If you consider alternatives beyond out-of-the-shelf, I'd recommend your own DIY IP camera. A Raspberry Pi (or something similar, such as Orange Pi), an IR camera module, an UPS and a protective shell case are the minimal hardware requirements for a cheap camera built by yourself. You'll have total control over the software, you'll be allowed to choose the OS, the software, every aspect of the camera, something that's not possible with out-of-the-shelf IP cameras.
I've had four cameras running for a few years, streaming over RTSP and powered over ethernet. Works well!
Is this something a complete novice could do, with reasonable effort and cost? If so would you be able to eli5, or point me in the direction of somewhere that does?
Ideally, for my current situation anyway, I'd like to set up a camera indoors by a window (with IR switched off and a proper mount) and be able to see what it sees from a device (phone pc or even dedicated pad if it helps with security) in the other room, and if it can also record and save the video locally for me to be able to access from the remote device, that'd be good too. Privacy and security of the data are top priority.
Every time I start looking in to it my brain gets completely overwhelmed by options and information and scrambles, and I have to back away 😑 I'd love for there to be a way to set this up that was near as straightforward as the privacy abusing options..
I self-host and dabble with this stuff. Im an engineer for more than a decade.
But I really struggled to find a solution that has a really high uptime with minimal maintenance. Ive set up some raspberry pi projects, including cams. Why would I want video to transfer to some company?
But the trade offs were significant. Every few weeks, there was a new problem. Maybe my router. Maybe my internet. Maybe the Pi. Maybe something else. Maybe it's my VPN when I'm trying to dial into the network. Maybe it's my phone app no longer seeing the device. Maybe a update broke it. Maybe God hated me that day.
After six months and spending 2-3 hours a month maintaining it, I burned out and just bought an off-the-shelf solution with a mobile app.
Of course, I only use it for security and it doesn't exist in the house. It grosses me out, but it's been two years of plug-and-play and just working without setup.
Argh, this is exactly the scenario that I've anticipated and has kept me away from similar (home automation as well).
That's what I want, high reliability, local only storage, remote view of some kind, and minimal (ongoing) fuss. Sounds like you did not quite land on that if the thing you bought grosses you out? Or do you mean something different?
It's not too difficult, I figured it out and I eat crayons.
Here's the software I use but there are other options: https://github.com/BreeeZe/rpos - That runs on the camera Pi and provides the video stream.
I use a Pi, a camera module like this https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-high-quality-camera/ and a suitable lens. You can get cheaper camera modules, IR modules, etc.
Also, something like this to power it: https://www.tp-link.com/us/business-networking/omada-switch-unmanaged/ds105gp/ You could just use a regular switch and power the Pi with a power adapter if that works better. My cameras are all ceiling mounted so having one cable for data and power made sense for me.
I use this to split the ether net into power and data when it reaches the Pi: https://www.amazon.com/UCTRONICS-PoE-Splitter-USB-C-Compliant/dp/B087F4QCTR/ref=pd_lpo_d_sccl_2/130-2310467-3870744?pd_rd_w=l0O0u&content-id=amzn1.sym.4c8c52db-06f8-4e42-8e56-912796f2ea6c&pf_rd_p=4c8c52db-06f8-4e42-8e56-912796f2ea6c&pf_rd_r=TNA6SF008RVJ5A1Y5V97&pd_rd_wg=4ITEg&pd_rd_r=e6c424de-42a7-4d27-974f-3f129d2bdd02&pd_rd_i=B087F4QCTR&th=1
Then I have this running on a Linux VM to collect the camera feeds and display them in a web browser: https://github.com/motioneye-project/motioneye
You'll also need a case, mine solution was to buy a metal Pi case and mount the module onto that, feeding the ribbon cable back into the case.
If you decide to go ahead and need help, just ask.
Oh wow, thanks so much for all the info, I really appreciate it! I'm bookmarking you reply and all the links, but it's a bit much for me to process right now lol (I saw your comment about pretty much what I want to set up and just had to ask, fully meaning to get in to it, but it's been a long morning and my brain is now mush)
Just to give you an idea, I've never set up or even used a Pi or used Linux, I've done very basic pc building and troubleshooting, but have no programming knowledge, so when I said novice I meant it 😂 I'm mostly good at following directions as long as they're clear. Are there any manuals that would tell me how to put all the different parts you mentioned together?
There are plenty of guides but I just took it step by step. The links I provided have instructions for each bit of software needed. You'll need to be able to do things like flash the OS to a SD or USB drive and then be able to ssh into the Pi to install the camera software. Start here: https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/
There's no programming skill needed but you should be comfortable with using the terminal, or at least be willing to learn. You don't need to install a OS with a desktop, everything is done via the terminal.
After that's done you can use VLC to view the feed and check it's working before installing motioneye on a server. You just get the IP address of the camera and give the URL to VLC like this: rtsp://xxx. xxx. xxx.xxx:8554/h264
If you look at the whole thing in one go, it's overwhelming, but if you break it into chunks it's not too bad and it's a good learning opportunity, if that's your thing.
If you look at the whole thing in one go, it’s overwhelming, but if you break it into chunks it’s not too bad and it’s a good learning opportunity, if that’s your thing.
This is very encouraging and helpful, I will try to keep it in mind! Do I just go in the order of the links you posted in the previous reply?
Also just to make sure I understand correctly - at the end of it I should have a camera setup that I can access, via VLC, from the device of my choosing over ethernet/intranet?
Thanks again for taking the time to talk me through this.
Do I just go in the order of the links you posted in the previous reply?
