Hi People!

Y

yenruGRE

n3wb
Aug 11, 2017
9
2
Looks like a nice crowd.

I'm new to BI. I'm new to wifi IP cams too. I'm trying to get grounded so I can stuff my windows with these cams.

I've tried Zmodo and Sricam, and I'm not satisfied with them. I've got a Panasonic BL-VP104W undergoing a stability test. I've got a Foscam R2 coming next week, as well as an Edimax door cam. I look forward to playing with these.

Any wifi cam recommendations? Indoor 720 is fine, PTZ is optional, stability is paramount.

Talk to me. :-)
 
bigredfish said:
Many here will advise that those two things dont belong in the same sentence ;)
Click to expand...
Yes, I can see there are inherent reliability issues with wifi, and I certainly wouldn't use it in a bank. So far the Panasonic has gone down twice while I happened to be sitting in front of the monitor. Mind you, the cam is 2 feet from the modem. I discovered I can revive it by rebooting the modem. Doing a camera restart is a waste of time. Right now I'm wondering if there are ways to mitigate this behavior. Whole house wiring is SUCH a pain.
 
Which pain do want?

Installing a Properly wired network, or the never-ending
Heartburn caused by WiFi cams. WiFi gets worse the more cams you add.

You said "Stability is paramount". Question answered.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mat200
yenruGRE said:
Yes, I can see there are inherent reliability issues with wifi, and I certainly wouldn't use it in a bank. So far the Panasonic has gone down twice while I happened to be sitting in front of the monitor. Mind you, the cam is 2 feet from the modem. I discovered I can revive it by rebooting the modem. Doing a camera restart is a waste of time. Right now I'm wondering if there are ways to mitigate this behavior. Whole house wiring is SUCH a pain.
Click to expand...

looney2ns said:
Which pain do want?

Installing a Properly wired network, or the never-ending
Heartburn caused by WiFi cams. WiFi gets worse the more cams you add.

You said "Stability is paramount". Question answered.
Click to expand...

Welcome YenruGRE,

I've been down your path, and am probably just a bit ahead of you as I recently finished most of the house wiring and am now tuning the NVR.

Please do listen to @looney2ns and @bigredfish - they've done this before and have also read all of the questions and answers here. Tons of great stuff to learn from those ahead of us on the learning.

My recommendation:

IF you need a reliable setup - wire your house. Yes it can be a easy DIY job to a major PITA. We've got a lot of people here who have posted great ideas and will encourage you to do a good job, so wiring your house will be easier with others here to help by reading their previous posts.

@giomania recently posted a bunch of great notes he took - check those out.

You can check out the notes I took also
Please feel free to check out the notes I made which are a summary of a lot of the reading I've been doing here,:
Looking for some advice and direction!

Have fun!
 
  • Like
Reactions: looney2ns
looney2ns said:
Which pain do want?

Installing a Properly wired network, or the never-ending
Heartburn caused by WiFi cams. WiFi gets worse the more cams you add.

You said "Stability is paramount". Question answered.
Click to expand...
I wish I could say I was surprised to hear that, but I'm not. Yes, a security cam that only works sometimes is not of great value.
 
  • Like
Reactions: looney2ns
bigredfish said:
No worries guy. Lots of good folks here to help talk you through it.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I'm considering wiring now. Is there a particular part of the forum that is best to discuss wiring? I know enough to get the job done, and since I live alone I don't worry if a wire shows, but I wouldn't mind eavesdropping on some semi-pros.
 
yenruGRE said:
Thanks. I'm considering wiring now. Is there a particular part of the forum that is best to discuss wiring? I know enough to get the job done, and since I live alone I don't worry if a wire shows, but I wouldn't mind eavesdropping on some semi-pros.
Click to expand...

FYI - Look under the installation pics to get ideas
Installation Pics

Good posts are probably scattered about here.

also there are some notes I put up here:
Lorex / Dahua OEM 6x 4K security camera system w/ 8 port POE IP NVR 2TB HDD kit at Costco B&M YMMV for $799.99 07-28-2017
 
  • Like
Reactions: looney2ns
Get rid of every camera you mentioned in the op
.. complete garbage...
Also avoid the 4k cameras if low light images are important....look at the Dahua Starlights...see threads
 
  • Like
Reactions: mat200
fenderman said:
Get rid of every camera you mentioned in the op
.. complete garbage...
Also avoid the 4k cameras if low light images are important....look at the Dahua Starlights...see threads
Click to expand...
Every camera...in trying to find a decent cam (not a perfect one), I find I am facing marketing baloney at every turn. "You can watch your dog eat your couch from your cell phone!" Even the online reviews seem to be nothing more that "lists of features." That's why I came here. So far this forum has saved me from auditioning any more wifi cams. :-)

At the moment I just want to get a few basics installed. It will be easy to build it out later. I'm thinking, even the mediocre cams I have now will be good enough to get started once I have hard wiring in place. No?
 
yenruGRE said:
Every camera...in trying to find a decent cam (not a perfect one), I find I am facing marketing baloney at every turn. "You can watch your dog eat your couch from your cell phone!" Even the online reviews seem to be nothing more that "lists of features." That's why I came here. So far this forum has saved me from auditioning any more wifi cams. :)

At the moment I just want to get a few basics installed. It will be easy to build it out later. I'm thinking, even the mediocre cams I have now will be good enough to get started once I have hard wiring in place. No?
Click to expand...
No... why support companies who lie and sell garbage
 
fenderman said:
No... why support companies who lie and sell garbage
Click to expand...
Some might say "Because they all do." :-) Tell me, who do you feature for build quality, reliability and long-term firmware support?
 
yenruGRE said:
Thanks. I'm considering wiring now. Is there a particular part of the forum that is best to discuss wiring? I know enough to get the job done, and since I live alone I don't worry if a wire shows, but I wouldn't mind eavesdropping on some semi-pros.
Click to expand...

