Spec me a CCTV System

[Marakith]

What do people think of Reolink?

I'm having work done to my house and I'm considering installing a one of these systems. Probably a six camera one, with the intention of putting one on each corner of the house, one on the porch (to check visitors at the door) and one to cover any last blind spots. We'll put the hard drive unit in the loft.

I'm such a noob

• Is Reolink good? I wondered if anyone could recommend a good system that doesn't give too many false alerts
• What's the price/ performance sweet spot (which system is best bang for buck?)
• What happens when the apps gets deprecated in, say, 10 years? Will I still be able to use it at home OK?
• I'd like to install a wall-mounted tablet in the kitchen to monitor the cameras - is that possible?

Thanks!

 

[WJA96]

Can you buy cctv cameras from Aliexpress these days? They are more than 20% cheaper than some places I can find online (pressume trade prices are cheaper) but recall reading something that there are issues with updating firmware etc?

Thanks.

Of course you can buy cameras from Ali Express. Look for Empire Tech.

There are two main sources of cameras on Ali Express; genuine Chinese market cameras that you cannot update the firmware on (and they’re 100% in Chinese) and factory seconds. These are cameras that have, in some way, shape or form, failed QA inspection and they get sold off cheap to resellers who put them on Ali Express. Most of these yiu wouldn’t notice the issue. Ever. But there will be that time when you try to turn on WDR and the screen goes black. That’s why it was cheap!

The single biggest reason to buy UK sourced cameras from a reseller is warranty. Realistically there is no warranty on anything on Ali Express. So it’s an extreme case of caveat emptor.

 

[WJA96]

What do people think of Reolink?

I'm having work done to my house and I'm considering installing a one of these systems. Probably a six camera one, with the intention of putting one on each corner of the house, one on the porch (to check visitors at the door) and one to cover any last blind spots. We'll put the hard drive unit in the loft.

I'm such a noob

• Is Reolink good? I wondered if anyone could recommend a good system that doesn't give too many false alerts
• What's the price/ performance sweet spot (which system is best bang for buck?)
• What happens when the apps gets deprecated in, say, 10 years? Will I still be able to use it at home OK?
• I'd like to install a wall-mounted tablet in the kitchen to monitor the cameras - is that possible?

Thanks!

Reolink are very good. The single biggest issue with Reolink is warranty support. They don’t mess about with keeping stock of older cameras or NVRs, they just send you a whole new kit and tell you to keep the old one. But often the new kit isn’t entirely compatible with your previous system so you have to rip the old one out and put a whole new system in. One one hand, it’s fabulous. On the other hand, it can be spectacularly painful to fit new cameras, even if you can reuse the existing cabling.

Buy direct if you can, just pick the cheapest one that has the features you want. They’re ALWAYS on some sort of sale. The best time to buy is high summer (July/August) or Black Friday.

 

[radderfire]

What do people think of Reolink?

I'm having work done to my house and I'm considering installing a one of these systems. Probably a six camera one, with the intention of putting one on each corner of the house, one on the porch (to check visitors at the door) and one to cover any last blind spots. We'll put the hard drive unit in the loft.

I'm such a noob

• Is Reolink good? I wondered if anyone could recommend a good system that doesn't give too many false alerts
• What's the price/ performance sweet spot (which system is best bang for buck?)
• What happens when the apps gets deprecated in, say, 10 years? Will I still be able to use it at home OK?
• I'd like to install a wall-mounted tablet in the kitchen to monitor the cameras - is that possible?

Thanks!

- Reolink are often recommended on these forums, so yes, they are good.
- Once you have a budget, you can then consider resolution, 1080p, 2K or 4K. 1080p is adequate for most home security purposes, the higher resolutions give higher clarity images.
- 10 years is a long time in tech, but yes, probably. There are software products such as Blue Iris and Frigate to make use of security cameras.
- Shouldn't be a problem, the tablet just needs to be able to run Reolink app/software.

 

[MrMarvelous]

Anyone have any experience with the below?

