Deciding on NVR or Blue Iris

[YAEMISH]

Yes, another one of these posts. I did my research so hopefully it is a little better than the generic question.

My street has some recent problems and I've set up two HiKvision bullet cameras (DS-2CD2042WD). I've already decided that with the price of storage, I may as well just record everything. I would like to make use of the triggering, only to make it easier to search through footage.

My main goal is to give a few of my police friends access to real time streaming so that the people casuing these problems can be witnessed without the officers being seen. I would also like to give my neighbors the ability to view in real time as well. Basically, I need this to be easy for people to access.

I have a high end Xeon still in a box and planned on building a new server when RAM prices dipped. I can bite the bullet and just build it if I need to, but like everyone else I would rather keep money in my pocket. Based on my needs, is Blue Iris going to be better or should I go with the HikVision NVR or a Synology NAS?

One last thing, I'm going to isolate the cameras to a switch and before I redesign my home network, I wanted to know how live camera feeds are accessed by remote through the NVR or Blue Iris. Would users be getting the video footage by way of the central unit, or is their traffic coming directly from each camera itself?

Thank you

 

[mat200]

Welcome @YAEMISH

FYI - Synology NAS does not seem to be a well liked option by members here due to the rather significant cost per camera beyond the first 2.

So I would knock that option out and just consider NVR vs Blue Iris VMS.

 

[looney2ns]

Yes, another one of these posts. I did my research so hopefully it is a little better than the generic question.

My street has some recent problems and I've set up two HiKvision bullet cameras (DS-2CD2042WD). I've already decided that with the price of storage, I may as well just record everything. I would like to make use of the triggering, only to make it easier to search through footage.

My main goal is to give a few of my police friends access to real time streaming so that the people casuing these problems can be witnessed without the officers being seen. I would also like to give my neighbors the ability to view in real time as well. Basically, I need this to be easy for people to access.

I have a high end Xeon still in a box and planned on building a new server when RAM prices dipped. I can bite the bullet and just build it if I need to, but like everyone else I would rather keep money in my pocket. Based on my needs, is Blue Iris going to be better or should I go with the HikVision NVR or a Synology NAS?

One last thing, I'm going to isolate the cameras to a switch and before I redesign my home network, I wanted to know how live camera feeds are accessed by remote through the NVR or Blue Iris. Would users be getting the video footage by way of the central unit, or is their traffic coming directly from each camera itself?

Thank you

BI will run circles around an NVR.
But you don't need a power hog Xenon.
A 4th gen i7 and up can handle the load.
The BI mobile app is awesome. Using the app, all remote users would be pulling from the BI server.
BI is flexible for setting up remote viewers.
But you could set them up to view the cams directly if you wish, your choice.

You might consider better cams as well. See the Dahua Starlight threads here.