- Apr 10, 2013
- 163
- 0
- 10,690
Hi everyone --
I was hoping I could enlist the Brain Trust here for some help. This community has almost-invariably been of amazing and awesome help to me for over a decade and I could use some information and advice / opinion/etc. This will be quite a long post, trying to give you all the background and information possible, so if you're not interested or short of time (or in a bad mood) -- just skip, thanks anyway!
I need to replace a Home Security camera system for my new home. The bad news is, despite only moving into the house that we built ourselves, ~2+ years ago, and having painstakingly installed an expensive EZVIZ 1080p NVR 8 camera / 16-channel camera system ... it was fried by a lightning strike awhile back. The good news is, we have pretty much hated this particular system since installation, so it's almost a relief that we have to replace it.
Obviously I am not an expert in cameras and home security systems (nor really networking to be quite honest, but I guess more than a novice...) -- and I guess we got lured into the fact that ~3 years ago when it was on sale, it was priced something like ~$2,700 on closeout sale for 50% off, $1,350, which obviously caught our attention. Also, the fact that it was an All-Up-Round system, NVR, came with 8 1080p cameras, but has 16 channels (so we could add from 1-8 more cameras at our leisure, etc.) Also the internet connectivity was important, as it was advertised as having fully connectivity and included mobile apps etc. It seemed perfect.
Unfortunately it didn't take long to realize that this wasn't as great as it seemed. The actual NVR device's "software" sucked ... it was totally slow, buggy, and mouse-based... no using a keyboard. So when you need to type stuff, totally mouse-based clicking. The cameras might have been 1080p but the software resolution was terrible, and very difficult to use. But more importantly -- we came to find out it was nearly useless to us in the most important areas. EZVIZ products are almost totally and exclusively designed to work -- in their own direct quote words -- "in the cloud" -- ie, internet-connected, and we have a terrible DSL internet connection where we built our new house (don't get me started on THAT topic, we'd be here all night, but it's just a fact...) --- But we wired our house PAINSTAKINGLY and OVERWHELMINGLY with some of the finest CAT-6A cable, multiple ports in each and every room, overwhelming Ethernet connectivity. HOWEVER, despite the fact that the EZVIZ system HAS Ethernet connection port , it's simply not designed for it. It never once worked. There was never a time we could watch our cameras from our hardwire-connected computers. We tried everything. When I contacted EZVIZ, their response was as simple as it was ridiculously-unhelpful ... "You need 1 Mbps Upload for each camera... so if you have 8 Cameras connected, you need 8 Mbps Upload speed minimum, 16 if you connect all the cameras. You told us you had .576 Upload so obviously it won't work for you..." -- Yes, but I am trying to view the cameras THROUGH GIGABIT ETHERNET, NOT THE INTERNET .... "Did you try downloading the newest Mobile app version? Thanks for your business!"
So it got to the point that the camera system was borderline useless. The lightning strike damaged and ruined a bunch of stuff in the house and outside of it, including the camera system, so we will be replacing it. Certainly, we are not interested in any EZVIZ systems. I was hoping I could get some recommendations on what brands or specific system I might look at.
The most important thing is real-time viewing through the Ethernet. Obviously most people are very interested in Internet viewing , and I am, but it's much more important to me to be able to watch the cameras from any of our computers (and possibly our mobile devices through "WiFi" if possible, but if that depends on internet access it will be tough because we have only 7 Mbps / .576 Mbps DSL, which translates to 6 Mbps DL AT BEST and .4 Mbps UL AT BEST... mediocre on the best of days...) --and obviously camera quality and system quality is important. We liked the EZVIZ because it came with 8 1080p cameras and had 16 channels, so if we wanted to add one $400 zoom-camera and/or 2 extra random cameras , or even add 8 more one day, we could upgrade it. Doing a quick Amazon search, I see $600 systems from "Reolink" and $500 from "NexTrend" but I have never heard of these , nor am I an expert in this field -- that's why I am asking for some help here.
Ok, thanks for the help, sorry for the long post, wanted to give all the information possible here. Much obliged as always, again thanks.
