zr1

It goes to the goals of the security camera. For movies/cinema/TV/etc: Goal: Sit in front of the video and watch it A-Z to get the story/action/excitement/cinemetography...and if John Wu wants to slow it down while letting doves fly, that's his style...but it's simply a different goal from security footage. Security cameras Goal: Find out what's happening. For this goal, Boogie's on the mark, 15fps is overkill as a good modern camera will easily capture what's going on 5-7 times a second. And with today's multi-megapixel IP systems, one can even be on a 50" LCD and still zoom in for more detail.

I don't believe this to be true. I have found zero independent tests that support this. SK's statement appears to be unsupported.

You can put the NVR/DVR's on any combination of switches you like. It doesn't make too much difference until you have a whole lot of network devices (which could be any device...IP camera, TV that plays Netflix, PC playing World of Warcraft, XBox with the new Halo 5**, etc.). Your concern for performance is due to the capability of the network. If your network is "Fast Ethernet" or 100Mbps: Each high-def IP camera can push 4-6Mbps for it's communication to the NVR. Your NVR's connection to you will likely be around 3-6Mbps. Your 32ch DVR is likely doing the same (or less) on it's network connection to you. So while it's doable to load up a 100Mbps network, it takes a little doing to fill that bandwidth. On the other hand, if you're running a gigabit network (which I highly recommend anyway), then you're not capping out your network capacity anytime soon. And your switches would be more for wiring convenience/efficiency. ** Nah, I'm not on the Halo kick. A friend is though, he's already scheduled Oct. 27th to be off work so he can just stay at home and play Halo 5 all day.

Exterior walls typically have insulation to deal with. Not impossible, just an extra component. Some things to google for: https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#safe=off&q=how+to+fish+cable https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#safe=off&q=how+to+run+cable

The power supply boxes make for a cleaner install for me. I just did a car dealership this week (TVI) and used a power supply box in their server room where the DVR was. But I do have customers where the individual power supplies were used. As far as longevity, I dunno...the little wall-warts are still chugging along after like 8-10 years on some of these installs I'm coming across. When I'm not using POE off a switch or NVR, I prefer the PS boxes for a cleaner install and the fuse function. Also much easier for when (not if) the customer wants more cameras later.

1) Wired Wireless is easy, but it's not a setup-and-forget for a device that needs to be operational 24/7. For my customers, I do wired systems. Sure, the little wifi cams are kinda fun, but they just aren't a 24/7 tool and they will disconnect at some point (right before the time you need them) 2) Outdoor IP66 rating, etc. Still...some of the cheaper brands advertise outdoor/IP66...but they still don't do so well outdoors. The Hikvisions/Dahuas mentioned on this board a lot do great in the outdoors. 3) Cloud Storage vs Local Storage It's a lot of data. Depending on the number of cams and resolution, you could be looking at 2TB or more a month. My mid-tier residential home ISP allows me 1/8th of that...unless I pay them more money for monthly service. Almost every one of my customers choose local storage. If they want to backup (because we've all seen Terminator 2, right? ), they choose a 2nd drive on the local network to copy to backup (NAS drive, 2nd drive in NVR, etc.) 4) Night vision Cams typically go to infrared (IR) to see at night better. They'll state that they're good for [insert distance] of range. In practice, I tend to find that if I cut that number in half, it's more of what's effective in the real world. It's not all about IR though, some cameras simply do better in the dark. The new Hik 4MP cams do much better than the 3MP cams. 5) Motion Much better today than ever before. It's still not an intelligent device, but the motion detection works real well. For recording, most of my customers go with recording on motion only (recording "activity"). This saves hard drive space (a ton), and also it's way easier to find some recording of an event than combing through a 24/7 recording. Some government clients and casinos like 24/7 recording though. 6) On demand streaming Even the cheapest (and crap-product) systems out there do remote access. From another computer or smartphone device, they all pretty much do that now. 7) IP Camera If starting a ground-up system, I simply go IP these days. If somebody has an existing analog system, then the TVI (or CVI, SDI, AHD, etc.) can be an option to save on cabling costs to reuse their existing cable. Also, TVI (and some of the others) are good at 1000' cable runs. But a new system? IP...definitely! As for analog systems, I only repair/band-aid existing systems, but it's simply a crappy image. It's the same type of image quality we've had since the 1930's. D1 = crappy image 960H = crappy widescreen image

