Recorder suggestions if you please.

[MistaBeak]

Hello I'm new here. Since my house breakin a few months ago, I've been slowly building a camera system; learning as I go. I have 3 wireless cameras setup. Suffered the insanity of many software clients before exploring Blue Iris Trial. So I've purchased a full license plus the Android app and all is going pretty smooth. But I need to secure my system better. Currently I am recording my clips to the pc hard drive. More specifically to Google drive. I did a test where I triggered a camera and it took near 5 min for google drive to transfer that 30 sec clip safely to the Cloud. That's not to secure. A thief could have my pc pulled offline by that time. So I was considering a NAS and hiding it in the crawl space. But today I was looking at upgrading my router and noticed you can get them with USB3 (or2) out the back. So I was considering buying a 1 Terabyte USB drive and cabling it through the wall from the router into the crawl space. USB 3 has a cable limit of 3 meters but if you think USB 2 is fast enough, it has a limit of 5 meters. Anyhow what do you think folks?

 

[reeves1985]

Hello I'm new here. Since my house breakin a few months ago, I've been slowly building a camera system; learning as I go. I have 3 wireless cameras setup. Suffered the insanity of many software clients before exploring Blue Iris Trial. So I've purchased a full license plus the Android app and all is going pretty smooth. But I need to secure my system better. Currently I am recording my clips to the pc hard drive. More specifically to Google drive. I did a test where I triggered a camera and it took near 5 min for google drive to transfer that 30 sec clip safely to the Cloud. That's not to secure. A thief could have my pc pulled offline by that time. So I was considering a NAS and hiding it in the crawl space. But today I was looking at upgrading my router and noticed you can get them with USB3 (or2) out the back. So I was considering buying a 1 Terabyte USB drive and cabling it through the wall from the router into the crawl space. USB 3 has a cable limit of 3 meters but if you think USB 2 is fast enough, it has a limit of 5 meters. Anyhow what do you think folks?

You need to give a little more information than that as to what brand cameras you have what.
What you are looking to achieve.
Are you wanting to record 24/7 or just motion
How long do you need storage for?
Are you set on the pc for the nvr or willing to go for a dedicated nvr

The best piece of advice I can give you is to stick to the same brand and nvr if that's the route you end up going.

Also I wouldn't trust my house security system on a wireless system there are too many risks and too many variables.

Hard wired everytime!!!

For the sake of a few hours work neatly running cables for the piece of mind is worth it for me.

Also keep it simple don't go to silly extremes you don't need.

There are some very good inexpensive cameras around
Hikvision and the Huisun cameras are a particular favourite and the Huisun cameras work seamlessly with hikvision equipment.

The bottom line is equipment however expensive or inexpensive will eventually fail at some point in life be it 10 years or 100 years so don't introduce that much equipment that makes even more points in the system it could fail.

Please please please research the products you intend to buy and ask as many questions as you can first hand experience and reviews are better than a tech sheet full of numbers

 

[fenderman]

@MistaBeak Welcome to the forum! It is very rare that a pc/nvr is actually stolen....if you which you can record to BOTH the local drive and the nas...all you need to do is setup a duplicate camera in blue iris and have the camera record to the nas...hide the second camera so you dont have duplicates on the screen...alternatively...you can buy a cheap NVR, hide it and record 24/7 for a true redundant backup.

 

[MistaBeak]

Good to hear from you Reeves.
All parts, whether they be circuits or us , are all going to fail one day. Lesson learned long ago.
I've already bought my cameras Reeves. Maybe a little too premature. Yes definitely the first one was a cheap piece of PTZ vga I bought directly from China. Have it working eventually on BI though. Pulling its weight in the Motion Detection Dept. just fine. Looks like crap but it can buzz in time when someone passes by. The other two are Foscam. One of them is not very sharp image wise and the other is very sharp. All are WiFi and have not been a problem regarding thier signal. I've only been running for two months now but since I've had no problems with radio com. ; what do you mean in regards to WiFi cams: " there are too many risks and too many variables." ?

 

[reeves1985]

Good to hear from you Reeves.
All parts, whether they be circuits or us , are all going to fail one day. Lesson learned long ago.
I've already bought my cameras Reeves. Maybe a little too premature. Yes definitely the first one was a cheap piece of PTZ vga I bought directly from China. Have it working eventually on BI though. Pulling its weight in the Motion Detection Dept. just fine. Looks like crap but it can buzz in time when someone passes by. The other two are Foscam. One of them is not very sharp image wise and the other is very sharp. All are WiFi and have not been a problem regarding thier signal. I've only been running for two months now but since I've had no problems with radio com. ; what do you mean in regards to WiFi cams: " there are too many risks and too many variables." ?