I was hoping I could enlist the Brain Trust here for some help. This community has almost-invariably been of amazing and awesome help to me for over a decade and I could use some information and advice / opinion/etc. This will be quite a long post, trying to give you all the background and information possible, so if you're not interested or short of time (or in a bad mood) -- just skip, thanks anyway!
I need to replace a Home Security camera system for my new home. The bad news is, despite only moving into the house that we built ourselves, ~2+ years ago, and having painstakingly installed an expensive EZVIZ 1080p NVR 8 camera / 16-channel camera system ... it was fried by a lightning strike awhile back. The good news is, we have pretty much hated this particular system since installation, so it's almost a relief that we have to replace it.
Obviously I am not an expert in cameras and home security systems (nor really networking to be quite honest, but I guess more than a novice...) -- and I guess we got lured into the fact that ~3 years ago when it was on sale, it was priced something like ~$2,700 on closeout sale for 50% off, $1,350, which obviously caught our attention. Also, the fact that it was an All-Up-Round system, NVR, came with 8 1080p cameras, but has 16 channels (so we could add from 1-8 more cameras at our leisure, etc.) Also the internet connectivity was important, as it was advertised as having fully connectivity and included mobile apps etc. It seemed perfect.
Unfortunately it didn't take long to realize that this wasn't as great as it seemed. The actual NVR device's "software" sucked ... it was totally slow, buggy, and mouse-based... no using a keyboard. So when you need to type stuff, totally mouse-based clicking. The cameras might have been 1080p but the software resolution was terrible, and very difficult to use. But more importantly -- we came to find out it was nearly useless to us in the most important areas. EZVIZ products are almost totally and exclusively designed to work -- in their own direct quote words -- "in the cloud" -- ie, internet-connected, and we have a terrible DSL internet connection where we built our new house (don't get me started on THAT topic, we'd be here all night, but it's just a fact...) --- But we wired our house PAINSTAKINGLY and OVERWHELMINGLY with some of the finest CAT-6A cable, multiple ports in each and every room, overwhelming Ethernet connectivity. HOWEVER, despite the fact that the EZVIZ system HAS Ethernet connection port , it's simply not designed for it. It never once worked. There was never a time we could watch our cameras from our hardwire-connected computers. We tried everything. When I contacted EZVIZ, their response was as simple as it was ridiculously-unhelpful ... "You need 1 Mbps Upload for each camera... so if you have 8 Cameras connected, you need 8 Mbps Upload speed minimum, 16 if you connect all the cameras. You told us you had .576 Upload so obviously it won't work for you..." -- Yes, but I am trying to view the cameras THROUGH GIGABIT ETHERNET, NOT THE INTERNET .... "Did you try downloading the newest Mobile app version? Thanks for your business!"
So it got to the point that the camera system was borderline useless. The lightning strike damaged and ruined a bunch of stuff in the house and outside of it, including the camera system, so we will be replacing it. Certainly, we are not interested in any EZVIZ systems. I was hoping I could get some recommendations on what brands or specific system I might look at.
The most important thing is real-time viewing through the Ethernet. Obviously most people are very interested in Internet viewing , and I am, but it's much more important to me to be able to watch the cameras from any of our computers (and possibly our mobile devices through "WiFi" if possible, but if that depends on internet access it will be tough because we have only 7 Mbps / .576 Mbps DSL, which translates to 6 Mbps DL AT BEST and .4 Mbps UL AT BEST... mediocre on the best of days...) --and obviously camera quality and system quality is important. We liked the EZVIZ because it came with 8 1080p cameras and had 16 channels, so if we wanted to add one $400 zoom-camera and/or 2 extra random cameras , or even add 8 more one day, we could upgrade it. Doing a quick Amazon search, I see $600 systems from "Reolink" and $500 from "NexTrend" but I have never heard of these , nor am I an expert in this field -- that's why I am asking for some help here.
Ok, thanks for the help, sorry for the long post, wanted to give all the information possible here. Much obliged as always, again thanks.
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