$700 for 8 cams While prices have dropped dramatically in recent years, $700 will be pushing it for some of the middle-of-the-road IP systems out there. But still doable, and still head-and-shoulders above the image quality of an analog system. License Plate @30-50 feet If you know where the license plate is going to be (such as a choke point like a gate entrance), then you can make use of a camera that has a telephoto lens to get the plate close up. If the camera has a good high-definition image, then you won't have to zoom in quite as close to the plate (maybe the image could be 1-2 car-widths wide, etc.) Cams with the telephoto lens though do add to the price. To get an visualization of the lens concept, using an online "simulator" might portray it for you. http://polarisusa.com/lens-calculator (I'm not affiliated with that site)

The IR light bounces off the glass pretty well and semi-blinds the camera. If you look closely at dome cameras, there's typically a small-foam-rubber gasket to shield the lens from the surrounding IR lights.

+1 to Securame For the systems I run at construction sites where there's no internet available, I have a router that accepts a USB 3G/4G dongle.

Sure, you can add a second DVR/NVR to your network, no problem. You can have a whole bunch of them if you wanted to (though it gets rather inconvenient). Existing DVR can stay installed and you'd access it the same way you always have. Then you add a new NVR with it's cams. The new NVR would have a different IP address on your network and you'd access it independently in a browser or smartphone app, etc. The NVR would simply plug into your network at any point...on the router itself, on a switch that's connected to the router, etc. ----- If you did have 2 or more DVR/NVR's going on, there is software that lets you combine your view so you wouldn't have to log in twice to see your cameras. But on the other hand, after you get those Hik's up and running, you'll like the high-def resolution so much, you'll likely phase out your analog and go all IP at some point anyway.

My apologies if I misread something on here....I want to make sure we're talking about the same things here. DVR So if I understand correctly, your DVR has a wireless capability? And you want to connect it to your LAN via a wireless connection? Or is the DVR wired only?

+1 to the Boogie though I might add....when the wifi connection drops

For providing power it doesn't make a difference. * POE from the NVR * POE from a switch * POE from a POE injector Price-wise It varies a bit as POE NVR's are pricier Clean install A POE NVR means less cables, connections, and devices (switches/injectors) laying around. It doesn't make a difference for the performance of the system, but more of a personal preference. Far-away group of cams If you have a group of cams that are far away from the NVR (maybe the garage..depending on your layout)...and there's power at the far-away spot... * locate a POE switch at the far-away spot * far-away group of cams plug into that POE switch * run a single network cable from the NVR to the far-away switch (far-away as in still less than 300' as there would be more to it to go longer range) Ease of first-time setup Some NVR's, including the Hik's, immediately locate the cams plugged directly into the NVR. While cams out on the local-network somewhere are still totally doable, it means for the first-time setup you'd "search" for those cams, then add them to the NVR. But just for the setup only. If I'm doing just a small office like maybe a chiropractic office or whatever, I stay on the simple side and do a POE NVR and run the cables back to the NVR. At my house I wired the place with network cable some time ago and there's already wired (non-POE) switches on different sides of the house. So I powered the cams with a POE injector near the switches (that I already had), and the NVR just connects to the LAN in the office.

For a total upgrade, sure, IP is certainly the best in the market at this time. And when I'm doing a new system, if the cable-runs aren't really long (1000', etc.), then I'm doing IP. SDI If upgrading an existing system and reusing the coax cable...this does save some money for now for those people that have that situation. Of the high-def-analogs out there (TVI, CVI, AHD, SDI, etc.), I think SDI gives the (slightly) prettiest picture, even if the specifications say they're about the same. On the other hand, the TVI's and such do those reallllly long cable runs. (TVI seems less expensive than SDI too) Of course if you go with one of them, such as SDI, then you stick with SDI everything until the day you re-upgrade again. Running SDI over network cable, sure, with some baluns on each end. Programming/security/etc. for IP cams The programming between IP-system NVR and non-IP-DVRs are very similar. In many (many) cases, the programming is identical (even across some different brands) and they simply make a couple of settings-changes to adapt to the system they're on. IP systems don't have less security than non-IP systems (IP systems actually have an extra security layer when compared to non-IP systems). Installers Like any contractor, I prefer them to have the licensed, bonded, insured thing going on. And like any contractor, they might say one thing, but only do the work specified in writing on the stipulations/statement of work document (a friend got burned on a building they recently had built). I'm not aware of a standard in recommendations/referrals. Some companies such as Angie's List or 2FixIt have tried to prop themselves up as such, but these are for-profit companies in themselves, so not a guarantee. Most of my install work comes from referrals of other companies that have been happy. So yeah...I'm not aware of standard reference sources other than some footwork to research a company. I echo Boogieman here. I don't recall ever exposing a cam outside the LAN for any of my customers. Only the DVR/NVR gets exposure, the cams stay behind the router/firewall.

