Purplemadboy wrote:

Potentially we will be going on holiday for at least a month or two , that’s why I want something that I can check on what’s happening on my iPad if I get an alert.
I have fencing and a wall on three sides but anyone could climb over them .
I would like at least HD so that if someone came into my property they could be recognised.
The wireless system (nest) runs in mains , I wouldn’t use a system that ran on battery power.
If I went wired I think I would need at least 4TB.
The nest system seems to use the widest field of view and being wireless I could put one on my garage roof looking up my drive to the street, this would allow me to have 3 cameras rather than 4. As I said earlier the big down side of nest is the amount of data sent to the cloud .
The wired system is also easy to install as I have power in my loft . Too keep an eye on my drive and garage I would need to put one on the gable of the house .
Never thought my insurance would go up , surly that’s case if you have a burglar alarm box on the outside of the house .
Never gave the privacy law a 2nd thought , all the cameras will be pointing to my property.

In my opinion NEST is just re-packaged and grossly over-priced IT available from other suppliers.
Any self respecting professional CCTV installer will be able to provide you with a system that will do what I now think you need at a fraction of the cost of NEST.
Get a few quotes and see what I mean.
Your local police should be able to give you details of suppliers/fitters in your area, failing that look at the professional bodies that regulate the security industry (eg https://www.nsi.org.uk/about-us/who-we-are/ ) or maybe even "checked & vetted" or recommended tradesmen schemes if they operate in your area.
You have had some good advice on here which will help you sort out the cowboys form the professionals and should help you decide what you need as opposed to what they will try and sell you  No Longer the owner of a 2013MY Fuji White GS

"Fiat Lux" a philosophy not a car

Thanks for all the info guys .. re keeping the lens free of spiders or cleaning it in sure my window cleaner will do that for me as I said before I don’t have a ladder that long. Do it now ! Your a long time dead !!

Quote:

So since installing, ive caught a bloke peeing, a group of lads coming to steal the Audi S4 (till they saw the camera) and a bloke pooing on the front door pathway

What a lovely neighbourhood  Landrover - turning owners into mechanics since 1948

2014 Orkney grey Freelander SD4 GS.
2004 Zambezi silver Discovery 2 Td5 (Gone)
1963 Surf blue Morris Mini Minor Super de Luxe (my little toy)

I keep thinking the same Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

I’ve got a HIKVISION system , professionally installed in 2016 . 5 HD cameras, infrared , all mains power and hard wired back to a hard drive recorder . I use a 20” LED TV as monitor . You will need a monitor if you want to review anything in detail and use all the digital zoom and search capability . To keep it all approved , like the house alarm , it is serviced annually . The installation and set up is critical . Also If the hard drive recorder is visible to the intruder , bye bye evidence. I also have the DVD hard wired into the router so I can use a remote viewing app, the cable just comes out of the roofline , down a wall and is just one more cable coming in with the sat and phone cables . That little lot was about £2000 . I have 3 spare ports on the recorder , next service I’m thinking of replacing the alarm PIR alarm sensor near our gunsafe with a PIR /covert camera .

Having said all of that , a balaclava costs a couple of quid , and that’s the downside of CCTV . 2009 GS Auto Zermatt Silver - Sold June 21 after 10 years of ownership

2016 Subaru Outback SE 2.0 diesel SE Premium Lineartronic Sold 2024 after 8 years and 80k miles . Best Car I ever owned !

2023 Toyota Hilux invincible X 2.8 Auto .

Up to 30% off some Swann systems at Screwfix according to their latest email. I have no experience of them however.

I’m pretty sure I’m going hard wired , I bumped into a cctv installer a couple of days ago while out walking my dog . The guy came by the house , told him what I want . He said he would sent a quote .. still waiting, obviously he doesn’t need the business.
The recorder will be housed in my loft , I have an old 32” tv up there doing nothing so I can use that as a monitor. I’m also going to get 4k cameras as they give better detail.
I called my home insurance company today (bizarrely the renewal letter arrived today) no discount for cctv and no increase either. Turns out if I put my excess up from £100 to £200 I will save over £30. Do it now ! Your a long time dead !!

