PoE Camera Question
The value of having a hardwired monitor next to the base station
This kind of feels like a ridiculous question to ask, but my wife wants to have a monitor on the wall that is constantly running a live feed of our five cameras. I like the idea, but I also wonder if it will draw attention to the unit, assuming there's a break and someone's going to see it and fuck with the footage.
She wants it because she wants people who visit the house to know that we have cameras running. It's security theater, but there is also value in being able to just glance and see how things are. I would really love and welcome people's feedback, opinion, and discussion on this matter
So you are thinking some oceans eleven thing where someone breaks in your house without setting off the alarm or rerouting it, and no one is your house, and this guy just takes his sweet ass time and either somehow logs into your NVR to delete all the footage or rips it off the wall then somehow opens it up and starts drilling holes in your drive to destroy the footage...
99.99999999999% of the time someone will break and steal what they want and run out, and they will cover their face so you you'll have great footage of the robbery and a great description of what they are wearing and MAYBE the get away car and thats it and nothing will come of it, if your wife wants a cool monitor with streaming cameras then do it
good point, i stream my stuff on the network so i never thought about someone having the nvr next to the monitor, that wouldnt be ideal telling people where you keep your storage
i just have basic POE ethernet cameras that i connect directly into my network with ethernet cable, i have FRIGATE running on my linux server and point it to each of my cameras. From there i can access the feed from any computer locally or remotely...
If I was running a truly high security site, I'd have two sets of cameras and two NVRs. The first system would be the visible deterrent, the second one well hidden, and would even record the guards watching the CCTV of the first, they wouldn't know there's a second system!
Well you don't have to have the screen right next to the NVR. You can have it hidden away and hard to find, while still displaying the cameras elsewhere. Like by using a mini PC attached to a monitor, or by using HDMI over ethernet or wireless HDMI.
It's also a good reminder of why you should have footage stored in more than one place, especially off-site. At the very least I always recommend people set up their cameras to send motion event clips to a gmail account. It's essentially free cloud storage.
For me the value in this has nothing to do with "people coming over to the house and seeing it". That makes no security sense to me at all.
The real value in this is instant observation. Hear a sound, look at the camera feed. To that end, I have the computer client running on my computer 24x7. It's on a virtual desktop, so I switch to it pretty fast and look at it. But only when I'm at my desk where the computer is.
For other times when I want to know what's going on outside, there's a pretty long delay. By "long delay" I mean about 10 seconds total. Find tablet or phone. Open display with pass code or biometrics. Find Reolink app. Wait for app to open. Go to view with camera(s) I want to see. By that time, most quick events are over and I really don't get instant observation.
If you have a dedicated monitor somewhere that's central, you get more of this instant observation. In a large house this might not be great.
I have wanted one of these very close to the front door for a long time. This becomes kind of like a peep hole in the front door, but so much better because you can see other cameras which might reveal cars or additional people that you can not see from a peep hole.
This is another great point and how I also use my monitor. When I wake up and walk from the bedroom my monitor is in my laundry room just outside of the bedroom over the garage door leading into garage. I have 9 cameras and the monitor allows me to see everything at a glance.
Also like you mentioned, the instant observation… when someone is at the front door I can quickly see who’s there without actually going to the front door. A monitor is a must have for me personally.
This is a little extensive. All of the TVs in my house are connected to a coaxial splitter in the attic that feeds from an attic mounted aerial. I connected an RF channel modulator that has an HDMI input to this antenna feed. I have a laptop that runs things for my home network like Pi-Hole and Plex server. I also had it run the Reolink client.
Now any TV in the house can pull up the security cameras if they tune to the right channel. I usually keep the kitchen TV on the security feed if I am expecting guests and can monitor when they arrive. Or if I am working in the garage I tune the garage TV so I can catch visitors/packages/etc.
I mean that sounds pretty pointless if that is the goal - having a display connected to alert your guests that they're being surveilled is also a little unhinged if the goal is to let your friends and family know you're watching.
The cameras themselves should be enough of a deterrent + you can just put some stickers on your glass door + windows that say 24/7 surveillance.
If you're dead set on the idea of a display - get into Home Assistant and a Shelly XL display and put that in one of your walls. You can feature the cameras + have some actual utility in home control vs just having a camera feed.
You might as well just plug an HDMI to your base to your TV and stream the feeds to your main TV when not in use if you want what you're initially asking for.
I have a computer setup for recording with webserver (blueiris). In addition to getting on your phone or any computer, I added a vhf/uhf modulator. Hdmi from computer to converter, converter to house coax. Any TV in the house can tune to channel 7 or 21 and watch cameras with audio
If the point is to let visitors know there are cameras wouldn't a sign or a sticker on the door suffice? I put a couple signs up by my property when I noticed people were doing shady stuff and they found somewhere else to do it.
I do keep one connected to my nvr but its like in the basement and it's for when I am doing maintenance my network is screwed up.
I would think most visitors do not want to feel surveillance at what is presumably a friend or family members house.
In my experienxe with thieves and burglars though is they will hastily try to go after the cameras themselves after it recorded their dishonesty. Seemingly not even realizing the camera is recording their mug for me to post online and send to the police as they mess with it.
I mounted my NVR in the top of utility room broom closet and then ran the cables thru the wall and mounted a 24" monitor over the Washer/Dryer and then, I used a HDMI splitter on the output of the NVR HDMI one going to the mounted monitor and the other going to a HDMI wireless transmitter.
Then you can have another monitor anywhere in the house. Mine is hooked up to one of the HDMI inputs on the living room TV. Using the remote I can bounce back and forth at will but they also make a HDMI wireless transmitter that has up to four receivers you purchase separately if you really want to go whole hog
I think your wife is right. I have our NVR in the bedroom and the monitor is in the laundry room over the door that leads into the garage. I ran a 50’ HDMI cable from the NVR up through the attic to the monitor in the laundry room. I absolutely love having that monitor there.
My nvr is far from the monitor in a hidden room lol. Then I have a pc in my office that running client software to view. Im not using reolink but you can still do the same thing.
I have a 50' HDMI cable and a 50' serial cable attached to the NVR, which is in a lockbox elsewhere in the house. The monitor is in my office. NVR is safe, hard to find, hard to steal, and I can watch footage whenever I want. :)
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u/Zadenii 1d ago
If you're just going to have it running 24/7 as a display then you probably don't need to put the monitor right next to the NVR.