Home Security Cameras

[Guinea]

I am looking for advice on home security solutions that meet the following use cases. I have a FreeNAS server that I currently use as a Plex Media Server to stream movies and TV shows to my TVs in the house. It works well and I was hoping to leverage the same hardware/storage for home security. I use Google Home Hubs around the house to be able to access a series of Nest cameras (kids rooms to watch the little one when necessary). Those work fine and integrate well with the Google ecosystem. I am looking for outdoor-based cameras that are POE based that would also integrate with Google Home/Assistant. I would also like them to work with the FreeNAS system and potentially store video recordings in my Plex Media Server storage. I could also set up a separate ZFS pool as well... Plex doesn't need to stream the content at all, I was just merely looking to use the storage.

Essentially I want POE cameras that are customizable (can trigger recording on events or store a specific amount of data before getting replaced) etc. I want them to integrate into FreeNAS in the sense that they will store their videos on the FreeNAS storage automatically. Does anyone have any suggestions on POE cameras that work well with FreeNAS and Google Home?

 

[dlavigne]

Did you decide upon a camera?

 

[Guinea]

I am considering the Reolink RLC-422 for the front door camera. I have heard good things about their quality and integration with Google. The trick will be figuring out how to get the recorded video over to the Plex Media Server.

 

[toadman]

Is it as simple as configuring an SMB or NFS share on Freenas, firing up a linux VM and mounting that share, then running something like kerberos.io (or whatever software you choose) in the VM? And obviously have the SW store data on the mounted share.

 

[NASbox]

I'm looking for some good "local" options as well. The idea of Google having access to a complete feed of my life (to possibly process with AI) is totally unacceptable for me.
<rant>I used to thing that 1984 was just "sci-fi", but the way things are going I think it may be an "optimistic" scenario--and we are even buying the cameras/sensors and setting them up for the state! I believe that authorities are now "tapping in to" Ring cloud services.</rant>

 

[tfran1990]

I have 4 amcrest ip cameras that record .mp4 and take snapshots to a ftp share.
All but 1 is POE, they have alot of options.

Amcrest has a wide range of camera types(bullet,dome,PTZ) and resolutions. i have a 1080p 2 2mp and 1 4mp
They all look really nice and have a really good picture,good price as well. ~50-100 depending on res.

 

[NASbox]

I have 4 amcrest IP cameras that record .mp4 and take snapshots to a ftp share.
All but 1 is POE, they have a lot of options.

Amcrest has a wide range of camera types(bullet,dome,PTZ) and resolutions. i have a 1080p 2 2mp and 1 4mp
They all look really nice and have a really good picture,good price as well. ~50-100 depending on res.

Thanks for the info on the carmeras...

I was looking at their web site, and it looks like they have some very good stuff at a fair price. I was wondering how you know how the PTZ is controlled? Is it friendly and crosss platform?

I have some Foscam cameras which are not bad cameras, but they can only be controlled with a browser plugin that only works on Windows machines. (Which makes them very inconvenient as I am working very hard to be "Windows free" due to Microsoft's privacy invading practices.)

 

[tfran1990]

Thanks for the info on the carmeras...

I was looking at their web site, and it looks like they have some very good stuff at a fair price. I was wondering how you know how the PTZ is controlled? Is it friendly and crosss platform?

I have some Foscam cameras which are not bad cameras, but they can only be controlled with a browser plugin that only works on Windows machines. (Which makes them very inconvenient as I am working very hard to be "Windows free" due to Microsoft's privacy invading practices.)

For recording, the ptz can "tour"(move left and right up and down as you specify). The amcrest app works well for remote viewing.
Most cameras support RTSP(rtsp://[username]:[password]@[IPaddress]:[port]/cam/realmonitor?channel=[channel]&subtype=[stream]) which i have setup with VLC media player for live viewing on raspberrypi with hdmi to my TV. more info here

BUT initial configuration you have to use internetexploder plugin to set them up, after that you can connect to ftp for playback of video. ACTUALLY!!!!If i remember correctly you should be able to use zoneminder with the rtsp address and have it open for viewing. If you can get ispy for linux that would also work.

 

[NASbox]

For recording, the ptz can "tour"(move left and right up and down as you specify). The amcrest app works well for remote viewing.
Most cameras support RTSP(rtsp://[username]:[password]@[IPaddress]:[port]/cam/realmonitor?channel=[channel]&subtype=[stream]) which i have setup with VLC media player for live viewing on raspberrypi with hdmi to my TV. more info here

BUT initial configuration you have to use internetexploder plugin to set them up, after that you can connect to ftp for playback of video. ACTUALLY!!!!If i remember correctly you should be able to use zoneminder with the rtsp address and have it open for viewing. If you can get ispy for linux that would also work.

That looks a lot like the Foscam... can view with rtsp, but need the damn plugin to set up the motion detection or use the PTZ.

 

[tfran1990]

That looks a lot like the Foscam... can view with rtsp, but need the damn plugin to set up the motion detection or use the PTZ.

Yup. with ispy you can do alot of configuring, if the camera cant do it then its grayed out.
check out some tuts on youtube, At one point i feel like i used ispy on linux. maybe someone can confirm that.

 

[NASbox]

Yup. with ispy you can do a lot of configuring, if the camera can't do it then its grayed out.
check out some tuts on youtube, At one point i feel like i used ispy on linux. maybe someone can confirm that.

ispy appears to be a Windows app - or am I missing something? Has someone got it running under wine or something like that.

 

[tfran1990]

ispy appears to be a Windows app - or am I missing something? Has someone got it running under wine or something like that.

I feel like i got it to work on linux a while ago. i could be wrong, heck maybe wine would work.

 

[Gramelia]

The Reolink RLC-422 cameras were really great back in the day, I mean they are still pretty good however we have got some really insane cameras nowadays. I have moved into my new house a couple of months ago, and I have installed 5 Arlo Pro 2 Smart Camera VMC4030P. They are really great, and the the mic is just outstanding, I can hear literally how the water flows. However in case you got more money you can buy the version of this camera which can record 4K HDR video, however it costs 400 bucks.

 

[fmgda]

Sorry to bring back an old thread. I'm looking into buying a few Arlo Ultras for my house. I understand you can use microSD to store the videos locally without an Arlo subscription (not sure what I lose from this in terms of service) but the card has obviously less capacity than my TrueNAS server – do you have a mechanism to move the local backups from the microSD to the TrueNAS server? Or do you somehow (?) manage to directly write to your TrueNAS?