Just do me a solid, and try to not give people a hard time right out of the gate.

If you don't understand what I'm trying to say, just drop it, and let the subject of this thread continue.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by jprebb:
Yes, I could go educate myself on the topic of security cameras…but if I did that, I really wouldn’t need SIGforum’s advice, now would I?

Translation: "Learning is too hard."

Translation: Any time you want to ask a question, make sure you ask someone else before you come here. I didn't join this forum to help you learn, but I don't mind putting more time and effort into this snobby response than I would have to in actually answering your question.

quote:

Originally posted by jprebb:
Instead of reinventing the wheel, I’m hoping another member(s) has already been down this road and that they can save me the hassle of getting “educated somewhat” on this topic.

Which is why smschulz suggested "There have been a ton of threads and posts on this subject HERE ." (Emphasis added for the reading-comprehension-impaired.)

Translation: There are a ton of threads on this topic full of responses like "did you try searching?" Try reading those.

quote:

Originally posted by jprebb:
Just to be clear, I’m looking for an IP camera with PoE that I can run from my computer.

Which isn't even remotely close to your original question.

Translation: I know enough about this topic to figure out exactly what you were trying to learn, but since your original post pissed me off I'll need you to file a request for information properly.

quote:

Originally posted by jprebb:
Otherwise, butt out, respectfully.

Maybe you should look up a HowTo on asking questions on a web forum? I'm pretty sure "Being obnoxious, respectfully" won't be one of the recommendations.

Translation: I would prefer that Sig Forum leave behind the friendly atmosphere that makes it great in order to be like every other forum. Only people who respond to your thread are allowed to be obnoxious respectfully.

... If a friend walked up to you and asked you a question, would everyone here be that big of an asshole to them?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DevlDogs55,

Why not just let it go?
Everyone is over reacting here.
We don't need "translations".
Just let it go, please?

Were you hoping more people would gang up on him with you? I'm tired of this shit, man. This is a forum... this is Sig Forum. Why do we treat people like assholes for asking questions and then just want to drop it? I wouldn't have joined 10 years ago if that was how the climate was here.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Why not just let it go?
Everyone is over reacting here.
We don't need "translations".
Just let it go, please?

Perhaps you should have listened to the Moderator on page 1.

Smschulz - stop digging.

Your behavior, in one page, which includes giving another member a hard time, and a staff member, then to switch to "let it go," is not OK. You should refrain from posting further in this thread, and not repeat what has gone on here.

Everybody else -

Let's get this back on topic, and see that the OP finds the information that he needs.

No one else needs to clutter this thread with comments for smschulz, please let the discussion of security cameras continue.

It'd be great if you'd post what you ended up doing and how well it works. I'm interested in this. Thanks.

I found choosing an IP cam to be easy. The hard part is how to do the recording loop on a computer. What are others doing for that? Can one use something like a raspberry pi with a USB HDD?

Even on a windows computer, how is this done?

http://blueirissoftware.com/

You might want to check out https://ipcamtalk.com/forums/blue-iris.30/

Blue Iris looks pretty good. The only disatvantege that I see is having to have your computer on 24/7, but such as it is.

quote:

Originally posted by jprebb:
I'm interested in purchasing a security camera that I can connect to a wireless access point and be on my network. I don't have a DVR so I was hoping there was some software available that I could use to record to my computer's hard drive and do something like a 48 hour loop.

Any recommendations or suggestions are greatly appreciated?

JP

If your computer literate and can install a linux distro I would consider just making a IP security camera from a raspberry pi. I made one a year ago for a class project and it's fairly easy and inexpensive - generally less than $100. Just google Raspberry Pi Security Camera.

The new Raspberry pi III has built in Lan Wifi and bluetooth.

My daughter is moving out on her own soon. I bought her a Ring system. I was looking for something wireless that wouldn't interfere with my wifi. I'm not a tech guy exactly and I do have a cursory affiliation with the company.

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...935/m/9810057124/p/1

First of all, one of the things that sets this forum apart from all others is the civility that exists amongst its members. So I’d like to apologize to smschulz because my response to his comments was inflammatory and unnecessary.

quote:

Originally posted by bigredfish:
Here's some of my own camera captures, much of it just testing different settings and camera features but may give you some ideas..
https://www.youtube.com/user/bigredfish59

Question bigredfish: I watched your videos and the in video titled "52A1EN - Bitrate 4096 FPS 15/Iframe 15" I noticed the passing SUV's license plate looked completely unrecognizable. In the description of the video you write lower bitrate – less quality. Can you run that camera at a higher bitrate such that you could read the license plate of the passing car or at least resolve some of the blur?

My car is parked on the curb ~25 ft. in front of my townhouse and is what I’m interested in keeping an eye on. There’s a street light but it’s down the street and really doesn’t provide much light in front of my house. I have a light in my yard that comes on automatically at dark and my neighbors on either side of me have the same. This is really the only useful illumination I have at my disposal. I’m mainly concerned with nighttime performance. Do you have a recommendation?

JP

quote:

Originally posted by jprebb:

quote:

Originally posted by bigredfish:
Here's some of my own camera captures, much of it just testing different settings and camera features but may give you some ideas..
https://www.youtube.com/user/bigredfish59

Question bigredfish: I watched your videos and the in video titled "52A1EN - Bitrate 4096 FPS 15/Iframe 15" I noticed the passing SUV's license plate looked completely unrecognizable. In the description of the video you write lower bitrate – less quality. Can you run that camera at a higher bitrate such that you could read the license plate of the passing car or at least resolve some of the blur?

