The "Perfect" Setup

[John Esher]

I have two Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I bullets pushing video to a Synology DS213j using Synology's Surveillance Station (although I tried Security Spy and Sighthound on my iMac - which is another post). Although underpowered (should have done more research), the Synology's only purpose is for cameras and storage, so it's adequate as I have motion detection being performed by the cameras.


The cameras are capable of 3MP (2048 x 1936) among other resolutions - 1920 x 1080 and 1280 x 720. Since I'm only using two, the 3MP resolution is fine, except that the DS Cam iOS app will not serve recording at that resolution. It will, however, serve anything lower. One camera is on the corner of the house shooting toward the front door and half of the shared driveway. It also manages to capture a good portion of the street (where I park my van), sidewalks and my across the street neighbors houses. The second camera on the garage and covers the spot in the drive where my wife parks her car, my backyard gate and the kitchen door into the house. Overall I'm very happy with the coverage, my goals were accomplished by the camera's field of views.

20140814-173401-15 by -j_esher-

20140814-163029-14 by -j_esher-


But my concern (and there's always at least one, right?) is the resolution vs. remote viewing of recordings. Neither 3MP or 2MP capture license plates on passing vehicles well enough to be read, and the views of individuals at the doors seem to be about the same. So I'm kind of torn between resolutions - go high and have the ability to get detailed stills if necessary, but not have remote viewing and less day of recordings; or go lower and have lesser quality stills, but have remote viewing and more days of recordings.


My question then is this: What balance do you prefer in your system and why?

 

[fenderman]

You will not be able to get plates from passing cars even if you had a 10mp camera. You need a different lens, 12mm lens at least, our mount a camera to that tree in the second photo. Keep in mind that as a general rule the higher the MP the worse the nightvision will be.

 

[dalepa]

I had the same concern, so I finally was able to mount a hikvision 2032@12mm about 2-3 ft up on the corner of my house covered by fig vines. The camera is 36ft from the curb, and I have no problems reading LP during the days or nights as they turn in the culdesac

You should be able to get shots of anyone driving in your driveway by mounting a cam on the side of your house, however, no sure where you could place a cam looking down both directions of the road...

Maybe stick a 2032 in a 2 birdhouses and mount them on your front tree 6ft up looking down the road.


Here's a long video of a day and one night shot...

 

[icerabbit]

One camera can't do it all unfortunately. They're not as capable as the human eye. You might need a 40mp camera with hyperfocal view to match the humans eye's abiltiy to focus on details near and far in our field of view without moving our head. But that would lead to a ton of unneeded data.

My balance is more cameras. Dedicated for the purpose and at the same time covering more than one angle. 2.8 - 4 mm wide for general coverage and close to the camera details. A couple varifocal ones that allow me to custom crop the viewing area. And a 12 mm for telephoto at higher frames per second (vehicles in motion) to capture car tags.

In your case you are also dealing with less than ideal angles, especially from the driveway, to capture a tag. It would take a bit of study and measurements to see what you'd need to cover that area in front of your house and get car tags.

 

[John Esher]

Thanks for all the input. Capturing tags is not really a priority, and in fact the street traffic was just "bonus" material. My concern is my property (with two young sons sowing their oats, and my occupation) so I'm torn between the 3MP with no remote retrieval and the 2MP with remote retrieval. I'm leaning toward better quality captures that have to viewed from the iMac. Although a lot of people tend to forget it, cameras won't prevent the crime, but properly placed cameras could solve the crime.

 

[Shockwave199]

Are you forced into an either or for remote viewing? Usually sub stream for remote viewing is kept at a lower resolution, while mainstream recording is capturing the full resolution of the camera. And lots of times you have the choice to record the sub stream as well, which is good for viewing playback remotely on mobile devices and tablets. But main stream is where you look for the most details. As for getting the most detail and fov, that's a different question. Main stream or sub stream shouldn't dictate that.

 

[icerabbit]

Remote viewing of data is of low importance to me personally due to slow internet connections and slow 3g/4g coverage. Figure that a video stream from a 2mp camera in my experience is 500KB/s. If you go 3mp, it is higher. There's no basic to intermediate home broadband that I've seen that allows that data onto the web, whether live or from hdd playback. Mobile viewing from my phone or tablet via a cell tower may have similar struggles. So, that's probably why the remote option is scale down.

Regarding the front door. You may get a bit better view with a bit more rotation towards the house. Unless you van is parked to the left of the tree.