Which VMS or NVR company has the best mobile app?

Bmr4life

Bmr4life

Young grasshopper
Oct 14, 2018
41
20
Georgia
The more I think about what I need out of a camera system, the more I realize that I'll be using the mobile app most of the time. My cameras will be purely for curiosity (animals in the backyard, packages on the front porch, cars driving through the subdivision)

I currently have a Dahua NVR and I find gDMSS Plus very lacking.
I also have a Wyze camera (playing around with it) and it has a fantastic mobile app, too bad the camera is wifi only.

My goals are simple
  • App notifications that take me straight to the recorded video or the live video feed.
  • Notifications being sent with a snapshot would be a big plus. It being compatible with my S3 smartwatch would be a major plus.
  • The ability to easily navigate through the recordings (filtering by recording type, motion, alarm, etc) Snapshots/thumbnails would be a plus
  • Good options for motion detection (Area selection, sensitivity, prerecord time, postrecord time, scheduling)
  • The only cloud I would even want is my own google drive.
 

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Bmr4life said:
The more I think about what I need out of a camera system, the more I realize that I'll be using the mobile app most of the time. I have no real security risks and my cameras will be purely for curiosity (animals in the backyard, packages on the front porch, cars driving through the subdivision)

I currently have a Dahua NVR and I find gDMSS Plus very lacking.
I also have a Wyze camera (playing around with it) and it has a fantastic mobile app, too bad the camera is wifi only.

My goals are simple
  • App notifications that take me straight to the recorded video or the live video feed.
  • The ability to easily navigate through the recordings (filtering by recording type, motion, alarm, etc) Snapshots/thumbnails would be a major plus.
  • Good options for motion detection (Area selection, sensitivity, prerecord time, postrecord time, scheduling)
  • The only cloud I would even want is my own google drive.
Click to expand...
you always have security risks. The notion that all they see are the cams is false. A hacked cameras provides direct access to the network.
 
fenderman said:
you always have security risks. The notion that all they see are the cams is false. A hacked cameras provides direct access to the network.
Click to expand...

I meant that I'm not using the cameras to watch out for robbers. The cameras are purely for curiosity.
 
What's so hard about understanding my question? I thought the first staff member was being odd but now we're two for two. Now that I've edited my original post hopefully the responses from now on will be more helpful.
 
For the money Blue Iris and the mobile app is the best.
 
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Hi @Bmr4life

From what I have been reading, people in general seem to think none of the major OEMs do a highly rated mobile app.
( i.e. Hikvision, nor Dahua, ... )

My guess is that their Mobile development are not on the same level as the top mobile development many of us are used to comparing them to. ( of course, they don't need to be - as they're not really competing on just the mobile app - but the price point of megapixels... )
 
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Bmr4life said:
What's so hard about understanding my question? I thought the first staff member was being odd but now we're two for two. Now that I've edited my original post hopefully the responses from now on will be more helpful.
Click to expand...
You still need to consider security of how the app is going to connect to your network... If you're not happy with the free advice given to you, you can seek it elsewhere.
 
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x3 on BI.

You can configure the mobile app to open directly to the live video or the alert recording. I set mine to open to live video, and it's only one tap from there to see all of that camera's alert recordings. For alerts, BI can include a still image or an animated GIF... both work fine on my Apple Watch.

Compared to iDMSS Plus (I assume iGMSS Plus is similar), I think navigating alerts and recordings is way faster and easier. By default, they're organized by camera and camera groups and they're presented with a thumbnail, so it's easy to scroll up/down a list to find what you're looking for.

BI's built-in motion detection is pretty awesome. I recommend looking at some of the How To videos in advance to get an idea of what it all it can do and how best to go about it. Blue Iris Video Tutorials

IMO, BI really doesn't do anything "cloud" other than the option to keep track of the external IP address for you (just for its mobile app).

