Nice write up! Thanks! 
gold star for you!
I have to agree with you about doing good research before making a purchase. I learned the hard way that motion detection cameras; even if they are monitored by people, are not adequate for the kind of burglaries that I have been having (repeated intrusions by the same people who are most familiar about the details of my home because at least one of them had done work inside my home before I moved in). I will have to look more into Poe cams and NVR setups… I really do appreciate the info, as I wasn’t aware that such things could be purchased. I don’t know what you mean when you say Network Video Recorder … but I will look that up on the internet. I guess the question that I have for you is if someone was to break into your home, would they be able to erase the video footage? I’m not even going to ask about what a Cat6 is…
I don’t own my home, I rent… so things can be a little tricky for me. The only good thing is that my place is very small so not a whole lot of area to cover.
By the way, as much info that you seem to know about cameras and so forth, you could probably make a living from it as an advisor? What I hate the most is reading what cameras say on their packages and finding out later that the product simply doesn’t deliver. As I once said in another post, it seems to me that Wyze cam is the best motion detection camera that I had ever purchased…
Anyway, looks like I have a bit of research work ahead of me… thanks again!
NVR. Network Video Recorder, Records the Digital Video and Maybe Digital Audio from your PoE cameras over your Network. Your Ethernet Wired Network. So an NVR has a built-in PoE switch. PoE means Power Over Ethernet. Besides PoE cameras. You can have PoE doorbells. PoE door Locks. PoE AP’s (Access Points) Which means Wifi. A business may have PoE’s all over to give Customers Wifi access. Instead of your typical ASUS or Linksys, Router, which has Wifi built-in. You have AP’s around that is the Wifi part, and then a gateway/router that would be in a Network Rack.
A DVR, Digital Video Recorder is simular to an NVR. But is for an Analog system. Think Old TIVO’s. Those are DVR’s recording Analog TV signals. Then the U.S moved from Analog to Digitial for TV. So Tivo’s now are more of an NVR. They are also working over your Network these days to get the Program guide or being able to watch your content remotly. Where in the past they would dial a phone number and call out to get the channel guide.
CAT6 is just a type of Ethernet cable. You have CAT5, CAT5E, CAT6, CAT7, CAT8. These days you really should get CAT6. PoE cameras can work just fine with CAT5. The higher the number, the faster speeds it can support and the higher costs of the cable. You can get get CAT6 frm Monoprice.com for pretty cheap, plus everything else you would need if you wanted to wire up your house. For a fraction of what it would cost if you got the parts at Home Depot. You can get an Ethernet cable that you can direct bury. You can get a cable that is UV resistant so it doesn’t just rot out from the sun. Cables that come with NVR PoE systems are generally Inside cable only. Which is normally fine.
Normally, an Ethernet cable is just much easier to fish where you need it over Analog Camera cables. It’s also pretty easy to cut to length and install RJ-45 jacks to an Ethernet cable. It’s easier to work with. You don’t have interference issues like you can with an Analog system.
Think a TV HDMI connection over an Analog TV Connection. Where Monster cable might of been needed to cut down on interference, but pretty pointless on an HDMI connection with is Digital. You are wasting your money spending $10+ on an HDMI cable which you can get one for $5 from MONOPRICE.com. It’s Digital. you don’t need to spend a ton of money on an HDMI cable unless you like wasting money, or showing your cables off to others!!!
When you rent a house or worse, an Apartment, now your choices can be Limited. But depending on what you want to do, there are tricks. I saw someone who wanted to hang their HDTV on a wall. But they were not allowed to do that, and hide their wires. They actually made a Fake Wall to put in front and mounted the TV to that and the wires hidden behind the fake wall. When they leave, they can just take the wall down. No damage to the real wall. Wires can be hidden behind molding, under carpet, etc. Drill a small hole through drywall from one room into the room next to it. When you’re going to leave, pull out the cable and patch and paint that small hole. Never know it was there. You can make the hole small, just big enough to feed through an ethernet cable. After that, you can then install the connector. I did this by drilling holes through my outside walls for my ethernet cable to go to the cameras. Small hole for the cable to go through and then install the connector. Why make a larger hole?
The higher the Megapixels the better for Cameras of course. 1080P is OK, as you can really have much worse than that. How many pictures from Security cameras from the news have you seen where you can barely make out the person? When you have more pixels to work with, this allows you to blow up, digital zoom in on a picture to see better detail. If you get 4K, that’s really nice. 4K eats up 4 times the storage space of 1080P. SO pro’s and Con’s If you record just motion, then 4K is much easier to handle Data wise. Mine are 5Megapixels. That’s between 1080P and 4K. As a Renter, Wireless is mostly the way to go at least for Outside Cameras. The Wired ones are better for Inside only. I would stick with that. A system that is portable so you can easily take it when you move. The Home and apartment owners really don’t like renters putting holes everywhere and running wires everywhere. You can ask.
A house my brother rented after the housing crash in 2012, when I was out looking for and got a house, we walked away as he was underwater, Paid too much. So the house he rented, the landlord actually let him put in fold-up steps in the garage ceiling so he could have storage up there in the attic. That was a benefit to the homeowner. Of course my brother paid for them and installed them himself. They were still there when he left. But in general, you are limited to what you can do.
