on video CCTV Camera Complete Installation with DVR

I hope everyone is doing great. If you are reading this you are probably planning on increasing the security of your home or any other property in order to keep you and your loved ones safe and happy, but you ended up confused with all the technical information surrounding CCTV Security Systems.

Worry not, since in this Instructable I will:

Differentiate the main types of CCTV systems

Provide instructions on how to set them up successfully

Help you setup additional features in the CCTV systems which will increase security (if such features are supported by your system).

Note that setup processes may vary depending on the brand or model of your system.

There are three most popular types of CCTV systems which are:

Standalone IP Cameras

Digital Video Recording Systems

Network Video Recording Systems

I will go into detail with each of them in the following steps.

IP camera is a type of digital video camera that receives control data and sends image data via the Internet. Unlike analog CCTV (Close-Circuit Television) cameras, they require no local recording device, but only a local area network.

Some IP cameras require a NVR (Network Video Recorder) to handle the recording, video and alarm management, which we will be talking about later. Right now we will focus on the IP Cameras which can operate without an NVR, as the camera is able to record directly to a SD Card (if the Camera supports an SD Card).

IP cameras are Digital and connect via Cat5 (Networking) Cable or WiFi. The resolution of IP cameras is measured in Megapixels. It provides Plug & Play Ease of Use.

The traditional and well recognized type of IP Camera is the Pan and Tilt, which requires the user input to move the camera to wherever he wishes to look into. But a new type of IP Camera is steadily emerging called the Fish-Eye IP Camera which has no moving parts.

I have embedded videos on how to set up both the Pan and Tilt IP Camera as well as a Fish-Eye IP Camera

There are two main types of recording systems in the market. The first being the DVR which is cheaper and easier to setup. The second being the NVR which is fairly more expensive and requires some technical knowledge (but we will be talking about it in the following steps).

DVR (Digital Video Recorder) are mostly wired. You need special equipment to make it wireless.

[DVR] uses analogue cameras which need a two core cable for signal. Usually coax cables are used and u need an additional cable for power..

NVR systems (Network Video Recorder) run either via ethernet cables or wireless. Higher picture quality (720p, 1080p) can be achieved by NVR compared to DVR.

[NVR] cables are ethernet if you go with the wired option. Also there are PoE (Power over Ethernet) meaning both power and signal can be sent through one ethernet cable. You could also opt in for wireless at the time of purchase.

[NVR] uses IP cameras as those type of cameras work on a network using ethernet cables or WiFi.

The larger the HDD, the further you can playback. The higher the quality of the camera, the lesser you can playback as it takes more space. In my estimate an 8 channel 1080p NVR with a 1TB HDD will give you roughly a week of playback. Probably lesser cos the quality is high.

Recording capacity is a function of *disk space (channels x resolution x frame rate)*. If you get 1 week at 30fps, dropping to 15fps (still quite usable) would give you two weeks of playback.

Extra points to note:

Some DVRs also include NVR functionality

Avoid NVR packages built around proprietary PoE (e.g. "sPoE", some HikVision products)

Also avoid proprietary video encoding. Look for "ONVIF Profile S version 2.x" compliant products

With a true IP-based NVR using an external switch, adding wireless capability later is as simple as connecting an access point and buying compatible WiFi cameras.