A few years ago I rolled my own budget system for my house with a few Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I bullets (2 x 4mm and 1 x 6mm) and an old PC. I leaned heavily on the cameras to do motion detect and alerting, the PC was essentially a file server to store images. My needs were simple and just wanted basic monitoring and an archive to go through if needed.
Today, the file server is broke and the cameras seem finicky. They dont always connect to the iOS app and maintaining the cameras gets harder and harder because we are not a 'Windows' household. Plus the false positives were a nightmare to manage.
I would like to overhaul the system with something more cohesive and modern. I searched this forum briefly and didn't see any good conversations about residential builds/systems apparently due to inadequate requirements being given. Hopefully I can do better and get soem good advice.
Requirements:
Will be used in the USA
IP based system
Partial to bullet camera's. At least one 6mm lense. Night vision/IR out to 120ft ideally.
Not interested in PTZ unless someone thinks its a game changer.
8 Channel NVR
Internet accesible (I can manage the DNS)
Responsiveness (dont want to fight freezing and reseting cameras and equipment)
Reliable. Would like to get at least 7 years out of it.
Budget:
Would like to stay around $1000 or less for 4 cameras and 8ch NVR. Would consider up to $2000 to get more features and reliability though.
What I dont know:
Is it better to have the intelligence for detection/alerting in the camera or in the NVR?
Is it better to use a factory matching NVR or go thrid party like blue iris or milestone?
Is there a price point for cameras where they really dont get any better?
Hope thats enough to work with. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
