IP or Analog for a home CCTV system?

[Au175]

IP or Analog for a home CCTV system? I am looking for a 4 camera system, 4k. Price difference is around £500 between the two. Is analog now a dated technology? I am getting mixed responses from installers. Some are saying all I need is analog as they are more suited to home use, and that IP is more appropriate for commercial business use. I’d rather get something that is the latest technology, and is to an extent, future proof for at least 10 year usage.

Secondly, should I be overly concerned about this HIK and Dahua negative press regarding being owned by CCP state and then having a back door into the systems? Most installers only fit these brands and as u can imagine are saying it’s all just a propaganda piece.

 

[Phil]

It's probably best to list your requirements.
If the analogue system meets your requirements, then why pay more?

The advantage that network cameras had over analogue cameras has been somewhat reduced.
We are not the best people to ask about analogue cameras and DVRs simply because we don't offer them, and therefore never get hands-on with those ranges.

We kind of ignore what's going on with analogue, just because we have more than enough to cope with in keeping-up with IP product developments
Analogue cameras and DVRs now seem to have mostly caught-up on resolution and 'see in the dark' capabilities.

For a long time, POE gave IP the advantage of 'single cable to the camera' installations.
But analogue now offers Power over co-ax (PoC); so if you are comfortable with terminating co-ax and BNC connectors, then there's not much difference compared to cat5/6 and RJ45 cabling.

With regards to the Chinese brands - one thing that we can say for sure is that they absolutely offer THE best bang for your buck.
If you look at non-Chinese / NDAA options you will very quickly see that it will cost you a LOT more money to make that choice.

Furthermore, everybody has browsed Amazon and experienced the glut of "Chinese crap"!
But that really is not the case in the CCTV world.
Hikvision are the world's number one CCTV brand! (have been for years now)
They LEAD in technology terms; AccuSense, ColorVu, etc.
And provide you with a minimum 3yrs warranty ...

We sell masses of Hikvision and handle very few warranty issues
Most warranty issues arise from poor installations / a lack of weatherproofing to connections for example.

With regards to back-door access.
It no longer exists.
Many manufacturers built devices with engineer/manufacturer access codes in the past.
It was of it's time; naïve, not malicious.
Chinese manufacturers had much to learn.
They learned fast!

Network security is a deep topic.
Hikvision could be a bit better at it e.g. they should by now have implemented the setting of a unique user name at setup, it remains 'admin' for all (YOU should always set a strong password).

Pretty much every manufacturer of network hardware has experienced a breach incident of their own at some time.
YOU must stay up to date with the patches provided.


There certainly is anti-Hikvision propaganda out there - the BBC documentary where they enlisted the help of engineers from IPVM in the USA was shamefully bad!
e.g. they took an old unpatched Hikvision camera and 'hacked' access into it.

Do China / the CCP want to spy on your back garden? - No

Does it make sense NOT to deploy Chinese equipment in critical national infrastructure sites? Of course, for sensitive sites / security the decisions are at another level.
(See Huawei telecomms)


It is impossible to tell whether Geo-political developments will have any impact upon the future availability of Chinese cameras in the UK/Europe.

I suspect that we will reach peak sensitivity soon, when consumers choose to buy Chinese electric cars for £10-20K less than the long-established European brands - that will really focus attention on the topic far more than choosing CCTV brands ...

 

[Au175]

Thank you for a fantastic reply, very useful.

My requirement is fairly basic - I require 4 cameras, 4k quality, with motion detection.

For analog I’ve been quoted around 950ish and for IP around 1350, similar quotes for both HIk and Dahua. One installer said not much difference between analog and IP. Cost is not really an issue for me as I’d happily pay the extra if the difference is ‘worth it’ and will last me longer as a result without having to upgrade. The photo stills I’ve seen for both systems are fairly similar. In terms of brand, I’m leaning more towards HIk as the app interface seems more intuitive.