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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!

WhiteHotaru ,

Synology has a whole ecosystem with the option to host the footage on their core NAS Products. It is pricey, thou.

s3rvant ,
@s3rvant@lemmy.ml avatar

Came to recommend Synology; I've worked on small systems (4 cameras) and large (30+ cameras). For home use you can probably get away with their smallest NAS which includes free CCTV software (Surveillance Station) which itself includes 2 camera licenses. Adding more cameras beyond those will require a one-time license purchase. While this is not the cheapest route they are easy to setup, manage and use.

InternetCitizen2 ,

Going to bookmark some answers here.

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!

tired_n_bored ,

First of all, you can operate a fully FOSS firmware on your cameras: see OpenIPC (it needs some soldering tho).
Second, you can try Frigate or ZoneMinder as NVR.

jetsetdorito ,

I've tried a few (MotionEye, Zomeminder, Shinobi) but after all that I have been loving Frigate

fellowmortal , (edited )

I have thought about this from time to time. I want good surveillance, but I also don't want to lose control of the video.

I think that the solution that I favor right now is a Wyze cam V2 or similar flashed with openmiko. edit:(I had to buy wyze v2 cameras from the US on ebay to get v2 versions, user:@ashok36@ashok36 suggests in this comment to use v3 and Wyzemini firmware - this might do the job. clarification: the point is to replace the manufacturer's firmware which will phone home with something open source that you could audit)

These can be attached via USB or wifi interface to a server with zoneminder (https://zoneminder.com/) From there you could think about offsite records too and motion detection etc. [edit: wifi is useful as I don't want to rewire the house - though could be blocked (or the router could be unplugged!) if you are expecting technically savvy criminals. A solution here would be to use an old router on a separate wifi network, put somewhere where most of the property would have been traversed before it could be accessed (e.g. upstairs).]

Having said this, the setup is just fiddly enough that I keep to finding myself finding other stuff to do. [edit: 'Fiddly' is the wrong word, I think its pretty simple, I just find myself wanting more features until the project doesn't happen at all. I'd be clear that this is a feasible DIY project, so long as you accept that 'done' is better than 'perfect']

[edit: One last note - if you host the video yourself, you take responsibility for the security - this means keeping zoneminder and the OS up to date and offsite backups/networks/cameras secure. This is possibly something that a company is better at (but don't bet on it!). However, you are also a smaller attack target (because bad actors only get your video) so blackmailing you with whatever you do in your surveilled place is less valuable than having the same data for 1000s of people. Also, if someone has access to your home network - they can set up man-in-the-middle attacks and steal your bank details - you have to be doing something interesting in front of those cameras for it to be worth more than the contents of your bank account.]

edit:clarity/details

BreakDecks ,

I wanted to add that while Zoneminder isn't going to be as easy or feature-rich as some of the commercial solutions recommended in this thread, this is the only solution that you can trust will remain privacy-respecting. GPL software isn't going to sell you out.

All that can be said about the rest is that they haven't sold their customers out yet.

hperrin ,

Yo I was just thinking about writing something like this. I want to use WebDAV as a backend, so you can just download whatever segment you want. And I think it would be possible to put videos of events in a different directory that it doesn’t purge.

buzz ,
@buzz@lemmy.world avatar

The only good NVR I found is paid xeoma NVR.
I just pay for 4 cameras and its nice and light

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