I meant in terms of signal drops and interference causing dropped frames

Also going to the ultimate extreme here WiFi is easier to break into or interfere with than Ethernet hardwired.

You mentioned you haven't had problems which is good to hear. My WiFi has trouble from the back door to upstairs!!!!

Because you do have a Mic of cameras it would be hard to recommend a nvr because they may not all be compatible. So I think your best sticking with the pc route.

Get a hard drive as big as possible and one that is made for that purpose eg western digital purple.

I would definitely use a dedicated hard drive for the recording which you can sync to the cloud at a later date as a backup.

This makes it easier so you can sync data when it suits you.

If adding a few more cameras make sure your processor is up to the job.
There would be nothing worse that having the processor lagging behing and causing a bottleneck on the whole system.

In this day and age you do need to keep a good spec pc system to keep things running smooth.

 

[Kentg]

As far as recording methods I did something close to what your considering. I upgraded my PC with a card for USB 3.0 PCI card for about $30 and I already had a 3T seagate external HD for my backup. You can buy longer USB 3.0 powered cables up to 15 feet. Make sure you get the powered one they dont come with the power supply its an add on, and I also got the USB PCI card that has power for the port as well. I found my stuff on Amazon and I also made sure I got the cable from a reputable supplier. Allegedly there are many fake USB 3.0 cables sold that are not 3.0 . I watched a youtube on it that showed what to look for.

I located my Segate external in a large gun safe close to my computer and it records 3 to 4 cams set on trigger for motion. Its seems to be working fine and I have had this setup for a few weeks at least. I set up seperate folders for each cam and set them to 400 gig each or 21 days in the BI software. I have not checked the usage yet. Its cheaper than a NAS. I password protect the PC so even if someone came in and wanted to try and delete files they cant get to it. Nothing is 100% but Im pretty sure I am OK with this.

 

[PRC_Save_Me]

I located my Segate external in a large gun safe close

External HDD in a gun safe? Is it being recorded to all the time? Did you drill holes for the wires? I don't understand.

Also, are you concerned about it heating up inside the gun safe? Just curious, have you monitored HDD temperature while it's running inside the enclosed safe? High operating temperatures definitely affect hard disk drives (not solid state drive, though).

 

[Kentg]

External HDD in a gun safe? Is it being recorded to all the time? Did you drill holes for the wires? I don't understand.

Also, are you concerned about it heating up inside the gun safe? Just curious, have you monitored HDD temperature while it's running inside the enclosed safe? High operating temperatures definitely affect hard disk drives (not solid state drive, though).

Most large safes have a small hole located near the bottem in the back. Its to allow power for a internal device called a goldenrod. Its a small low power heater element to keep humidity low in the safe for mositures reasons.
The temp is virtually room temp inside and I actually have a small 4" muffin style fan in it to circulate air internaly. I only record motion in direct mode and there is plenty of speed for my low number of cams. Its a trick kind of to get the data a power cable thru the small hole. I was lucky the USB plug fit thru the hole and the cable is smaller. So then I cut off the end of a extension cord and fished it in. Then I rewired the plug end and use it to power the fan and HDD and the extended USP cable. Easy. What very small amount of heat the HDD does generate serves the same purpose of the Goldenrod to dry out moisture in the air in the safe to prevent any chance of rust to the firearms. Opening the safe you feel virtually no temp rise.

 

[PRC_Save_Me]

I see, that's neat. I might consider that...

 

[bryanviper]

OP

You said it took 5min to upload a 30sec video to google drive. It could be your internet upload speed.

How big was the file?
How fast is your internet?
What is the download and upload speed you are paying for?
Go to www.speedtest.net and find out what speed you are actually getting & post the results.

It wont matter to much if you get a usb 2.0 or usb 3.0 hard drive if the issue is your slow upload speed on your internet. It could even possible be the slower transfer rate wirelessly from your camera to your router maybe?

 

[MistaBeak]

The one T usb V3 hard drive is working great. It is in the attic attached directly to the router so no internet is involved. Also the attic is hard to access so I believe those video clips are pretty safe up there.