Anybody use security cameras in/on their house?

[Jim Oaks]

I want one to be able to see the front and rear of my house when I'm not home. Something I can view on my phone. Just wondering what others are using, if you like it, and what it costs?

 

[Dirtman]

I have a bunch. 6 are outdoor cams made by uniden and while the cameras are great the phone app for them absolutely sucks. The ones on my front and back porch are "BluRams" which are awesome and the app is really nice.

The good BluRams cams that have pan, tilt, zoom go for about $50-100 bucks each depending on the model.

 

[RonD]

Do you want to record what goes on or just see "live" video?

Do you have a WiFi signal reaching to the locations outside where you would want a camera located?
And is there 110vAC power at the location?

There are many WiFi exterior rated security cameras, most have SD card slots that can be used to record video but for a limited time even with motion detection, because outside images change ALOT, i.e. wind blows plants and sunlight changes during the day
Get one with IR as that shows better images at night

Most have APPs with DDNS so you can view live or recordings on or off-site on a phone or computer

AVOID Cloud storage as that gets expensive, there should be NO monthly fee

A 4 channel NVR(network video recorder) is best but...................you need to run Cat5 or 6 wire from NVR location to each camera, the wire does both video and power
These can record for months and can be accessed via APP or Computer on or off-site

 

[Dirtman]

I think I have 256GB cards in each of my wifi cameras, they are set to record constantly on a loop and I'm pretty sure they record way over a week before they start recording over old video which is plenty of time for you to notice your house was robbed and go back to check the video...

One thing if you go that route is make sure the camera is in a secure location so a theif can't just reach over to it and steal the SD card...

 

[RonD]

Or steal the whole camera, lol

The selling point of most is "easy to install DIY" which makes them pretty easy to steal, if accessible

 

[DeathRanger]

Depends on how "secure" you want them to be. Most of the easy setup cameras with phone apps are really insecure and could allow someone to connect to your cameras without your knowledge.

Mine are no-name cheap hard wired cameras with a 1TB hard drive for local storage. I much prefer hard wired as "wireless" is a farce since you still need power wire. I have firewall blocking all connections to and from the DVR as it's constantly trying to phone home to some chinese server. HD quality isn't the best but I can still see full 360 around house with just 6 cameras.

Eventually I plan a whole house network, security, camera system from Ubiquiti but they are very expensive https://www.ui.com/camera-security/

 

[DeathRanger]

Top 3 I've heard of for standard, quick and easy consumer cameras

Wzye - https://wyze.com/shop-wyze
Blink - https://blinkforhome.com/
Ring - https://ring.com/security-cameras

 

[Jim Oaks]

I want it to be able to record so I can go back and see what happened. I also want to be able to look live in case I want to see what my dog is doing while I'm gone.

 

[Jim Oaks]

My daughter has Ring for her front door and just replaced the camera inside with Blink.

 

[racsan]

I saw some commercial the other day about a camera system that would link with google nest (I dont know what the commercial was for) and you could see on your tv who was at the door. I have a system I bought off of fleabay but havent had time to set it up, dont know much about it either. Since I may be moving soon I may wait until Im moved but the way things are going I dont know when that will be, Looked at 3 places in the last week and the last one I offered 15K more then they were asking for the property and still didnt get it. Getting really pissed about this game.

 

[cschannuth]

We have ring cameras and they are unbelievably clear and easy to use and you have unlimited recording ability for free. Also, if neighbors have the ring system you can link up and be notified if there’s problems in the area. You can also link many devices to the ring system and get to all of the information through the ring app. The only downside is they are expensive and the faster your Wi-Fi the better.

 

[2drxploder]

got ring doorbell and floodlight. work well enough for what i need.

 

[dvdswan]

Wyse.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

My parents got a Lorax setup, wired cameras, hard drive box. Don’t have it fully set up but it works. Pain to run wires, but it is what it is. I got them a tamper resistant dome for by the front door. All the rest of the cameras are out of reach unless you have a ladder. Tamper resistant one was some off brand camera but it works surprisingly well at 1080p

I have one of the Harbor Freight versions for my property but need more cameras, only have 4, but the box supports 8.

My mechanic buddy in town has one of the Harbor Freight ones with a full set of 8 cameras. Police have reviewed the footage on more than one occasion and have actually solved a couple crimes from them. The first was someone slashing tires. The yahoo can be seen running across the alley, takes a knee next to the car on the pad, looks directly at the camera, then proceeds to slash the tire and run off. Apparently one of the front cameras caught him slashing another tire down the street. They also caught a lady who flew in reverse down the alley and smashed a car on his pad, then pulled around front and went into a neighboring house. So apparently it’s good enough, lol

 

[rumblecloud]

We use a Defender 8 channel system, hardwired. 1T internal storage capability. The phone app is free and works pretty darn good.. Record Search on the unit is simple and easy to use -- and I use it all the time -- lots of things go bump in the night around here.
We combined that with Simply Safe sensors for entry, windows, smoke and water - very inexpensive and very simple to install and operate. We do pay for monitoring, but you don't have to have that.

Lots of cool stuff out there to choose from. At first I thought I wanted a wireless system - didn't want to deal with hard wiring everything, but it really wasn't that bad. If you're only doing two cams it should be nothing compared to what you've already dealt with.