Dahua NVR 5216-16P-4KS2

Ywah, so far so good. My drive showed up so I have that installed. This thing is super quiet. Now to just get my cat 5 run and cameras to show up next week.

OK, spent the day running some cat 5 for the NVR and my Netgear POE switch.

I have a home made VyOS router with 4 ports. I have 2 ISPs load balanced then my main internal network and fired up the 4th port is now dedicated to my NVR and cameras. Once I get it all set up the camera VLAN will be tightened up to make sure it is secure with limited access.

I had flashed the 5216-4KS2 with the logo version of the December firmware (NVR comes with September firmware).

Still waiting on my cameras from Andy, but have a 5mp Amcrest bullet to play with for now. Installed my WD purple 6TB drive and fired up the NVR attached to my 55 inch 4K TV in the family room.

Set the NVR to 4K 30fps and off I go. Must say it is very quiet. I installed a Logitech wireless mouse so I can manage the NVR from across the room, works like a champ.

Still getting the hang of everything and not much to do until my main cameras come, but this thing is very feature rich.

One thing I am a bit confused on was the web interface on the NVR. I thought it would be more aligned with main interface. It wants plugins for various browsers. I was hoping to do ost of the NVR tweaking and then camera tweaking via computer when I have time.

One general question I have is about motion detection and IVS. Am I configuring that on the cameras or on the NVR? I need to go hunting for some YouTube videos to get me up to speed more.

So far rally happy especially for the money.

keithl said:

OK, spent the day running some cat 5 for the NVR and my Netgear POE switch.

I have a home made VyOS router with 4 ports. I have 2 ISPs load balanced then my main internal network and fired up the 4th port is now dedicated to my NVR and cameras. Once I get it all set up the camera VLAN will be tightened up to make sure it is secure with limited access.

I had flashed the 5216-4KS2 with the logo version of the December firmware (NVR comes with September firmware).

Still waiting on my cameras from Andy, but have a 5mp Amcrest bullet to play with for now. Installed my WD purple 6TB drive and fired up the NVR attached to my 55 inch 4K TV in the family room.

Set the NVR to 4K 30fps and off I go. Must say it is very quiet. I installed a Logitech wireless mouse so I can manage the NVR from across the room, works like a champ.

Still getting the hang of everything and not much to do until my main cameras come, but this thing is very feature rich.

One thing I am a bit confused on was the web interface on the NVR. I thought it would be more aligned with main interface. It wants plugins for various browsers. I was hoping to do ost of the NVR tweaking and then camera tweaking via computer when I have time.

One general question I have is about motion detection and IVS. Am I configuring that on the cameras or on the NVR? I need to go hunting for some YouTube videos to get me up to speed more.

So far rally happy especially for the money.

Click to expand...

You can configure it on the NVR if it have the latest firmware but I prefer configuring mine on each camera since there are some settings that is not on the NVR GUI which are found on camera GUI.

Question for those of you well versed in NVR, and server solutions. Do you prefer a NVR like this or a server running a VM with software like BlueIris? My current setup is a VM sitting an unraid server that has dedicated Skyhawk drives mirrored for my cams. I'd considered splitting it off to a NVR, but think that may actually be a step backwards from what I have now.

cpsmith516 said:

Question for those of you well versed in NVR, and server solutions. Do you prefer a NVR like this or a server running a VM with software like BlueIris? My current setup is a VM sitting an unraid server that has dedicated Skyhawk drives mirrored for my cams. I'd considered splitting it off to a NVR, but think that may actually be a step backwards from what I have now.

Click to expand...

I was in the same position as you, and here is what swayed me. I love building my own solutions. I built my own VyOS router because I waned more flexibility that I could get in standard consumer routers without spending a fortune. It will depend on how many cameras you want to support, but when you look at the CPU requirements for a decent number of cameras you wind up with spend a decent amount of money then building a box that may pull 100-200 watts. When you look at the power draw on the NVR5216 without any onboard POE ports this things draws less than 10 watts plus whatever the HDD draws. Look at pictures of the NVR opened and you see a motherboard that is maybe a little bigger than a US 3x5 index card that will generate very little heat and consume very little power. It has an embedded quad core CPU that is running Linux and an can handle 16 cameras without an issue. I really wanted to do Blue Iris and may eventually go down that path, but the thought of managing a Windows box in a 7x24 requirement concerns me and I do that for a living. For a very reasonable cost I have the NVR5216-4KS2 for less than what the Blue Iris CPU requirement would have cost. Sime comparison, if the NVR draws 15W with HDD and power were only $0.10 KW/h that is $13 a year vs. say 125W is $110 a year and if you really drive the CPU that drive cost higher and I doubt most people live in a $0.10 KW/h place. Also think of the heat the Blue Iris machine will need.