Key is, take your time,
yenruGRE said:
Some might say "Because they all do." :) Tell me, who do you feature for build quality, reliability and long-term firmware support?
Click to expand...

Dahua and Hikvision
 
  • Like
Reactions: mat200
looney2ns said:
Key is, take your time,


Dahua and Hikvision
Click to expand...
Ah, thank you. I've noticed both of these brands but I know nothing about them. I'll check them out.
I'm beginning to read about POE. It looks useful for simplifying wiring, but it seems to limit your choice of cameras. I've also been looking at Wiremold non metallic. It might not look bad if it was installed properly and painted. And I've noticed EZ-CAT5 connectors. Are these a good way to strain-relieve the jacket?
 
yenruGRE said:
Ah, thank you. I've noticed both of these brands but I know nothing about them. I'll check them out.
I'm beginning to read about POE. It looks useful for simplifying wiring, but it seems to limit your choice of cameras. I've also been looking at Wiremold non metallic. It might not look bad if it was installed properly and painted. And I've noticed EZ-CAT5 connectors. Are these a good way to strain-relieve the jacket?
Click to expand...
poe does not limit your choice of camera..it only limits your choice of crappy cameras....poe is standard on any half decent cam (unless its a very high power ptz)
 
looney2ns said:
Key is, take your time,


Dahua and Hikvision
Click to expand...

Hi yenruGRE,

The Edimax I have is horrible with colors and I bought it on sale for $70, 720p superwide - it had a few nice features about it that I liked - but in the end the quality of the picture and the difficulty to get it to properly motion detect, file sizes, and other UI issues have me not even wanting to redeploy it in my system.

While it is a lot of fun to try different cameras and play with them to really get a good idea of what you like, I highly recommend what looney is pointing out

If you need to get a security camera system setup asap definitely take a look at the lorex / dahua oem 4K kit from Costco B&M I posted on the Dahua section. - Yes, the 4K cameras are a compromise - but they will be so much better that the camera like the Edimax which I purchased - AND for just a little more per camera. The nice thing about the kit is that it has 2 extra ports so you can add a couple nicer ( and pricier ) cameras to it, also the price is hard to bet.

Also, if you want a larger NVR you can sell the one in the kit on ebay and get one from Andy or others and still come out ahead.

Have fun!
 
mat200 said:
Hi yenruGRE,

The Edimax I have is horrible with colors and I bought it on sale for $70, 720p superwide - it had a few nice features about it that I liked - but in the end the quality of the picture and the difficulty to get it to properly motion detect, file sizes, and other UI issues have me not even wanting to redeploy it in my system.

While it is a lot of fun to try different cameras and play with them to really get a good idea of what you like, I highly recommend what looney is pointing out

If you need to get a security camera system setup asap definitely take a look at the lorex / dahua oem 4K kit from Costco B&M I posted on the Dahua section. - Yes, the 4K cameras are a compromise - but they will be so much better that the camera like the Edimax which I purchased - AND for just a little more per camera. The nice thing about the kit is that it has 2 extra ports so you can add a couple nicer ( and pricier ) cameras to it, also the price is hard to bet.

Also, if you want a larger NVR you can sell the one in the kit on ebay and get one from Andy or others and still come out ahead.

Have fun!
Click to expand...

Hi Mat,
Sure it's fun to get them and play with them. But I won't live long enough to play with all of them. That's why I came here. Hopefully this will save me some time and money.
No, I'm not in a hurry. I like the learning process as much as I like the results.
As for an NVR, I already have a couple of NAS boxes I can press into service when I feel the time is right. It isn't yet.
As for the Edimax, it was the closest I could find to what I really had in mind, but it won't be ideal. What I actually wanted was, a cam that looked EXACTLY like a peephole cam from the outside, but DID NOT look like it was built by Dr. Frankenstein on the inside. This complex concept seems to have gotten by all the marketing geniuses so far. As for image quality, the Edimax HAS to be better than the Zmodo I had, which had an extreme fisheye effect. I gave it away to the kid who cuts my grass.
I would like to learn about router bandwidth. How many 720p cams can live on a 2.4GHz network, that kind of thing. Do you happen to know? If not, do you know where it's written down?
 
  • Like
Reactions: mat200
yenruGRE said:
Hi Mat,
Sure it's fun to get them and play with them. But I won't live long enough to play with all of them. That's why I came here. Hopefully this will save me some time and money.
No, I'm not in a hurry. I like the learning process as much as I like the results...
I would like to learn about router bandwidth. How many 720p cams can live on a 2.4GHz network, that kind of thing. ..
Click to expand...

Hi YenruGRE -

Don't know, suggest looking for your camera and the bandwidth specs, for example

The dahua starlight turret which many like here, IPC-HDW5231R-Z
IPC-HDW5231R-Z | Dahua Technology - Dahua Technology

lists:
Bit Rate
H.264: 24~9472Kbps H.265: 14~5632Kbps

Using h264 max 9500Kbps you can calculate the max B/W - note a lot depends on the scene - as if there is little change the B/W will be reduced significantly. Also with WiFi there maybe additional issues to worry about - and thus why you rarely see more than 4 wifi cameras in many wifi security camera kits sold. The wifi cameras you are looking at should hopefully spec out their bit rate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom