be clear, I can just setup the cameras without any storage solution and that'll work...?

Correct. Like you noted, you'll be able to get live views.

 

[looney2ns]

Dahua's SmartPSS is free for the download, and does include PCNVR, it's optional during install.

 

[aristobrat]

Thank you, @looney2ns —- I thought PCNVR was a separate download. lo

 

[Bravo79]

There is a new PCNVR v3 which support IVS! However I dont think you can get it to send push notification to your phone line a regular NVR but I could be wrong ?