On 1/27/2017 8:06 AM, Meanie wrote:
On 1/26/2017 11:17 PM, mike wrote:
On 1/26/2017 1:44 PM, Meanie wrote:
Anyone using IP cameras in their home to watch while away?
What system do you have?
Is it wired or wireless?
How easy was it to set up?
Are you able to view from phone?
Specific likes and dislikes about the system.

Anything to add appreciated.

Thanks

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Please list your objectives.
Why do you want this?
What is it gonna cost you to monitor it remotely?
Take a look at the data rate and divide into the
numbers on your phone data plan to determine how few
minutes you could watch it.

What are you gonna do when you get an email showing
you a ski mask making off with your TV?
How are you gonna power it?
Sounds simple until you figger out that the insulation
in your attic won't let you get to the other end
of the house to power it.

You can certainly come up with good reasons for some
people to have security cameras. Watching the news and
seeing someone stealing a Xmas package off someone's
front porch is compelling. For most of us, it's
a big, expensive hassle that won't do any good.

I put up a camera to watch the front yard mostly because
I got it for $5 at a garage sale. After using it for
a year, I want my $5 bucks back and the hours I spent
setting it up. Only thing I've ever used it for is to
play back the motion capture to see if the mailman has been.


Which comes right back to your objectives.



My objectives are irrelevant.

Would you walk into a food store and say, "give me food?"

Many people either need or simply want
surveillance cams within the boundaries of their home for many reasons.

Yep, and when they walk into the store and ask for help, the first
question would be, "what do you want to accomplish?"

People steal packages from porches, thieves attempt robberies during the
day, animals/pets that destroy outside property, watching pets inside,
watching the nanny or babysitter, watching handicap family members at
home and many more.

OK, make up your mind. Watching someone steal your package
from the field of view of your camera is easy.
Ability to IDENTIFY them is quite a different matter.

The primary objective of any security system is to
convince the robber to go rob someone else. That requires visibility.
If you want to identify the perp, you want stealth.

If you live on a farm, your requirements will be different
from what you'd want in a apartment on the 20th floor.

Watching your dog tear up the couch is yet another different
set of requirements.

You can't accomplish anything without deciding what you
wish to accomplish. The more specific your question, the more
likely the discussion will proceed in a direction helpful to you.

Perhaps the reason for the difficult set up with your camera was due to
it being a $5 camera.


Did I say difficult? Any camera is gonna require some way to mount it,
some way to power it and some way to get the data from it, all in a
tamper resistant location
that has access to all and views the place you want to see. A camera
inside your
living space might require much more access security than one
watching the driveway.
It's a lot more detailed than you might think.

For you, it was a novelty, for others, a $5 camera
doesn't suffice and will pay for a better system and easier set up
because they feel the need for it.

That implies they can express what they wish to accomplish,
which was my question to you. You can't determine what
suffices without an objective.

Don't be mislead by garage sale pricing.

My $5 camera is high res, POE, Pan-Tilt, excellent low light performance,
onboard storage, web enabled, motion triggered,...
Biggest problem was location. The optimal location
would have required swimming thru a huge sea of insulation in the attic.
Simply not worth the risk for something I don't really need.

If you don't know what you want, hire a security guard...but then
you'd want a camera system to watch the security guard.

It's ALL about deciding what you want to accomplish. The rest is
just $$$ and turning the crank.