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Raised Hands Surround Us
Three Nails To Protect Us
Picture of Black92LX
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I would suggest a varifocal lens vs. a fixed lens. Gives a bit more versatility.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d...rds=dahaua+varifocal

I have not decided if a bullet or dome cam will be better for my eaves.

In my limited research
The Doorbird has 2 way audio and is supposed to play nicely with BlueIris but it is spendy.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d...WAFJyaZzL&ref=plSrch

There maybe cheaper options.


————————————————
The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad.
If we got each other, and that's all we have.
I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand.
You should know I'll be there for you!
 
Posts: 25356 | Registered: September 06, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Agree with Black, Vari-focal where possible which allows you to fine tune the focal point. Fixed lens is typically a compromise.

The Dahua 4MP will serve you much better than that one you picked out on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=n...ords=dahua+varifocal

Also while counter-intuitive, generally 2MP cameras perform better at night/low light than 4MP or 8MP cameras. 2MP cameras with the SONY "Starvis" sensor are the state of the art currently for mid-level/consumer cameras.

Probably the highest rated camera going currently is the Dahua 5231R-Z.
http://www1.dahuasecurity.com/...hdw5231r-z-3651.html

If you want to get top quality cameras and don't want to pay 200-500% markup with US based distributors, look at the "Starlight" series by Dahua and get them direct from China from this vendor on AliExpress at 1/3 US prices.
https://www.aliexpress.com/sto...8.0.0.4aee8873liJ7YM


____________________________
peakperformanceshooting.com
 
Posts: 2689 | Location: Orlando Area | Registered: February 04, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Raised Hands Surround Us
Three Nails To Protect Us
Picture of Black92LX
posted Hide Post
I got my Dahua from
www.lightinthebox.com

Another Chinese outfit. No issues aside from over 2 weeks to arrive but that is not uncommon since it was coming from China.


————————————————
The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad.
If we got each other, and that's all we have.
I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand.
You should know I'll be there for you!
 
Posts: 25356 | Registered: September 06, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
McNoob
Picture of xantom
posted Hide Post
quote:
I would suggest a varifocal lens vs. a fixed lens. Gives a bit more versatility.

quote:
The Dahua 4MP will serve you much better than that one you picked out on Amazon.

Thanks for the info guys!
Considering 7 of these from AliExpress. UPS shipping is only $60 for all, and I might get them a little quicker.
https://www.aliexpress.com/ite....13010608.0.0.t64wEH

So I have a few lingering questions.
Is this POE switch what I should be looking for?
https://www.amazon.com/BV-Tech...&keywords=poe+switch

My plan is to run all cat5/6 cables up in the soffits of my roof overhangs and put the PoE switch in my Attic. I can then run a cable down to my basement where the PC will be. Anything I am missing here? Can I run either Cat5 or Cat6?

Should I add another NIC on my PC to route the surveillance traffic through that card/port only?

From what I can tell with the Blue Iris software I should be able to view all cameras on my lan, and possibly externally via an app or some other interface?

2 of the things I really hated about my old DVR system is that if I wanted to view a segment of video it would take forever to download it from the dvr, espeically it happened to be recorded over a long period of time. The other issue was if I wanted to pull a segment of video I would have to download it and then convert it with some "wonkey" Zmodo sofware and it was always distorted after the conversion. I would really like to be able to go back and pull video as needed without having to wait an eternity for it to download and then have to convert it. I just want to know what my expectations should be here.

Thanks again for all suggestions!




"We've done four already, but now we're steady..."
 
Posts: 1721 | Location: MN | Registered: November 20, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Raised Hands Surround Us
Three Nails To Protect Us
Picture of Black92LX
posted Hide Post
I plan on doing the same with my cameras in the attic.

Yes, BlueIris has a mobile app where you can access everything remotely. It is a solid app and I do not have any issues pulling up video quickly.
Granted I keep very little video so there is not much to scour through.

I am not sure you can access BlueIris via second PC without buying extra copies.
However 1 purchase ($9.99) of the mobile App I have it on all of our phones and iPads.

Any video I keep I save to Mpeg4 format in a folder that is automatically backed up to Carbonite and Amazon Drive. If I want to pull it up on the PC I just double click the file.
Yes it has to be converted but BlueIris does it all just right click the clip click convert/export (I think) and it sends it to the folder you defaulted or you can specify a location at the time.


