Recommend a decent CCTV DVR

[TriumphStag3.0V8]

After some help or advice.

I have a CCTV system at home, all cameras are hardwired with co-ax and power (deliberately as I found WiFi cameras to be too laggy). My current setup works well, except for one thing - that the ability to point a web browser to the device and view the camera feed in a browser no longer works. Presumably due to the deprecation of Flash, but had been able to get round it by keeping a copy of IE11 on an old XP machine that was firewalled off and could only talk to the DVR. That PC finally expired so now I cannot use a browser at home to see the camera feeds.

Whilst the Android app works well, it only allows one device to connect at a time. I spoke to the manufacturer and basically their answer was "tough, that's how it works, we don't support web browser access to the DVR".

So to clarify, I like to have the camera feeds on a monitor on my desk at home (mainly as I cannot see the driveway from the room I use as an office) and use the app when away from home to check on things.

So rather than look for an old XP machine and keep junk around, is anyone aware of a decent CCTV DVR that still allows web browser access locally and has a decent app for remote access. As the cameras are wired co-ax, they should be compatible with a new system. Any product recommendations? Not looking to spend the earth, but a couple of hundred pounds would be OK.

[Mr Pointy]

How many cameras does it need to support & what make/model are they?

Edited by Mr Pointy on Friday 30th August 11:50

[Trustmeimadoctor]

oops you said coax
https://ajax.systems/products/nvr/
if cameras are rtsp or onvif seems like a decent solution

Edited by Trustmeimadoctor on Friday 30th August 13:03

[megaphone]

Where is the DVR in relation to the office monitor? Can you run a long HDMI? Or a CAT5 and run HDMI down that via some HDMI extenders?

[biggiles]

Trustmeimadoctor said:

oops you said coax
https://ajax.systems/products/nvr/
if cameras are rtsp or onvif seems like a decent solution

Edited by Trustmeimadoctor on Friday 30th August 13:03

Ajax kit is good - one of their boxes will "convert" coax cameras into IP, which can then be used with a modern NVR / Blue Iris / Frigate.

Best solution might be to put in a proper NVR / Frigate system, or replace the cameras... I appreciate it's lots of work, I am slowly getting rid of old coax cameras and replacing with PoE IP cameras.

You could replace the Win PC - spin up a VM with a basic WinXP or Linux image, and use that to access the old DVR?

[Andy_290]

My brother installed a multi camera Hikvision NVR system to look after my old gaff and make sure my RS3 was safe, cracking bit of kit

[TriumphStag3.0V8]

Sorry for the delay in replying to the helpful posts people. Work has been manic.

Mr Pointy said:

How many cameras does it need to support & what make/model are they?

Edited by Mr Pointy on Friday 30th August 11:50

They are a variety of co-axial cameras, mostly Yale branded. 8 in total. One is a generic Amazon dome camera. All are IR, HD

Edited by TriumphStag3.0V8 on Friday 6th September 20:14

[TriumphStag3.0V8]

megaphone said:

Where is the DVR in relation to the office monitor? Can you run a long HDMI? Or a CAT5 and run HDMI down that via some HDMI extenders?

Tried that, unfortunately it is too far, and too complex to get to. There is a Cat 5 between the two, but that carries the network between the two parts of the house and the conduit it goes through will not accommodate any more cables.

[TriumphStag3.0V8]

biggiles said:

Trustmeimadoctor said:

oops you said coax
https://ajax.systems/products/nvr/
if cameras are rtsp or onvif seems like a decent solution

Edited by Trustmeimadoctor on Friday 30th August 13:03

Ajax kit is good - one of their boxes will "convert" coax cameras into IP, which can then be used with a modern NVR / Blue Iris / Frigate.

Best solution might be to put in a proper NVR / Frigate system, or replace the cameras... I appreciate it's lots of work, I am slowly getting rid of old coax cameras and replacing with PoE IP cameras.

You could replace the Win PC - spin up a VM with a basic WinXP or Linux image, and use that to access the old DVR?

Thanks both, will have a look at the Ajax kit.

I spoke to Yale to see if there was anything I could do with the current setup - they were absolutely sodding useless to the point they insisted it has *never* been possible to view the camera feeds/DVR in a web browser, even though I have been doing so for several years - so they will never be getting my business again.

Having said I do not want an XP box around, I am now reconsidering that as a cheap / easy option.

I really don't want to be replacing the cameras if I can help it - I deliberately installed co-axial ones as the WiFi ones were too laggy - although cabled PoE ones would not suffer from that, but running the cabling and cost of replacing all the cameras puts me off.

Edited by TriumphStag3.0V8 on Friday 6th September 20:16

[megaphone]

Do you have TV aerial cabling around the house? You could use a modulator to send the CCTV as a TV channel, if the cabling is in the right place.

[TriumphStag3.0V8]

megaphone said:

Do you have TV aerial cabling around the house? You could use a modulator to send the CCTV as a TV channel, if the cabling is in the right place.

Sadly not, We don't even have a TV aerial (wasn't one here or any cabling strangely when we moved in).

It could be done in the same way as I could run another Cat 5 but the amount of effort and time taken would be huge (as in that gets done as a last resort)

I don't think we have watched a terrestrial signal at home (as in over an ariel) in nearly 10 years. Mostly use Sky Q or Netflix.

What I was hoping for was a like for like swap of the current DVR for one more up to date. Looking at those Ajax systems at the moment and also had a friend recommend one from Ankke.