how to put together a video system

[nomad]

Hi,
I am just starting out and figuring out how to put together a video system for a new house - construction starts in about 2 months. I would like the video system to do the following:
1. Record say a weeks worth of HD quality video - I want to be able to see details of what is going on hence HD
2. Provide remote access to the recordings or live video feed via some internet connect device (remote computer, smart phone,...)
3. Setup a mechanism so that I would receive a text or email if there is an event at the house (i.e. movement of some kind, door open, fire, ...)

I have read a few of the postings and it seems there is way to much info to be able to make some kind of decision on how to go about doing this. So, I thought I would ask for recommendations on how to start this process and what equipment to work with. It would seem that this (or should be) a pretty standard feature/function and hopefully many of you have gone through this exercise and now know the pitfalls and benefits of certain cameras or DVRs.

Somethings I do know (which are not a lot):
Cameras must be HD
Cameras must by hardwired and not POE
The system will have 4 cameras

So how do you put something like this together
Thanks

[CharlieWayne]

2 Computer's would recommend.

1) One low power Freenas server with ZFS pools too store all the movies, TV recordings, and HD camera feeds.

http://www.freenas.org/hardware-requirements/

2) A second high end pc with a new I7 Intel, 16 gb ddr3 ram, 250 gig was, Intel gigabit nic running win7 pro. This pc will house your camera monitoring software like blue iris or sight hound, and plex/xbmc/wmc, handbrake compressing your dvd/bljray, I'm sure I could think of more program!s needed but its late. You can. HS on this machine as well.

That's all assuming you want to do media/TV distribution

Poe is preference for IP cameras. More then enough bandwidth on a poe cat5e or Cat6 cable.


If all your looking for is home security video system, check out http://www.hikvision.com/en/us/index.asp?jmode=j1
Today I purchased one of their 1080p Cameras for $100 and downloaded their server software for free. Not sure of the CPU or ram requirements of their software but you can program events in it and send notifications. No support for HS3 with that software.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Pete]

Here updated one box that was using FreeNA to NAS4Free. I am impressed it it.

Using it right now with an 8-Drive box / LSI SATA 8 port card.

[IanIreland]

I have a separate box for my cameras. It is an old HP server that I wasn't using. I loaded Windows 8.1 on it.
The camera software is Blue Iris. I changed from WebCamXP as Blue Iris is better for the range of cameras it supports.
I have a mix of cameras, POE, WoFi and hard wired via USB.
In HomeSeer I use the Blue Iris plugin

[LeoS]

Nomad, for an installation of less than 8 cameras.. You might want check out dahua/hikvision too. They sell NVR for around $2-300 that includes built-in 8 port poe switch and the software is linux based (embedded). All you need to do is install the harddrive, plug the cameras and start setting up the recording settings, schedules, etc.
It's a low cost, energy efficient, simple and reliable system.

Their dome and bullet cameras go for $130-250 each for the 2-3megapixel models.

I personally use Mobotix w/ synology nas (about 16 cameras total), but have installed hikvision system for my brother and i was quite pleasantly surprised with its appliance-like simplicity and reliability so far.

Btw, why don't you want poe? They make the cabling simpler and you can run a single ups at one point to cover all the cameras.

Edit: upon reading your post again, did you mean wifi va hardwired, instead of poe?

[ServiceXp]

Great advice here. My only recommendation would be to run more then 4 CAT6 end points for possible future camera's locations.

It's much much cheaper to do it now and if you're anything like me, you will wish you had done it at some point in the future.

[nomad]

Thank you all for your input. I now have a starting point to figure out what to do and some equipment to look into. I am sure I will have follow up comments.

[AttilaHooper]

If you are into linux, take a look at zoneminder. It has a lot of bells and whistles, and as FOSS you have the ability to accomplish anything you may want. I've yet to integrate it into my HS3 setup, but have used it wired and wireless for many years. Wireless does have its drawbacks in lost frames, but I have been able to ameliorate that by ignoring them within ZM.

There shouldn't be an issue w POE other than the switch's ability to provide enough power to the many devices you are running. But that can be remedied other ways. I picked up a netgear gs108pe just for this purpose. 4poe ports max 15.4 watts, and gigabit.