Home security systems on NAS

[pjay9t]

I am not sure if there’s a better spot to put this but I have a beginner question. I have enough spare parts to build a pc to use as a NAS. The use would be for a closed home security system. What is the best cameras and software to setup to record feeds and delete and hard drive space fills. 

 Mostly a movie at the so the easiest open source software would be best. I hate paying a subscription for security 

[aggie113]

This question has been asked/answered several times previously.  Suggest spending some time looking at previous responses.

[ChrisLoudon]

22 minutes ago, pjay9t said:

I am not sure if there’s a better spot to put this but I have a beginner question. I have enough spare parts to build a pc to use as a NAS. The use would be for a closed home security system. What is the best cameras and software to setup to record feeds and delete and hard drive space fills. 

 Mostly a movie at the so the easiest open source software would be best. I hate paying a subscription for security 

Hi buddy, my take on home security and CCTV would be to go with something the works 'out-of-the-box' rather than a DIY job.

 

I have 2 businesses that use a more business grade setup from Dahua but for the home I decided to go with a suite of Eufy cameras and a door bell that cover enough of the inside and outside of my property to keep an eye on the pets when we're away, deter any would be burglars.

 

From a cost perspective, the Eufy setup is far cheaper and pretty much plug and play. Each camera / unit has enough internal storage capacity or the ability to add an SD card so there is no need to subscribe to a cloud storage service. Web access and the mobile app are pretty seamless.

 

Yes, I know Eufy don't have the the best track record for data security but to be honest, who does and I don't really care!

 

If you do decide to go down the DIY route, Dahua and Hik-Vision are probably the market leaders. The only issue you tend to find going for these kind of brands would be a loss of functionality when NOT using their back-end hardware (NVR) or software.

 

I recently tried to plumb a load of Hik-Vision cameras into a Dahua NVR and while it worked, The Cameras had limited functionality.

 

Saying that, there are maybe open source NVR solutions that are a but more friendly to branded hardware.

[whispous]

I agree with @ChrisLoudon, in that I'd always chose a full retail solution rather than a DIY one, if I wanted some level of reliability.

 

If the idea of setting up and running such a system was of notable interest to me, I'd build it - but for "set it and forget it", you definitely want to buy a premade solution and have it professionally set up.

[pjay9t]

1 hour ago, ChrisLoudon said:

Hi buddy, my take on home security and CCTV would be to go with something the works 'out-of-the-box' rather than a DIY job.

 

I have 2 businesses that use a more business grade setup from Dahua but for the home I decided to go with a suite of Eufy cameras and a door bell that cover enough of the inside and outside of my property to keep an eye on the pets when we're away, deter any would be burglars.

 

From a cost perspective, the Eufy setup is far cheaper and pretty much plug and play. Each camera / unit has enough internal storage capacity or the ability to add an SD card so there is no need to subscribe to a cloud storage service. Web access and the mobile app are pretty seamless.

 

Yes, I know Eufy don't have the the best track record for data security but to be honest, who does and I don't really care!

 

If you do decide to go down the DIY route, Dahua and Hik-Vision are probably the market leaders. The only issue you tend to find going for these kind of brands would be a loss of functionality when NOT using their back-end hardware (NVR) or software.

 

I recently tried to plumb a load of Hik-Vision cameras into a Dahua NVR and while it worked, The Cameras had limited functionality.

 

Saying that, there are maybe open source NVR solutions that are a but more friendly to branded hardware.

Thanks for the info. I’ll look into Eufy. I do like something easy but I also enjoy tinkering with things like this and almost want the challenge of figuring it out but… I also have a newborn so time isn’t in abundance right now lol

[ChrisLoudon]

20 minutes ago, pjay9t said:

I do like something easy but I also enjoy tinkering with things like this and almost want the challenge of figuring it out

I do like to tinker as well.

 

If you do like to learn new stuff then stick with setting up a good NAS. I had great fun setting up an Unraid server with a few docker containers and a VM to play around with.

 

For home security though, I just wanted something that was neat and tidy and just worked. While some of my Eufy cameras are a bit more expensive, they're outdoor / solar panel units so always going to be a bit more expensive. The indoor ones are dirt cheap. £40 gets you one of their E220's which has zoom, 2 way audio and full motion tracking plus the 8GB of onboard storage is pretty much all you need for domestic duties.

 

Its also kinda handy having one EcoSystem that does your CCTV, door bell AND alarm system if needed. I hate having 1 app for this and another million for this that and the next thing.

 

Central Heating, Security and Music is about as much I can handle. Nest, Eufy and Sonos does me nicely.

[voyager_]

Blue Iris has been my go-to for years, it will need to run on windows though. My current setup running it on a windows vm on top of an unraid server with 32Gb Ram, 2060 super, 5800x. The gpu, on-board sata controller and majority of the ram and cpu are passed to the vm. I have 12 cameras with about half now being 4k. IT is a paid software but once you buy it it's yours. You will only get updates for a year though. So after that it's up to you if you want to renew it or keep your current version. Blue Iris supports saving to a drive until it's full or the clips are a certain age. From there you can have it either delete them or move them to another drive. You can add Ai intergration, customer motion alerts and recording, supports just about every camera, etc.... It's a very versatile program and for your first time getting it setup will take a bit of time but there are tons of guides and support on the Blue Iris facebook group.

 

What hardware are you planning to run?

 

Something to consider with off the shelf security camera setups is they are often limited to a very specific camera.

 

4 hours ago, aggie113 said:

This question has been asked/answered several times previously.  Suggest spending some time looking at previous responses.

There have been a ton of posts on this that have gone into detail 

[DaITguy]

I agree with folks here. Get one out of the box. I recommend night owl or for something more premium backdoor surveillance. ALSO I recommend paying extra and going the NVR route k stead of DVR. I’m in the middle of a DVR install and from an ease and convenience perspective I wish we had gone NVR. 
 

On 2/13/2024 at 3:49 AM, ChrisLoudon said:

but to be honest, who does

I would argue night owl & arlo do but hey! I could be wrong. 

[ChrisLoudon]

3 hours ago, DaITguy said:

I’m in the middle of a DVR install and from an ease and convenience perspective I wish we had gone NVR

Every days a school day. Didn't even know there was a difference!