Costco Surveillance systems

[josey]

Does anybody have one of their Q-See systems? I don't see any reviews on the homepage but would be interested in getting one if they are decent.

[Drewski Canuck]

I have an older 8 camera system which I bought in 2010. the hard drive is very noisy, and the UV LED for night time is a bit limited. The cameras are 720 not 1080P. the resolution is not bad, but not great, but still better than the older video systems.

I am having trouble with some of my cameras and will have to see what is going wrong now, but some of the cameras do in fact still work.

This is at a Cabin, and the whole point was to intimidate the would be thieves.

Last winter, there was a set of foot prints that came up from the lake. The person saw the very obvious cameras (red glow on the LEDS), and stopped. Then the person walked back and forth JUST OUT OF CAMERA RANGE, then jumped the fence and broke into my neighbours on both sides.

Did the cameras do their job? Yes.

Drewski

[josey]

Great info. Thanks.
The one thing I am concerned is that it's all wired. That would be quite the job to install I guess?
I'll keep looking for reviews and/or alternatives

[silverdoctor]

The Flir systems are actually pretty good.

Wired resolution is better of course, wireless is ok. In wired options, you have NVR which is run and powered up using cat5 or cat6 network cable. Or you can get a DVR using the standard coax cable that will need a separate single pair for power.

Each wireless cam has it's own frequency basically, and will only link up to one camera (as far as I know). Wireless is very easy to install, but at long distance, the resolution isn't the best.

[Drewski Canuck]

What Silverdoctor said.

If you go wireless, you are always at the mercy of our cold temperatures. Batteries do not work great in the very cold, and I am assuming you are putting these cameras outside. This is the land of - 30, - 40, -50 C.

Also, I do not know how good the UV illumination would be on a battery setup over the direct power on a wired system. Remember, most unwanted visitors do come at night. The direct wired UV cameras I have say that they are good to 65 foot. That may be illumination, but not a very good image. You really really need all the illumination you can get.

As for pulling wire, yes it is a pain unless it is done on new construction. But with soffit pulls and mounts, it really is not that bad considering that there will be some inside walls that can be accessed from the attic.

What is pretty cool is the ability to get an IP Address and a Wireless card so that you can view the system and the cameras over the internet or on your Cell Phone.


Drewski

[crunchiespg]

Originally Posted by silverdoctor

The Flir systems are actually pretty good.

Wired resolution is better of course, wireless is ok. In wired options, you have NVR which is run and powered up using cat5 or cat6 network cable. Or you can get a DVR using the standard coax cable that will need a separate single pair for power.

Each wireless cam has it's own frequency basically, and will only link up to one camera (as far as I know). Wireless is very easy to install, but at long distance, the resolution isn't the best.

So the wired versions are powered through the network cable? So just one wire back to the recording box? That makes it significantly easier. I was looking at them myself and was put off wondering how the heck I'd get power to above the doors and out to the back yard.
There's a 6 camera (I think) flir one in store for about $299 including 1tb hard drive and full 1080p. I believe you can also see live feed on your phone.

[Marsha]

I Bought a Swan
http://www.swann.com/us/swdvk-8342t4shttp://www.swann.com/us/swdvk-8342t4s

And it works just fine, Nothing better than getting broken into and having the cops look at the video and say
"I know that little fu**er be right back"

45 minutes later back with the bugger in his car and my stuff

[bat119]

I was contemplating the same type of system just trying to figure how to get Wifi, power to the cameras and a TV for viewing all in the same place. I would also want to mount a camera inside and outside my shop that's 100' from the house.
I was looking at a wireless system however some of the reviews say the camera's won't work past 30'. Another concern is a crafty burglar stealing the DVR with the recorded images.
I have a stand alone cloud camera I my shop now if someone trips the motion detector it emails me a warning, images are recorded on a SD card in the camera. It records a good video and can be viewed remotely on my laptop or cell phone as long as the bad guys don't steal the SD card\camera.

[silverdoctor]

The Flir camera wireless is actually pretty decent, range wise. The last install I did, one camera is 200 feet away from the wireless transmitter - but again, greater distance equates to crappier picture.

Some systems have the Power over ethernet (POE) option in a Cat5/6 setup. POE will cost more.

I tend to stick with the coax installations, single wire pull if you have the right stuff.
https://www.spycameracctv.com/spycam...-voltage-wires

Some systems allow for both wired and wireless, check each one out and ask questions. Costco offers packages, you get what you get. It'll cost a little more, but for custom systems - http://www.flir.com/security/display/?id=69284

Hard drive size is also important when storing 1080P video. Larger drive allows for longer time periods on storage before overwrite.