NVR With the NVR at the same house as your cams, no ISP is even needed for the NVR to record. The ISP is needed if you want to remote view from somewhere else in the world or from a smartphone. PTZ These are great for when you have someone manning the camera...and they give a great demonstration "wow" factor as well as bragging at family reunions or whatever. But they only record where they are pointed at the moment. It's typically cheaper to get more cams to have full coverage of the areas you need. For zooming/telephoto, PTZ's do this well, but again, less expensive to have the fixed camera with the correct lens to be recording what you want to see. For a license plate, if the cars are coming through a choke point (gate, etc.), many of my customers will have two cameras for the gate. One for the wide area view of what's happening at the gate and another camera zoomed in on where the license plate would be. Cabling yes...Cat5e/Cat6. And that's the road for the foreseeable future. Distance limits are the same as with any computer network. About 300 feet for a single cable run. Switches in the middle can help you extend that. POE POE is very convenient. If your NVR doesn't have enough jacks, then using a POE switch or POE injector for the other cams work fine. Also if you have a bank-of-cameras that are grouped far away from your NVR, you can run a single network cable over to that far-away-area and have your POE switch over there. Then your far-away cams can just connect to that switch. Rebranded Many rebrands are good, and some rebranders add to the warranty too. So going with a company you want to deal with. The Costco layer adds the Costco warranty, for some people that's good enough by itself. Swann has rebranded a number of Hikvision cameras, and these might be some, but I haven't tracked them down to confirm or anything.