I ran cat 5 to a media cabinet in my family room and have the NVR running in that generating hardly any heat. I would have to add fans to same cabinet if I put a small Windows box in there generating 125W or more.

keithl said:

I was in the same position as you, and here is what swayed me. I love building my own solutions. I built my own VyOS router because I waned more flexibility that I could get in standard consumer routers without spending a fortune. It will depend on how many cameras you want to support, but when you look at the CPU requirements for a decent number of cameras you wind up with spend a decent amount of money then building a box that may pull 100-200 watts. When you look at the power draw on the NVR5216 without any onboard POE ports this things draws less than 10 watts plus whatever the HDD draws. Look at pictures of the NVR opened and you see a motherboard that is maybe a little bigger than a US 3x5 index card that will generate very little heat and consume very little power. It has an embedded quad core CPU that is running Linux and an can handle 16 cameras without an issue. I really wanted to do Blue Iris and may eventually go down that path, but the thought of managing a Windows box in a 7x24 requirement concerns me and I do that for a living. For a very reasonable cost I have the NVR5216-4KS2 for less than what the Blue Iris CPU requirement would have cost. Sime comparison, if the NVR draws 15W with HDD and power were only $0.10 KW/h that is $13 a year vs. say 125W is $110 a year and if you really drive the CPU that drive cost higher and I doubt most people live in a $0.10 KW/h place. Also think of the heat the Blue Iris machine will need.

I ran cat 5 to a media cabinet in my family room and have the NVR running in that generating hardly any heat. I would have to add fans to same cabinet if I put a small Windows box in there generating 125W or more.

Click to expand...

This is completely false. Most blue iris machines are drawing 25-50w....there are many power consumption threads...most setups can be run on a 100-300 dollar machine....There is virtually no heat from a modern pc...there is absolutely nothing to "manage" in a windows box...just let it run...
Once you use a blue iris pc you will see what a joke the standalone NVR is..

I tried both NVR and BI. I think the NVR mobile app is a huge pain in the ass trying to maneuver the slider for playback. BI mobile app is much easier to go back and look at alerts as you have thumbnails and it feels much more simple and intuitive. Not to mention I can add on cams without worrying about having enough ports/channels.

Worth the upfront hardware costs and additional power to run BI in my opinion. My BI machine sits at about 29-32 watts. But I do understand the simplicity of the NVR where you can set it and forget it. The app was the biggest dealbreaker

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

keithl said:

Here you go, 3 on the top cover in different places. Nothing major, but noticeable and made me think this might be used or something. Definitely has me suspicious especially since these are gray market to begin with and I was hesitant to order direct from Hong Kong. I have not powered it up yet as my drive does not come until later today.

View attachment 27866 View attachment 27867 View attachment 27868

Click to expand...

Thanks buddy. We never sell 2nd hand as the brand new one, no worry. Sorry for the scratches, future can do some discount for you for other purchasing, thanks.

fenderman said:

This is completely false. Most blue iris machines are drawing 25-50w....there are many power consumption threads...most setups can be run on a 100-300 dollar machine....There is virtually no heat from a modern pc...there is absolutely nothing to "manage" in a windows box...just let it run...
Once you use a blue iris pc you will see what a joke the standalone NVR is..

Click to expand...

My simple router is drawing 30 watts, so I can't see how a blue iris system supporting 9-10 cameras will draw that little, but since I don't use it I can't debate it much. As for managing Windows that depends, monthly patches, the risk that if it looses power can corrupt system (while not common can happen). Don;t get me wrong I run a Hyper-V host at home that support over a dozen VMs and to keep it secure I have to deal with monthly patches and maintenance. my VyOS router is untouched months on end, as I suspect my NVR will be as well. Again not against blue iris, but it does require more involvement that a purpose built appliance.

zebrock said:

I tried both NVR and BI. I think the NVR mobile app is a huge pain in the ass trying to maneuver the slider for playback. BI mobile app is much easier to go back and look at alerts as you have thumbnails and it feels much more simple and intuitive. Not to mention I can add on cams without worrying about having enough ports/channels.

