That's right, the cameras are the expensive part. The video recording can be configured via ftp in most cameras. I am thinking about permanent recording to have a history of obe month and only notify via e-mail on events triggered by the motion sensor.rentz wrote:this has been my plan as well...for about 2yrs and I haven't done it yetbmwrdr wrote:Good info from fellow board members, thanks for sharing.
I am currently developing my own solution with wired IP based cameras powered of a PoE switch and a mini PC with a customized Linux OS. My plan is to use a local hard disk and a shadow copy of pictures for a 7 day history. All automated via Perl or Shell scripts and notification via e-mail. Wether or not I open a port to my firewall needs To be determined at a later point.
I decided to use PoE to ensure uptime and to avoid battery maintenance for the cameras.
The hardest part is to retrofit the CAT5 cables in my home.
At this point I do not have a price point but it won't be as cheap as other solutions. My goal is to avoid any monthly charges to a provider, it has to be near bullet proof and the system has to be "hacker proof" as well.
I'll start a new post with a priceline for my solution once I am finished but it will take a while.
I did try some of the wireless solutions and i found the picture sub-par and the motion sensing far too slow.
best performance will be POE cameras and only needs a single wire, hard parts finding a termination point for the NVR box.
From my basic research it gets expensive very fast if you want quality cameras
Opening the firewall for a live stream creates a security risk and is not a real useful feature anyway. Besides watching the burglar while he is at it while you are out of town it is of no help. The e-mail notification with a series of pictures attached is more useful.
So far I have tested several cameras and narrowed it down to a Linksys and a Zyxel camera, both are overkill in terms of featyres but the picture quality is great.
I will look around a bit more and if I find something useful at a budget price I'll post it on the forum.
And turnkey solutions using the cloud aren't designed for privacy either.