Yes. Get a working camera feed and go from there. For that, tackle the hardware side first - Pi, camera, power/ethernet, case, storage for the OS. Then install the OS and the camera software and test it. Mine are all indoors so you'll have to see what kind of cases are weatherproof if you're using it outside.
Also just to make sure I understand correctly - at the end of it I should have a camera setup that I can access, via VLC, from the device of my choosing over ethernet/intranet?
Exactly. VLC will be fine if you only want to view one camera. If you want to add more, do recording/motion detection, view them in a browser, etc. then MotionEye on a server works but there are other options. I know that the Synology NAS' DSM OS has its own solution for managing all that stuff.
Great, thank you so much! I'm going to do my best to actually get it done this time, I'm already much closer to figuring it out than I've been before.
Just throwing this out there, but the problem you're describing sounds like a good fit for an LLM I've been using for similar purposes, Claude.
I've found it to be really good at helping me slog through what would be a burdensome and wasteful amount of reading, in order to answer specific questions OR to get a baseline understanding of a thing.
It's a bit hard to know how much value comes from my engineering background and my tendency to "know what I don't know" and thereby ask focused questions, but it's definitely worth a shot. I have found it to be surprisingly sophisticated and much better than slogging through the wasteland of bad search results + too much unrelated but real info.
A topic like this where there's a tremendous amount of legit docs, articles, and forum activity - it's really the exact use case where it's very difficult for a human, and very easy for an LLM to effectively digest that info.
Some caveats I've noticed:
If you're really curious but the volume of reading and documentation to get started is presenting a big barrier, try using Claude to see how quickly you might be able to clear that obstacle. It's been removing those exact barriers for me very effectively lately.
Edit to add: a particularly useful way I can imagine folks in your shoes using this - as a "companion" while you try to follow a guide in an article somewhere. It can answer questions about terms you don't understand, even reasoning behind doing certain steps or what to do if it goes wrong. In fact, you could almost certainly just feed it the written procedure itself (telling it that you're doing so) and really get it to reason about the process with you. Just help get you through whatever implementation.
Axis makes good (the best) IP cams, I use them commercially, they're pretty much the gold standard. Super fucking expensive though so probably not worth it for home use but you might be able to pick up something 2nd hand.
I've had great experience with Axis in the past. However in the past they used to have planned obsolescence where the flash they used had a very limited number of write cycles. With the Linux based OS they run it writes to the flash all the time. This would cause the thing to start dropping writes and misbehave. When ran 24/7 they usually died after about 4 years. The place I worked at just threw them away and replaced them whenever that happened, to not have downtime for cameras. Once I asked if I could have a couple to diagnose the fault and I found out the flash was out of write cycles on all of them. Maybe they are better nowadays, but it was pretty fucked up to see such expensive cameras be destroyed because of a few cents of flash.
I haven't run into that particular issue (I wish I could replace some old ones) but we stream back to a Linux box and then out to cloud storage for archival purposes so maybe we aren't hitting the onboard stuff as hard.
I only have the indoor one, but Reolink is fine. Used it as a baby cam. No cloud bs, supports an rtsp stream. App has gone downhill, but due to rtsp I sort of don't care.
Dahua makes good stuff. Their products are commonly sold under different generic brand names too, but they're all good
I've used a ton of ubiquity unifi cameras and they have a solid range on pricing. I think you need the unifi software to commission them though. For what it's worth they don't use the cloud for storage and don't require any sort of subscription.
Ubiquity is the definition of vendor lock in.
Right. I only mentioned them because they don't require a sub and you can store everything locally.
Another vote for Reolink, especially the models with ONVIF support.
I've been looking for the same thing, everything usually points to frigate being the answer, but it seems like a bit of work to get everything set up.
Probably look to secondhand commercial stuff, anything with ONVIF support should be fine.
Picked up some domed outdoor Cisco IP6630s awhile back off eBay for cheap and while not the best image wise they're built like tanks AND they give you full root access lol
Anything that supports ONVIF. I like Hikvision for their quality, price, and web interface for setup. But don't trust any IP camera. Make sure the Mac and or IP address is blocked at your router.
There are different night visions to pick from. There's ir night vision and white led lit night vision. I prefer ir night vision because I don't want visible led lights on all night. You get a better picture at night although its black and white.
However many color night vision cameras do really well without any light source at all. I tried both and it's more of a preference so I can't say which one will work for you.
Reconsider hikvision: they were recently dropped as an option for many organizations due to some new data leak, and removed from gov buildings in a number of countries.
And that's why you don't let them contact the Internet.
Managing IoT risk is an easy no brainer if people bother to try.
All my cameras are reolink. I have their duo2 which is super wide so it captures everything, I use the doorbells and have the 360 camera in my garage. They all work with frigate and blue iris.
Axis have some really good ones. Most of them support RTSP, and many have PTZ as a bonus.
Source: I've installed a lot of them onboard ships. Axis and Samsung are the ones that handle the environment best.
The only outdoor camera I have is an Amcrest AD110 doorbell camera and it is ok. Has some network connectivity issues occasionally but a restart seems to fix them. I plan on eventually getting some Amcrest IP8M-T2599EW when my budget allows.
As far as indoor cameras I use 4332027115 and they work very well. Both the AD110 and my indoor cameras are in blue iris and home assistant.
I had one of these years ago. I used it as a baby monitor and got a full refund when I discovered that the camera had security issues that caused the whole internet to be able to watch, pan/tilt, talk back, etc to my (now ex wife) when she was breast feeding.
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