recommended Harddrive size for 4-5 IP cameras? (continous or not?)

yeahman

Getting the hang of it
Nov 8, 2016
122
5
I am currently have 3 IP cameras: 2 1080p and 1 960p.

I have the following setup
1) created 2 views for each 1080p camera; 1 view is almost always recording (very sensitive motion detector in case I miss something) and 1 view with customised motion detector.
2) 1 view for the 960p camera which records on customised motion sensing.

I will add 2 more cameras to my setup ; one 720p and one 1080p.

Questions:
1) What do recommend? continous always on recording or on motion detection recording as it is actually.
2) what harddrive size do you recommend if I want to record for 6-7 days on each camera? is 1TB enough; was thinking about getting the WD red 1TB
 
It's not dependent on the resolution, but on the Bitrate of the cameras. Take a look at the following link for an estimation into how much space will be used by each camera.

Techex | Streaming Calculator

What you record is a personal choice, but I chose to record continuous to ensure nothing is missed and with a 2GB drive and three cameras I can get a couple of weeks recording.. I think, I've not had to go back very far.. :)
 
I am currently have 3 IP cameras: 2 1080p and 1 960p.

I have the following setup
1) created 2 views for each 1080p camera; 1 view is almost always recording (very sensitive motion detector in case I miss something) and 1 view with customised motion detector.
2) 1 view for the 960p camera which records on customised motion sensing.

I will add 2 more cameras to my setup ; one 720p and one 1080p.

Questions:
1) What do recommend? continous always on recording or on motion detection recording as it is actually.
2) what harddrive size do you recommend if I want to record for 6-7 days on each camera? is 1TB enough; was thinking about getting the WD red 1TB
You dont have to clone the cameras to do this. You can set the camera to continuous recording and it will still mark the timeline with motion events and/or send you alerts.
get a purple drive.
 
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buy the largest you can choke down, 4TB is the best price per terrabyte last time I checked; but an open box 6TB was nearly as good per TB so I got one of them and been happy since I have more than I needed at the time but I keep adding more cameras so I'll catch up with it eventually.. but then there is h265.

better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.. that is of course unless you have to carry it on your back for any real distance.. then you need to consider how badly you may need it vs how miserable it'll make you carrying it.
 
I am a bit tight on budget due to all the xmas shopping lol.
I might get 1TB of WD red and recording at 720p on all 5 cameras; will be enough for 1 week recording right?
 
I am planning to actually use the blue iris pc also as a NAS/media server... that's why Red seems more appropriate.. but not sure
 
very bad idea, your cameras will drop frames as your accessing (reading/writing) media.. a NVR has to be dedicated; not multi-purposed.
 
was going to use virtualisation actually

I am already using BI on my main gaming pc .... I game on it .. gaming performance gets bad when BI is recording but recordings so far are ok.
That is why I am offloading BI on a separate server
 
oy,,,bad idea...no hardware acceleration and other issues..dedicate the pc....unless the footage is not important to you..
 
game performance and BI are just competing for graphics and cpu resources; your recordings will get messed up when things are competing for disk performance.. a GigE network transfer of a movie for example will saturate your disk speeds.

BI needs access to graphics hardware thats not exposed in a virtualized environment; runs like a dog.
 
ok thx for the tips but damn ... it's getting pretty expensive :( and running several 24/7 computers will not be kind on my electrical bill :(
 
dual purpose your gaming rig to be a media server then.. or get a hardware NVR
 
yeah what is what I will do... actually had big plans on the BI machine; wanted to have a torrent downloader, NAS, BI and pfsense on it ... lol was a bit too ambitious I guess
 
yeah, I have a nice big FreeNAS w/20TB but I cut the cord and have alot of media onsite to store; compared to the cost of paid television its worth the cost of electricity heh.. cut the tv cord long ago.

my NVR is still separate hardware tho