rk899

Very good point. I'll get outdoor cameras going ASAP. A lot of the ones I have been looking at do not have on board storage so now I'm back to the NVR, PC or NAS decision. I'm thinking I might go with a barebones PC and a separate NAS hidden away. I love how many options you have using ip cameras

Yes. You can write to the SD card and have video stored on a PC running Blue Iris, and record to a NAS and record to off site as needed. You left out - "get an email on my phone with images" and yes you can do that too. Frankly, the firmware on the Hikvisions is so far ahead of what was available just a couple of years ago from most companies, if I had to do it again I don't think I would even bother with an NVR or PC for home. Get some cameras with SD storage (and maybe PIR on a couple), a NAS to hide in the house and go with that. Live with it for 3 months to see if you really need to have a central station (aka NVR or PC) I think this is what I am going to do. I was considering building a dedicated NVR PC but if the camera can do most of what I want by itself, I'll keep the initial cost to a minimum until I have a better idea what I'm doing and what I want/need. Really appreciate all the help guys! Should have the first cam by the end of the week and can start having some fun.

Obviously I am still learning but here is what I was thinking. If I get a couple Hikvision cubes and connect them to a PC using a VMS like blue iris, can I store continuous footage on the SD cards and then save short clips or images to a cloud storage like dropbox or google drive for triggered events? There has got to be some way to store the full resolution footage locally but still be able to send short clips/images to the cloud. In the event that someone did break it, I would feel much better knowing that I have a few good pictures of them if they did end up stealing the local storage.

I agree, as stated in the OP I am not planning on purchasing Foscam or Dropcam. I am leaning towards Axis M1054 cameras but also looking at Hikvision & Dahua. Would love to hear from people who have had hands on experience with both.

Thank you, Hikvision seems very well regarded around here. I have read through the Ultimate sticky prior to posting but I don't see any information listed for pros and cons between brand/models. I have a pretty good idea of what I want but I'm looking for comparisons between cameras. All my searches return mostly dropcam reviews.

I just purchased my first home and am looking for some advice regarding surveillance systems. I've looked into the dropcam/foscam type cameras but would like something a bit more professional. A lot of the posts I have seen on here all have a budget associated with it. I do not necessarily have a budget set and am looking for the best bang for the buck. In other words, at what point do you see diminishing returns on your investment? Looking at a 4-6 indoor camera setup List of priorities Live remote monitoring is a must. Some form of off site recording is also a must, even if limited. Image quality & reliability are the next biggest factors followed by DVR/NAS storage. Lower frame rates are fine. Good IR/Night vision is a plus but necessary (looking into motion sensor lights). Ease of setup does not top the list either, I am a tech support specialist by trade so I can work my way through most setups. Size does not matter If you were starting fresh and had the same list of priorities as the ones listed above, what would your wishlist be? Any advice is greatly appreciated!