finding a supported camera - where to start?

[jweb]

I've just purchased Sighthound and am struggling to find an indoor camera which works with it.
I've tried an old one which falls off constantly and bought a new "IP Camera" which cannot be accessed at all.

Can anyone suggest a set of reliably useable camera brands so I don't have to buy and return every model available in my local stores?

It seems many of the modern "IP Cameras" are set up to use their own server and app, and lock out any access over IP.

Any help greatly appreciated

[BeanBagKing]

You probably want to look for support for RTSP and ONVIF. This forum may not be the most active place to ask for help either. Try https://www.reddit.com/r/homesecurity/ maybe?

What are your requirements for this camera? wifi? poe? something small and unobtrusive? etc.

[jweb]

Just trying to find a basic, cheap one for indoors. Wifi would be nice. No need for any built in server communication or bundled iOS app - just a bare camera which will connect to sighthound video.

Thanks for the tip n the subreddit.

[Semper Vaporo]

SightHound works fine with a USB Webcam. A good one from Microsoft or Logitech would cost between $20 and $60. I have 5 that I aim out windows to view the yard and street around my house.

The only problems with Webcams is that cheaper ones will tend to smear movement in dark scenes, and the drivers for most brands do not allow for multiple cameras of the same make/model.

Connecting two of the same model camera will often result in the scenes swapping position in SightHound or one camera will show in both camera positions. Eventually they will cause the Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) or a spontaneous reboot. Sometimes cause just a complete lockup where only a complete removal of power will get control again (even had to pull the battery on a laptop once! Holding down the power button for minutes did nothing!)

Only Logitech cameras claim (recently) that their drivers will handle multiple cameras at once. Though I have 2 Logitech C615 cameras that still interact with each other (if the scene is bright for one camera, it MIGHT affect the other one to darken the scene and make it too dark... newer versions of the drivers might have cured that, but my system is not on the internet and thus does not get updates easily.)

By the way, you can get powered extension (15-ft.) cables ($25 to $35) for USB that derive power from the USB port and can be daisy-chained up to 5 times, so a USB camera can be a long distance from the computer (I have one camera on the end of a set of 5 powered cables and a 3-ft unpowered extension and the 3-ft cable on the camera itself [over 81 ft.] and it works fine.) I have 4 other USB Webcams on shorter daisy-chain cables, too. All are Logitech brand, but a total of only 4 different models. The cheaper ones don't work well in low light, but the more expensive ones do a wee bit better (not great, but "better").

[kgonzalez]

Hi,

When looking at cameras for Sighthound Video, you want to make sure the support the following:

1. H264 video encoding
2. Onvif protocols
3. RTSP streaming

I hope it helps. We also recommend looking at Axis, Hikvision, Dahua, and Ubiquiti.

Take care,

Kenneth