r/cctv

I am interested in talking to anyone who has worked in IP/Dashcam/Security Cam and adjacent niche companies.

Please DM me.

About me:

Technical, 10+ years of experience. (FAANG)

Have build a car dashcam product with a mobile app.

Thanks

Currently sell Alarm.com (staying with them, great product, great RMR). And use AXIS for our high end. But also sell Speco Technologies and Vitek. But neither of those do everything we need.

Requirements:
Must have IP cameras and TVI cameras.
Must be 8MP or higher.
Must have turrets and bullets.
Must be available in fixed and varifocal.
Absolutely must be available in white and charcoal (or black)
DVR/NVR must be able to use NAT (autonat) and VMS …… for PC and MAC.

What’s everyone else using that meets this?

Hi folks.

I'm really struggling to pick a camera, atm I have 9 cameras, they are all old analogue dome cameras. One of them has died so I need to replace it. The good news is the original installer used ethernet cable and is just shunting the analogue signal and 12V down it. So I can unplug it, put RJ45's on the end, and use PoE. Yay.

• Must be PoE of course
• Is to be used with Frigate
• My house is set back from the street, but I also have neighbours, so cameras that require the flood lights to run at night are probably a no-go? But perhaps cameras that have IR night vision and can switch to white light / color night vision when an object is detected could be good?
• The camera that has died is covering a driveway, 25 meters long. It's mounted up high on the house
• The existing cameras are all turret cameras, but I'm not opposed to changing that if there are benefits to doing so
• I don't think I need features like PTZ or Zoom
• Must be purchasable in the UK, ideally from Amazon but that's optional.
• My budget is up to £200 (Edit to make it clearer, for one camera)

Feel free to ask questions if I've missed anything above, hopefully someone can steer me in the right direction. Thanks :)

Use case:

• Hikvision CCTV system
• Nightly batch export using Hikvision software
• Automatic FFmpeg compression after export
• Long-term archival retention (~10 years)
• Auto-delete old raw footage after compression
• 24/7 operation
• Priority is storage efficiency, reliability and low power usage

Current planned setup:

Compute:

• MSI Cubi N ADL S Mini PC
• Intel N100
• 16GB RAM
• 1TB NVMe SSD for staging/export/compression

Storage:

• TerraMaster F4-212 4-bay NAS

Drives:

• Starting with 1×18TB WD Purple
• Expanding later to RAID/mirror setup

Compression pipeline:

• FFmpeg
• HEVC NVENC/QSV
• Aggressive archival settings
• Lower FPS + lower resolution archival copies

Typical command:

ffmpeg -hwaccel cuda -hwaccel_output_format cuda -i input.mp4 -vf "fps=1,scale_cuda=320:-2" -c hevc_nvenc -preset p1 -rc constqp -qp 45 -an output.mkv

Questions:

• Is N100 sufficient for this long-term workflow?
• Any reliability concerns with TerraMaster for decade-scale archival?
• Better HDD recommendations for cold CCTV storage?
• Better architecture under ~₹1 lakh budget?
• Any filesystem or automation recommendations?
• Anyone running similar automated FFmpeg archival pipelines 24/7?

Goal is not high-quality playback, only event/timeline archival while minimizing storage footprint. Please note I want to build this setup in India.

My home dvr for whatever reason on the day of a home invasion only recorded in sub. The man was arrested but he’s going to now be let out on a technicality unless the video is clear. He was armed and you can see him and the gun in hand but since they are in sub they’re pixelated and the state attorney does not want to present it unless it is clear. They have now drop the charges to unarmed. If it is an unarmed home invasion he will be released because someone dropped the ball with the paperwork.

The question is, if playback is only playing in sub is there a way to get it to main footage as it usually is

Have CP-E45Q indoor camera by cp plus. Want to setup ONVIF/RTSP since I wanted to set it up through Frigate on my Pi so I can save the recordings. But I can't find any options anywhere, plus this is what nmap told me:

PORT	STATE	SERVICE
80/tcp	closed	http
443/tcp	closed	https
554/tcp	closed	rtsp
8000/tcp	closed	http-alt

Is there any way to open the port or enable ONVIF/RTSP?

Is that so? Or it all handles their firmware?

I read somewhere CCTV storage must support purple WD disks in order to fully utilize their advantages.

So I suspect mainstream RAID cards do not utilize their potential.

Some enterprise CCTV appliances use server disks not purple ones.

Hi all.

I have an ANNKE N48PBB NVR with 4 cameras.

For months, all 4 cameras displayed clearly and sharply in quad-view/multi-view mode on the monitor.

About a month ago, the live view suddenly became blurry/soft whenever all 4 cameras are shown together. If I double-click a single camera full-screen, it immediately becomes crystal clear again.

ANNKE support says this is “normal” because the NVR switches to substreams in multi-view due to decoding limitations.

What I don’t understand is:
- it worked perfectly before
- nothing changed on my end
- no hardware/cabling/settings changes

So I’m trying to determine:
- did a firmware update change preview behaviour?
- did H.265/H.265+ cause this?
- can mainstream preview be forced in quad view?
- can substream quality be increased?
- has anyone else seen this happen suddenly?

Current model:
ANNKE N48PBB

Any advice appreciated.

I’m struggling to decide between two camera layouts at the front of my house and could do with some outside opinions.

The choice is basically:

• cameras in positions A, B and C or
• cameras in positions A, B and D

A+B+D feels more like the “standard” approach where the cameras overlap and cover each other more cleanly, but camera D has quite a restricted viewing angle. Because of that, I’m wondering whether camera C is actually the better real-world option.

A few bits of context:

• behind camera D is a side road, and there’s a secondary boundary wall there, so there is potential for a blind spot
• I don’t live in a high-crime area and I’m not trying to build Fort Knox - I just want a sensible setup
• camera B is inside the porch area and is effectively in lieu of a video doorbell. The door currently visible there will be removed
• the bay windows only open at the front, not on the sides

Images:

• Camera A/B/C/D = simulated camera views using the intended FOV
• Plan A/B/C/D = individual coverage diagrams
• Plan ABC / ABD = combined coverage layouts

Interested in what people would choose and why.

Camera - A

Camera - B

Camera - C

Camera - D

Camera - A

Camera - B

Camera - C

Camera - D

The options:

A+B+C

A+B+D

First time installing a CCTV camera and looking for some advice.

I’ve got a Hikvision DS-2CD2386G2H-IU 8MP turret camera and I’ll be running Cat6 (Excel Copper Cat6 u/UTP) directly from inside the house, through the cavity wall, into the back of the camera.

The plan was:

• drill straight through the wall,
• bring the Cat6 directly into the rear cable entry,
• terminate neatly,
• and mount the camera directly to the wall without a junction box/back box.

I originally thought this would be fine because the camera seems to have enough internal space for the cable, and when testing it by hand the Cat6 curls up inside reasonably nicely.

However, someone has told me I’m making a mistake by not using a junction box, as the cable can supposedly get crushed or stressed when adjusting the turret angle.

So now I’m wondering:

• am I overthinking this?
• do lots of people mount these directly to the wall without issues (no junction box)?
• or should I just fit a shallow junction box from day one?

If the recommendation is to use a junction box:

• what model would you recommend for this camera?
• ideally something low profile / minimal looking,
• and available in the UK.

Links or product names would really help.

Thanks!

So just yesterday we got a HIKVISION DVR (Model iDS-7104HQHI-M1/T) and 2 Analoge 5mp Cameras, but the picture quality is too bad.

Can anyone help me with the settings as to get best quality(Atleast able to clearly see vehicle nmbr plates and faces if possible)