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Home CCTV Setup

Dr. Will0hlep
By Dr. Will0hlep
in Servers, NAS, and Home Lab
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Looking to sort out a Home CCTV setup for my parent’s house.

 

I don’t want be locked into a subscription service, but I do want to be able to access recordings from anywhere.

 

So, I’m thinking of setting up POE switch and some POE cameras, and then connecting that to a super cheap PC in the loft to manage the cameras and record instances of movement.

 

My plan for accessing the recordings was to have an SMB share and VPN setup on the CCTV PC.

 

However, that is basically as far as I’ve gotten. I have no idea what OS I should run on the PC. Neither do I have any idea about Cameras I should get. I also don’t really know if my plan makes any sense.

 

Any recommendations?

I might be experienced, but I'm human and I do make mistakes. Trust but Verify! I edit my messages after sending them alot, please refresh before posting your reply. Please try to be clear and specific, you'll get a better answer. Please remember to mark solutions once you have the information you need. Expand this signature for common PC building advice, a short bio and a list of my components.

 

Common build advice:

1) Buy the cheapest (well reviewed) motherboard that has the features you need. Paying more typically only gets you features you won’t use. 2) only get as much RAM as you need, getting more won’t (typically) make your PC faster. 3) While I recommend getting an NVMe drive, you don’t need to splurge for an expensive drive with DRam cache, DRamless drives are fine for gamers. 4) paying for looks is fine, just don’t break the bank. 5) Tower coolers are usually good enough, unless you go top tier Intel or plan on OCing. 6) OCing is a dead meme, you probably shouldn’t bother. 7) "Bottlenecks" rarely matter and "Future-proofing" is a myth. 8) AIOs don't noticeably improve performance past 240mm and don't improve at all past 360mm. 9) RTFM.

 

Useful Websites:

https://www.productchart.com - helps compare monitors, https://uk.pcpartpicker.com - makes designing a PC easier.

 

Bio:

He/Him - I'm a PhD student working in the fields of reinforcement learning and traffic control. PCs are one of my hobbies and I've built many PCs and performed upgrades on a few laptops (for myself, friends and family). My personal computers include 4 windows (10/11) machines and a TrueNAS server (and I'm looking to move to dual booting Linux Mint on my main machine in future). Aside from computers, I also dabble in modding/homebrew retro consoles, support Southampton FC, and enjoy Scuba Diving and Skiing.

Fun Facts

1) When I was 3 years old my favourite toy was a scientific calculator. 2) My father is a British Champion ploughman in the Vintage Hydraulic Class. 3) On Speedrun.com, I'm the world record holder for the Dream Bobsleigh event on Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games 2010.

 

My Favourite Games: World of Tanks, Runescape, Subnautica, Metroid (Fusion and Dread), Spyro: Year of the Dragon (Original and Reignited Trilogy), Crash Bash, Mario Kart Wii, Balatro

 

My Computers: Primary: My main gaming rig - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/NByp3C Second: Hosts Discord bots as well as a Minecraft and Ark server, and also serves as a reinforcement learning sand box - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/cc9K7P NAS: TrueNAS Scale NAS hosting SMB shares, DDNS updater, pi-hole, and a Jellyfin server - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/m37w3C Foldatron: My folding@home and BOINC rig (partially donated to me by Folding Team Leader GOTSpectrum) - Mobile: Mini-ITX gaming rig for when I'm away from home -

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Also, do surveillance HDDs make any sense over standard HDDs?

I might be experienced, but I'm human and I do make mistakes. Trust but Verify! I edit my messages after sending them alot, please refresh before posting your reply. Please try to be clear and specific, you'll get a better answer. Please remember to mark solutions once you have the information you need. Expand this signature for common PC building advice, a short bio and a list of my components.

 

Common build advice:

1) Buy the cheapest (well reviewed) motherboard that has the features you need. Paying more typically only gets you features you won’t use. 2) only get as much RAM as you need, getting more won’t (typically) make your PC faster. 3) While I recommend getting an NVMe drive, you don’t need to splurge for an expensive drive with DRam cache, DRamless drives are fine for gamers. 4) paying for looks is fine, just don’t break the bank. 5) Tower coolers are usually good enough, unless you go top tier Intel or plan on OCing. 6) OCing is a dead meme, you probably shouldn’t bother. 7) "Bottlenecks" rarely matter and "Future-proofing" is a myth. 8) AIOs don't noticeably improve performance past 240mm and don't improve at all past 360mm. 9) RTFM.

 

Useful Websites:

https://www.productchart.com - helps compare monitors, https://uk.pcpartpicker.com - makes designing a PC easier.

 

Bio:

He/Him - I'm a PhD student working in the fields of reinforcement learning and traffic control. PCs are one of my hobbies and I've built many PCs and performed upgrades on a few laptops (for myself, friends and family). My personal computers include 4 windows (10/11) machines and a TrueNAS server (and I'm looking to move to dual booting Linux Mint on my main machine in future). Aside from computers, I also dabble in modding/homebrew retro consoles, support Southampton FC, and enjoy Scuba Diving and Skiing.