Lotta topics, but I'm procrastinating doing some stuff...lol Hik 2CD2T32 I like Hik's 3MP stuff...and especially this larger bullet cam. Their 4MP cams are even better. The nighttime shots aren't as good as daytime shots. They see in the dark with IR and low light...but it won't be perfectly. And the 4MP cams aren't just higher resolution, they also give better nighttime performance. In practice, I typically divide the cameras advertised IR distance in half as that's where the image will be a noticeably better. Lighting Optics Resolution Lighting (and the light-gathering performance of the cam) is big here. Good thing is the Hik's are great at this. Optics - at 50 feet...if you know where the vehicle is going to be, your lens might want to be around 20-28mm to get close enough to the license plate as well as to provide a little fudge factor of the vehicle being a bit to the left or right. If the vehicle has space to be left or right of that telephoto lens, then it may mean more cameras or other options. A 12mm lens might be a good compromise if there's a wider field of view that's needed...but you'll need to combine this with good resolution to be able to pick out the details of the plate number. Resolution - 3MP only goes marginally wider than 2MP (it does have more vertical resolution by quite a bit). Going to 4MP gives much more horizontal resolution. Coverage Plan Your covereage of the different cameras sounds...like you've thought it out. But you being on site will give you a much better idea of where the cams need to point and what they need to see. Something like YouTube videos or an online "simulator/lens calculator" can give you a general idea of what cams can do like this one: http://polarisusa.com/lens-calculator (I'm not affiliated with that site) Several Hik's have an audio function, like some of their domes or big bullets...but I don't think the -032 mini bullet does. It'll take some research to read through the specs of their cams. Being here in Arizona, I can say that the Hiks do great in 120F heat and exposed in the sunlight too. They also do great in heavy July Monsoon rain (and dust storm/haboobs too). But we don't get the freezing temps here. But protect the wiring from sun/water. I work more with the Hik's, but I've done the 'hua's too. Both are very well done. However, when I'm doing a system from the ground up, I most always go with a single brand when I can. Compatibility - While the ONVIF protocol helps, it's not 100%. Sticking with a single brand mostly means the devices will be compatible. Service - If doing Brand A/B mixing on an install, if something goes wrong, when calling either of the two companies, they often point the finger at the other company and I'm left with something still not working (and if their return policy is not Costco-like, they may not even RMA for a return). But when buying a single brand, the company can't play that card and I'm able to have things swapped out way easier. So if you're going Hik cams...for company service, I'd say go with a Hik NVR. Time-honored discussion, and you'll see many views on it. PC: pricier for doing just a few cams. But when you get a whole bunch of cams, the PC can be cheaper than the big 32+channel NVRs. The PC is also "more" upgradeable later...swap out the cards and upgrade any software. The PC does take more TLC though as you're the one maintaining the operating system. NVR: It does all the same functions the PC does..remote viewing, motion, etc. Less cost for 1-32ish cams. Much less TLC...near-fire-and-forget after you set it up. Upgradeable? Only to the # of channels the NVR was designed for. If it's an 8ch NVR...than 8 channels is it. The techie-hobbyists certainly like the PC route for tinkering/bragging-at-family-reunions. But my business customers almost always like the NVR option as they want to focus on their business and not think about the NVR maintenance. My government (and casino) customers like 24/7. But my business customers almost always go with motion recording. * much less hard drive space * much easier to locate a motion event than sifting through 24/7 of recording There's some calculators on the net. Google for "security camera hard drive calculator" then fill in the specs of your system. The movie Terminator 2 sure showed the world that cloud backup is necessary, right? But just backup the important stuff. Most of my small business customers might have an extra drive in the NVR or a NAS drive on site for backup, but none of them do off-site backup for video. It's just way too much data which would gets expensive for your ISP bill to transfer some 2TB of data a month. If one is concerned about a theif trying to locate a semi-hidden NVR, then use a NAS drive backup somewhere else on the premises. Better hidden...and it won't impact your ISP data bandwidth (though you may want to go gigabit on your LAN). Some people do like the alarm sensor more than the motion-sensing on the NVR. Though on the NVR, the motion sensitivity and even the areas on the image can be tailored to what you want sensed. Story time: Some moons ago, I was geeking out at home, and set up an NVR to text me when it sensed motion (actually it emailed to my cell phone's text-messaging email). I thought I had things figured out well enough. I went on a week-long trip, no problem. I got probably 8-10 alerts a day, some were shadows of a plane flying over the house during the day, or oddities, but no issue, I was cool with that. A couple of weeks later, I turned on the texting thing again, then went camping with the family for a week. While I was camping and out of cell (and internet) range (yeah, no practical reason to set up the texting, just geeking-out with a little experiment)...during that camping trip, a computer monitor that was in sleep mode died. But it didn't die and go black, it just showed a flickering white screen. So for 4 days, the NVR is sending me text messages nonstop. When I got back in cell range, it took several hours for the 15,000 text messages to come through (and it took several more hours to delete them all). Motion sensing is great and really good for recording on motion. But it's still a dumb computing device...as the local police dept. will tell you why they don't allow non-human alarms to call the police station (they already spend countless hours going to people's homes visiting false alarms). POE switches are great when they're needed. Some NVR's have POE jacks right on them. Or you can use a POE switch (or POE injector with a regular switch) to get the power going down the network cables. POE switches (switches in general) really shine when you have a few cameras on the other side of the facility from the NVR. Then you just need one network cable to get to the other side of the facility and run those bank of far-away cameras into a switch on that far-side of the building.

Cool diagrams! For the monitors, as mentioned, an Android device can do it. If your TV has a USB plug that accepts something such as the Amazone FireTV USB stick...it runs Android. Then load up the app of your choice to display the cams on the TV. Slightly more complex would be an Android stick computer which probably has a mini-HDMI jack.

For the lens, a 4mm might do it...but for a wider angle, the 2.8mm will give you the view you want. And with 3MP or 4MP resolution covering such a small area, the 2.8mm lens will give you the wide view but you can still zoom in on the video playback to get some really good detail. The DS-2CD2342WD-I is 4MP. I've been doing a bunch of these models this year. Professional offices are asking for these much more than domes. I'm doing another bank of these cams next week inside an automobile dealer showroom. It seems my business customers are choosing them mostly because they think they look modern and all. Performance-wise, the camera internals are the same. Though MaxIcon is right, in a dome cam, if the foam piece is dislodged, then you can get a strong IR reflection. I don't get that issue much with the Hik's, but I've seen it a bunch on some other brands.

