Neighbor had a car stolen, and my Wyze cameras didn’t see anything. I’ve been kicking around getting a real security camera system for years, and this is probably the motivation to do it.

I’m looking to start with 6-8 cameras. I believe I can handle the install myself, since it looks like it’s pretty much do the hardware mounting and running cat6 cable.

I would prefer to stay away from cloud services, but I would like to be able to remotely view live feeds and stored video, so I can check on things while I’m traveling.

I believe this would require a POE switch, so I’d probably get a 24 port just to ensure future needs are met. Not sure which brands are good for unmanaged POE switches that aren’t crap. I currently have an 8 port Ubiquti switch (and gateway and wifi), but it’s pretty much maxed. I’ve also heard their cameras and NVR are pretty expensive for what you get.

Some people have said that doing a Synology system with Surveillance Station is a decent way to do the NVR. I don’t mind paying license fees, so long as my stuff isn’t on a cloud where I can be extorted. Can the NAS doing the NVR work also be used as a NAS at the same time? Or do something like Homeassistant/Pihole duty? Is that too much too ask of it? I know most of them are capable of holding more storage than I’d need for just NVR alone, and I’ve been kind of wanting to set up a NAS anyway. IDK if I want to roll my own from scratch, as I think I’m willing to pay to have some headaches go away here.

On cameras, I’ve heard that Amcrest is decent, but is Dahua better or worse? My only real concerns are that the cameras don’t have built in back doors or anything (major security vulnerabilities, like I’ve heard hikvision has). Is color night vision really necessary, or worth it? I was thinking I’d probably get IP67 rated 4k dome cameras mostly. Any specific model recommendations? I live in a decent city, so I don’t think illumination at night will be a huge issue.

Any recommendations on switches, NAS/NVR, or cameras is appreciated. I would preferably like to just set the system up once and not fiddle with it all the time, but I also don’t want to have to depend on another company to access my video or have to trust them to protect it.