Worth the upfront hardware costs and additional power to run BI in my opinion. My BI machine sits at about 29-32 watts. But I do understand the simplicity of the NVR where you can set it and forget it. The app was the biggest dealbreaker

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

How many cameras are you driving and their resolution? What CPU did you settle on?

keithl said:

My simple router is drawing 30 watts, so I can't see how a blue iris system supporting 9-10 cameras will draw that little, but since I don't use it I can't debate it much. As for managing Windows that depends, monthly patches, the risk that if it looses power can corrupt system (while not common can happen). Don;t get me wrong I run a Hyper-V host at home that support over a dozen VMs and to keep it secure I have to deal with monthly patches and maintenance. my VyOS router is untouched months on end, as I suspect my NVR will be as well. Again not against blue iris, but it does require more involvement that a purpose built appliance.



How many cameras are you driving and their resolution? What CPU did you settle on?

Click to expand...

if your router is drawing 30w then your measuring device is defective....or you are using an inefficient machine.
I have posted threads discussing power draw....find them...
the windows machine just like an NVR should never be exposed to the internet..you dont have to patch it if you dont want to...
if you do foolishly choose to expose it, then you tell me what is better...a windows machine that is patched or a dahua NVR that has backdoor/hacks that is not patched for months after a hack is discovered?
I run over 20 blue iris servers as well as almost another 80 windows machines...I have NEVER experienced this mysterious corruption you speak of. If you think dahua NVR's dont experience issues like random reboots, corrupt video etc then you should start searching the threads here...You are commenting from lack of experience..I have windows machines running for months untouched - until i decide to touch them.

I use a Kill-a-watt meter, but I have a beefy router I home built running a i5 4 core CPU. And Windows is Windows, it can be overly complex. I am not saying it will be a problem, but for the average user a purpose built appliance is more turn key. And yes you can run Windows for months on end without issues. I am not saying the NVR is without issues either. just difference solutions for different people.

keithl said:

My simple router is drawing 30 watts, so I can't see how a blue iris system supporting 9-10 cameras will draw that little, but since I don't use it I can't debate it much. As for managing Windows that depends, monthly patches, the risk that if it looses power can corrupt system (while not common can happen). Don;t get me wrong I run a Hyper-V host at home that support over a dozen VMs and to keep it secure I have to deal with monthly patches and maintenance. my VyOS router is untouched months on end, as I suspect my NVR will be as well. Again not against blue iris, but it does require more involvement that a purpose built appliance.



How many cameras are you driving and their resolution? What CPU did you settle on?

Click to expand...

10 cameras. 9 of them set at 15fps, the 10th is my big 49225 ptz at 30fps. 2 hard drives, 7700k processor, 16gb ram, win10 pro.

Logged into my BI box remotely with Splashtop and took a screenshot showing wattage at 32w. Splashtop is eating about 10% CPU when logged in (first pic)

Second pic is a screenshot right now on mobile app showing cpu and memory usage. Console closed, nothing running except BI and BI tools




Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Hmm that is interesting, I assume BI is encoding straight to disk?

keithl said:

Hmm that is interesting, I assume BI is encoding straight to disk?

Click to expand...

Correct

New user of NVR52XX 8 port non poe have been running Blue Iris for 9 years and wanted a Dahua NVR as a backup to the ageing i7 PC running 24/7 with no problems.
Have almost everything working but cannot figure out how to set NVR so that it can sleep the monitor when nothing is happening. With BI the monitor was set to sleep in 2 minutes and would wake up on motion and display camera trigerred and would then cycle through all cams then sleep after 2 minutes. Can this be done with NVR52XX ? Have latest firmware 12-2017 . 3 dahua cams connected. Connected to Dell 2209wa monitor via vga connector

hey guys, I am going to buy the NVR now, and have question:

4216-16p-4ks2
or
5216-16p-4ks2

what is the difference?

model 4 vs 5?

what is the meaning of 4ks2?

do you suggest 4xxx or 5xxx?

do you suggest x2xx or x4xx?

I'm just pulling out of memory so there might be mistakes. If you want to know for sure, get the spec sheets and compare.

5xxx has more CPU processing power than 4xxx.
4k = supports up to 4k resolution
s2 = 2nd version of the 4k nvr
x2xx holds 2 hard disks
x4xx holds 4 hard disks and has more external I/O lines than x2xx

thank you tigerwillow1

tigerwillow1 said:

I'm just pulling out of memory so there might be mistakes. If you want to know for sure, get the spec sheets and compare.

5xxx has more CPU processing power than 4xxx.
4k = supports up to 4k resolution
s2 = 2nd version of the 4k nvr
x2xx holds 2 hard disks
x4xx holds 4 hard disks and has more external I/O lines than x2xx

Click to expand...

Sounds about right from my memory too

If you buy from Andy mentioned on these forums the price difference will sway you to higher end model. I regret not ordering a 24 or 32 cam NVR since I am already at 11 cams.