Best cheap NVR for Hik cams with good iPhone/iPad support?

[ender77]

Is there any advantage in terms of customer service/patches to buying a Lorex or Swann system (repackaged Hikvision) or direct from Hikvision?

 

[fenderman]

Is there any advantage in terms of customer service/patches to buying a Lorex or Swann system (repackaged Hikvision) or direct from Hikvision?

Yes, you will not get any customer service if you buy hikvision from aliexpress or most amazon sellers..they only sell through authorized distributors who in turn generally sell to installers... You will also likley have issues if you ever try to upgrade the firmware as the cameras will be china region..
There are third party sellers like our site sponsor nellys security who provide their own fantastic support and warranty for the hikvison cameras they sell...
LTS (member milkisbad is a salesperson) also sells LTS branded hikvision cameras with warranty and support...
B and H is an authorized hikvision dealer who seems to sell to end users, though i dont know anything about their support..
Laview also sells rebranded hikvision http://laviewusa.com/ip-camera-systems/ i can tell you that their support is good and you will be speaking with a human in 30 seconds...

 

[ender77]

Does using VPN mean setting up VPN on my home router? Or subscribing to a VPN service? Is Dynamic IP a secure option for this?

 

[ipcctv4me]

I find AliExpress very hit / miss. I would only recommend it for something you are already familiar with (so re-ordering a product you already know at a cheaper price etc.) Buy something from there afresh is a risk because oftentimes, yes the price is less, but ultimately it ends up being unusable (it'll be the chinese version, something isn't compatible, etc.) and is a pain to deal with.

 

[yellowbunny]

I realize this thread is two years old, but I have a european Hikvision DS-7608N-E2/8P, and I've had a heck of a time being able to see anything on my Mac in Safari or Firefox with both the MAC Web Component for IP Cameras v3.0.6.12 and Mac USSC Web Video Plugin for NVR/DVR v3.0.5.26 both installed. I can see the Live View camera feeds (Hikvision cams) just fine from Safari and Firefox, but from the NVR I don't get anything in Live View or playback; Live View on the NVR is a black screen, and playback for each cam through the NVR gives me the little message "Playback Failed". Cams are DS-2CD2042WD-I units.

I have a what I believe is an older Hikvision HNR30P8-8 that works great, but I got it several years ago, and this new 7608 has different looking firmware. My question is - if I purchase a rebranded "official" unit from a dealer here in north america, will I get something that actually works on the Mac?

 

[cutterman]

I have found http access of live streams from my NVR is pretty much useless on a mac. The client software: iVMS lHikvision USA works ok if you don't have a lot of cameras. I have 30 cameras and on my system it chokes trying to pull live streams from all the cameras, whereas it runs fine on a Win 7 box.

 

[yellowbunny]

That's what I was afraid of... are there any better non-Hikvision NVRs that are more Mac-friendly? I don't want a dedicated IPCam computer - just a NVR box at this time.

 

[cutterman]

It's really not that big a deal for me. The iVMS apps work fine on my iphone and iPad for remote viewing. If I need to set up a new camera I run SADP tool in a Windows VM. I do all the admin locally on the NVR. Have a second HDMI and USB cable running to my entertainment center for viewing and admin there as well.

I recently set up Blue Iris on a dedicated Windows machine running with the NVR for a subset of my cameras. BI has been fun to play around with and seems to have better flexibility for notifications and remote access. I have BI record only with motion and use the NVR primarily for longer term storage.