CCTV Camera System Recommendations?

Has anyone used the following camewra and can give either feedback on it or recommend something similar. ezviz-c3w-colour-night-vision-1080p-full-hd-outdoor-wifi-ip

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This morning I got to my car to find the window smashed and the door basically fubar and now want to put in a camera with built in deterrents; i.e. Light and sound alarm. Minimal cable requirements so either POE or Wifi connectivity with power cable.
 
acidrain said:
Has anyone used the following camewra and can give either feedback on it or recommend something similar. ezviz-c3w-colour-night-vision-1080p-full-hd-outdoor-wifi-ip

Takealot.com: Online Shopping | SA's leading online store

South Africa's leading online store. Fast, reliable delivery to your door. Many ways to pay. Shop anything you can imagine: TVs, laptops, cellphones, kitchen appliances, toys, books, beauty & more. Shop the mobile app anytime, anywhere.
www.takealot.com www.takealot.com

This morning I got to my car to find the window smashed and the door basically fubar and now want to put in a camera with built in deterrents; i.e. Light and sound alarm. Minimal cable requirements so either POE or Wifi connectivity with power cable.
Click to expand...
I have this camera's brother - the main difference is that mine does not do colour at night, and H264 vs H265. Good quality camera, good images, apps and software seem solid enough. You're paying for some extra features (siren, strobes etc) that you may not have a use for.
 
supersunbird said:
Why? Will IP systems suddenly get a killer feature?
Click to expand...
I bought an 8 channel IP camera setup a while back, hikvision camera and DVR that connects to my network. Thought I would be happy for remote viewing and all that.

The only downside is cabling tbh. What I did was run cat5 cable and use these connectors to it easier to pull cable and add rj45 jacks as I needed for different lengths:

1593615049377.png

They work well, but I wish I had gone for an NVR.
With an NVR I'd have it sitting nicely in my office network cabinet and all camera's powered over poe with a single cable.

Instead I've now got a 12v powersupply and a DVR in a cupboard, I don't know if you get a nice rackmount 12v powersupply that I could use - but then I'd lose another u in my cabinet. So, I want to go NVR with POE route rather. All that said and done, once it's installed there is probably no difference to my experience as an end user if comparing like for like cameras.

Just wish that hikvision would have better apps. Seems to be issues viewing cameras on a web browser and the desktop app isn't supported on the latest version of mac.

Edit: Tried to access dvr using web browsers, Safari, Chrome, Firefox - none work to view live or playback footage. Hikvision makes their stuff to be used directly on their NVR/DVR - they sadly don't give two ticks about any remote viewing applications, which is their biggest weakness.
 
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SAguy said:
I bought an 8 channel IP camera setup a while back, hikvision camera and DVR that connects to my network. Thought I would be happy for remote viewing and all that.

The only downside is cabling tbh. What I did was run cat5 cable and use these connectors to it easier to pull cable and add rj45 jacks as I needed for different lengths:

View attachment 868307

They work well, but I wish I had gone for an NVR.
With an NVR I'd have it sitting nicely in my office network cabinet and all camera's powered over poe with a single cable.

Instead I've now got a 12v powersupply and a DVR in a cupboard, I don't know if you get a nice rackmount 12v powersupply that I could use - but then I'd lose another u in my cabinet. So, I want to go NVR with POE route rather. All that said and done, once it's installed there is probably no difference to my experience as an end user if comparing like for like cameras.

Just wish that hikvision would have better apps. Seems to be issues viewing cameras on a web browser and the desktop app isn't supported on the latest version of mac.

Edit: Tried to access dvr using web browsers, Safari, Chrome, Firefox - none work to view live or playback footage. Hikvision makes their stuff to be used directly on their NVR/DVR - they sadly don't give two ticks about any remote viewing applications, which is their biggest weakness.
Click to expand...

I run Firefox 51.0 with updating disabled, plugins run on that. Also nice that I can just click in Firefox in taskbar and see what is going on, no other tabs or anything
 
riscbroker said:
I have this camera's brother - the main difference is that mine does not do colour at night, and H264 vs H265. Good quality camera, good images, apps and software seem solid enough. You're paying for some extra features (siren, strobes etc) that you may not have a use for.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I am actually needing the extra features because it will be mounted near a window of ours that overlooks our street parking so if someone attempts to get near our car the siren will sound and wake us up.

Off topic, it is also as a backup for my cars alarm which after today's break in does not appear to sound ( lights go off but no sound ).
 
acidrain said:
Thanks. I am actually needing the extra features because it will be mounted near a window of ours that overlooks our street parking so if someone attempts to get near our car the siren will sound and wake us up.