[gmcmax05]

Originally Posted by Drewski Canuck

What Silverdoctor said.

If you go wireless, you are always at the mercy of our cold temperatures. Batteries do not work great in the very cold, and I am assuming you are putting these cameras outside. This is the land of - 30, - 40, -50 C.

Also, I do not know how good the UV illumination would be on a battery setup over the direct power on a wired system. Remember, most unwanted visitors do come at night. The direct wired UV cameras I have say that they are good to 65 foot. That may be illumination, but not a very good image. You really really need all the illumination you can get.

As for pulling wire, yes it is a pain unless it is done on new construction. But with soffit pulls and mounts, it really is not that bad considering that there will be some inside walls that can be accessed from the attic.

What is pretty cool is the ability to get an IP Address and a Wireless card so that you can view the system and the cameras over the internet or on your Cell Phone.


Drewski

Don't know what kind of camera's you're running, but I have Lorex wireless camera's that run on 120V, not batteries. Bought them at Costco & they have performed great at even -30 or lower.

[HalfBreed]

I'm a fan of PoE. What is interesting is it provides a voice capability over the pair that is not in use for telephone, if one is inclined.

[Scottmisfits]

I picked up a Lorex Flir system from Costco not long ago. We got the 1TB 4 camera system. I have only installed two of them so far but they are good. I can see the cats in the basement in the pitch black when they go to eat. Both cats are black too.
It's two cables in one, not sure the connection type names but it comes as one cable with two connectors at either end. The cables are 60' long and I don't see extra's at Costco I believe they are available from the website.

I really like the fact that there is remote access capabilities. I can check the camera's on my phone, and shut them off remotely. You can also be notified when the motion sensors are tripped. You can also set up a schedule as to when it records and doesn't record.

[Shekka]

I have installed a lot of security camera systems and in my opinion, I would strongly suggest that you go with the Poe cat 5e/6 cable units over the coax units. In the FLIR, lorex, and swan systems for sure, the coax provided is garbage. The connectors are very flacky and fail easily, as well as often provide poor video quality.

The Poe cat cable versions can run up to 300' per camera run.

Wireless. These can work quite well so long as they have a good line of sight and little interference. These do run of off 2.4 ghz. So, if you try to use these in a wifi saturated area you can have some issues.

As for cold, most of these units are good for -30. Yes we get -40, but not for days on end.

The system I run is a FLIR ran with cat 6, and I have never had any issues with cold weather. I will post a picture of the night vision in my next post. My home setup wasn't cheap ($1300ish) but it came with 6 4mp cameras and the NVR has a 2 TB hard drive. All cameras are maxed out for recording and record 24/7 with motion triggers to show when something happens. I get roughly 4.5 weeks per record cycle before it records over itself. I'm fine with that as that's a ton of video.

That's my 2 cents.

[Shekka]

Here is a pic from my front yard cam. There is a street light on the road.



I did resize this to medium. But it should still show you the type of quality you can get.

Edit:

This is from my phone. If I use the NVR, the quality is much better, plus you can zoom in with great results. In the daytime I can zoom across the street and see clear lic plates.

[josey]

Ok, so I should explain more what our set up is I think to narrow down what we need.

We have a few outside doors so we would need several on the house and ideally one on the shop. I was thinking we could mount several inside the house behind the windows (not sure if that even works!?) but I guess some need to go outside. All can be under a roof but one.

I was definitely hoping to have something that I can monitor from remote (mostly during the day). Night vision would be great but for my intended use I am ok with only day if I would have to make the choice.

Remote viewing with iphone or in a browser is a must have.
I am going to look at the mentioned flir, swan etc. systems. Thanks!

[bat119]

Using information from this thread I pulled the pin on a Lorax camera system with an extra wireless camera for my shop.The hardwired cameras are rated for -30 and the Lorax wireless camera has an antennae that can be mounted on the exterior of the house in direct view of the remote camera. The best part is Lorax systems are 15% off with free shipping.

[silverdoctor]

Flir/Lorex are a good choice. Wired gives great quality video. Built pretty well, waterproof. I like the lorex PTZ cameras, but they are pricey.

[josey]

Originally Posted by bat119

Using information from this thread I pulled the pin on a Lorax camera system with an extra wireless camera for my shop.The hardwired cameras are rated for -30 and the Lorax wireless camera has an antennae that can be mounted on the exterior of the house in direct view of the remote camera. The best part is Lorax systems are 15% off with free shipping.

Do you have a link to what you bought?

[bat119]

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