Opinion of home security camera systems

[partsman]

I am looking into purchasing a home camera security system and would appreciate any feedback, suggestions or recommendations. The system that I am leaning towards is the Arlo system by Netgear. I want a system that I can monitor with my iPad and iPhone that uses wireless cameras. Thoughts?

 

[dawg]

Wireless = battery changes. As much as you say you won’t mind it, it’ll be a pain in the butt if they are up high, it’s cold out, etc...

Look into Nest if you want WiFi cameras. It’s like Ring, but your video feed is actually encrypted.

Otherwise, get a good in home wired system installed.

 

[LethalEdge]

I have the arlo system; initially purchased the 3 wireless camera set and then added 2 wired cameras. Have worked great for the past 2 years.

 

[Cohutta68]

Wired is far superior. And great systems are cheap. Check out the Amcrest systems.

I have had a bunch. Including Amcrest, arlo, and some others. I still have Amcrest and arlo systems.

Arlo batteries last a long time, but that is because they are only very minimally used. Recording on motion only. Small short video clips, and with a very annoying delay. It can take motion several seconds to activate and start recording.

Wired, on the other hand, you can look back at what happened last week. Motion or not. At very good resolutions. View and playback from any device. View multiple cameras at once on a split screen...

Arlo excels only if you require very easy installation. Obviously with wired you have to pull wires.

 

[Jeddak]

I've had Amazon's Bling for 9 months. Started with 5 cameras, added 2 more. I like it. Had to replace batteries in one of the cameras. Very high usage area (where my cats hang out all day). I am very happy with it.
I have run wires for sound systems in my past life. Really did not want to do it for the video cameras.

 

[78Bronco]

I installed one of these. Works pretty decent for the price.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C8BZGKW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[41mag]

Tagged for later use- thanks

 

[MegaFan]

Can you setup this to ONLY record with movement, rather than the advertised recording 24/7 ?

Yes, but not sure why you would want to. The settings let you define the motion grid, sensitivity, and even the time of day, in case you do not want it recording during certain hours. Within the last week, one of my commercial building cameras captured a log truck on the highway that pulled off the road to turn around, taking down three mailboxes, and doing substantial damage to the side of a storage building unit... if I had been recording on motion only, my grid probably would not have picked up on motion that was over 150 feet away. With this captured footage, and identifying info, the truck owner has admitted guilt and has agreed to cover all damages.

By default, the NVR records 24/7 and you can search easily, view in slow and fast forward (up to 16x speed). As stated above by 78Bronco , they are a good value. I bought a couple of similar ReoLink units recently on an Amazon "lightening deal" that have the 2 TB drive instead of the 1 TB drive (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AHXEHSU/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1) plus they are POE instead of wireless, and I am pleased with the purchase.

Note that I have several other high-end systems (about 5x what these cost) and these ReoLink units seem to do everything that my "Security Camera Warehouse" high-dollar units do, including allowing access remotely. The instructions are more limited than some of my more expensive products, and I don't know how service and/or support would be if you needed them, but there is lots of info online to help with installing and setup.

I also have ten installed Ring Floodlight cameras in three different locations and they work extremely well, but they only upload to the cloud on motion detection (unless viewing "live" streaming, and that also gets captured). The floodlight cameras are really good too, but they are a little pricier on a per camera installation, plus you pay about $10 a year for cloud/remote viewing.

 

[InTune]

Subed

 

[spencer60]

If you're looking for outdoors use it's hard to beat Ring. I use them for everything outside the house, and I'm debating going to their alarm system (from Simplisafe) as well.