I know this is going to sound a lot like “Why would anyone use dropbox when they could roll their own with an rsync shell script” but it’s not that bad. Please don’t spread FUD about the difficulty of freeing yourself from cloud surveillance. A copy of Blue Iris is $60, and you seem to be able to get 1080p indoor WiFi cameras for about another $60 each. Anyone who can connect a device to their wireless network, run a program, and forward a port can get equivalent functionality, and from my experience even a lot of non-tech-focused people are familiar with doing that for e.g. Xbox Live
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> Anyone who can connect a device to their wireless network, run a program, and forward a port can get equivalent functionality
I am very capable of all of those things and I don't agree.
To install a camera on my porch somewhere, I'd need first to run power to it, which is a difficult proposition that would probably mean I need to hire an electrician to do it right, as I'm not confident at all in my ability to properly do electrical wiring in places where it needs to be properly weatherproofed. And adding electrical to a near-as-makes-no-difference 80 year old house would look pretty hideous. Then, need to set up a server with redundant spinny storage and offsite backup, which, while not being terribly expensive these days, isn't particularly cheap either. And I don't even know how to begin approaching the mobile app notification issue. Doable, I'm sure, but does Blue Iris have notifications and remote access for viewing built in?
Or, alternatively, I paid $160 for a Ring doorbell and installed it in place of my existing doorbell in an hour or so.
I wish I had more control over it, and I _really_ wish they had an open public API. But at the same time, from a time/money investment point of view, getting the Ring was an obvious move.
Yes, wiring is the most complicated part of any outdoor video security setup. Since you can't avoid wires, even with wireless cams (unless you opt for battery operated cams like Arlo), it's just easier to use PoE so you won't need an electrician.
For anybody else like me out there, PoE means Power over Ethernet.
http://www.veracityglobal.com/resources/articles-and-white-p...
I kind of cheated for my cameras. I simply put them in the window next to the front door and hid the power cable in the adjacent closet.
Because they're behind glass, using the built-in IR illumination is out of the question. Instead I use an LED bulb outside to provide light for the camera to see even in day mode.
It's not ideal by any measure, but it works OK enough.
If it were an option, I'd run PoE to proper outdoor cameras.
It is not FUD. Even for a techie there's a decent amount of setup involved, not to mention the pain and cost of having to maintain an entirely separate computer dedicated to video surveillance. I have my own poe setup and maintenance is just annoying in order to maintain feature parity with a major service. For a non-techie, it's not even an option. Also indoor cameras are not equivalent to outdoor cameras, especially in terms of cost. It is going to cost a few thousand dollars for a decent non-cloud setup.
To pile on, I picked up a few Wyze Cameras for $25ea, reflashed them with Dafang Hacks, and they work perfectly well for catching porch pirates and people coming down my block pulling every car door handle.
No cloud dependence, subscription needed or extra internet bandwidth use.
You're still dependent on binary Chinese firmware blobs that these tools are based on. Not something I consider trustworthy.
The fact that they don't require a cloud/internet connection should relieve much of the worry already... and it's not as if the original firmware wasn't Chinese either.
Pretty sure most of the other blobs also come from China.
> No cloud dependence,
I own a few. I'm pretty sure you need to talk to centralized servers in order to hit your cameras, especially remotely - the time it matters most. Did I miss something?
The Dafang firmware he flashed allows RTSP so they can be used as generic VOIP cameras. That functionality isn't present in the original firmware.
Umm, these cameras offer RTSP streams, not SIP. Wish they offered SIP for use of the mic and speaker though...
Haha, sorry. I meant IP cameras, not VOIP.
i live in alaska, and there are a lot of undereducated people that do just fine setting up home networked cameras.
it isnt difficult to do, and people here really hate "the man" so ring and any other cloud based security is not an option. thats the knee jerk part of it.
there is also frequent power interruptions brownouts blackouts. so a lot of people straddle off n on grid.
a local surveilance system is the only working option here if you need it to be continuous LAN service. I really do hope a bunch of "snow billies" [self included] are not smarter than HN users.
this just in. Ring is also a "ceiling cat". https://9to5google.com/2019/01/10/ring-camera-live-feed-acce...
IKEA can't get people to assemble a fucking box, and you're here telling me that it's totally possible for people to set up their own networked camera system?
Yes, it's possible. No, it's not easy. I've been working as a software dev for like 10 years now and I would happily purchase Ring instead of pulling my hair out for a whole weekend trying to yak-shave[1] my way to a hacked together security camera system.
[1] https://seths.blog/2005/03/dont_shave_that/
Edit: Everyone, just read the replies to my original comment and you will see why Ring is better. There's a million different ways to setup a home camera system, each with their own intricacies and challenges. THIS is why Ring is better. It's the ONE solution that ties together all this technical bullshit that nobody really wants to deal with (unless you're passionate about networking. Which is probably a lot of the users on this board. Which is why I'm probably getting crushed with downvotes).
The problem is that the original intent of buying such a device has now been subsumed under a tech company and government agenda, the surveillance state. When you see Ring on the shelf everywhere, it isn't advertised as a way to surveil you and your family, to scan your face and report your video and audio to cops.
This reminds me of 23 and Me which acts like it's helping you but, by signing up, you agree to help Big Pharma and cops keep track of you.
That's a reason to be opposed to Ring. Hell, it's a reason to be opposed to surveillance cameras in general. What it is not, is an argument about the ease of installing your own DVR set up.
This is true. However, it seemed relevant to the thread.