How to choose a video surveillance system for your home

In this video, I discuss the different features available today for home-based cameras, hard drive recorders, IP cameras, smartphone and tablet apps, and so on. Hope you like.

---

Closed Caption:

everyone has a technology reviewer I'm
often asked what products to buy in a
given category and what brands to stick
with how to set up the new gear and so
on
so for this video i wanted to answer
some common questions related to buying
a surveillance system for your home to
help you make a smart purchase that
suits your needs and your budget
all right let's dive right in question
number one is there are so many options
out there to choose from when it comes
to buying a video surveillance system so
it can be pretty overwhelming
how do I know which one is right for me
and my home great question first thing
you should do is ask yourself a few
questions or make a short list to help
you decide what surveillance system to
purchase for your home that best suits
your individual needs
for example how many cameras and what
type do I need
well how many cameras you need depends
on the area or areas that you want to
monitor you can go with static cameras
or ones that have pan tilt zoom to help
cover areas that would otherwise take
multiple cameras to cover as for type of
camera
first make the choice between indoor
only or outdoor and indoor based on what
areas you're monitoring of course and
then choose between wired or wireless
cameras on picture quality and features
this is where preference may tend to
sway your decision one way or the other
but key necessities are good night
vision and vivid color images during the
day
finally you should opt for remote access
if you'd like to keep an eye on your
loved ones and property went away from
your home through an app on a smartphone
or tablet
alright the next question is what kind
of DVR based solution should i look for
well a DVR or digital video recorder can
conveniently archive all that video
that's captured by the cameras now keep
in mind the more cameras that you have
and the higher the resolution video
the more hard drive space it will take
up just like your DVR or PVR at home if
you don't think you need massive amounts
of storage you might opt for a home
monitoring solution with SD memory cards
you know those postage stamp size memory
cards you might use your digital camera
you might opt for that instead of a
full-blown DVR based hard drive or
consider a network video recorder and
NVR in my opinion no buy more storage
than you think you need in case you want
to
expand in the future on a related note
it's always a good idea to buy a
surveillance system with extra channels
to expand to additional cameras should
you want to other must have features in
a surveillance system for your home
include remote viewing
so you can see what's happening in your
home when you're not there multiple
recording options with H dot 264
compression motion detection with push
email notifications and easy playback
with log search options
all right the last question is what
about IP cameras
so these network cameras are a great
hybrid as they can store video
internally on an SD memory card or
externally on your smartphone tablet pc
or mac or a personal mass storage device
these cameras also offer remote
accessibility a live video feed that can
be viewed for mobile devices or
computers anywhere
another advantage to an IP or network
camera solution is power over ethernet
or p 0 e this is the ability to operate
without an additional power supply or if
you want a wireless solution many IP
cameras today are able to function over
a Wi-Fi network for a less cluttered set
up as for which brand to go with it
boils down to personal preference but
i'm a fan of The Lorax line of products
because there are so many options out
there they're super easy to set up and
use powerful and versatile they also
have the latest technology which I like
well I hope that answers a few of the
more common questions about video
surveillance systems for your home
I Marc Saltzman thanks for watching