

Ask HN: IP Cameras - yea or nea - tonteldoos

IP cameras seem to be all the rage for home monitoring (as opposed to 'boxed' recording solutions with their own protocols, etc).  I'm considering putting some in after a recent break-in, but there's a possibly significant cost and time component involved.<p>Does HN have any firsthand experience with them in the long term, specifically with regards to:
1] Usefulness (have they helped prevent something bad?)
2] Quality (could the cops use a pic pulled off the camera?)
3] Hackability (do they expose an API of some kind so that I can set up triggers, actions, etc?)
4] Robustness (obviously dependent on setup, but how do they cope with power outages, data outages, etc?)
5] Autonomy (do I need to hook them up to a small server, or does it have a reasonably amount of capability build-in?)<p>The above would differ from brand to brand, so if anybody has had good success with a particular brand/model, feel free to post :)
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vitovito
Related previous discussion: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5151140>

Analog security cameras are standard definition or worse after DVR
compression, but you can get a DVR + cameras in a box for a few hundred
dollars. It might be worth it just to learn what you really need and want.

Just like you can't recognize someone from a convenience store security
camera, your IP cameras won't be any better unless they're HD.

Ideally, you'd have 720p or 1080p video cameras as well as still cameras
capturing at a high megapixel resolution, both interior and exterior.

