Bat signal received. I built a system from scratch. Desktop computer, cameras, hub, cables, software, hard drive. About $1500 total. It's not connected to the internet, which is both good and bad.
The people who helped:
https://ipcamtalk.com/Here's the list of equipment (except for the cable, I didn't buy it in bulk, I just bought the lengths I needed)
PoE switch -
https://www.amazon.com/BV-Tech-Switch-Ethernet-Uplink-Function/dp/B075G2PM17/ref=as_at/?creativeASIN=B075G2PM17&linkCode=w61&imprToken=IVwHLB8R3pcv7O1CwhWyQA&slotNum=0&tag=ipctk-20&s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1535259448&sr=1-5&keywords=poe+switch· Dahua 5231 ZE 2MP Starlight Turret camera - Ahttps://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B07B7K1P28/ref=as_at/?creativeASIN=B07B7K1P28&linkCode=w61&imprToken=IVwHLB8R3pcv7O1CwhWyQA&slotNum=1&tag=ipctk-20&ie=UTF8&condition=all&qid=1535259602&sr=8-1
· Blue Iris -
http://blueirissoftware.com/purchase/· Western Digital Purple 4TB Surveillance HDD -
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822231535&cm_re=surveillance_hard_drive-· Bulk Cat6 Solid Ethernet Bulk Cable - Mhttps://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=102&cp_id=10234&cs_id=1023403&p_id=9482&seq=1&format=2
Plus a refurbished desktop computer off ebay.
Got speakers, monitor, mouse, and keyboard free from my parents. Bought an IKEA desk to hold it all.
My needs were specific: 24/7 monitoring of my property line shared with neighbor from hell (now in the process of suing them for property damage, luckily it's all on video), including audio. I wanted to retain full control of the footage. didn't care about internet access.
This setup allows for 4 cameras. I couldn't fit the hard drive into the desktop I got (dumb design), so I got an 8TB external drive. Internal is preferred. With different hubs, you could fit more cameras. I have barely scratched the surface of what the software can do. That forum can get a little purist/enthusiastic in the video area, which is fine but some of them have a hard time understanding that I don't have a security system for fun and thus don't care if something's not ideal as long as it works.
I'm not using the Blue Iris app, my camera computer isn't even on the internet. Can't be hacked. However, if you want to have it on internet, you may have a problem because the hub connects via coax, and that's the same connection for wired network. so you may need to solve that.
Install for me was fairly easy. I had some help. Biggest problem was drilling the hole to the outside large enough to fit 3 cables. But I had a pretty straight forward layout of what I wanted to do, nothing was crazy. FYI, if you don't want to get the cable clamps that screw in, the command hooks designed for christmas lights will fit 1 cable, and so far at least they're sticking to the house.
Ongoing usage is pretty simple. There's a series of youtube videos with instructions on the software, highly recommend you watch those.