Security camera through window


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Old 11-21-18, 09:07 AM
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Security camera through window

I know next to nothing about setting up security camera systems. I really don't need much, just one camera to monitor the area in front of my house. I'd like to avoid drilling holes through the wall, and I'm not a fan of "cloud based" anything in terms of storage.

I'm thinking about a NVR box on a dresser, connected to a small camera aiming out a window. The window will cause problems with IR, of course, but I don't think that the IR illuminator range on a camera would be sufficient to cover the distance I need to cover anyway.

Is this a reasonable, doable plan?
 
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Old 11-21-18, 09:28 AM
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Modern cameras can have quite powerful IR emitters with long range. It is possible you will get a strong reflection at night that will blind the camera.
 
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Old 11-21-18, 09:34 AM
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Shouldn't there just be a way to turn the IR off?
 
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Old 11-21-18, 09:37 AM
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With some cameras it's just automatic. An indoor camera might not even have IR illumination.
You'll need to do your homework checking for a camera.
 
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Old 11-21-18, 10:17 AM
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Hmm... my concern with putting it outside is that I'd have to drill through this old house's vinyl siding, the asphalt siding underneath, then the wood siding, and the sheathing, and then fish the cabling to who-knows-where. I'm looking for simplicity. Even if I did a WiFi camera, it would still need power to it.

Is there some kind of outdoor-rated cable to provide both power and video, that I could run down the side of the house? My desired install point is very near where the cable company drop hits the house. I could probably run a cable next to the coax, and fish it into the house through the same opening.
 
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Old 11-21-18, 02:54 PM
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Depends on the type of camera you go with. If you are using a IP style camera, you would be using CAT 5 type cable, which comes in outdoor, and even armored styles. They also make outdoor rated "siamese" cable, with the coax and power wires in the same jacket.
 
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Old 11-21-18, 03:57 PM
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I have cameras on my home that use Siamese cable and it works quite well. Everything is done with one cable. The video signal and power are all sent through the same cable.
 
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Old 11-24-18, 03:01 PM
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Thanks. After looking over a lot of the options, I think I'm just going to contract this one out, and let them set me up with a nice outside-mounted system.
 
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Old 11-25-18, 06:01 AM
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For a camera to work on the inside of a window you need to be able to turn off the infrared emitters as said.
The camera will also have good low light capabilities.
One thing to consider about low light is many cameras can work in low light but automatically turn up the video gain quite high to do so which would make the video quite grainy.


Is the area you want to monitor well lit at night or fairly dark?
 
 

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