djm1k0

Hello to all i'm new here and really in the need of some help. I have been asked to price out and install a system for a client. I am fairly new to this as i'm and IT person however have configured systems for other clients my partner is a contractor so we are starting to get into the camera install business.... i"m reading online and trying to research systems but there are so many and i'm starting to feel lost... I need some help We are looking at installing a 4 camera system on an 8ch DVR maybe 1 or 2TB HDD, the 4 camera locations, front, back of house, one on the garage and one watching the driveway. They need to have good night vision quality and i guess a good range distance wise for the driveway location. Also they would like to be able to watch/monitor over computer, Iphone/Ipad could anyone please shoot me a few suggestions. I'd like to offer a few price points... $500, $1000, $2000 etc.. as far as install from reading online i'm confused a bit, i don't really understand how the cameras are powered, for example i was looking at this Swann System SWHDK-882004-US and from what i understand is that each camera connects to DVR with a BNC cable. Then each camera needs a power source ? So if i understand this correctly the camera would need to plug into an electrical outlet located near the camera location ? Forgive me if im sounding stupid but i'm new to this, how many people have power outlets installed up in lets say their soffits? Or is electric needing to be installed as well.. to me that seems like a big project just to install a security system. as much help or guidance and of you could provide would be a tremendous help!! What brands are good what brands to stay away from.... as far as camera's how do you rate quality etc.. HELP While i was waiting to hear back from somebody i've been doing some more reasearch, so correct me if i'm wrong i'm going want to be looking for something like an 8 Channel NVR w/ PoE ? so i stumbled onto this http://www.dvrsystems.net/8_Channel_NVR-8_Channel_PoE_NVR.html just for example.... so would it be better to build the system piece by piece or would a complete kit/system be best... again open to all suggestions.. also relaizing that there may not be a PoE system available in the $500 range and that's fine just let me know thanks again !!

awesome thank you so much for the review, since it's been some time now are you still satisfied with this system ? We are getting close to pulling the trigger just waiting on my client at this point to schedule some time. I got it up and running in a test environment, just the NVR and cameras on a shelf. Didn't want to fully install until I am sure. So far I am very pleased with ops and image quality. It blows away the previous Samsung unit. I did have to call support to get remote viewing configured. I called on Friday AM and was 1st in line, no wait. Logged into supportme.com and she had it done in about 10 mins, including test. Had to set port forwarding on my router, 3 ports. One note, the NVR specs and pics are a little different than what is shown on Costco.com and even the manual they send with the unit. The manual shows no RS232 port when it does have one and the RS485 port is not separate, its on the bank of connectors with the alarm outputs. Haven't tried remote viewing yet from my laptop but working great on my Android phone and my desktop using the Swannview Plus. On the phone it auto logs in and within a few seconds its streaming live view, something I always had trouble using the Samsung DVR. Cameras are solid, seem well built. The Cat5e cables that ship are 100ft and light grey in color, unlike the blue 60ft specd at Costco.com. I just purchased some shorter white Cat6 cables to suit my install. Not sure why the have a power pigtail on it being it is POE. I may just put a cap over it and tape it up. The DVR is a little larger than I expected, bigger than my Samsung, but thin in height. There is extra room for a 2nd drive. Noise seems acceptable considering it probably has a CPU fan, a exit fan and a hard drive running. It has a blue accent light that looks cool but kinda says "Hey if your looking for the recorder I am over here" I plan on opening it up for a look and might disable it. I am using event recording, one thing I really like compared to previous systems is you can set the time for before and after the event. I assume it buffers the video, I have it set to 5secs before and after. Still learning the system but so far its a go. Confident enough I am starting the permanent install. Going with 6 cameras for now, maybe a PTZ later. I bought 2 of these systems and the 2 addition bullet cams, they are 2mp not 3mp that come with the system. I will either go with 2 NVR's sharing the workload running 3mp at 30 frames and return the 2 camera pack or return 1 system and keep the 2 camera pack and go to 1080P with 15 frames. Good luck.

@ibmtech thanks do much could you please let me know as soon as it up and running and let me know your thoughts i would like to make the purchase but would really like your feedback before doing so thanks again !!

do you know if other brand/model camera's can be used on the Swann system ? in other words can i get a PTZ camera of another brand and hook it up ? i appreciate all the info and would really love to hear back from you once you get this system up and running to see how it is... on another note that other NVR i was looking at plus the cameras i was up over $2K and it seemed although i was able to pick and choose the camera's with the $2K pricing i didn't have 3MP camera selected and only a 500gb HDD i would like to see the possibility of adding other cameras to this Swann system maybe Dome style camera or PTZ style

that Swann system at Costco seems like a great deal, however i was looking at http://www.dvrsystems.net/8_Channel_NVR-8_Channel_PoE_NVR.html for an NVR system and then building it out with camera's from there but by doing that is a considerable price increase. Is that Swann system decent or is it just a low budget system... Few things i read about it that could be viewed as cons, they don't have PTZ and at night you can see red around the camera's from the IR... is this an issue ? i'm not really sure we the NVR system from the link about i can get that NVR then get camera's specific to the location they are needed, however being kinda a newbie at this maybe I'm going about it wrong... I'd really like to get some more feedback and opinions before i make any moves...