Flat Cam There's a bunch of them out now (that seem to fall back to about 3-4 designs/original manufacturers and most of them are 720P). Typically called "wifi" cameras. But some are proprietary and may not connect to your NVR (if you're running one). Searching for wifi camera ONVIF increases compatibility a bunch (though not 100% on advanced functions). Wifi We're with our smartphones 24/7, so when they disconnect, we tap and reconnect. With cameras, we're monitoring them very little...many times less than 0.1% of the time. So Wifi turns out to (currently) be a lousy option as the cam is needed to be connected all the time. For casual use, the wifi cams are fun, but they just aren't a reliable tool yet. Through the window Nighttime shots through a window can be a problem as the cameras IR's will commonly reflect off the glass and not let the camera see outside very well at all. Hikvision (mentioned yet again on the forum) Hik makes a wifi cam too (they call it a cube camera), but it also has an RJ45 jack so you don't have to go wireless. (It's POE too). I think it comes in 1.3MP and 3.0MP. POE POE is nice, but the camera itself doesn't have to be POE for you to still make use of the advantage of POE. Use a POE-splitter at the camera to split off the data and power to use the regular power jack on the camera.

The dedicated systems do remote access for 98% of their functioning. So resetting your dad's password, pulling an archive video, setting the brightness on a specific camera, no problem. You can even set up your dad with a specific login that limits his NVR-configuration and just gives him video access. Even the way-cheapo-$60-8-channel NVR's will do that (despite the occasional typo that ends up in their Chinese-to-English translation). Though on the cheapo-versions, make sure they have the data-throughput. The Hik's are generally 50Mbps-100Mbps...plenty. Then there's the Brand A/B mixing compability possibility. Amazon Like buying Escort radar detectors on Amazon, some Amazon sellers are not authorized dealers. This means they customized (hacked) the firmware and you wouldn't be able to do update the firmware if needed. Not always needed, but firmware and warranty concerns are a thing when buying from Amazon...Aliexpress..ebay. OT: Google Calendar: I live by my G-Cal...as does my fiance. So on merging families Brady-Bunch-style (and our teens glued to their Android phones as it is... http://www.theonion.com/video/brain-dead-teen-only-capable-of-rolling-eyes-and-t-27225 ...oh...Onion...hehe) * Each with our own G-Cal (5 of us) * The RasPi has it's own G-Cal * The RasPi gets view-permission on everybody's G-Cal and displays/overlays all G-Cals on a leftover 19" monitor that I'll wall mount in the kitchen. I thought about doing a touchscreen monitor and give the RasPi G-Cal account write-permissions...but figured I'd go simple and let each person add/edit their own calendars. And I run two calendars personal/work on my G-Cal anyway...so one of them would be for displaying on the family wall calendar, and the daily-work-appointments appointments would simply only be on my devices. There's a couple versions out there....here's one I'll follow along for this basic idea: http://www.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-Wall-Mounted-Google-Calendar/?ALLSTEPS Now if I really wanted to, I'd do a Magic Mirror calendar...with an embedded security camera display in the corner (such as the front door) like this: https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/magic-mirror/ But I'm not there yet (nor is my fiance...lol!...that WAF (Wife-Acceptability-Factor) thing)