Off topic, it is also as a backup for my cars alarm which after today's break in does not appear to sound ( lights go off but no sound ).
Click to expand...
You should find the phone app useful then - you can have the camera send alerts to your phone in addition to having the siren making a racket
 
Some misconceptions here:

  • You can view cameras remotely from a DVR. All DVRs have at least one network port to connect to the network. You can use your phone or another client (PC).
  • Analogue cable runs are longer than CAT5e/6 etc.
  • There's hardly much difference between 1.3 or 2MP and HD analogue these days in terms of image quality. If you go for higher MP IP then yes, but be prepared to fork out the cash.
  • Not sure why people want to go with Ubiquiti. It's a good network brand, but fairly anonymous in surveillance. Hikvision, although I don't like them personally, has the world's largest market share and has been in the industry for a long time. It's like going for Cisco cameras (they used to have those, not sure if they still do). They were at that time just rebranded Vivotek cameras. Just because they are Cisco does not mean they have a better surveillance product.
  • If you buy an analogue system now, you will probably not need to upgrade to IP.
  • As to the question for a "cage for an IP bullet camera", not sure. I suspect you mean a box camera that needs a housing.
  • For those recording through Pi's or such, remember AVI, MP4 etc are not admissible in the court of law.
  • If you're trying to view the DVR through a web browser, chances are you will need to use IE and install the relevant plugin. You may even need to run compatibility through IE.
  • "Features" will be non-existent for home analogue or IP. Both will allow simple motion detection, events, alarms and will allow you to send emails when an alarm is triggered.
Now, am I saying analogue is better than IP? No. Is it potentially better for someone who wants 4-8 cameras only? Yes, potentially.

Not all NVRs have built-in switches, so you'll have to consider that before buying.

Heck, I could go on, but I think that's enough for now.
 
acidrain said:
Has anyone used the following camewra and can give either feedback on it or recommend something similar. ezviz-c3w-colour-night-vision-1080p-full-hd-outdoor-wifi-ip

Takealot.com: Online Shopping | SA's leading online store

South Africa's leading online store. Fast, reliable delivery to your door. Many ways to pay. Shop anything you can imagine: TVs, laptops, cellphones, kitchen appliances, toys, books, beauty & more. Shop the mobile app anytime, anywhere.
www.takealot.com www.takealot.com

This morning I got to my car to find the window smashed and the door basically fubar and now want to put in a camera with built in deterrents; i.e. Light and sound alarm. Minimal cable requirements so either POE or Wifi connectivity with power cable.
Click to expand...
riscbroker said:
I have this camera's brother - the main difference is that mine does not do colour at night, and H264 vs H265. Good quality camera, good images, apps and software seem solid enough. You're paying for some extra features (siren, strobes etc) that you may not have a use for.
Click to expand...

Same here, I've got 6 of the previous version of this camera.

It works well and the quality is really good. I've only used the 2 way audio about 2-3 times too. It's a nice "setup and forget" kind of device - haven't had to tinker with it much after installing.

I haven't yet and don't think I will ever use the siren and strobe light or alarming features. Although the motion sensitivity can be adjusted, there will always be false negatives. My alarm system can take care of that.

I did have an issue with 1 camera where the night vision stopped working. Got it swapped out under warranty.
 
netstrider said:
Some misconceptions here:

  • You can view cameras remotely from a DVR. All DVRs have at least one network port to connect to the network. You can use your phone or another client (PC).
  • Analogue cable runs are longer than CAT5e/6 etc.
  • There's hardly much difference between 1.3 or 2MP and HD analogue these days in terms of image quality. If you go for higher MP IP then yes, but be prepared to fork out the cash.
  • Not sure why people want to go with Ubiquiti. It's a good network brand, but fairly anonymous in surveillance. Hikvision, although I don't like them personally, has the world's largest market share and has been in the industry for a long time. It's like going for Cisco cameras (they used to have those, not sure if they still do). They were at that time just rebranded Vivotek cameras. Just because they are Cisco does not mean they have a better surveillance product.
  • If you buy an analogue system now, you will probably not need to upgrade to IP.
  • As to the question for a "cage for an IP bullet camera", not sure. I suspect you mean a box camera that needs a housing.
  • For those recording through Pi's or such, remember AVI, MP4 etc are not admissible in the court of law.
  • If you're trying to view the DVR through a web browser, chances are you will need to use IE and install the relevant plugin. You may even need to run compatibility through IE.
  • "Features" will be non-existent for home analogue or IP. Both will allow simple motion detection, events, alarms and will allow you to send emails when an alarm is triggered.
Now, am I saying analogue is better than IP? No. Is it potentially better for someone who wants 4-8 cameras only? Yes, potentially.

Not all NVRs have built-in switches, so you'll have to consider that before buying.

Heck, I could go on, but I think that's enough for now.
Click to expand...

Good post
 
shooter_za said:
Is it possible for any of these systems (IP or not) to backed up by a 12v DC UPS system? I suspect not.
Click to expand...
A standard DVR is 12V DC. Analogue cameras, apart from PTZs, are all 12V DC. So yes, you could have a 9-way PSU with a battery connected as failover - such as is used in industry.
 
IssiAmd said:
Digital Video Recorder
So you have analog cameras, analog signal coming in to dvr.
DVR converts the signal in to digital recording and saves as a playback file.
There will be a degradation from live view to playback quality.

