Outdoor Video Security

[Lamb]

Does anyone have any outdoor video security cameras or a video doorbell? Are you happy with what you've got? Pros and Cons?

We live out in the country and it's been relatively safe until now...now that people have lost jobs due to the shut downs being entirely too restrictive so they're in need of money. There have been a couple breaks ins near my house but I think those people leave their doors unlocked...because that's what they do in the country.

I still would feel more comfortable having some sort of video but I'm not sure which is good and I don't want to pay a lot of money for monthly fees.

 

[tango]

Does anyone have any outdoor video security cameras or a video doorbell? Are you happy with what you've got? Pros and Cons?

We live out in the country and it's been relatively safe until now...now that people have lost jobs due to the shut downs being entirely too restrictive so they're in need of money. There have been a couple breaks ins near my house but I think those people leave their doors unlocked...because that's what they do in the country.

I still would feel more comfortable having some sort of video but I'm not sure which is good and I don't want to pay a lot of money for monthly fees.

I don't have video cameras but have periodically looked into them.

Depending on who is breaking in you may want to consider some sort of offsite storage. There's not much use having video if the person breaking in just makes a point of smashing the camera off the wall and stealing it, along with all the footage of them breaking in.

Also consider just what you can do with the footage. That turns into a question of how useful your local police are. Where I used to live a local store was robbed and had footage of the thief that the owners described as "crystal clear" but the police declined to prosecute because they said they didn't have adequate evidence. Not much point having video if the police won't act on it.

 

[Lamb]

I don't have video cameras but have periodically looked into them.

Depending on who is breaking in you may want to consider some sort of offsite storage. There's not much use having video if the person breaking in just makes a point of smashing the camera off the wall and stealing it, along with all the footage of them breaking in.

Also consider just what you can do with the footage. That turns into a question of how useful your local police are. Where I used to live a local store was robbed and had footage of the thief that the owners described as "crystal clear" but the police declined to prosecute because they said they didn't have adequate evidence. Not much point having video if the police won't act on it.

The cameras these days don't store the video in the camera but in the cloud and the homeowner is notified in seconds of someone approaching the house. A lot of the systems have speakers so you can ask the person what they want once you get the alert on your phone. Sometimes that alone will scare someone off.

 

[tango]

The cameras these days don't store the video in the camera but in the cloud and the homeowner is notified in seconds of someone approaching the house. A lot of the systems have speakers so you can ask the person what they want once you get the alert on your phone. Sometimes that alone will scare someone off.

From what I can see there are different options. If you store it locally it's vulnerable to being stolen but if you store it in the cloud (i.e. you store it on someone else's computer) your data is at the mercy of terms and conditions.

Reviews of things like Amazon's Ring seem quite mixed, with some gushing about how great they are and others saying they are great when they work. Personally I wouldn't want a faceless corporation like Amazon to have access to video of comings and goings at my house so I'd rather go for something that gave me control rather than giving them control.

Alerts on your phone are great, if phone coverage is good. It's not much help if you're out hiking in the woods and have no phone signal

ETA: I'm not a dog lover but suspect a large dog is a better deterrent to a would-be thief than a camera.

 

[Lamb]

Alerts on your phone are great, if phone coverage is good. It's not much help if you're out hiking in the woods and have no phone signal

ETA: I'm not a dog lover but suspect a large dog is a better deterrent to a would-be thief than a camera.

Unless you're walking that dog out in the woods

 

[tango]

Unless you're walking that dog out in the woods

"Two is one and one is none". You need a second dog, and only walk one at a time

 

[Lamb]

"Two is one and one is none". You need a second dog, and only walk one at a time

Yeah. No. (That's Chicagoan for NO).

I'll keep looking to see which outdoor camera fits my needs without being too costly for cloud storage.

 

[tango]

Yeah. No. (That's Chicagoan for NO).

I'll keep looking to see which outdoor camera fits my needs without being too costly for cloud storage.

On a more serious note, watch for nasty surprises in the terms and conditions. From what I'm reading there are some devices (I'm thinking of Amazon devices in particular) that default to doing things like sharing your internet connection with nearby devices. That sort of thing seems like an open invite for anyone creative to gain access to your home network.

Depending on how technical you are you can probably set something up to store videos on your own online storage. People talk of "the cloud" as if it's some mystical thing but it's really just some other computer that's online. If you control the online storage you also get to make decisions like how long you keep them.

If something is online you immediately lose some degree of control over who can see it and under what circumstances. Personally I wouldn't trust any of the big technology companies not to misuse that data in some way that benefits them at my expense.

 

[Alexander]

No. I don't have any outdoor video security and right now. I do not need to purchase one, nor have there been any previous security incidents making me want to have a CCTV installation on my premises.