————————————————
The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad.
If we got each other, and that's all we have.
I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand.
You should know I'll be there for you!
 
Posts: 25356 | Registered: September 06, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
member
Picture of henryaz
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Black92LX:
I have an Amcrest camera I am very happy with

I just installed an Amcrest bullet camera under the eave. It covers the one area we cannot see from any windows. It is an IP4M-1025EB model. I am running it with a PoE injector, and it is available on our local network only. Works very well, good video. I set it up to alarm me with email and a picture for any motion detection. The first problem I had was with a wasp trying to build a nest nearby, so many alerts. The wasp is now history. Basically, we get a few alerts a day, USPS, UPS, and us coming an going, which we don't do that often. It lets you select the detection area for alerts, and the sensitivity level, so you can exclude bushes or trees blowing in the wind.
 
 
Posts: 10778 | Location: South Congress AZ | Registered: May 27, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of 4MUL8R
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Posts: 5041 | Location: Commonwealth of Virginia | Registered: January 15, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
quarter MOA visionary
Picture of smschulz
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quote:
I am not sure you can access BlueIris via second PC without buying extra copies.



You shouldn't need multiple installs, that's the whole point of VMS.

http://blueirissoftware.com/web-server/
 
Posts: 22858 | Location: Houston, TX | Registered: June 11, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
McNoob
Picture of xantom
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quote:
You shouldn't need multiple installs, that's the whole point of VMS.


Perfect, not sure how I missed thatSmile

smschulz, a couple additional questions if you don't mind?

Is the PoE switch I selected sufficient for what I am trying to do. I want more than 8 ports and this one also is PoE plus.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...A2PM09KSZ036SU&psc=1

Should I use a separate NIC to route IP Cam traffic through? Not sure how H.265 works, if the improved compression happens at the cam, saving throughput on the LAN, or if it just reduces size on the HDD.

Any reason to not use Cat 6?

Thank you!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: xantom,




"We've done four already, but now we're steady..."
 
Posts: 1721 | Location: MN | Registered: November 20, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
member
Picture of henryaz
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Black92LX:
My first Dahua camera just arrived and my POE injector should arrive today.

In the email alerts I get from my Amcrest camera, the boundary separator between email elements (body and attachment) is ======DAHUA_TECH======, so there must be some relationship there.
 
 
Posts: 10778 | Location: South Congress AZ | Registered: May 27, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
quarter MOA visionary
Picture of smschulz
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by xantom:
quote:
You shouldn't need multiple installs, that's the whole point of VMS.


Perfect, not sure how I missed thatSmile

smschulz, a couple additional questions if you don't mind?

Is the PoE switch I selected sufficient for what I am trying to do. I want more than 8 ports and this one also is PoE plus.
https://www.amazon.com/BV-Tech...&keywords=poe+switch This URL is not revealing anything ~ either incomplete or expired.

Should I use a separate NIC to route IP Cam traffic through? Not necessary
Not sure how H.265 works, if the improved compression happens at the cam, saving throughput on the LAN, or if it just reduces size on the HDD.

Compression will make the vid files smaller and more efficient to travel over the wire.
H265 is the latest protocol and it reduces bandwidth and CPU utilization about 50 percent better than H264. Cool
You can adjust the amount to suite your needs ~ you can actually compress quite a bit and still get a great picture. The amount of compression you would use would depend on the "complexity" of the scene > IE: amount of motion, varying light, etc.
You should just play with it and set with as much as you can.


Any reason to not use Cat 6? CAT 6 is becoming the current standard although you will see little in any difference from CAT 5e. Additionally, if any of the components are not CAT6(jacks, cables, etc) then it basically reverts to CAT 5e anyway. But yes it will work fine.

Thank you!


Also a POE switch is a switch that provides power over Ethernet to devices.
You have three basic standards (well two).
The difference is only the amount of power not a quality difference.
802.3AF aka POE
802.3AT aka POE+
Proprietary to a specific purpose.

Most ALL cams and standard AP's use the lower AF.
PTZ cams and many dual band AP's need a bit more power use AT.
If only cams then AF is fine.

Additionally, every POE switch has a "budget" of power expressed in Watts on how much POE power it can supply.
So you need to add up all you devices and see if the sum is less than the budget.

