ck42 0 Posted October 14, 2013 I've been lurking and playing around and am sending back a Foscam I bought. " title="Applause" /> I think I like the XProtect software that I've got installed and evaluating and am now looking to start outfitting the house with cameras. I'm gonna just throw this out there and see what kind of responses I get (while I'm trying to figure it out on my own at the same time). I'm looking for at least 2MP cameras (no higher than 3MP is needed!) 2MP is fine. I have a mixture of wants/needs - nothing special, but I'm looking for 2 way audio, IR, and one of them I'd REALLY like to be PT(Z) to cover the main living area. (Need to cover a pretty wide angle FOV) For outdoors, I'm not sure if I need to step up to 3MP or not....but looking to cover the front and back areas. I'm HOPING to stay under $250 per camera, but if one of them ended up be little more, I can stretch it. Cameras really need to be on the supported XProtect list too. I'm done with trying to figure out/hack settings to try and make cameras work. The brands I'm looking at are: Hikvision, Dahua, ACTi, Vivotek...and love the Axis cameras, but they get spendy real fast! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kawboy12R 0 Posted October 20, 2013 The two way audio with IP cameras is going to cut out most posters on here that have experience and want to give advice to a homeowner without a large budget. I've got a couple of Axis cams that do audio but I've never set it up. I assume it works fine, but I'm not sure that they fit your budget anyway because you think Axis might be a bit "spendy". They are, but also "worthy". Unless, of course, you sacrifice 8 cheaper cams for two or three Axis cams because of budget. Hard to justify 5-6 missing cameras if you need them just to have a few nicer ones. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ck42 0 Posted October 20, 2013 Appreciate the feedback! I'll amend my needs a little here then, although, there is one area where I still do want to have 2-way audio (even 1-way audio if it comes down to that) For the other cameras, I can do w/o the audio portion (or, if I can still at least get 1-way audio -mic on the speaker). Still in the process of looking and inviting comments. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MaxIcon 0 Posted October 21, 2013 It's hard to go wrong with the Hik bullets or domes, if you don't need audio or a 3 axis dome. They're the sweet spot in the under $250 cams right now. The 3MP setting actually covers less horizontal FOV than the 1080p setting, though, so I keep mine on 1080p for the wider coverage. PTZs are only worthwhile if you set them to patrol or are ready to man them when required, and good ones are pricey ($600 and up). Many people are better off with 2 dedicated cams instead of 1 PTZ, but it depends on your situation. Most of the cams with audio are a good bit bigger (or lower res) than the mini-bullets and domes. My Dahua HFW3300C has audio in/out (no built-in mic) and is huge compared to the 3200S or Hik bullet, as well as being a fair bit more expensive. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
buellwinkle 0 Posted October 22, 2013 Get the Hikvision DS-2CD2732F-I, $239, is varifocal 2.8 to 12mm, audio I believe and 3-axis dome, SD card slot, alarm I/O. Not too bad for the price. PM me if you want to know where to get them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RelaxIN 0 Posted October 22, 2013 Get the Hikvision DS-2CD2732F-I, $239, is varifocal 2.8 to 12mm, audio I believe and 3-axis dome, SD card slot, alarm I/O. Not too bad for the price. PM me if you want to know where to get them. Buell... are you using this camera with an NVR or straight off the Card...? I ask because i have a client that wants to use it off the card but I dont know how to spec out how much recording time he's going to have... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
buellwinkle 0 Posted October 22, 2013 It's very hard to spec how much space any camera will take because you don't now how many events will happen, what frame rate is acceptable, what quality is acceptable. We have one 3MP camera with a 64GB card in a remote location where we can't get a link to and it holds at least two weeks worth of recordings. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MaxIcon 0 Posted October 23, 2013 Most decent cameras let you set the bit rate, which lets you calculate how many hours of recording you can do on a given card. Resolution and frame rate don't matter if you're using fixed bit rate. If you're using variable bit rate, you'd have to test how that works on the camera you chose, because different programmers do it differently. Motion detect is where it gets tricky. You would know the pre-trigger recording time or frames and post-trigger time, and would need to estimate how many motion triggers and how long the triggers will last. So, at 4096 kb/s: (4096 kb/sec - that's bits) / 8 = 512 KB/sec (that's bytes) 512k * 60 sec = 31 MB/minute 31MB * 60 min = 1.9GB/hour For full time recording, you'd get about 17 hours on a 32GB card. For motion detect, if you had 5 seconds pre-trigger recording and 30 seconds post-trigger recording, each event would take 35 seconds minimum. If an event lasted 2 minutes, that would be 2:35 recording time for that event. Best bet, if you can, is to install it and start gathering data. Otherwise, you'd have to guess at the number of events and how long they last. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
