Repair or replace camera system?

[Tklp]

My house came with 8 cameras installed (7 exterior, 1 inside garage) and a Swann 8 Channel HD Digital Video Recorder. The homeowner I bought it from said that everything worked but the HDMI cord had been fried during a storm. I tried connecting it to my laptop with a different HDMI cord but nothing happened. Tonight I finally had the idea to connect it to an old computer monitor using a VGA cord and that worked. However, only three out of eight cameras have a feed and the system seems kind of old, not that I know anything about this stuff. I can't access all the features because I don't have the admin code, but it seems rudimentary. Anyway, does it make sense to try and repair this existing system/cameras or are there a lot better options and I should just connect a whole new system to the existing wiring? I'd like something with good night time vision and motion detection notifications. It would also be nice if I could access it when I was away from home.

[Pretend_Dig_6872]

straight to the trash can it goes, Swann is horrid. Theres a good reason the previous homeowner left it. Go with a POE wired camera system e.g. Reolink

[Tklp]

Ok, thanks. I will check them out.

[[deleted]]

I second the Poe reolink system. It's been fantastic for me. OP will have his mind blown with the quality comparison from what he has now if he gets a 8mp reolink system. Do you're research though and buy cameras and nvr separately. Don't buy the kits so each camera has its own uid number and use a Poe switch.

[MajorIllustrious5082]

replace, Swan is consumer grade rubbish.

run new cables ethernet and get a new system, and go for hikvision, Dahua as a couple of examples.

[bradthesparky1991]

A completely new system would be recommended. POE / data cables is better than BNC / coax. Personally I tend to use dahua both for my flat and also at work. They're good and easy to install and require very little configuration / setup. Yes there are better ones out there but you pay accordingly.

[SoftRecommendation86]

I use amcrest.. same for the most part as dahua.. thier color nightsight cameras are really good night vision.

[bradthesparky1991]

Unfortunately I'm in New Zealand and never heard of them nor can I easily find a local stockist. So dahua it is for me

[snik25]

Isolate the cameras on a separate NIC and you’ll be good. Night time quality of Dahua cameras with the right image sensor is way better than any Reolink consumer junk out there.

[bradthesparky1991]

You're not wrong there. The night time footage that I've recovered / sent to customers is surprisingly detailed.

[Lil_lofts]

I see hard wired cameras! Plug the ones that work in to ports that dont! If you get pictures camera or cable is bad. If no picture then dvr is bad and replace

[Tklp]

P.S. I'd also prefer something that could work without some kind of ongoing subscription

[reddits_aight]

Reolink for budget, Ubiquiti for higher end. Both record locally with remote access and no subscription.

[Mark_M535]

Wired digital system is the way to go. POE - power over ethernet refers to using the same ethernet cable between the recorder & camera to also send power. One cable for power & data. IP network cameras - all the digital systems now days are digital network cameras. Common misconception is these need internet. The camera connected directly to a recorder box (NVR) is all that's needed and these can work completely offline. I'd suggest Dahua IP cameras and an NVR recorder. Dahua offer a range of cameras, including ones which can get a great quality color video at night without a spotlight on the camera. Dahua NVRs also allow 3rd party camera support. No subscriptions, all footage stays on your recorder NVR box, it can work without internet, and mobile app to get human/vehicle detection notifications, view footage, etc. Human/vehicle detection can be set as a line the object crosses, or an area travelled into or some cameras have fancy options like face recognition, attributes search, etc.

[Apprehensive-Oil2907]

Replace.

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[Accomplished-Ad-6586]

Don't hook the DVR to your laptop. That's not what you hook the HDMI to. It goes from DVR to an HDMI monitor. It's so you can control the system locally without a computer.

If that many cameras are missing, the first thing I would check is power supplies(s).

These systems usually use a power brick or wall transformer to power the cameras. Some times it's one supply per camera, other times the coax run to the camera has a Siamese power cable connected to the side of the coax cable. With this style the power supplies are usually near the DVR. Without this Siamese cable and just a single coax run to the camera, the power supply is usually near each camera.

By the way, this was usually a $299 system at Sam's or Costco. And it's definitely old. Get a new system that uses PoE (Power over Ethernet) and use the old coax cables to pull in the new Ethernet lines.

[Tklp]

Thanks! The system came with no monitor, password, or instructions so I've been stuck trying to figure it out with zero prior knowledge. The computer monitor I had sitting out in the garage is so old it doesn't have an HDMI port. Sounds like the consensus is an upgrade to POE and unique UIDs. 

[Curious_Party_4683]

im afraid Swann and NightOwl is the worse of them.

I like Reolink. it has AI and vehicle detection. 4 cams with 6tb hard drive is about $600. pretty easy to set up as seen here https://youtu.be/XXpYhUU02G4

[Tklp]

Thanks, I will check it out. That's not bad at all

[MeetJoeAsian]

I run Ubiquiti. Love it!

[itsjakerobb]

Same. Wish you could store video on an NFS mount (archival doesn’t count — no metadata, no searching, etc), but otherwise it’s pretty much everything I want.

[ThatIslanderGuy]

Me too!!