Lots of ways to define performance so I'm not going to use that broad brush. For me the big difference between the NVR and BI is in ease of use and productivity. That's not the whole story however because I rarely use the native interfaces on either one, instead using SmartPSS and UI3. So I'm in actually comparing SmartPSS and UI3. For both BI and NVR, I find the remote clients to be easier to use than the interface on the device itself. The comparison is only for viewing live video and events. After that, SmartPSS and UI3 are very different animals, with SmartPSS being a custom program running in the remote client and UI3 running on a web browser. They have very different capabilities in terms of other features, configurability, and control of the NVR or BI machine.
I have been running an older Dahua NVR and BI together for over a year, with the intent of deciding on one or the other. That goal has failed for me, because each has an important to me capability that's absent on the other. It's looking like I'm doomed to adding to the global warming crisis because I'm going to continue running both. I use BI/UI3 well over 95% of the time. It absolutely smokes SmartPSS for bouncing around to different cameras, scanning events, using the timeline, and zooming/panning on details. It's only when I'm after some small detail that I fire up SmartPSS, which sometimes gives me more or better info, like making out an almost unreadable license plate or identifying a small animal.
Another general comment of BI vs. NVR is that NVR is far simpler to set up while BI has many more capabilities. (I acknowledge disagreement on the setup comment). One example of annoying BI setup is having to figure out and enter storage limits, while on NVR it's automatic. One example of added capability, is with BI I have an IVS trigger on one camera turn on the while light of another camera. Can't do that with the NVR. With the added features of the new NVRs in the mix, I doubt the comparison is as simple as I'm making it.
Off the top of my head, here are some specific comparisons:
UI3 minuses (can be reversed for SmartPSS pluses):
1. Image quality when looking at small details. The really small details are just not as sharp as on SmartPSS. Also true of native NVR and BI interfaces.
2. Sometimes just goes dead for a while when scrolling rapidly through the clip (event) list.
3. No IVS trip lines displayed.
4. (NVR, not SmartPSS issue) Using digital I/O requires an external device, largely negating any BI price advantage.
UI3 pluses:
1. Fast-forward animated clip thumbnails. This is HUGE when scanning clips.
2. User-defined camera groups for display and clip lists.
3. Runs in browser instead of dedicated program.
SmartPSS total bonehead minuses that make it a pain in the rear to use:
1. Need to first press the "+" button to zoom/pan on a camera image.
2. Zoom lost when crossing an event start or end on playback.
3. Zoom lost when jumping on the timeline.
4. Can't single step through an event start or end.
5. No event pre-trigger when recording 24x7.
Direct comparisons are really difficult because of different design approaches. I promised a while back to post some videos. I made one that shows live viewing, but haven't gotten to the one for viewing clips, where the really big UI3 advantages are. There's just more chaos than time available right now. The video is 51 seconds long, beginning with all cameras displayed. Try to ignore the smaller window on the right, it just shows I don't know how to make these videos.
At :08 switch to a user defined camera group.
At :17 switch to a different camera group.
At :29 back to all cameras.
At :32 switch to a single camera.
At :33 zoom and pan (Not necessary to first click a button as in SmartPSS)
At :47 back to all cameras.
View attachment 223384