A POE+ will work both and when you connect the device there is no configuration necessary.

Many manufactures make them but I would stick with a reputable equipment company such as DLink, Netgear, Cisco, or similar.
Not so sure about the off brands. YMMV
Always buy way ports than you think ~ they run out fast.
 
Posts: 22858 | Location: Houston, TX | Registered: June 11, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by henryaz:
quote:
Originally posted by Black92LX:
My first Dahua camera just arrived and my POE injector should arrive today.

In the email alerts I get from my Amcrest camera, the boundary separator between email elements (body and attachment) is ======DAHUA_TECH======, so there must be some relationship there.
 



Amcrest is largely rebranded and dumbed down Dahua. They typically remove or disable certain higher level features like say IVS. Not always but on some models.


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Posts: 2689 | Location: Orlando Area | Registered: February 04, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
McNoob
Picture of xantom
posted Hide Post
quote:
This URL is not revealing anything ~ either incomplete or expired.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...A2PM09KSZ036SU&psc=1

Sorry I fixed in my original post too.

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it.
I am going to pull the trigger today when I get home. It's gonna get cold here, hope to get it done before the snow really starts to fly. Good timing if you have to be in an attic though Big Grin




"We've done four already, but now we're steady..."
 
Posts: 1721 | Location: MN | Registered: November 20, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Plus 1 for the Vari-focal lenses. First iteration of my cameras I did the math and chose the fixed focal length that I thought would be appropriate.

Then I tried the Vari-focal lenses however they were a real pain to adjust, having to get up on the ladder to set the focal length.

Then I tried the motorized Vari-focal lenses. Should have gone with them the first time. So much easier and they work well with Blue Iris.

Concerning POE Routers. I have used Netgear but they seem to be a bit less reliable than the Brand I finally settled on LTS. One good thing about Netgear is that they have a lifetime warantee if you can navigate their convoluted warantee process. Always have a spare POE Router!!!
 
Posts: 990 | Location: Windermere, Florida | Registered: February 11, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
McNoob
Picture of xantom
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Well I got all the parts. I can't wait to see how these cams work. They are so much more beefy than my Zmodo system. It snowed here all day, hoping it's warm enough tomorrow to string some wires.





"We've done four already, but now we're steady..."
 
Posts: 1721 | Location: MN | Registered: November 20, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Raised Hands Surround Us
Three Nails To Protect Us
Picture of Black92LX
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Nice.
I swapped out my Dahua for the Amcrest. The Dahua is a very nice camera. The audio is pretty clear out there. Granted I was getting a little feedback as I was testing it with iphone in my hand. I'll have one of the kiddos go out back tonight so I can really test the sound.

The daytime video is really nice and quite a bit noticeably more crisp. Being a 4.0mp vs. 1.4mp.
We'll see how that negatively effects the night vision.

My only gripe is when I ordered I guess I was not paying full attention and got a 3.6mm fixed objective. Which is what I thought my Amcrest was but it is a 2.8mm fixed. I loose about 10 feet of coverage to my fence.
I guess I will snag another 2.8mm fixed objective because it is perfect for that location.
I put this one up high and cover the entire backyard.


————————————————
The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad.
If we got each other, and that's all we have.
I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand.
You should know I'll be there for you!
 
Posts: 25356 | Registered: September 06, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
quarter MOA visionary
Picture of smschulz
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Black92LX:

My only gripe is when I ordered I guess I was not paying full attention and got a 3.6mm fixed objective. Which is what I thought my Amcrest was but it is a 2.8mm fixed. I loose about 10 feet of coverage to my fence.
I guess I will snag another 2.8mm fixed objective because it is perfect for that location.
I put this one up high and cover the entire backyard.


No doubt a shorter focal length lens will yield a wider coverage area.
Depending on your depth needed the image quality may or may not suffer.
Farther way the PPF will go down and become less distinguishable.
More cams with longer focal length may yield better results.
We use a lot of "vari-focal" cams with adjustable length to fine tune the overall scene.

A good tool to determine what you need.

https://calculator.ipvm.com/
 
Posts: 22858 | Location: Houston, TX | Registered: June 11, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
McNoob
Picture of xantom
posted Hide Post
Yeah I am little concerned with how the night vision on one of the cams will be because there is very little ambient light at night. I can always swap it our for another. The PC is built and I have the software installed, hooked up one cam to the PoE switch and the Blue Iris software found it with no problem. The Software looks to be highly configurable which is nice.