Tapo C120 Indoor/Outdoor Plug-In Wi-Fi Cam, 2K QHD, Night Vision

2K Smart Plug-In Wi-Fi Security Camera.Full-Color Night Vision with Starlight Sensor & Spotlights.Indoor/Outdoor Versatility. Almost anywhere.Exquisite Design Exquisite design suitable for diversified indoor scenarios. IP66 Weatherproof Mounted even in extreme external weather conditions to keep...

uk.store.tapo.com

Already have 1 Tapo device in the house (Tapo C110) and never had issues with it. Tempted to fit this outside and run the cable through the side of the window.

 

[darkblade]

If I already have a PoE switch and an unraid server with available disk slots to add dedicated drives, is there any value in getting a dedicated NVR for HKVision or Dahua over a self-hosted solution?

 

[WJA96]

If I already have a PoE switch and an unraid server with available disk slots to add dedicated drives, is there any value in getting a dedicated NVR for HKVision or Dahua over a self-hosted solution?

If you just want to record images on some software (Frigate, Blue Iris) and you’re happy with what they offer in terms of AI and notifications and remote access then probably not.

 

[darkblade]

If you just want to record images on some software (Frigate, Blue Iris) and you’re happy with what they offer in terms of AI and notifications and remote access then probably not.

I use a VPN to remote into the LAN and access services running from home, so not fussed with remote access, as long as the cams can be access from a phone app.
After 7 stable years, the LAN ethernet port on my DS-7732NI-E416P appears to have failed. The rest of the system is still working.
It looks like switching to Frigate (or Blue Iris on a dedicate machine/VM) is likely to be an upgrade over the system running on the DS-7732 features and GUI anyway.

 

[FerretBoy]

Running frigate and home assistant here with a reolink doorbell and an older Poe camera. Works perfectly and I have remote access, notifications etc.

Have Google's coral for AI recognition and generally very pleased.

 

[Werewolf]

ok this is annoying, I've got some Hikvision cameras connected to a hikvision PVR but the time is always off by 5 minutes on both cameras.
This is despite the cameras being set to use time servers (I've tried a couple of the uk pool ones and the windows one), i've tried rebooting them, I've tried changing the time servers and looking for any options to adjust the time to offset it in case that's happened.

[edit]
Just logged into the cameras and it's changed.
I'm guessing despite pressing the "test" button for the time server selected it only tested the server responded and didn't apply the time until midnight.
This has been bugging me for months on and off

 

[Martynt74]

I've just got 2 of the Reolink Duo cameras up and running, although i need to mount them in their correct location. I've got HA running on an Intel NUC with a 512gb hard drive. I'm trying to determine if it's worth buying a Reolink NVR (will likely add another camera and doorbell in the future).

Is there any functionality benefits of running the NVR through HAOS vs the Reolink NVR direct?

I would like to utilise some AI for facial detection etc, but i think i can do that regardless using Frigate/Blue Iris as that runs separately to the actual storage?

 

[Martynt74]

Finally mounted the cameras now. I can see what people say about the night time quality of Reolink cameras. I'd have hoped they'd be better than my old Nest cameras from 2018 but it seems on par.

Can *just* see where the 2 camera lenses stitch the images together. With the pool wall being slightly bent and the paving being slightly different shades.

The colour difference is then exacerbated in the dark.

I think part of it is because of how i've mounted it so some of the light bounces off the wall to the left. However the front camera does similar and isn't mounted as close to the wall. In theory this wouldn't be an issue at our actual house as i'd have more cameras/better mounting.

The day time colour especially is a bit annoying as suggests calibration is off. The field of view is cool, but i do wonder if i'd be happier returning for a single bullet style cam. Especially as in my actual house i'll have more cameras installed and so don't need as wide a field of view.



EDIT - Also, there's clearling a missing gap where the cameras meet. It says it's set to 8m, but i was probably around 8m away and have half a head!

 

[Marakith]

Hello again - thanks for the tips, everyone. I got a quote for a Hikvision system (for self-install) and the price difference against Reolink is too great (Hikvision is about 4x the price).

So it's Reolink for me.


