Opinions on Ubiquiti (Unifi) Cameras?

UBNT-TomS

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I bought a UVC-G3 bullet today, and cannot get the camera (set as standalone) to have a signal present in Blue Iris. I've tried the RTSP and the HTTP, no joy. The Find/Inspect shows the RTSP. The model is 'Generic' (I've also tried Ubiquiti JPEG and Unifi Video). Any pointers appreciated.
I just unboxed a camera and configured it to work with Blue Iris to confirm that this functionality works as intended.

When adding the camera: Under "Address" you'll want to use the IP address of the camera, but don't include the port number or the stream path.

Under "Path" change "/" to "/s0"

All other fields should be left at their default settings.

You can also update the camera firmware by downloading it here: Ubiquiti Networks - Downloads
 

DLONG2

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I just unboxed a camera and configured it to work with Blue Iris to confirm that this functionality works as intended.

When adding the camera: Under "Address" you'll want to use the IP address of the camera, but don't include the port number or the stream path.

Under "Path" change "/" to "/s0"

All other fields should be left at their default settings.

You can also update the camera firmware by downloading it here: Ubiquiti Networks - Downloads
Thanks Tom, that did it! I had already uploaded the 3.7.0 firmware.
 

UBNT-TomS

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Great, that's good to hear. Let me know if you have any feedback on the camera hardware or performance.
 

DLONG2

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Hi Tom, I got the G3 camera mounted and all was well, until I tried to go back into the camera to see if I could change the yellowish tint which appeared at night time. There was no setting that I could see in the camera, and then I logged into the Unifi Video to see if there was a colorization setting there. I changed the camera to "Managed" and have not been able to use the camera since. The username and password do not allow access. What options do I have to recover this camera short of pulling it off the roof to press the factory reset button?

Update: Not really sure how I got it to work again, but I was in Unifi Video and trying a variety of password tries, and waiting through the 5 minute timeouts when suddenly the camera connected again. I believe it was from using "ubnt" as the password but keeping the original username that did it.
 
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WeNt

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Hello all,

This is my first post in here so if I did something wrong that'd be my bad.

I got along with the whole conversation and I decided to stay a bit longer. I'm building my new house and thinking of getting price-reasonable network and camera hardware. As already decided to go with an Secure Gateway, PoE switch for Ubiquiti AP bases on uncountable recommendations, it was obvious decision to go also with their cameras. Recently I was even started thinking about getting cloud key for they excelent software-defined network management tool. However it seems it doesnt support video part :( Now after reading this thread and a couple of others I really don't know if it's still worth to go with camera solution. I don't have huge expectations as it is for my internal use and I can wait for future updates. What I really need them for is to have continous control over what happening all around my house at one place - during a day and night. Optionally have feature to activate auto-recording on any nearby activity *detection* toward my external QNAP NAS TS-251 (PS. Latest cameras seems to be not supported by QNAP). Would be good to have real-time view from the mobile phone app.

I was mainly interested in uvc g3 dome camera as of all is not that expensive and has ergonomic design what will fit for my home use. I'm worried about night vision and auto-enabling recording due to lense dust (I've found few similar comments on amazon reviews). Anyway everything seems to be fulfilled by the Ubiquiti cameras.

If it's possible I would appriciate any info of an upcoming hardware update / new generation of cameras. Spending money on it stuff that would become out of date a month after purchaising them will be simply saying shame.

Could anyone give me some comment or maybe recommends sth?
Thanks in advance.
Best regards,
Adrian
 
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Ford

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Hello all,

This is my first post in here so if I did something wrong that'd be my bad.

I got along with the whole conversation and I decided to stay a bit longer. I'm building my new house and thinking of getting price-reasonable network and camera hardware. As already decided to go with an Secure Gateway, PoE switch for Ubiquiti AP bases on uncountable recommendations, it was obvious decision to go also with their cameras. Recently I was even started thinking about getting cloud key for they excelent software-defined network management tool. However it seems it doesnt support video part :( Now after reading this thread and a couple of others I really don't know if it's still worth to go with camera solution. I don't have huge expectations as it is for my internal use and I can wait for future updates. What I really need them for is to have continous control over what happening all around my house at one place - during a day and night. Optionally have feature to activate auto-recording on any nearby activity *detection* toward my external QNAP NAS TS-251 (PS. Latest cameras seems to be not supported by QNAP). Would be good to have real-time view from the mobile phone app.

I was mainly interested in uvc g3 dome camera as of all is not that expensive and has ergonomic design what will fit for my home use. I'm worried about night vision and auto-enabling recording due to lense dust (I've found few similar comments on amazon reviews). Anyway everything seems to be fulfilled by the Ubiquiti cameras.

If it's possible I would appriciate any info of an upcoming hardware update / new generation of cameras. Spending money on it stuff that would become out of date a month after purchaising them will be simply saying shame.

Could anyone give me some comment or maybe recommends sth?
Thanks in advance.
Best regards,
Adrian
My comment: Don't do it. I was a beta tester and then alpha tester for UniFi video. The roadmap for the software was/is too ambitious and the cameras are propriety, limited, and at least a generation behind.

My recommendations: Get Blue Iris, a PC,and some Dahua IPCs and you will have a great system with a great iOS/Android app and you will never know the pain and wasted money that the folks that didn't take this standard advice went through.