Glad we've all helped. Yes, go wired. Be careful about temperature extremes in your loft if that's where you site your CCTV DVR. And be wary of getting your window cleaner to clean the cameras - if they are anything like lots round here, they use a brush on a long pole and I bet that would knock the positioning of a camera right out, even if it's all locked down. Can vouch for Spider-X as I use it too on my cameras. Learned to drive in 2011.
Bought a Micra - great little car
"Upgraded" to Kia Sportage - hated it
Proper upgrade to FL2 TD4 GS 60 reg Facelift - tailgate paint issues, fuel gauge rewire, transfer box failure at 36k miles, clutch at 60k
Reconditioned diff at 70k ish
Sold at 84k and now on a DS. Terribly unreliable.
Sold DS for a 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. Fingers crossed....
Sold Outlander for a 2014 SD4 SE Tech because I’m mental

The hard wire is pretty neat . It’s just one wire per camera that carries the signal and 12v power. The DVR is wired into a fused spur and feeds a power supply for the 12v . You can have all that tucked away in the loft and have your monitor anywhere an HDMI cable will run and that can be as long as you want . I use a wireless PC mouse with USB dongle so I can run the DVR management functions from the TV and still keep the box hidden ( false floor in a cupboard ) . I only need to access the box if I want to download a clip . I’m running 24 hours 5 channels without event markers I think I get about 6 weeks rolling record . The fitter will optimise the installation to give you the view you want . I stopped the event markers at the 700th fox

Our house has 200 year old bits with solid walls so WiFi was a non starter . 2009 GS Auto Zermatt Silver - Sold June 21 after 10 years of ownership

2016 Subaru Outback SE 2.0 diesel SE Premium Lineartronic Sold 2024 after 8 years and 80k miles . Best Car I ever owned !

2023 Toyota Hilux invincible X 2.8 Auto .

I just looked at my CCTV images (night), 2 of my cameras look as if they are covered in a reflective net.

I have just ordered a couple of cans of Spider X, thanks for tip.

Looking at my images has reminded me that I choose different cameras according to the job they were doing. Also the recorded play back is not normally as good as the live images, and this is very DVR dependant.

Some have longer range at night, and some have wide/narrow fields of view. Read some reviews before buying as different types of chips work better than others. Don't forget the more detailed your camera the more storage you need, although you can vary the number of cameras, frame rate, and sensitivity on most DVRs.

https://www.swann.com/uk/products/cctv-cameras FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

Interesting thread, by complete accident I found my wildlife camera traps which I have dotted around the place have picked up folk ( I use that term loosely ) around where they shouldn't be, not very good for identifying faces but as they are infra red the slight glow when activated seems to be a deterrent. If it wasn't so bad it'd be funny.

🐑
Freelander 2 HSE auto 2014 ( Florrie ) ..... Try again.
Freelander 2 GS 2012...... Gone.

Thanks for the tip re spider X , my window cleaner is good guy , I have a good repor with him (it’s probably his long ladder I will borrow/hire) to install the system myself or with the help of my cousin.
I’ve just come across a YouTube video that showed you how to connect a Swann system wirelessly to your main tv via google home , as long as your tv has google chrome it seems easy, famous last words .
To connect the DVR to the net I will need to get one of these https://www.screwfix.com/p/tp-link-tl-pa40...lsrc=aw.ds .
Thanks again for all the input, I’m starting to get a plan in my head of what I want and need  Do it now ! Your a long time dead !!

Those guys that have a Swann system are you happy with it? I’ve just spoken to a guy on the phone who says there crap, he wants to sell me a risco system . Never heard of them and there’s not much on YouTube. Do it now ! Your a long time dead !!

I have no issue with the Swann at all, I had an Aldi one for a week and it was awful so took it back and a refund, so I replaced it with the Swann and never looked back and the phone app work's well. It's very easy to install yourself just plug and play I did get a separate monitor as its better if you want to look back. I have 4 cameras and can fit 4 more if needed, as it's also triggered by a pir on each camera you can if you wish have email alerts.

I have had a SWANN CCTV system running for 10+ years.

I am on my second DVR, and have replaced 2 of the cameras with ones which are better suited for my needs in those particular positions. (1: on garden shed looking back at the house, now has a very good range at night, and is hard wired[via a camera extention lead], as the original radio link had lots of false signals/triggers due to interference. 2: on garage, looking along outside boundary, now has narrower viewing angle and longer range) The other 2 cameras are the originals supplied with the first DVR.

My only other failure was a power supply, which was a stand alone item easily bought and swapped.

I have had no other problems and have supplied police twice with footage for local incidents which were not on my property as my front boundary camera covers the entry to my road.

I suggest that you size up your job, decide its purpose, buy your DVR, Cameras, and extra Cables separately to suit your site.

PS Mine is triggered by changes in the camera image, in areas that you select during set up. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)