Should I go for the RLK8-800B4 (3840 x 2160) or the cheaper RLK8-520D4 (1920p)? Is there enough of a performance difference to justify the increased price?

 

[Biffa]

Reolink also work well with Surveillance Station on Synology and other NAS devices. I've installed a few for customers over the years, you can just set them up as ONVIF devices and they work fine. Usually set the software up to let the cameras do all the motion detection etc. I haven't used the AI versions or PTZ versions but usually for those you have to set them up using the Reolink protocol.

 

[Mark M]

I have a Dahua NVR and I’d like to access the video feed remotely. Do I need a fixed IP address (I have Talk Talk so don’t think I can get one) or is there another way?

 

[DBT85]

So we've just added 2 of the POE Reolink Trackmix to our collection. I took the bold step of cutting the cord so as not to have a DC jack flapping about and just crimped an RJ45 on the end of the cable, naturally of course they don;t use exactly the same colours but I managed to find a pinout for it. Working great and now the network connection is in a much more robust ip68 inline box, compared to the rather lightweight-looking one on the original.

In addition, I had to mount 1 on the side of my workshop which has featheredge boards, so rather than having the camera all at the wrong angles, I 3D printed an angled spacer to bring the camera back to plumb.

 

[RedMogg]

Finally mounted the cameras now. I can see what people say about the night time quality of Reolink cameras. I'd have hoped they'd be better than my old Nest cameras from 2018 but it seems on par.

Can *just* see where the 2 camera lenses stitch the images together. With the pool wall being slightly bent and the paving being slightly different shades.

The colour difference is then exacerbated in the dark.

I think part of it is because of how i've mounted it so some of the light bounces off the wall to the left. However the front camera does similar and isn't mounted as close to the wall. In theory this wouldn't be an issue at our actual house as i'd have more cameras/better mounting.

The day time colour especially is a bit annoying as suggests calibration is off. The field of view is cool, but i do wonder if i'd be happier returning for a single bullet style cam. Especially as in my actual house i'll have more cameras installed and so don't need as wide a field of view.



EDIT - Also, there's clearling a missing gap where the cameras meet. It says it's set to 8m, but i was probably around 8m away and have half a head!

Have a fiddle with your IR settings (On/Off) and dynamic contrast. My Left Garden camera is a nightmare for spiderwebs (pretty sure they're attracted to the IR lights) - I have to turn the IR lights off, set the camera to B&W and slightly adjust the Dynamic Contrast up, which avoids bright reflections from the web, back into the lens.
It does mean one camera is constantly in B&W, but the Right Garden camera overlaps the coverage - the Left is our most vulnerable point (Ground floor extension, with flat roof providing access to our girls' first floor bedroom window).

Anyone attempting entry there will get picked up by both cameras though, in colour AND b&w.

 

[bennyx_o]

I currently have 2 Tapo C420 cameras covering the front garden and the driveway but looking to upgrade them to PoE cameras and add 2 more to cover the other side of the house (Where the back door & utility is) and back garden (45meters long & 15m wide at it's widest). I've all but settled on Reolink, and looking soe some advice. I had been looking at getting 2 of the CX410 and see the new CX810 is now available, but do I need colour night vision? (I'd like it and I prefer the look of the round bullet type cameras) I've looked at the RLC-510A but it's only listed as 5MP which seems very low (considering the front camera on my phone is 12MP but I assume there's more at play here) and also looked at the RLC-811A but it looks monstrous in any videos I've seen and I'd prefer something more subtle. Is there anything else I should be looking at? Just typing this out I'm thinking of 2 x CX810 for the driveway front of the house (maybe a 3rd for the other side of the house) and one of the wide angled one for the back garden (maybe a RLX-81MA?) Is it wise to go mixing camera types? Any other cameras I should be considering?

I'll pick up a Reolink NVR too, seems to be a cheaper option than a NAS and BlueIris, but would also welcome opinions on that, too.

I'll be mounting the cameras to the soffit and running the cables through the attic. I think I remember reading somewhere that in order to be able to view the cameras on the likes of a Google Home, you need to connect them to a PoE router, then connect that to the NVR?

Thanks.