Ask HN: Best Home Surveillance Cam?

Posted by subbz on Monday March 31, 2014 @09:01AM
from the ask-hn dept.

What's the best Home Surveillance Cam available? It has to work outdoors, stream to FTP or whatever, have IR night mode, have decent quality, not call home to China or wherever.

Any recommendations?

( 12 comments | 22 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Best Home Surveillance Cam? by linux_hobbyist on Monday March 31, 2014 @11:54AM (#7502214)

I'm in the process of setting up a DVR for my family and I've observed that very few (if any) support GNU\Linux. They all advertise to have "web clients", but all these require ActiveX controls. They do "support" Firefox through IE Tab and Mac through plugins, but that's it.

So 1) use caution if you're a non-Windows user, and 2) I'd be interested to hear of a good system that does support GNU\Linux.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best Home Surveillance Cam? by dm2 on Monday March 31, 2014 @01:41PM (#7502950)

http://www.linux.com/news/hardware/peripherals/8211-five-fun...

http://infectedproject.wordpress.com/2007/06/26/set-up-a-web...

If anything requires ActiveX then don't use it because it's old / junk / what kind of developer creates a requirement for ActiveX these days?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best Home Surveillance Cam? by linux_hobbyist on Monday March 31, 2014 @02:24PM (#7503208)

I agree that ActiveX requirements are junk. I recently just bought a brand new DVR (released last fall) and that had ActiveX limitations.

I will probably end up rolling my own with Linux and Zoneminder.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best Home Surveillance Cam? by zmguy on Monday March 31, 2014 @01:32PM (#7502889)

You should check out Zoneminder: https://github.com/ZoneMinder/ZoneMinder The development has been re-started and the project seems to be shaping up very well, I'm using it as well as many others.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best Home Surveillance Cam? by linux_hobbyist on Monday March 31, 2014 @02:21PM (#7503191)

I have looked at Zoneminder, but I am hesitant on which hardware capture card to purchase. And I don't know the hardware requirements on recording (and streaming) eight feeds.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best Home Surveillance Cam? by lightstalker on Monday March 31, 2014 @11:36AM (#7502113)

Would also be interested in responses in this. Local electronics store sells some KGuard combo packs such as http://www.kguardsecurity.com/us/p/ns801-4cw214h/, but it would be great to hear from the experiences of others.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best Home Surveillance Cam? by runjake on Monday March 31, 2014 @01:20PM (#7502821)

Depending on your timeline, the AirVision stuff from ubnt.com might eventually meet your goals. Their line currently doesn't do night vision, but it's supposedly on the way Any Day Now(tm).

It's pretty flexible, good software, good motion detection, etc.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best Home Surveillance Cam? by dm2 on Monday March 31, 2014 @12:31PM (#7502458)

http://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&fiel...

Prices range from $35 to $140

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best Home Surveillance Cam? by nimajalali on Monday March 31, 2014 @12:02PM (#7502281)

Mobotix makes great cameras. Not the cheapest but their cameras have an onboard computer which allows them to operate independently. Send emails, upload to ftp, etc...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best Home Surveillance Cam? by nakedrobot2 on Monday March 31, 2014 @11:09AM (#7501910)

what kind of lens? should it zoom? should it be pannable and zoomable over the internet?

what resolution? VGA? full HD? 2.5K?

motion detection?

microphone?

two-way microphone? (i.e. you can yell at the intruder in your kitchen from the comfort of your office)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best Home Surveillance Cam? by subbz on Monday March 31, 2014 @11:33AM (#7502086)

No zoom, VGA is OK, motion detection is a must, microphone/2w mic maybe.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best Home Surveillance Cam? by zomg on Monday March 31, 2014 @03:50PM (#7503681)

i'm ponying up for a couple of axis cameras...

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