Network Video Recorder
Your nvr is basically a server
IP cameras are called that because they have their own network address.
The bigger difference though is that with ip the video is digital from the start. Basic your camera is doing the recording and the nvr is just the server. As a result you get much better quality on RECORDING compared to analog and live playback quality is same as live view.

Don't look at the live view only to compare the two
IP will cost significantly more. If you just need some eyes, analog is perfect. If you need serious surveillance, go ip.
Click to expand...
The IP camera does not record at all unless you record to SD card. Only enterprise-grade systems can actually pull footage from SD, and only a select few. Otherwise, you will have to access said footage manually through the camera browser menu or, potentially, by removing the SD card.

Yes, there are some cameras that have SSDs built-in, like Avigilon. Those are roughly R30k each and can be accessed as stand-alone servers from remote clients.

An IP camera encodes, usually to H.264, lately to H.265.

Not sure where you got your information from, but given all things are equal, analogue streams will look just as good as comparable IP streams when recorded to a DVR.
 
netstrider said:
The IP camera does not record at all unless you record to SD card. Only enterprise-grade systems can actually pull footage from SD, and only a select few. Otherwise, you will have to access said footage manually through the camera browser menu or, potentially, by removing the SD card.

Yes, there are some cameras that have SSDs built-in, like Avigilon. Those are roughly R30k each and can be accessed as stand-alone servers from remote clients.

An IP camera encodes, usually to H.264, lately to H.265.

Not sure where you got your information from, but given all things are equal, analogue streams will look just as good as comparable IP streams when recorded to a DVR.
Click to expand...
My "info" is from several years of working with CCTV and 2 years directly in the industry.

Yes it saves the recording to an sd card or a hard drive on a server/nvr or to the cloud. Point is it doesn't work the same as a dvr. An ip camera can be viewed and footage accessed independently.

That's just the thing though, they aren't equal
They may be comparable in live view but on recording ip will be significantly superior.

Haven't a clue why you're bringing up 30k cameras?
A simple ip camera on takealot (as below) can do tbe job.
SD up to 128gb should give decent enough recording time

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South Africa's leading online store. Fast, reliable delivery to your door. Many ways to pay. Shop anything you can imagine: TVs, laptops, cellphones, kitchen appliances, toys, books, beauty & more. Shop the mobile app anytime, anywhere.
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supersunbird said:
I'm happy with mine, here is 8 of my cameras in the 16 cam version of that DVR (I got 22 cameras active lol). Nighttime view in clear too. Top row is Hikvision cameras that came with the unit, bottom row is Hilook brand of cameras.

View attachment 865405
Click to expand...

For interests sake, here are the same analogue cameras at night (there are 2 x 9w LED bulbs lighting that area, if I were to switch them off, there would not be much difference in the picture shown):

1594328768714.png
 
IssiAmd said:
My "info" is from several years of working with CCTV and 2 years directly in the industry.

Yes it saves the recording to an sd card or a hard drive on a server/nvr or to the cloud. Point is it doesn't work the same as a dvr. An ip camera can be viewed and footage accessed independently.

That's just the thing though, they aren't equal
They may be comparable in live view but on recording ip will be significantly superior.

Haven't a clue why you're bringing up 30k cameras?
A simple ip camera on takealot (as below) can do tbe job.
SD up to 128gb should give decent enough recording time

Takealot.com: Online Shopping | SA's leading online store

South Africa's leading online store. Fast, reliable delivery to your door. Many ways to pay. Shop anything you can imagine: TVs, laptops, cellphones, kitchen appliances, toys, books, beauty & more. Shop the mobile app anytime, anywhere.
m.takealot.com m.takealot.com
Click to expand...
Look, a DVR and NVR saves to HDD. Hence all NVRs are also DVRs, but not all DVRs are NVRs. Some are hybrid and record CVBS / HD-SDI / HD-CVI / HD-AHD as well as IP.

It's not like they are video cassette recorders (VCRs).

DVRs may store video from analogue, but the recording itself is digital, hence DVR. HD analogue is very similar in quality to 1.0, 1.3 and even 2 MP IP cameras if you have a decent HD analogue camera.
 
supersunbird said:
For interests sake, here are the same analogue cameras at night (there are 2 x 9w LED bulbs lighting that area, if I were to switch them off, there would not be much difference in the picture shown):

View attachment 872231
Click to expand...
If you happy then that's great.
The Hikvision darkfighters for their price are great. With any small amount of light, they stay on colour.
 
I see Hikvision is a common choice for most installers, are there other vendors that can beat it for the same price?
 
Going to be putting this in soon:
Still unsure about whether to put in dome or bullet cameras though.

... and taking this out and selling it:
  • DS-7208HQHI-K1 - Hikvision8-Channel 720p HD-TVI Turbo DVR.
  • DS-2CE16D0T-IRF x 6 - 2MP Turbo Bullet Camera
  • DS-2CE16D1T-VFIR3 x 1 - 2MP Vari-focal Turbo Bullet Camera.
 
Good day everyone. Where could I find the AT command list on the HIKVision DVR's? Looking at the DS 7216HKHI-K2

Thx.
 
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