Ubiquiti, for some definition of affordable, if you want something that works out of the box.

Cheap IP CCTV cameras like Reolink, Loryta, or Amcrest, isolated in their own physical LAN (they're full of security vulnerabilities, but you can keep them isolated and not care), and combined with Frigate + HomeAssistant is pretty good too if you want to nerd out on a solution. I personally hate needing out on home computing stuff but this is the one place I chose to invest because off the shelf cloud solutions are _so bad_.

Reolink + Reolink NVR. Completely locally, you don't have to touch the cloud. I can access it from anywhere (after punching holes in my router for specific ports or just VPN). I ran ZoneMinder with IPCams for years before just getting the Reolink NVR (I already had mostly Reolink Cameras) and I'm still kicking myself for not doing it sooner. I have spent a grand total of zero minutes of maintenance on this NVR, I spent untold hours babysitting ZoneMinder. Also the NVR has RTSP (or is it RTMP?) feeds I can pull into HomeAssistant and use for display/processing.

So many times I'd go to pull up a feed in ZoneMinder and realize the system was down, locked up, having some other odd issue. With my Reolink NVR "It just works", it was worth every penny and it wasn't even that expensive.

Correct me if I’m wrong but that appears to apply to the cameras themselves which are not on my network. They plug directly into the NVR (which provides PoE) and are not exposed to the network at large.

Why do you assume the NVR is free from hardcoded creds?

Because it’s not listed in the list of affected devices. Also if that’s a concern then don’t expose the NVR. Use something like tailscale or a VPN to access it remotely (or don’t access it remotely).

Yeah but now everyone in your wifi range with commonly available hardware has access to your NVR and by extension your cameras.

And actually if any of your network machines or devices are breached, the attackers now have NVR/cam access.

? My cameras aren't wifi, they are ethernet and the NVR isn't wifi-based either.

Your wifi network probably isn't VLAN'd away from your hardwired network. It's all the same IP space.

You can check your NVR from your phone on wifi right?

Ok but first people have to break into my wifi network. It'd be easier to break into my house unless it's a nation state actor which is not a threat risk I'm prepared to sacrifice enough to defend against. Also, my cameras are not on my main network, they are plugged directly into the NVR via long ethernet runs, they don't touch my main network. You are guessing that the NVR might have hardcoded credentials (which hasn't been proven).

At a certain point you are being overly paranoid and I think we crossed that line a while back.

Wifi is really trivial to break into and doesn't leave meaningful traces unless you really do some enterprise monitoring stuff.

Unlike breaking into your window, you are unlikely to get the cops to do anything if someone breaches your network. There's also direct and indirect financial incentive.

So now your entire livestreaming security setup depends on the security of your wifi network, which can be broken with $20 of dedicated hardware.

And yeah, if someone puts hardcoded creds into their cameras.. they probably do it for all their firmware. It doesn't even have to be malicious, it's just a lazy way to test and debug software.

If you are looking for interpretability look for onvif compatible cameras which will be usable by everything

I use standard cameras so I can write my own software. It's been a fun project but it's still pretty rough around the edges

amcrest is the best I found. 100 dollars, HD, power over ethernet. built-in http interface to grab videos / stream video. So you I just plugin ethernet cable camera gets an IP, and you can configure it to push videos at some interval to any server, or connect to stream for a live stream.

Aren't Amcrests just rebadged Dahuas with all the baggage?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahua_Technology#Cybersecurity...

Anker (Eufy) has some now. I haven't used them but if anyone has would love to hear about their experience here. https://us.eufy.com/collections/security

I've owned a few EufyCams and a couple doorbell cams. They work pretty well; the motion sensing is a little too sensitive for an urban area, but they'd be perfect for suburban/rural areas. They can detect people, cars, and animals. The newest base station can be upgraded with a SATA HDD/SSD.

There was a security kerfuffle last year because motion notifications sent to your phone contained video previews which were then stored insecurely. They fixed that, and it's a feature you can disable. It's not nearly as bad as what has happened to Nest/Wyze cams where attackers can gain access to live video and even talk through the speakers.

https://www.theverge.com/23573362/anker-eufy-security-camera... Maybe avoid Eufy...

Just don't turn on mobile notification previews.

I use raspberry pi zeros and the little "arducam" CSI boards. It's incredibly cheap and works great, you can make them talk to whatever you like.

Ubiquiti is the best in the market in terms of breadth and capabilities.

A key thing with ubiquiti is that you need all ubiquiti hardware for the cameras. It's an expensive affair

If they work, are easy to setup and configure, and are reliable, I have no problem paying a hefty premium. I'm tired of trying to get cheap garbage to work (I'm currently struggling with Hikvision cameras and a QNAP NAS).

it's one of the few walled gardens that i'm actually happy with

Reolink and Ubiquiti have good options that don't need the cloud.

Reolink is great. I'm about to add their PoE Video Doorbell. I already have two of their cameras connected to my Synology.

Doorbells work well - I have two. Good choice.

Unfortunately Ubiquiti now requires you to buy into their proprietary NVR :/

I've really enjoyed using Reolink + Blue Iris.

Amcrest cameras feeding into Frigate.