Analog (ye olde analog) Whether D1 or 960H...it's crappy video. D1 - crappy video of yesteryear 960H - widescreen crappy video I do zero of these systems now...I fix existing ones, but no installs of new systems for these types...at all anymore. Analog (stop-gap high-def version) These do give good 1080P-type video. They go by names of TVI, CVI, AHD, SDI, etc. Note: If you go with one of those acronyms, then you stick with that acronym for the entire system. I prefer these if: * There's existing coax cable already installed that would be real expensive to recable or * There's some really long (1000' type stuff) cable runs to do But for a new-ground-up system, I say IP. IP system Uses network (Cat 5e/Cat6) cable Gives better than 1080P (3 or 4 megapixel cams are great pricing now) In contrast to the opinion above, I go with IP systems for all of my new-installations (when camera distances aren't way-far). By far the best choice and the best video image. Much better night image, much better facial recognition...even seeing what a person may have in their hand. The 4 megapixel Hikvision cams will knock your socks off. On a 50" LCD TV, it will not only be crystal clear, but you can even zoom in on the playback image to get more detail to see what's going on. Camera specifics It's going to depend on the location itself. Where the camera is aimed, is there light (big window, etc.) behind what you're looking at. How far away (telephoto lens needed?) and more. For a restaurant, it's very common to simply have regular 3.6mm - 4.0mm cameras with maybe one or two wide angle 2.8mm cameras at some points. A PTZ is fun...and a conversation piece. But unless you have somebody manning the PTZ control, it's easier, more effective, and cheaper, to mount more fixed cameras to give you total coverage. Domes and turrets and bullets and lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Domes are great for the vandalproof thing. If a camera is within a person's reach, then a dome is much higher on the choice-list. But for the most part (until we get to specialized telephoto choices), a dome/turret/bullet will have the same performance/capability. Looks: Other than the dome/vandalproof thing for a low-hanging camera, most of my customers choose their cameras based on how it looks. Domes - some customers like these because it looks ominous and not as easy to see which way the camera may be pointing. Turret - my customers seem to choose less of the multi-LED look like this: And seem to go more with the matrix-LED-style look like this: No difference for performance in something like a restaurant, but just the look of it. I'm especially getting those matrix-LED-style for professional offices this year. Bullet - the large bullet cams are what my customers are choosing for outdoor locations. Having a lion, tiger, or bear is a great solution...except they eat the food...and the customer.

Managed/Unmanaged A managed switch lets one log in and configure the data-traffic a little better...as well as monitor data traffic too. For a home/small business, a managed switch is typically overkill (and unneccessary cost). An unmanaged switch works great for 99.7% of the home/small business situations. For the power-part (POE), the managed switch doesn't add anything for you as the managed part is to handle the data details. Gigabit Handles more data, not related to the power (POE) part. I'd use these when the rest of the network is also Gigabit. A camera, or computer, may only be sending some 5-10 megabits each, but a gigabit (1000Mbps) network would't max out nearly as soon as a 100Mbps would. Compatibility 99%+ of the POE switches will do the job fantastic, hands down. Just plug it in and go. Distance For just 50' or 150'...I rarely, if ever, have any issues at all. When I get out to some 200' or 300' lengths of cable, sometimes I do run into a couple of POE switches that don't seem to send the juice out as well as others. Rare, but I see it more at long distances. I've used Zyxel regular switches on some LANs, but not POE, so I'm unfamiliar with them. But I wouldn't expect them to be an issue. The D-Link-brand (and Netgear, TPLink, TrendNet), I've used many times without issue for small 8-16 port applications. Ports The main issue I hear from my customers is that later down the road...they want more cameras. So getting a switch (and NVR channels) ahead of time with that in mind, then it's easier to add to the system if there's open ports still. Some brands/models of POE switches do only have half the ports powered. But many of them have all the ports powered. Juice Yes, if you can, look for total output of the switch as well as per-port output. There are named specifications in the 802.3 (such as af, at, etc), but the bottom line is if it's providing the juice you want. More reading here: http://blog.comtrol.com/2013/01/09/selecting-a-poe-switch-a-powerful-decision/ (I'm not affiliated with that site)

I've been installing cams in more churches lately too. Part of it is based upon children/nursery/daycare areas, but the other part of it is simply this day and age. One the the YouTube channels I watch sometimes is Church Security (though they haven't published anything new for like...a year) The Honeywell and Speco are nice...not bad at all. They give real good 1080P (2 megapixel) image. It'll be as clear as watching NASCAR on your big screen TV. The Hikvision will also show up just as clear, but with the 3 megapixel image, it has the ability to zoom in a little better when you play something back to better get the person's face or something they might have in their hand. And while the 3 megapixel Hik's are good (and I've done most of those for 2015, by far), the 4 megapixel Hik's (such as the DS-2CD2142FWD-IS) is even better without being much more in price. Not only the resolution (and zoom in on playback), but also the night vision of these is quite a bit better. However, given the primary purpose of watching the children...I'm assuming that means daytime, so any of the 3 models you mentioned should do real well. If the 4MP Hik was in the running...I'd say that hands down.

