Newbie here from Colorado!

garzjoe

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Hello all!

Newb of course and I'm wanting to install some camera to monitor the exterior of my house. Even though my house is newer (little less than a year old) we purchased it after it was built so I did not have the chance to have it pre-wired like I wanted to have done. I'm handy enough to run cable from my unfinished basement up to the 1st floor, not so sure about getting it to the 2nd floor. Might have to hire someone for that but that's just for HTPC's and other devices.

Anyway I have a few questions related to this IP Camera situation...


  • I know this is not a one size fits all kinda deal, but what are the most common setups?
  • I just learned the difference between NVR and DVR, probably will opt for NVR so I can just run all Ethernet cable. That said does anyone have anything to say good bad or otherwise on the Zmodo ZP-KE1H04-S NVR? It was one on my list, but not sure if I'll scrap that system and try my own PC setup.
  • I want to try to install the cameras myself but my biggest concern is exposed wires externally. I'd like the cameras at the front of my house but if I ran myself the wires would have to be run externally from the front to the side until I could penetrate a wall on the side of the house to go into my basement where I'd have the NVR and networking equipment. Is there a good way to run these wires without exposing them externally?

I'll probably be doing alot of reading next few weeks trying to determine the best course of action. As a backup is there anyone on the forum from Colorado that could recomend a good professional installation company in my neck of the woods?
 

nayr

IPCT Contributor
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Welcome fellow Coloradan..

1. Most common here is Hikvision, followed by Dahua.. and all there white-box rebrands which you can find bundled at places like CostCo, Nellys, etc.
2. Run away from anything 720p (1MP), 1080p (2MP) minimum.. you can get nice 4MP-5MP cams for cheap now.. and 4k (12MP) cams are coming down in prices FAST
3. Conduit, painted to match your house will look better than exposed wires.. installing on junction boxes and using conduit wont leave any perminent scars on your house.. see attached photo
 

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