Couple questions:

I see that I can log directly into the cam and from what I am seeing I can change the user name and password. Do I need to give each cam it's own IP address or will my router just manage that? Can I just give each an IP address based on it's MAC address? Not sure how that works or what is the best practice there.

In the Blue Iris software it recommends to keep the db and new files on the local drive, in my case my SDD. I assume by configuring size or age it will automatically "archive" that data to the stored folder if I move that folder to my 4TB secondary drive. Is that correct?

I have 6 of the 7 cams hung and 4 of the worst wiring runs completed. It's snowing here again today so I probably won't be up and running until next week. Was really hoping to get it going this week...




"We've done four already, but now we're steady..."
 
Posts: 1721 | Location: MN | Registered: November 20, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Raised Hands Surround Us
Three Nails To Protect Us
Picture of Black92LX
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by smschulz:
quote:
Originally posted by Black92LX:

My only gripe is when I ordered I guess I was not paying full attention and got a 3.6mm fixed objective. Which is what I thought my Amcrest was but it is a 2.8mm fixed. I loose about 10 feet of coverage to my fence.
I guess I will snag another 2.8mm fixed objective because it is perfect for that location.
I put this one up high and cover the entire backyard.


No doubt a shorter focal length lens will yield a wider coverage area.
Depending on your depth needed the image quality may or may not suffer.
Farther way the PPF will go down and become less distinguishable.
More cams with longer focal length may yield better results.
We use a lot of "vari-focal" cams with adjustable length to fine tune the overall scene.

A good tool to determine what you need.

https://calculator.ipvm.com/


I had a few cams open comparing and meant to order the 2.8 and I guess I mistakenly got the 3.6.
Ohh well, I will be adding more cams so I'll just get another 2.8 and find another spot for the 3.6. The rest will be varifocal.

quote:
Originally posted by xantom:
Yeah I am little concerned with how the night vision on one of the cams will be because there is very little ambient light at night. I can always swap it our for another. The PC is built and I have the software installed, hooked up one cam to the PoE switch and the Blue Iris software found it with no problem. The Software looks to be highly configurable which is nice.

Couple questions:

I see that I can log directly into the cam and from what I am seeing I can change the user name and password. Do I need to give each cam it's own IP address or will my router just manage that? Can I just give each an IP address based on it's MAC address? Not sure how that works or what is the best practice there.

In the Blue Iris software it recommends to keep the db and new files on the local drive, in my case my SDD. I assume by configuring size or age it will automatically "archive" that data to the stored folder if I move that folder to my 4TB secondary drive. Is that correct?

I have 6 of the 7 cams hung and 4 of the worst wiring runs completed. It's snowing here again today so I probably won't be up and running until next week. Was really hoping to get it going this week...


I just swapped by back light from a 750 lumen bulb to an 1140 lumen bulb. Night footage was decent so we'll see if it improves it any.

I give my cameras the IP I want. So far both cameras have been defaulted to dynamic IPs so when I first set it up to static I give it an IP.

As for archiving I am pretty sure that is correct. I have mine set to erase after 7 days. If there is something I want to keep I export it to an external drive.

I am likely going to get another PC just for the cameras. This old AMD A8 runs about 50% CPU with the 2 cams going.
Though Blue Iris just notified me of an update with new features to customize CPU usage. So we'll see how that goes.


————————————————
The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad.
If we got each other, and that's all we have.
I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand.
You should know I'll be there for you!
 
Posts: 25356 | Registered: September 06, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
McNoob
Picture of xantom
posted Hide Post
I finally got them up and working just last night. All in all it went smooth. My neighbor is an electrician and he is real wiry and slim. It would have been a nightmare, for me, without him. He got up in the attic, crawled on the insulation, and fed all the wires through attic to my crawl space above my garage.

The Cams seem to be very good quality, and I am very impressed with how good the night vision is on them. I didn’t get them all on until it was dark here, so I am anxious to see how they work in the day time. Thanks you guys for all your posts and pointers. I will post some more images once I have them aimed and have some of the wires cleaned up. Here is a quick shot of the Blue Iris front end.



Link to full size image.




"We've done four already, but now we're steady..."
 
Posts: 1721 | Location: MN | Registered: November 20, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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