The other nice thing I like (not totally remote app related) is that BI has a built-in web server that doesn't require a plugin... so when I'm at home on my computer and want to check the cameras real quick, the BI web page opens soooooo much more quickly than any option I had with my Dahua NVR.

mat200 said:
From what I have been reading, people in general seem to think none of the major OEMs do a highly rated mobile app.
( i.e. Hikvision, nor Dahua, ... )

My guess is that their Mobile development are not on the same level as the top mobile development many of us are used to comparing them to. ( of course, they don't need to be - as they're not really competing on just the mobile app - but the price point of megapixels... )
Click to expand...
IMO, it seems outsourced. A year or two back, Hikvision's and Dahua's remote apps were so freaking close in so many areas it seems like they were both just slightly customized versions of a generic app.
 
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Well I can't ignore that many BI recommendations. I like my Dahau cameras, just hate the NVR and mobile app. Looks like I'll be selling the NVR and pulling unpacking my desktop pc.

fenderman said:
You still need to consider security of how the app is going to connect to your network... If you're not happy with the free advice given to you, you can seek it elsewhere.
Click to expand...

Can't be any worse than Tinycam.
 
I ran Blue Iris in parallel with my Dahua NVR. The NVR firmware had a bug at the time, so while I was waiting for Dahua to fix it, I ran the demo version of BI on an old PC I had around the house. My Dahua cameras had no problems feeding both systems. My Dahua NVR was *not* PoE which made that process a little easier.
 
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aristobrat said:
I ran Blue Iris in parallel with my Dahua NVR. The NVR firmware had a bug at the time, so while I was waiting for Dahua to fix it, I ran the demo version of BI on an old PC I had around the house. My Dahua cameras had no problems feeding both systems. My Dahua NVR was *not* PoE which made that process a little easier.
Click to expand...

Hmm. I didn't think of that. Having a redundant setup with the NVR continuously recording but never really being used accessed.
 
Bmr4life said:
Hmm. I didn't think of that. Having a redundant setup with the NVR continuously recording but never really being used accessed.
Click to expand...
FWIW, I only did that for awhile. Once I knew BI was the solution that I wanted to run with, I ended up selling the NVR on here. But there are some folks here to do run multiple systems!
 
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So the only desktop I currently have is an Inspiron 530 from 2008. Has an Intel Core2 Q6600 2.40Ghz processor. I used to run ispy on this about 4 years ago.

So I put the Blue Iris v5 demo on it and I'll be damned if this isn't 1000 times better than my Dahua NVR, lol. Much better interface, the motion recording function does EXACTLY what I expect it to. I'm betting the mobile app will be good enough for my needs so now I have to purchase a much newer PC with a 4TB purple drive and an SSD for the OS.
 
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I'm such an impatient person, already bought two computers.

First was a decent priced i5 and then I just bought a ready to go i7 that includes a purple drive.

The i5 will end up going to my daughter for school. That old computer I have from 2008 is way too slow.
 
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Bmr4life said:
So the only desktop I currently have is an Inspiron 530 from 2008. Has an Intel Core2 Q6600 2.40Ghz processor.
Click to expand...

I gave a long-time client a Dell 530 that sounds a lot like yours; wiped the Vista and put on Win 7 Home 64bit, upgraded RAM from 2 to 8GB, 1 TB WD Purple for video clips, put BI4 on it, looks at 3 each 720p cams (tanning salon foyer door, office door and office hallway from salon). It works OK, motion-triggered clips look OK, live video OK but the old girl struggles, CPU at 60%, CPU fan runs full speed almost constantly...I'm sure 1 more cam would push her off the cliff.
It was all a gift to them from me except for 2 of the cams and they caught a shoplifter ($50 worth of tanning products) a couple of weeks ago.
I told them they'd need a new PC for more than the 3 cams they have now but right now they're strapped financially...maybe later they said.
But the office manager LOVES BI and the mobile app on her iPhone.

FWIW, I have actually temporarily streamed that cam at their tanning foyer door from their BI server as a cam to MY BI server!
 
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