Security cameras....anyone got them?

Quote from UK Man

We got an additional security camera fitted out at the countryside place the other day.... which now makes four. We have them more to keep an eye on the dogs to be honest rather than anything else. Does anyone else have them?

Which model did you get and do you monitor them over the Internet? And do they record?

For us, it depends on the cost, really.

We don't have any at the moment, but might consider it.

Like you, we’ve been considering but have done nothing. Interested in what you say.

Quote from UK Man

The missus didn't know the exact model of the ones in the countryside as they were supplied by the guys that fitted them. However the ones we're having fitted in the house this Friday arrived. She bought them on Mercado Libre after asking the guys which ones to buy.

That's a nice piece of kit, not to expensive either.

I've just bought a couple of TP Link Tapo cameras. One for the front porch, a C500 motorised version and one for the upstairs terrace outside my den, a fixed model C310. Both are WIFI and HD and I can control them from my phone.

It wasn't hard to install them, but it's important to note that they cannot connect to 5Ghz WIFI, only to 2.4Ghz. This was a problem and since I couldn't get any sense out of Telecentro, I had to hack the modem/router, which they don't like you doing (the only configuration available to customers is to change the password!) so that I could split the channels because 2.4Ghz wasn't showing. Once I did that, I was up and running. In fact, there's a sticker on the router with username (Admin) and password, ha ha!

The only thing I haven't sorted yet is what to record to - cloud or local because they can both take an SD card up to 512GB. TP Link have a cloud service, so I'm looking into that, but with the cost of memory being crazy, I may go cloud.

Porch:

Terrace:

Very neat installation, Splinter .

We were discussing adding camera in our hall on the 2nd floor after the roof door accident, and share the cost/recording between us and the neighbor (architect) as if we have to involve the rest of the owners, they'd never agree since it doesn't concern them. My neighbor is convinced we have to buy a mix of real and fake cameras.

I am not particularly fond of fake cameras as they are no use and I don't believe a theft is concerned about being caught on camera. In fact, even in the news there is plenty of camera footages of people committing whatever evil acts they planned on doing.

He said "but the theft doesn't know which ones are real and which ones are fake". To me, a camera is just for our peace of mind to be able to catch and prosecute the thief/ves, it won't spare us to be victim of a crime.

Quote from UK Man

Tend to agree the thiefs don't seem to bother whether you have cameras or not. We have them more for viewing than anything else. We also have alarms and security lights which are probably more useful. The dogs are better than them all.

Which service do you record to? Maybe your misses knows?

Quote from UK Man

Haven't a clue so I'll ask her when she gets up. The App is DMSS if that's any help.

Yep, that's the app from Dahua, the camera manufacturer. Each one has its own app, so I'll have to go the TP Link route because many if these companies don't allow third party access.

From the picture and description from UK Man it looks like a complete Dahua system. Multiple HD analog cameras that are probably wired to one HDCVI recorder box with ssd storage. From there, access direct to the house recorder using the DMSS phone app. Maybe there is a cloud intermediary as a backup in case someone steals the HD recorder?

Much different than consumer wifi cameras that digitize at the camera and send the compressed stream to the cloud while also keeping some backup at the camera on a SD card.

Quote from UK Man

All gobbledygook to me. One thing that I was surprised at was the fact we can also watch the security cameras at the apartment in BA on the same App that we use for the three locations we use it for here.

That is the advantage of the complete Dahua system, and the similar DVR recording box systems. Dahua has an internet-link service that gives you access to your house(s) that each have there own recorder box. The quality of HD analog cameras is much better than than others, since the recorder box can store many GB or TB of video data. Every town and city in Argentina seems to have a dealer service provider who can set this all up.

the wifi cameras I buy every 2-3 years are sufficient, but not with the quality image and reliability of the better remote access. Plus the nagging security concerns of letting consumer brands store my video in their cloud. So I only store on my local SD cards at each camera.

Here's a short clip of the porch cam with pan and tilt.

Security Camera TAPO C500 - video Dailymotion

Short clip of TAPO C500 HD cam with pan and tilt. 15fps 1305kbps bitrate. Logo now removed from display.

dai.ly

On the verge of ordering a security camera, I am now reconsidering. Naively, I had thought that installation would be a simple matter, but this article makes me realize how complicated the project can be.

I can’t resist adding that I’m slightly disappointed, Splinter , that you didn’t manage to work “And Bob’s your uncle” into the next-to-last paragraph.