Fun Facts

1) When I was 3 years old my favourite toy was a scientific calculator. 2) My father is a British Champion ploughman in the Vintage Hydraulic Class. 3) On Speedrun.com, I'm the world record holder for the Dream Bobsleigh event on Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games 2010.

 

My Favourite Games: World of Tanks, Runescape, Subnautica, Metroid (Fusion and Dread), Spyro: Year of the Dragon (Original and Reignited Trilogy), Crash Bash, Mario Kart Wii, Balatro

 

My Computers: Primary: My main gaming rig - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/NByp3C Second: Hosts Discord bots as well as a Minecraft and Ark server, and also serves as a reinforcement learning sand box - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/cc9K7P NAS: TrueNAS Scale NAS hosting SMB shares, DDNS updater, pi-hole, and a Jellyfin server - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/m37w3C Foldatron: My folding@home and BOINC rig (partially donated to me by Folding Team Leader GOTSpectrum) - Mobile: Mini-ITX gaming rig for when I'm away from home -

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40 minutes ago, will0hlep said:

Looking to sort out a Home CCTV setup for my parent’s house.

 

I don’t want be locked into a subscription service, but I do want to be able to access recordings from anywhere.

 

So, I’m thinking of setting up POE switch and some POE cameras, and then connecting that to a super cheap PC in the loft to manage the cameras and record instances of movement.

 

My plan for accessing the recordings was to have an SMB share and VPN setup on the CCTV PC.

 

However, that is basically as far as I’ve gotten. I have no idea what OS I should run on the PC. Neither do I have any idea about Cameras I should get. I also don’t really know if my plan makes any sense.

 

Any recommendations?

Either way, you'll need a recording server. I haven't looked in a while for consumer versions, but I use XProtect Milestone at work and there seems to be a free option. Decent PoE IP based cameras are as cheap as $120/each.

 

The server to run this sort of stuff just needs to be new enough or have a capable enough iGPU/dGPU to do decode. Software like this generally uses hardware decode to perform motion detection.

 

You'd then want a way to VPN to the network, so probably just get them a newer router that allows this feature. I would then make sure whatever router has a reduced IP pool or static configuration for specific devices and then set RDP or access rules for the surveillance server so that no random passerby can access it. XProtect does have user configuration, but I don't know if that's just the higher version I use.

 

38 minutes ago, will0hlep said:

Also, do surveillance HDDs make any sense over standard HDDs?

WD Reds are just fine imo. Just make them redundant with a RAID5/6.

Builder/Enthusiast/Overclocker since 2012 with a focus on SFF/ITX since 2014.

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If you want to save a lot of headache, you can look into Unifi's UNVR. It is a standalone console that runs the Protect app and lets you add cameras and control cameras. They have a huge selection of POE and wifi cameras that are priced fairly. But this console does not require any additional Unifi products to work. You can use third party cameras that support ONVIF protocol. The console can take up to 4 drives (2.5 or 3.5) and offers RAID options and hot spare.

 

The only thing is you need a phone or tablet with bluetooth to set it up for the first time. And then you can manage through the web interface with an IP address.

 

You can also use Site Manager to access the console and cameras through the web and create different users/permissions for other people in your family. This is without a VPN.

 

The console alone is $300. They also have a seven bay Pro version for $500, which I think is a bit excessive for home use. I purchased a single recertified 14 TB drive and I am only using 3 TB for 10 cameras. I record 5 continuously, the other 5 on detections only. I keep all recordings for 15 days at 1440p.

 

Seems to fit exactly what you are looking for. I don't work for them and I have no stock in them... just a happy customer.

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The UniFi setup makes a bit more sense now that they are allowing ONVIF cameras to plug into their system.  It's not perfect but they just opened it up to the public so hopefully will improve over time.  I run Unifi for some cameras off a NVR Pro, and I think NVR type drives make sense for that dedicated application.  I also have some regular ONVIF cameras that run through my Synology and it uses regular NAS drives since it's a mix use.  The Unifi does let you view remotely but anything can be setup to do that if you enable a VPN connection to home...

But I'm just talking out my ass.

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9 hours ago, aggie113 said:

The UniFi setup makes a bit more sense now that they are allowing ONVIF cameras to plug into their system.  It's not perfect but they just opened it up to the public so hopefully will improve over time.  I run Unifi for some cameras off a NVR Pro, and I think NVR type drives make sense for that dedicated application.  I also have some regular ONVIF cameras that run through my Synology and it uses regular NAS drives since it's a mix use.  The Unifi does let you view remotely but anything can be setup to do that if you enable a VPN connection to home...

The app is tough to overlook. You just open it to view your cameras/consoles or get notifications. It would be annoying to turn on the VPN every time you wanted to check your cameras.

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