In-laws are building a house and are getting a $7500 quote for a security system with 7 cameras. I am not even sure what that entails exactly, but seems VERY high to me. It is a new build and they are running low voltage wires to the locations of my MIL choosing.

Any recommendations on security systems, they really want the ability to have storage and be able to upload if needed to send somewhere. I suggested Arlo or Ring but they are against that for whatever reason.

We live on different planets. The younger-me would have argued x y z was better because the specs were superior in every way and $/performance was better than Nest, Ring, Arlo, etc.

The issue is "how easy is this to use and interact with daily?" My parents can barely figure out anything on their phone. They need some very basic and straightforward to navigate. I've never seen anyone remark how amazing or user friendly systems are from Swann, or Amcrest, or anything else.

Totally agree PoE systems make sense for new build, but honestly I'd be almost as inclined to just have power run under the eves of each corner and front entry way.

Gives you the flexibility of plugging any wireless system in. $7500 is high. Get another quote and see if it doesn't come down...

evan_aggie said:

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We live on different planets. The younger-me would have argued x y z was better because the specs were superior in every way and $/performance was better than Nest, Ring, Arlo, etc.

The issue is "how easy is this to use and interact with daily?" My parents can barely figure out anything on their phone. They need some very basic and straightforward to navigate. I've never seen anyone remark how amazing or user friendly systems are from Swann, or Amcrest, or anything else.

Totally agree PoE systems make sense for new build, but honestly I'd be almost as inclined to just have power run under the eves of each corner and front entry way.

Gives you the flexibility of plugging any wireless system in. $7500 is high. Get another quote and see if it doesn't come down...

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Over the last 15 years, I've probably bought 40 different security cameras from a bunch of different brands. Sure, battery cameras are easy to use, but there's tons of trade-offs. My battery cameras have terrible detection. Miss lots of actual car/people motion. Since they're battery, there's no 24/7 recording so you can't even see what was missed. I had to add solar panels because they ate batteries so quickly.

I actually have some 120v drops for cameras in areas that don't matter muh. I'm not a fan of having the power cables exposed - easy to cut at my house. The cameras work ok. I had a $20 gen1 Wyze cam hooked to one under an eve for the last 3-4 years with no issues. Replaced it with a Unifi G3 Instant which is also working fine.

You're right, Swann and Amcrest systems suck. Some of the Dahua NVRs are decent. Unifi Protect is easy to use but their cameras are super over priced. I use a combo of Protect and BlueIris with BI being primary.

If OPs in-laws are specifically asking for cameras, I'd think they would also be of a mindset to learn an NVR app. I'm just not a fan of my camera footage being uploaded to the cloud. Look at Eufy and Wyze's scandals over the last few months. Then you have Amazon/Ring in bed with the police. Arlo just dropped support for cameras that were still working fine and removed benefits that were advertised when the cameras were sold new

Ugh...the Arlo crap really pisses me off. I don't think I'll repeat Arlo because of that very fact.

But damn are they easy to mount and connect up. I put them in a tree. I was telling friends that I'm shocked Apple doesn't get into this space bc of their fairly high security/privacy and up charging.

The Reolink NVR app is easy to use. Doesn't have all the bells and whistles of something like Blue Iris or Frigate, but it has just as much as the Ring/Arlo stuff. Motion/person detection has moved on camera for even the most basic PoE cameras these days, so not really much need to put it in the cloud if you don't want to. My Arlo cameras that are still left are terrible and Arlo just decided to start charging for the free cloud storage the cameras came with.

Regardless, the quality of the image, even at 4k isn't going to be a lot more valuable than an arlo. The price seems reasonable. A commercial 12 camera cctv system with NVR and 4k resolution is north of 25,000 installed if they have to run all Ethernet.

If you opt for someone to install it, I reccomend at least one camera in a great location capable of reading a plate. It is specific to that purpose.

Otherwise, you'll have a high dollar system that will record "this guy in a black truck of some kind" for the police to do what you expect police to do.

Standard 4k cameras don't have the frame rate to resolve plates on a vehicle if it's not sitting still in direct sun. Just a fact of physics.

I stilll recommend a hardwired system. It's way better than charging batteries every 4 weeks.

evan_aggie said:

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Ugh...the Arlo crap really pisses me off. I don't think I'll repeat Arlo because of that very fact.

But damn are they easy to mount and connect up. I put them in a tree. I was telling friends that I'm shocked Apple doesn't get into this space bc of their fairly high security/privacy and up charging.

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It's why I never bought into their system. I had a feeling this was going to happen. I went Eufy instead for battery cameras which is what I'm replacing with the G3 Instants.

Unfortunately, with no subscription fees, our data is what's being sold even if the companies say they aren't

BrazosDog02 said:

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Regardless, the quality of the image, even at 4k isn't going to be a lot more valuable than an arlo.


Standard 4k cameras don't have the frame rate to resolve plates on a vehicle if it's not sitting still in direct sun. Just a fact of physics.

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Disagree with both of these statements. The biggest benefit to POE cameras is continuous recording. The battery cameras miss so much motion and since they don't record an archive, you can't go back and review footage. That's where the value comes in, and the image quality of my Dahua cams are leaps and bounds better than any battery cams I've tried

2k cameras can resolve plates easily. I have circular driveway with cameras covering each "leg". I can get a front or rear plate no issue with cars still driving day or night. It's all about camera placement and ensuring they trigger correctly. You're not going to get a plate with a high eve mounted camera. The need to be lower to the ground