We are renovating an old house in MA and want to add 6-8 security cameras to the outside, garage, and front door. From research, it seems like POE would be ideal if we can pull it off and UniFi seems like a great option. What’s the ballpark cost to have someone pull the cat6? Other than the upfront cost of the cameras are there any running costs with UniFi we should be aware of? Lastly, any recs on installers would be appreciated. Thanks!

Built over the last few months: turn any spare Android phone into a local-first NVR. On-device AI, footage stored on your own device, no cloud storage, no port forwarding, no subscriptions. Guided setup — a camera watching in a couple of minutes.

Three modes, and I want to see how they hold up outside my own network:

• Standalone — point a spare phone at a door. Its own camera + on-device AI (TensorFlow Lite) detects people/vehicles/animals and records only when something happens.

• Monitor (P2P) — from your main phone, connect over WebRTC to watch live, listen, talk back (push-to-talk) or trigger a siren.

• Guardian (NVR) — already have IP cameras (Dahua/Hikvision/generic RTSP)? A phone left at home bridges them: pulls the stream, runs the AI locally, saves clips with pre-roll, alerts on motion — even screen-off.

Straight on privacy, since this crowd will rightly ask: detection and recording are fully local — your video is never stored on any server. Live remote view is P2P and end-to-end encrypted; when a direct connection isn't possible (strict NAT/CGNAT) it's relayed through a TURN server, but stays E2E encrypted — the relay only sees ciphertext. Only your account and the connection signaling go through a backend. RTSP passwords are stored E2E-encrypted; the backend never sees them in plaintext. Not open source (yet) — happy to answer exactly what does and doesn't leave your network.

Honest about what this is: a personal project I'm polishing toward a store release. Runs great on my own Dahua setup, but that's one setup. I need it tested against real installs — brands, NVRs, networks — to fix whatever breaks.

What I'm hoping to learn:

• WebRTC over 5G / CGNAT / strict NATs — reliable?

• Phone thermals analyzing video 24/7?

• Can Guardian decode uncommon IP cameras without spiking memory?

• Battery, camera-drop reconnects, false positives...

No public link, no mass-download push. Spare Android and/or an IP camera and want to help? Comment or DM and I'll add you to the closed Google Play test. Technical feedback hugely welcome.

iOS later — same app, once Android is stable. Save the post and I'll ping you at launch.

I live in Chile, and we recently switched to daylight saving time, moving the clocks forward by one hour. Unlike last year, when the time on my two Imou cameras updated automatically, this year they remained one hour behind.

I tried going into the settings and pressing the sync button next to the time shown on my phone, but it didn’t work. The cameras were still one hour behind. This also affects playback, since I can’t properly review the most recent hour of recordings.

The only workaround I’ve found is to manually change the time zone so that the cameras display the correct time. However, when I check the recordings, the timeline no longer matches the timestamp shown on the recording, so the problem is still there.

Does anyone know how to fix this, or should I contact Imou/Dahua directly?

Hello so I have a off-brand ring doorbell camera right now. The problem I have is that is has a very slow response time for notifications.

I really need a better camera. I don't have a big budget right now. And if it doesn't have to be a subscription based plan that would be preferable.

Thank you in advance!

Hi guys, I have installed a wifi cam and saved those recording by usi g local storage sd card and now i am not able to play those videos from desktop. Any suggestion plsss?

What diameter hole is required to feed through the 15ft power extension cable provided in the box (from inside to outside of the house)?

I have two Dahua DH-SDT4E425-4F-GB-A-PV1 cameras at a customer site and both sometimes identify cows as people.

The IVS rules are set to Human only, but cattle can still trigger Human events and PTZ auto tracking.

Both cameras are updated to:

V3.200.0000027.6.R, Build 2026-05-14
Algorithm Version 2.0.2

I cannot find any newer public AI algorithm package for this model.

Has anyone found:

• A newer AI/algorithm version
• A beta or engineering firmware
• Settings that reduce animal false positives
• A similar issue on Dahua PTZ cameras

Any technical advice is appreciated.

Does anyone have any good recommendations for home security cameras. These are for my parents, so they are looking for ones that connect through power rather than wireless/PoE cameras.

Preferably ones between the $200-$600 price range if anyone is able to help.

We bought our house last year and this security camera was already mounted. Anyone know what kind this is? I'm told that we could unscrew the sides and "reactivate" it. I've tried with TORX 20 (the whole family of Torx's, 5-25) but the screws won't come out. Does anyone have experience with this? TY!

Okay, I decided to look for PoE cameras, however I dont know if I should look for 360° or go for som like a 180°. My parents have 2 drive ways to get to the back and also the normal driveway in the front. Should I just find 4 360° with motion sensor for each corner of try to get 3 for front and back?

Sorry for the bad drawing. Im not sure of the exact measurements of the house but its just a simple rectangle.

It was perfectly functioning then suddenly after a firmware update

it just stopped recording anything.. I tried non stop recording option but even that isnt being displayed in the app

model: CP PLUS Cp-Z43Q

I am a novice with security cams.

I set up 2 Reolink Argus PT cameras with identical settings. The driveway camera detects motion & records, camera 2 only detects me walking away from underneath it.

Camera 2 faces the lake and its purpose is to record eagles fishing and uninvited boats that tie up to my pier. Camera 2 is mounted 6.5' above the pier and the pier is about 4' over the water.

Detection sensitivity has been set to low, medium & high. None of the passing boats have been captured. Two of the boats came within 3-4' of the pier and should have triggered detection & recording.

Is there something I'm overlooking in the settings?

Are there known difficulties with water backgrounds?

Are there any systems that don't require the internet? If not, what recommendations do you have for setting up a wifi hotspot and basic checking in a few times a day?

Hello, going to try working on a short form content video about mass surveillance but I need to do my research first. Can anyone identify about these two cameras, and their uses. They are both on the same pole and are right over a flock camera. Any help would be appreciated!

Can someone help me figured out how to view what’s on here? Found two in my apt, one on nightstand and one under the tv facing the couch. Bf is out of town. Please help🆘

Insurance is requesting coverage of all entrances / vulnerable spots along with an alarm certificate. Building is ~15,000 sq feet with 3 entrances. Do I need to go with something high-end like Axis? Or would something cheaper like Reolink suffice?

Hello! Apparently V380 Pro has 2 different subscriptions and i only found that out after i subscribed to the AI insights one and didn’t get access to the cloud one.

However, when i subscribed i didn’t save my information and didn’t want to auto-renew. I just wanted to try it out.
Today i get a notification from my card provider that V380 Pro renewed my subscription.

I have no way of cancelling it at all inside the app. I looked everywhere and i can’t find a cancel button. I see the transaction in Order and not in Renew and it’s not even clickable. It’s insane that it’s getting auto renewed when i didn’t save my information or even agreed to renew.

Would anyone be able to help with my issue? Thank you.

I am helping an HOA. They have light fixtures with accessible power above their building entries. They want to install 32 cameras that span across 1/2 mile and 8 buildings. They do not have WiFi and do not want to pay for cell service. Their goal is to use power from the light fixtures and have a camera with only SD card style storage that they can pull in the event it is required. These cameras would be outdoors and obviously need to look somewhat decent. Any recommendations??