PS Ubnt makes great PtP and SMB networking gear, but they miss the mark on telephony and video.
 

DLONG2

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I have two of the UniFi G3 cameras, and they work well with Blue Iris. The resolution is more than adequate for wide angle views, and the audio stream is good, but moving forward I will be looking for additional cameras with a higher resolution.
 
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Thanks for the feedback, all. I'll continue to monitor this thread.

NVR recording start/stop drift was fixed long ago. Android push notification rollout started earlier today. All Android users should have access to the feature by the end of the week.
sorry, tagged this comment so you'd see it . . .

Tom, what kind of frame rates are you seeing with Blue Iris and the UVC G3 cameras? I'm running in issues with several Samsung L60xx series cams running 1-2 FPS while 15 year-old Sony PTZ models cheerfully run at 15 FPS in Blue Iris on the same system (a Dell T310 PowerEdge. Am seeing the same crappy FPS on a HP G8, so I don't think it's the PC). If the Ubiquiti cams can do better, I'd love to make the move to them.
 

fenderman

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sorry, tagged this comment so you'd see it . . .

Tom, what kind of frame rates are you seeing with Blue Iris and the UVC G3 cameras? I'm running in issues with several Samsung L60xx series cams running 1-2 FPS while 15 year-old Sony PTZ models cheerfully run at 15 FPS in Blue Iris on the same system (a Dell T310 PowerEdge. Am seeing the same crappy FPS on a HP G8, so I don't think it's the PC). If the Ubiquiti cams can do better, I'd love to make the move to them.
why in the world would you want a ubiquiti camera?
 

DLONG2

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PS Ubnt makes great PtP and SMB networking gear, but they miss the mark on telephony and video.
I was looking at the Unifi VoIP Enterprise phone, which is wireless and has a generous Android OS screen. The cost for FreePBX SIP service looks to be about $25 a month, but their overseas minute pricing is about 3 times higher than Vonage.

What about their telephony do they miss the mark? Would be cool to have a Blue Iris app running on the house phone, though.
 

fenderman

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because my samsungs are running 1-2 FPS, and Ubiquiti's network hardware has impressed me. Do you have a camera brand/model to recommend?
Their cameras are subpar and overpriced. See wiki. Your samsungs are fine, just misconfigured.
 

aristobrat

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Ubiquiti's network hardware has impressed me. Do you have a camera brand/model to recommend?
This is coming from someone who runs all Ubiquiti network gear at home: CloudKey, USG-3, Switch 24, Switch 16 POE 150W, Switch 8 POE 150W, and two AP AC Pros.

Check out the Dahua Starlight line. They have been beyond popular here ever since folks could get their hands on the Dahua Starlight 5231 varifocal turret model (which came out a couple of years ago). Since then, Dahua has come out with a ton of different Starlight models ... turrets, bullets, domes, mini-domes, small PTZ, large PTZ, etc. Just this March, Ubiquiti rebased their first low-light camera, the G3-Pro. It's $299. The Dahua varifocal turret (that it seems to have been designed after) is $180. AFAIK, the G3-Pro doesn't have advanced motion detection on the cameras like Dahua's IVS (or Hikvision's Smart Events)... so this is part of where the "overpriced and subpar" comments come from.

To their credit, Ubiquiti doesn't charge for their VMS and they do offer US-based warranty support. But paying an extra $120 per camera to get something that' doesn't seem to do anything more (or better) than the Dahua Starlights that folks have been using here for the past couple of years, these cameras don't usually make sense for most folks here. Which is fine, folks here aren't the market these cameras are really designed for. IMO.
 
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fenderman

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This is coming from someone who runs all Ubiquiti at home: CloudKey, USG-3, Switch 24, Switch 16 POE 150W, Switch 8 POE 150W, and two AP AC Pros.

Check out the Dahua Starlight line. They have been beyond popular here ever since folks could get their hands on the Dahua Starlight 5231 varifocal turret model (which came out a couple of years ago). Since then, Dahua has come out with a ton of different Starlight models ... turrets, bullets, domes, mini-domes, small PTZ, large PTZ, etc. Just this March, Ubiquiti rebased their first low-light camera, the G3-Pro. It's $299. The Dahua varifocal turret (that it seems to have been designed after) is $180. AFAIK, the G3-Pro doesn't have advanced motion detection on the cameras like Dahua's IVS (or Hikvision's Smart Events)... so this is part of where the "overpriced and subpar" comments come from.

To their credit, Ubiquiti doesn't charge for their VMS and they do offer US-based warranty support. But paying an extra $120 per camera to get something that' doesn't seem to do anything more (or better) than the Dahua Starlights that folks have been using here for the past couple of years, these cameras don't usually make sense for most folks here. Which is fine, folks here aren't the market these cameras are really designed for. IMO.
The G3 also has the bullet ir design, which is spider web hell.
 

UBNT-TomS

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We also have a new entry-level G3-FLEX camera at $79. Does well in low light, especially considering the price point. IPVM just did a review of it.

If you're using the cameras in standalone RTSP mode, they should be able to do 30fps, no problem. The framerate and bitrate are both user-adjustable.
 
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