Brands Zmodo....yeah...those are the Packard-Bell/Yugo/Windows-ME of camera systems. You'll see a lot of talk on here for Hikvision/Dahua...and they really do great. 3 or 4 megapixel Hik's with a Hik NVR, he'd love the system. While Brand A/B mixing should work through the ONVIF protocol...ONVIF isn't 100% compatible with everything. So when I do a system from the ground up, I try to stay with one brand of cams & NVR simply to avoid compatibility pitfalls. Plus if you do have a bum-device sent to you, having only one brand avoids the discussion with 2+ manufacturers that want to blame each other instead of just getting your RMA. Vivotek (and Axis applies here too) - great brand, very good quality. But simply overpriced. Hik & Dahua have simply learned to match the Vivotek/Axis quality/performance but at a lower price. Option 3 Buy the cams you want, buy a NVR you want...buy your wire to match the job at hand (a kit will have a pre-sized cable for each cam...so your close cams will have coiled cable and your far cams...you'll shop for more cable anyway) PC vs dedicated recorder device It's pretty much the argument of a PC vs dedicated device to solve tasks such as a router/firewall, NAS device, FTP device, etc. Sure, I could set up M0n0wall on my friend's LAN to be their router...and it'll do really cool stuff. But she'd be calling me a bunch more than if I just bought her an out of the box router. PC: Total geek bragging rights I'm about to (finally) retire a NAS I have running on BSD on an old Athlon 600. But with out-of-the-box NAS drives out running on a mere 7 watts, it's time for ye-olde-Athlon-120-watt-box to go. I thought about geeking with an unused RasPi...but I'll simply copy the data to one of the existing dedicated NAS drives in the house. Upgrades If you've already got 4 cams on your PC system and want to upgrade...then another capture card and make sure you've got enough RAM/horsepower, then you're good to go. TLC A PC system does need more TLC as you maintain the OS layer and software layer too....in addition to the camera/recording settings. Dedicated NVR Function It does about 98% of every function a PC system does..including remote/smartphone access TLC It does it trouble-free 24/7 Fire-and-forget...(nearly) no late night calls to you to do this or that. Wattage Less wattage (unless your PC-setup is a RasPi or similar..though CPU horsepower is a problem on something like the RasPi) Configuration Figure 23 1/2 minutes if you've done it before. An hour if you've never done it before and didn't read the instructions. And that's including the time it takes to take it out of the box, throw in a 2TB or 4TB drive, and turn it on. The interfaces are fairly easy to navigate for someone familiar with IT job/hobby. Price Typically cheaper compared to buying a new PC (though if you have PC parts laying around everywhere like some of us...). Though when I get up past...say...32 cams...a PC system can end up being cheaper. Upgrades uh...not as much. If you buy an 8 channel NVR...the NVR will only address 8 channels...period. So if he has 6 cameras planned, sometimes my customers will go with a 16 channel NVR for future expansion. Now for me to get back to my latest project...RasPi-powered-wall-Google-calendar...with leftover unused RasPi/monitor/etc. That is...until Wall Calendars are available to purchase cheaply, right?

1. Plus and minus of each. PC offers more flexibility, especially expansion later. But the PC's tend to take more TLC...dealing with the OS updates, etc. For 4-8 channels, a PC setup will typically cost more than a dedicated NVR. 2. POE does make things pretty easy. A single cable to each cam works great for data and power..kinda nice. If you have a bank of cams at the other end of the house, then run a single cable over to that side of the house, then put in a POE switch there and connect those far-side-of-the-house-cams all to that far-side-of-the-house-POE-switch. The camera recommendations are going to depend greatly on the spot for the camera and what the goal is. Hikvision gets lots of mentions on here as the Hik's do really well and at a good price point. 3. Set-top NVR Function-wise, they do all the same good stuff. Less wattage too. TLC-wise, you set them up, and nearly forget about them, they're pretty good. Expansion-wise...they'll only go to the # of channels that you got. If you got a 4-channel NVR...then 4-channels is all it will take. For this reason, people getting a dedicated DVR/NVR might buy a little more initially if they plan to add cameras later. If they're getting 3 cams now, they might still get an 8-channel NVR for future expansion. With new systems, I tend to get the same brand NVR as the cams...makes for fewer compatibility pitfall possibilities.