JP

The camera you referenced above is from an Overview camera. Not meant to capture tags. Capturing tags in general requires a dedicated camera that does nothing but zoom in on the area to capture tags. Its no good for anything else. It will be very rare that you are able to get both good tag captures and anything else in a scene.

The camera you pointed to is in forced color at night and acceptable image because we use it to identify colors and such that B&W IR wont give you. Frankly letting it go to normal B&W with IR would provide a much crisper image though you lose colors. An acceptable trade-off as we have other cameras covering the street as well. Color at night is MUCH harder than you think and typically results in a bit of blur/noise unless you have a lot of white light present.

The dedicated TAG camera next to it has a 60mm lens and is capturing tag images at approx 120'. Here is a sample:

(Make sure and change resolution using the gear thingy on my youtube videos to 1080p or you'll see low resolution crappy video)



We have 3 dedicated tag cameras and two overview cameras for our street that belong to the HOA. These are in addition to my own that happen to capture some of the street but our prioritized to my own driveway.

Here's a tour of the 7 cameras on our little street. Each image is clickable to show a short video clip...
Camera Coverage our little street


Tag capture is HARD (unless you're wiling to spend $20K per camera like the ones you see at a toll booth for example). Get the camera set right to capture in daytime and often your nighttime images suck and vice versa. It takes a bit of work and as mentioned a dedicated tag camera.

By the way the clip you picked out was used to demonstrate that running 4096 bitrate did NOT produce as good of an image as running 8192 bitrate. So yes there is correlation between recorded bitrate and image quality.

Here is the same camera you referenced at 2x the bitrate (change to 1080p when viewing)

I went with an Arlo Pro system made by Netgear that plugged into my Netgear router. It was super simple to set up. I can access it by computer or smart phone.

In general, whether using IP or HD-TVI, you need as much HDD storage as you can afford. Cameras should ideally be recorded at the max frame rate and highest resolution. You MUST verify the quality of day, night, and weather-affected images and adjust accordingly. Sometimes, as has been pointed out, it may be better to force a camera to remain in color mode all the time. Lens selection is also important. A 2 or 3 MP camera that is too wide may not have enough detail for usable images past 50 to 75 feet. Do not expect the stated IR illumination range to be accurate.

The biggest obstacle we have to overcome in explaining to customers what they can expect from cameras is that just because you can see something in a camera image, that doesn't mean you can get usable footage.

quote:

Originally posted by jprebb:


My car is parked on the curb ~25 ft. in front of my townhouse and is what I’m interested in keeping an eye on. There’s a street light but it’s down the street and really doesn’t provide much light in front of my house. I have a light in my yard that comes on automatically at dark and my neighbors on either side of me have the same. This is really the only useful illumination I have at my disposal. I’m mainly concerned with nighttime performance. Do you have a recommendation?

JP

For nighttime image with consumer grade cameras in the sub $200 range there is nothing on the market that will outperform the 2MP Dahua Starlights currently. 3 and 4MP cams generally dont do as well at night as the 2MP Starlights. Don't buy into the Mega-pixel race for nighttime images.

At 25 ft you may want to add a bit of extra IR illumination, but you will be fine with these:
http://www1.dahuasecurity.com/...hfw5231e-z-3741.html
or more zoom
http://www1.dahuasecurity.com/...w5231e-z5-11591.html

They also makes this camera in Turret and dome styles, but the motorized zoom vari-focal is great for driveways/street coverage.

Here's an example (not mine) of what your eyes and your iphone see in low light at night vs what a 2MP Dahua Starlight is capable of seeing

[/QUOTE]Originally posted by LimaCharlie:
I went with an Arlo Pro system made by Netgear that plugged into my Netgear router. It was super simple to set up. I can access it by computer or smart phone.[/QUOTE]

This, super easy.

quote:

Originally posted by bigredfish:

quote:

Originally posted by jprebb:


My car is parked on the curb ~25 ft. in front of my townhouse and is what I’m interested in keeping an eye on. There’s a street light but it’s down the street and really doesn’t provide much light in front of my house. I have a light in my yard that comes on automatically at dark and my neighbors on either side of me have the same. This is really the only useful illumination I have at my disposal. I’m mainly concerned with nighttime performance. Do you have a recommendation?

JP

For nighttime image with consumer grade cameras in the sub $200 range there is nothing on the market that will outperform the 2MP Dahua Starlights currently. 3 and 4MP cams generally dont do as well at night as the 2MP Starlights. Don't buy into the Mega-pixel race for nighttime images.

At 25 ft you may want to add a bit of extra IR illumination, but you will be fine with these:
http://www1.dahuasecurity.com/...hfw5231e-z-3741.html
or more zoom
http://www1.dahuasecurity.com/...w5231e-z5-11591.html

They also makes this camera in Turret and dome styles, but the motorized zoom vari-focal is great for driveways/street coverage.

Here's an example (not mine) of what your eyes and your iphone see in low light at night vs what a 2MP Dahua Starlight is capable of seeing

[FLASH_VIDEO]<iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0pg7nlwvbyM" width="560"></iframe>[/FLASH_VIDEO]

After looking at things for a while, I realize this is good advice about the starlight cams.