fjoseph76

Hi Folks been doing some research and still abit confused on some stuff and just want to get some confirmation/advice if i'm going in the right direction. Initially i was going to get the Swann 8 camera kit from costco for $1300....but found out i can get more control and usability with with blue iris software....albeit more expensive. House is cat5 prewired for the outdoor camera locations, and whole house is prewired with cat5. Software - Blue Iris - $50.00 - Blue Iris Hardware - New desktop - I7 4th gen spec, 8gb ram. 1-2 tb hd - $700.00 - Dell Hardware - 8 channel POE switch x2 - $100.00 - Amazon Hardware NAS? How many tb? Camera Location Front Door - Outdoor - Lighted - HIKVISION DS-2CD2032-I 4mm Bullet - $93.00 - Amazon Side Door - Outdoor - Lighted - HIKVISION DS-2CD2032-I 4mm Bullet - $93.00 - Amazon Back Door - Outdoor - Lighted - Hikvision DS-2CD2332-I 2.8mm Turret - $106.00 - Amazon Garage - Outdoor - Hikvision DS-2CD2332-I 2.8mm Turret - $106.00 - Amazon - prefer a wide view if possible. Gets some light from side door. Living Room - Indoor - directly opposite kitchen cam. Prefer this to be wide angle.(or redundant) Kitchen - Indoor - Need wifi - Hikvision DS-2CD2432F-IW - Stand - $133.00 - Amazon - can do without this if living room cam is sufficient. Master Bath - Indoor - HIKVISION DS-2CD2032-I 4mm Bullet - wait - pointed to a big window Study - Indoor - need 90 degree view (sitting on a shelf) Gameroom - Indoor - need a wide angle and good detail. 2nd floor looking down at front lawn/driveway AC area - Outdoor - dummy bullet cam Master Room - Indoor - Hikvision DS-2CD2432F-IW - wait - to cover windows 2nd Room - Indoor - Hikvision DS-2CD2432F-IW - wait - to cover windows am i missing some equipment? overkill? suggestions? Plan is to get the 4 outdoor cameras and 1 indoor camera first, then add the others slowly so the wife doesnt kill me. Thanks Franklin

wow lots of info for me to go over...thanks for the diagram too...i'll definitely revisit these areas and see what options i have. I'm pretty handy with tools....working on cars and also getting comfortable with house wiring etc. Sure i would love to run new POE wires to these locations...will have to see how/whats the best way to do it...the only thing is i dont want to start cutting walls etc (this is where the wife will kill me) Getting power to the camera is much easier (have a bunch of outlets all over the house/outside) wish i found this forum much earlier, would have had the builder prewire more locations. Thanks again!!! Franklin

Thanks for the info. - i will look into building my own desktop computer. Didnt know if 1-2 TB would be enough storage on the PC so thought about a NAS. PC will be in the study downstairs and NAS would probably be in the wire room upstairs. But that's probably a addon later on. Will also add sd cards if possible. Here's the layout of my house. Yellow spots are the prewired camera locations. http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd13/max_pwr/20150614_092918.jpg The porch, porte cochere and covered patio are all lit up during the nite. The spot outside of the garage gets some light but not much. Added a few solar spot lights pointed to the fence gate. As for the AC cam, i really dont want to run wires, so i will look into maybe a wifi outdoor cam. This side is dark. noted on the bathroom and bedroom cams...will nix it. Forgot about the UPS...will add it to the list. I am trying to avoid using one of the monitored alarm systems. i'm still looking into a self monitored system to integrate with the existing home alarm system. I am also waiting for SmartThings ver2 to come out, and will add more sensors then. I will look into the cctv free trial... thanks again franklin

Hi Folks, i'm a noob to home security...so please bear with me. Did some research and am more confused now. House is prewired for cameras at 4 outdoor locations (entry points and garage), wired both cat5 and coax. Guess i wasnt really thinking right when i decided on the prewires, wish i had them prewire a few more locations indoors. Plan is to get a NVR system with 8 channels, 4 wired cameras and 4 wireless. I called Lorex yesterday asking about this and they said i cant do this with HD or with the NVR. I could possibly do it with a dvr system with lower resolution. They also suggested going with 2 separate systems, one for the 4 wired cameras, and another wireless system. I could get away with 8 wired cameras, but the 4 indoor cameras wont be at the ideal locations, i'll just have to connect them to one of my data/phone cat5 outlets. Is it possible to design a custom nvr system to make it all work? Now comes my second question. All the prewires feed into a wire box closet upstairs. I am mostly in my study and want the option of having a dedicated monitor to view the cameras. Without running new wires, what are my options? I have a free cat5 and a free coax outlet in my study. Is it possible to use either the hdmi or vga output from the NVR, connect a adapter to either a cat5 or coax (in the wire closet), and then connect the respective receiver in the study to the monitor? (backup plan will be to buy a cheap tablet and use that as the dedicated screen in my study) any advice/suggestions etc? Thanks for any help Franklin