Need multi-channel camera system suggestions

[Rupp]

Guys,
I (think) I want to move to a camera system that records and I would like to have one of the all in one systems. I'm open to suggestions. Sams club has one like this for $300 but I'm not sure what's good and what's not when in comes to these complete systems.

[Pete]

The easiest way to do this relating to pure CCTV security is to purchase an all in one autonomous system.

That said integration of the standard IP HD camera to your Homeseer system can be easy or hard depending on the camera specifications. If the company provides an API for external integration then that too can be easy depending on your knowledgebase of this stuff.

Over the years here have always utilized Zoneminder for play and tinkering.

I have always been able to integrate any camera (analog or IP) in to Zoneminder.

That and dependencies here still are on Axis and regular CCTV integration to my security panel.

My not for play real security cameras are older Optex combination cameras.

Many Homeseer folks have gone the microsoft software route for an NVR.

Here went to purchasing a Grandstream NVR for my Grandstream IP cameras but have yet to even open the box.

[mrhappy]

It looks to have Dahua based firmware on the screenshots, easily the most common in domestic use and I recover footage from them on a daily basis. Firmware tends to be fairly robust, easy enough to use and stable but there is a lot out there of it and a couple of suspect releases. Don't believe the serial protocol ever appeared though, the system can be looked at using applications like the iDMSS lite viewer (albeit not entirely sure I am that happy with some of these Chinese applications and where the data is ultimately going).

1TB for 8 cameras of HD does appear a little low to me, https://www.supercircuits.com/resour...age-calculator suggests for 1280x1024 (which is 300 pixels larger I agree), eight cameras, H264, 15FPS, 24x7 will give about 3.5 days worth of recording. I wouldn't be that happy with that small a time period.

[Pete]

Personally here like the above 1 Mega pixel base for the IP cameras.

IE: 3-5 Mega pixel is really nice. Built in bells and whistles work better and faster these days.

IE: SD card, RTC clock, RTSP, MJPEG, JPG and multiple streams of whatever that do not ding the CPU are always a plus.

@Adam; what is used by you relating to that outdoor best of breed surveillance camera?

Brand, specifications type of stuff?

Or if you do not want to mention brand; what specifications?

[BtrSound]

I am looking into doing this as well. I would prefer that I can arm the cameras for when not home or at night as part of the alarm. I have two interior cameras and 4 external. but as of right now, I can set the times I want them on but then when I am off of work or something they notify me constantly of the motion. I would like to set certain cameras at night as one function and all cameras when not home. I have not started on my security system yet but ideally I would be able to arm them and disarm them as part of a security system and have a night protocol and a not home protocol.

1. Is this possible?
2. What hardware/software would I need?
What would be the easiest way to accomplish this?

[Pete]

Note that you can make Homeseer integrate with just about anything these days.

Homeseer is not a CCTV NVR nor a management server for security cameras.

Now a days and 10 years ago you could view your CCTV cameras with HSTouch.

Today you can even stream RTSP to your HSTouchscreens.

Homeseer is automation software which can do a lot. CCTV cameras are cameras and NVR's are NVR's which have nothing to do with Homeseer.

You will find much stuff here relating to CCTV cameras.

CCTV Forum

There is a loosey-goosey base of CCTV IP cameras today but it is still very new and every vendor really does it's own thing a bit these days. (IE ONVIF is one standard that is still very loosey goosey and everybody is doing their own thing stating their way is the best).

Much like basing all of your automation on the Nest thermostat or a Samsung automation Hub.

BTW that is what is so nice about Homeseer automation software. You can make it work with just about anything today.

Note that a 3rd party Homeseer user here wrote a plugin for the commonly utilized Blue Iris CCTV software mostly because that user wanted to integrate Homeseer with his Blue Iris server.

Many all in one CCTV packages offer apps for smartphones which satisfies most users.

These companies do not document or publicize their embedded Linux OS (via an API or something similiar).

It really is up to the user to reverse engineer these OS's if they want some sort of integration to something else.

I am not saying here that it cannot be done. IE: Homeseer sells the Foscam IP camera and has put integration to Homeseer proper relating to the Foscam IP camera.

