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Self hosted security cameras?

My girlfriend is be very interested in putting Blink (Amazon) cameras up around our property. I am not interested in paying Amazon to keep our security footage.

What I'd like to do is have motion activated internet connected cameras around the property that somehow send footage to a server (I don't know if that's the correct term, I'm kind of an idiot) that I keep on the property.

So I have three questions:

  1. is this the right forum to be asking about self hosting security footage?
  2. does anyone here have experience doing this and would they be willing to send some pointers my way?
  3. is this a feasible DIY project or am I better served paying for a service?

I've done a little digging into self hosting and it's not cheap, but I think it will be cheaper than paying a subscription. And safer too, which is rad.

Thank you all!

ryannathans ,

I use ubiquiti cameras and nvr for this purpose, might not be open source but I keep all the footage locally, it's easy to use and feature rich

USSEthernet ,

I 2nd this as I use them too. However, Ubiquiti devices are not cheap.

LWD ,

Unfortunately, even if you're okay with accepting the sunk cost of purchasing a cloud camera with the foreknowledge that it might stop working in the future, there are still huge privacy and security concerns. Just recently, SwitchBot announced people were accidentally accessing each other's cameras. Whoops.

If you're looking for something that doesn't need the cloud to work, I would recommend IP cameras. That's the term you would look for. There's open source software to manage them too. Of course, you need to be decent at security yourself. Unfortunately. So perhaps those cloud companies still have a little bit of a leg up on the average person.

lemmylommy ,

You might want to look into Hivision cameras (or oem versions like Annke) and frigate NVR. All you need is a pc and some basic linux knowledge.

MostRegularPeople OP ,

I have exactly zero Linux knowledge but I know people who do!

RaoulDook ,

Most cameras that can support RTSP streaming can be used for self-hosting, then you just need a good video recording / storage system. I used a mix of 3 different types of cameras, streaming RTSP to be recorded by Zoneminder.

You can research the different NVR / recording systems to find what suits you.

digdilem ,

Zoneminder

Indeed. I've been using ZM for personal and commercial camera setups (for up to 32 cameras) since around 2006. Great piece of software - does what it does quietly and without fuss and is completely free.

Deello ,

Reolink cameras look like they check all of your boxes. They can be self contained systems with a "recorder box" (actual term is NVR) that you keep on your property out of harms way or it can be a DIY PC with a program called Blue Iris. There is a variety of cameras to choose from with different features like Wifi, POE, PTZ, solar powered, etc. Spend as little or as much as you want. As you mentioned in your post, this will be pricey up front but will be cheaper in the long run.

halfwaythere ,

Reolink is a Chinese company. Not known for their privacy. My experience with their cameras is the quality is meh and their software is even more meh. It amazes me how often they get recommended. I guess it's due to their cheapness.

synestine ,

It's more because they provide an ONVIF interface or an RTSP stream that makes them self-hosting darlings. Them being Chinese white-labels and cheap is mainly a side-bonus.

What are your recommendations if not them?

amju_wolf ,
@amju_wolf@pawb.social avatar

Their quality is adequate for the price and they are open enough to be used with any NVR.

If you are worried about privacy you should segment the cameras onto their own network (VLAN) or at the very least block them on the firewall from accessing the internet, which you should do anyway.

pishadoot ,

You're not wrong about reolinks, amcrest, hikvision, etc but their price:quality can't be beat and they work well with many different NVR software suites, which makes them popular.

If you're concerned about how they call home (they do, I've sniffed packets on my network to test the rumors and seen it on every one of them), you need to isolate the cameras off of the internet so they are blocked from the outside connection. This can end up being mildly tricky to very complicated depending on your network equipment, the way your LAN is set up at home, whether you want to view your cameras remotely, etc, but it's the most cost effective long term option that is not subscription/cloud based.

I use blue iris on an old computer. It works great. I have unifi network gear, and I tried some of their cameras out but they're not really ONVIF compliant and they're extremely expensive for an equivalent Chinese brand. That's the made in USA price, and tbh Unifi cameras aren't even that expensive, they're more "prosumer" for small business deployments or nerds at home. They have a walled garden ecosystem that I dipped my toe into and didn't care for some of it, but I still use their access points, routers, and switches because they're great quality and really easy to config.

But, if you have never done any of that, you might just want to go with an off the shelf solution or be willing to spend a lot of time reading. You DON'T want to mess up your network security trying to install local cameras if you're not sure what you're doing.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is an RF/analogue camera kit. It's not as easy to set up as POE (two cords to each camera and they're way bigger so running them through walls will do more damage that you have to patch later) you can get an all-in-one NVR+4/8/12/16 etc camera kit with as many bells and whistles as you want. It will be cheaper as well and you don't have to worry about network bandwidth issues because it's analog. The feeds are super nice.

thayer ,

While Reolink hardware is perfect for Blue Iris and other self-hosted solutions, I try to warn everyone that Reolink's own Android app now captures your device's clipboard whenever accessed. The same may be true for their desktop or iOS apps, I don't know.

I have several Reolink cameras and I've been happy with their overall image quality and capabilities, but I do not trust their software whatsoever and recommend keeping them isolated from the internet entirely.

bluegandalf ,

For software I'd recommend using Frigate for ally the processing and then integrating it with Home Assistant.

Tosti ,
@Tosti@feddit.nl avatar

A lot of the more modern NVR systems can be accessed from the internet. So you can use these.

Synology has security station on their NAS systems (although there is some licensing nowadays depending on model and number of cameras.

Ubiquity also offers local storage for their system, that also offers a bellcam (like ring) and different in and outdoor camera models.

Good luck!

MostRegularPeople OP ,

Thank you! I'll check those out!

wildbus8979 ,

Another brand you might want to look into is Reolink. Whether it's just for the cameras (with something like frigate & home assistant) or cameras and NVR combo.

pishadoot ,

Check out the YouTube channel the hook up, dude does really great comparison vids of different camera models and brands

BearOfaTime ,

Hell, I had a Harbor Freight system years ago that was all local (with a DVR), with an app I could view remotely.

Had to open some ports on my firewall/router, of course, so not ideal, and not what I'd recommend today.

If I still had that system, I'd use Tailscale to access it.

GravitySpoiled ,

Haven't read all. Look into home assistant and a camera that works with it (zigbee?)

https://lemmy.world/c/selfhosted is a good forum

MostRegularPeople OP ,

I'll check in over there. Thanks for both suggestions!

paf ,

ZigBee are not designed for high bandwidth applications but +1 for Home assistant

GravitySpoiled ,

Thx!

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