CCTV Recorder

[Holley]

We've had our Irlab CCTV installed about 7 years ago and the digital recorder box has stopped working. Original installer hasn't returned our calls so had a different company round that was recommended by a neighbour. Wife said the technician recommended replacing the whole system at £1700 which seems a tad extreme.

Can I literally buy any off the shelf recorder and plug it in or is it much more complicated? (camera's work and monitor still working, just no ability to record).

[GG.]

I can't see why you cannot just replace with a plug and play new PVR box.

What output do the cameras have - are they IP connections?

My other question would be what resolution are the cameras? If they are less than 4k then it may be worth swapping them but again you should be able to replace the cameras at the end of the cabling.

[Mito Man]

Is it totally dead or just the hard drives?

[scotta]

I use blink cameras with cloud storage for much cheapness. Some are hard wired some used lithiam batteries. Batteries last a couple of months dependant on traffic.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/page/38 ... ementat-21

[Holley]

Is it totally dead or just the hard drives?

I don't know, but replacing the box looks pretty cheap. Seen this for £70...

[Holley]

I can't see why you cannot just replace with a plug and play new PVR box.

What output do the cameras have - are they IP connections?

My other question would be what resolution are the cameras? If they are less than 4k then it may be worth swapping them but again you should be able to replace the cameras at the end of the cabling.

They're not connected to the internet

[Holley]

I can't see why you cannot just replace with a plug and play new PVR box.

What output do the cameras have - are they IP connections?

My other question would be what resolution are the cameras? If they are less than 4k then it may be worth swapping them but again you should be able to replace the cameras at the end of the cabling.

They're not connected to the internet

Definitely not 4k

[Mito Man]

Just check what connector your existing cameras have, being pretty old I imagine they’re analogue BNC rather than Ethernet and it should all be plug and play.

[GG.]

Yes - and a modern box should still be internet enabled and have an app even if an analogue feed

If you just want to keep the existing system going a bit longer then just swapping the box will be fine.

In the long run moving to a PoE system with 4k cameras would be worthwhile. You can buy the kits online and have them installed - depending on number of cameras a budget of under £1000 should be achievable. £1700 is a lot unless you have a v big house / 8 cameras.

ETA:
https://uk.annke.com/products/h800-8ch ... PHEALw_wcB

You can mix and match turret (wide angle) and bullet (typically more zoomed in) cameras as well depending on the application.

ETAF: just checked and my guy did install in London (4 cameras, box in top room) easyish install as terraced house, for £300. There was a bit of extra cost for junction boxes and mounts IIRC.

[Ascender]

What's the most reliable cameras and system for an outdoor setup these days? We have Ring cameras at the current house and compared to Hikvision ones, they are utterly bombproof and the software is great, albeit I have to pay Amazon for storage.

With the next house being built from scratch, I can ensure there's power or ethernet in the right places, so has the software on these traditional systems caught up with stuff like Ring now in terms of useability, smartphone apps etc?

[Mito Man]

I don't think Hik motion detection and alert system is anywhere near as good as Ring but that system is 3 years old now, but it was pretty shit 3 years ago. I'd still have a dumb system that is constantly recording along side these smart wifi cameras which also have their obvious drawbacks.

[jamcg]

I have a Tapo indoor one for keeping an eye on the dogs. Works well and has sd card slot for constant recording. Also has motion alert but I can’t comment on that feature because I had to disable it- with 2 mental dogs running around it would be constant notifications

[GG.]

ETAF: just checked and my guy did install in London (4 cameras, box in top room) easyish install as terraced house, for £300. There was a bit of extra cost for junction boxes and mounts IIRC.

Well - everything gets multiples of expensive as you move on in life I guess... Same guy as before did an 8 camera install for me today but for £1600 (though actually I don't think that's bad as it involved a lot of ladder work and a shit load of cables and 7 years worth of inflation).

To add insult to financial injury, however, I spent £400 on additional cameras (in addition to the four I had) to find that my NVR recorder does not support the 12MP resolution of the new ones so now I need a new NVR (another £150) and given I'll have double the amount of cameras, an 8TB HDD (£270!) so I get more than about 5 days recording time.

[mr_jon]

Reolink.

[Gavster]

I'm now throwing around ideas between Zosi, Annke and Reolink. Seems they all basically do similar things at different qualities and price points. Zosi are insanely cheap

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=amazon+zos ... nb_sb_noss

[GG.]

Annke are good in my experience. IMO you want higher MP than 5. As a plug and play kit I would go with this which is not much more (just check the cameras are 2.8mm as 4mm ones are too zoomed in for most purposes):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ANNKE-Security ... d217f&th=1

[Jobbo]

an 8TB HDD (£270!)

There seems to be a bit of a shortage currently. One of the drives in my Synology NAS is dying; I'm not going to lose any data because it's on the other too but that's a similar age. I assumed 8TB platter hard drives for a NAS would be about £100 each by now. How wrong I was

[Beany]

AI supply chain fuckery, yet again.

[Jobbo]

AI supply chain fuckery, yet again.

I guessed it must be that and/or crypto.

[GG.]

Annke are good in my experience. IMO you want higher MP than 5. As a plug and play kit I would go with this which is not much more (just check the cameras are 2.8mm as 4mm ones are too zoomed in for most purposes):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ANNKE-Security ... d217f&th=1

The couple of existing cameras that work are pretty sharp. Will be interesting to see if there is any noticeable difference with the 12MP ones. New box and HDD have arrived so hopefully I'll get some time to fiddle with it tonight.