[Pete]

Personally here have stayed in the Grandstream IP HD camera mode.

Googling found the barebones Grandstream GVR3552 for $100 with no cameras or hard drives. It does work with non Grandstream ONVIF cameras.

Check out the specifications here.

What I like about it are the alarm inputs for use of triggering.



You can then go baby steps relating to the camera installation.

Product Features

• Up to 16 channels of 720p or 8 channels of 1080p HD audio/video real-time recording
• Fully customizable recording rules; time-based, event based, manual or automatic
• Automatic discovery of Grandstream IP Cameras
• Up to 2 SATA 2.5” internal hard drives with maximum 4TB storage and RAID 0 or RAID 1 configurations
• Complete security features including role based access control, event/system logs and hard drive content encryption

Product Specifications

• Video Recording: Up to 16 channels of 720p (1280x720) or 8 channels of 1080p (1920x1080)
• Total Recording Rate: Up to 32 Mbps
• Recording Modes: Continuous mode, record by schedule, event triggered or manual
• Video Compression: H.264 baseline, main or high profile
• Audio Recording: Synchronized audio and video recording
• Audio Compression: G.711 (u-Law and a-Law)
• Live View: 4 channels of 720p or 2 channels of 1080p via HDMI or VGA output
Up to 16 channels simultaneous remote viewing via HTTP/HTTPS
• Event Trigger: Yes
• Intelligent Search: Time & date, motion
• Total Storage: Up to 4TB internally from 2 hard drives (hard drives not included)
• RAID: RAID 0 or RAID 1 Support
• Storage Redundancy: Backup to USB
• HDMI Interface: 1 x HDMI
• VGA Interface: 1 x VGA
• Network Interface: 1 x10 10/100/1000 Mbps auto-sensing RJ45 port
• Line-in: 1 x RCA
• Line-out: 1 x RCA
• Alarm-in: Terminal 4 Inputs (NO/NC), Vin 2.5v, ~12v, lin 2.5mA~30,
• Alarm-out: Terminal 2 Outputs (Relay) 0.5A at 125VAC; 2A at 30 VDC
* comment: it would be nicer to have 8-16 inputs and 4-8 outputs on this device though.
• UPS: UPS Management (pending)
• USB Interfaces: 2 x USB 2.0 host ports
• LED Indicators: Power, LAN Link/Activity, Hard Drive Activity
• Input: USB mouse
• RTC: Yes
• Internal HDD: Up to 2 x 2.5” SATA hard drives with maximum 4TB storage
• QoS: Diff-Serv, TOS, 802.1P/Q VLAN tagging
• Network Protocols: TCP/IP/UDP, RTP/RTCP/RTSP, HTTP/HTTPS, ARP, ICMP, DNS, DDNS, DHCP (client and server),
NTP (client and server), SSH, PPPoE, ONVIF 2.2
• IP Cameras Supported: Grandstream GXV36xx cameras, GXV35xx encoders/decoders, 3rd party ONVIF compliant
cameras (pending)

[Planetview]

I have a Hikvision IP based system and I really like it. There are several third party monitoring applications on the market so it must have an api. I found the 3MP cameras to be good for my needs but the system will handle up to 5MP cameras. Get cameras with the "WDR" (Wide Dynamic Range) option, it is excellent for strong back light or bright lights such as headlights.

Backstreet Surveillance is a distributor of Hikvision in the USA. Take a look at their site and YouTube for some videos showing the quality and reviews. I can read a license plate on a moving car during the day from the street (higher speed is needed with low light but they have cameras with those settings as well).

I have used (and installed) several camera systems in the past but I like Hikvision the best.

[waynehead99]

Pete you said you can do RTSP to hstouch. Is this native or do you have to transcode? I just bought tha dahua system and want to get the vid on my panels but not sure how without RTSP.

[Pete]

Rich mentioned that RTSP for HSTouch V 3.0.0.86 has been added and available today with current update for HS3 for Windows but not Linux yet.

I am running HS3 on Ubuntu Linux such that I haven't been able to test the RTSP stuff on HSTouch yet.

I will not know how it works until I am able to test it.

You can if you want do a manual sized VLC pop up over the HSTouch screen. It is a PITA to do though.