I’m not a fan of renting. I have only rented once when I was a kit out of state going to school. I bought a Mobile Home and lived in that for many years before the housing crash here in CA in 2012 at which point I got my house. Renting should be a short-term thing, or you are moving around the country a lot. I think it’s pretty dumb to rent in one spot for YEARS. You are giving someone else money and when you leave you have nothing to show for it. My house is worth more than double right now. I wouldn’t be able to afford the Morgage on it if I got it now. But in 2012, I got it for a great price. I was talking to a person in the front office looking for an Apartment to move into. A 2 bedroom place. I think 1-1/2 bath. The rent is almost double my Morgage. I have a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage with a front and back yard. A driveway I could fit 4 cars on. My Monthly costs are pretty steady. Renting, costs get jacked up every year. For me, Property taxes may go up a little bit. Spread out over 1 month, it’s not much. Sometimes it goes down some. Homeowners insurance hasn’t gone up since I got it in 2012. I like the freedom to do what I like inside and outside. I also wasn’t dumb enough to move someplace with an HOA.
Just to mention Cat-3 is bacically telephone wire which was used in the 1st 10Base-T (10Mb/s) installations. Cat-4 was used in token ring (16Mb/s) and soon replaced by Cat-5. All these different Category cables are the maximum frequency or data rate the cable can handle over 100 meters (300 ft.).
So really there is no problem running 10Gb/s over a one foot Cat-5 cable. If you get the higher rated cable and put kinks or sharp bends in it during installation, then if won’t pass the higher data rate as there are reflections which cause retransmissions. If you want a Certified Cat-6 installation read up on installation and keep the radius of turns to specifictions.
Thanks so much; once again, for the info but Cat3, 4, 5, 6, etc., cables sound like things can get really complicated. Maybe it’s a man thing or it could be that the info is just new to me but I wasn’t looking to get that much into a huge setup… just something relatively discreet, small system and works well… inside my home, preferably.
I can only study one topic at a time and I have recently did some research on UPS systems. That’s as far as I got but I am happy with the info I did find and have already decided on what I might purchase.
UPDATE ON THIEF NOT CAUGHT: There is too much info to thoroughly explain all events from past that lead to the current events, so I am just going to mention what has happened over the last couple days. The other night, I came home from work and saw that Wyze cam had captured someone who briefly pointed a low light flashlight in the vicinity of where my cam is plugged into (there’s a bit more info about this but it for these purposes, it doesn’t matter). Then early this morning, the guy with a lowlight flashlight was standing at lengths end, in front of my cam and pretending to be searching for something on the ground. The recording only lasted 25 seconds even though he remained searching for a longer period of time. Then my cam didn’t record anything after that for more than two hours which is unusual because my cam always picks up the people who live behind me driving their car in the common driveway, either coming in or going out (to work, I suspect), between those same hours. For that matter, the cam didn’t pick up other people leaving for work and driving down the road in front of my home, which also is a common event. The car that they drive is currently parked in the driveway but there isn’t a single capture of that car coming in from last night until this moment.
What angers me is that when I got up this morning and before turning off the cam and viewing the video footage, I opened the window shade (I didn’t raise up the entire shade, but only lifted the individual shingles to allow light to shine in). Then I walked away. The Wyze cam recorded me doing this for 55 seconds. I have a 55 second recording of nothing but when one of the culprits stands in front of the cam walking and waving the low light flashlight, the cam only records for 25 seconds, and nothing else. Also, I have a bunch of recordings where something is recorded, then the cam stops and picks up where it left off for a few more seconds. So why didn’t the cam start back up after it stopped recording the guy who spent a great deal of time standing in front of my cam and moving around? Why was the recording only 25 seconds long but recorded some insignificant event for an entire 55 seconds before it stopped?
Lately, there have been multiple changes with my V3, Wyze cam. For example, Not too long ago, my cam stopped recording in color and this began happening with greater frequency, lately. So, I had to spend more time researching and making an inquiry as to why it was doing this, of which, I never got an answer other than the cam isn’t a reliable source since the intruders know more about how the cam works than I do… I don’t have the time to get to the part of how long the cam records, what happens after the cam detects an event and so forth, because I have to spend so much time trying to figure out why something has failed on the cam or how to get the cam to work according to the settings I would like to have (of which also seem to change without me actually changing them).
Well, I am not so slow that I would place full blame on Wyze cam, as it is only a small motion detector that appears to not be designed for heavy duty use when someone is constantly breaking into a home; such as my situation. I keep getting this awful thought that Wyze cams are more user friendly for thieves than it is for the person who bought the cam. Why should it be? The objective of the people who created the cam is to make a sale and not necessarily to consider creating something with giving thought as to providing features that are mindful of what thieves may do when they know there is a small motion detector. For example, if the power supply goes out there is no feature that informs the person that the cam isn’t working anymore after it was turned on via your phone… or recording an important 10 minute or more event for only 25 seconds then nothing else but records an insignificant event for 55 seconds then keeps recording if it detects more motion. ON and ON it goes with one issue after the other with small motion detectors.