voyager 0 Posted January 25, 2019 After a number of local burglaries, home invasions, and other personal security issues became obvious risks. I bought a Q-See setup through Home Depot a few years back, an analog QC908 DVR with QCA7201B cameras. From the start, I was not happy with the software's performance, too klunky with poor usability and performance. I am far from being expert in CCTV, but I see no excuse for the Software to be as low quality as it is, unless it's designed to drive you to upgrade. I'm not very impressed with the night vision performance either, not much usable info gained from it. I have built a number of desktop PCs for my personal use, and have an extra LGA 1151 8th Gen motherboard and other components to build my own CCTV setup from. I'm thinking of picking up a relatively inexpensive i3 cpu to add to this mo-bo, then build my own setup. I'm also so tight I squeak. I'm hoping that I could build a setup that will give very good performance at a very reasonable cost, open source software, better night vision cameras, maybe even 1080, or better. It's all for outdoor use around the property with 4 to 6; maybe 8, cameras placed as far as 250 to 300' from the dedicated computer it will run from. Is this doable without making an Enterprise sized investment? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
larry 2 Posted January 25, 2019 Definitely, especially since you have a computer handy. Also, I think q-see is a rebranded Dahua so reuse might be doable. If you reuse the cams - you don't like the night vision but try to reuse a few -pickup a poe switch with enough power for the distance, get a decent vms (free versions of milestone or luxriot evo) you might be good. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
voyager 0 Posted January 26, 2019 Thanks larry, I am considering using as many as 3 or 4 [of the 6 - QCA7201B cameras that I have] around the perimeter of the house. The other 2 to 3 could be used around in the back of the property. I do not consider these areas to be very high risk. The property is surrounded by thick almost impenetrable jungle covering a rough uneven 'a'a lava flow, too much work and danger of injury for too little reward for the average thief. The driveway is the only easy access to the property. Where I am very unhappy with these cameras is in the front driveway entry area at night, headlights interfere, faces are not very recognizable, and license plates do not show info in the video feed. I would like to see at least a couple of better quality cameras in the front area. I would want all video recorded and stored on the PC for my access, and stored on my own hosted web site as backup security. Am I still in the realm of the possible? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
51cent 8 Posted January 26, 2019 A couple of notes. Make sure your I3 computer has enough processing power to run all of the cameras. A license plate camera will need to be dedicated just for that, and won't be much use at night for other security viewing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
