BI vs iVMS4200
- Thread starter tate16t
- Start date
fenderman
Staff member
- Mar 9, 2014
- 36,891
- 21,407
BI is not limited to hivkvision cameras. More importantly, blue iris is MUCH more flexible and customizable than ivms, particularly when it comes to schedules and alerts. For basic recording ivms is fine. Best thing is to try them both.
The downside to blue iris is that it requires a powerful pc and at this time can only do in camera motion detection on hikvision cameras that have a physical alarm out (you dont have to connect anything to the alarm out, but the option must be present)..I use blue iris motion detection anyway so its of no consequence.
Thanks. I may try it out. I first need to upgrade my windows machine, which I planned to do anyway. I'm primarily a Mac user and I see BI does not support Mac's. That's to bad.
fenderman
Staff member
- Mar 9, 2014
- 36,891
- 21,407
There are other suites that support mac, like sighthound, but are much more expensive.
Its doesnt really make any sense to pay a huge premium for a mac to simply run VMS software.
Before buying a machine, keep in mind that you can get a dell optiplex 7020 haswell business machine with a 3 year next business day warranty for 300(i5 haswell)-500 dollars (i7 haswell). The machine required will depend on which vms package you choose and your the cameras and resolution you run.
Yes I agree. Thanks for the machine info. This sounds like it would work for me. I will only have 3-4 DS-2CD2332-I or similar. I have two now, one connected and working.
IVMS is good except it wont run as a service in windows. I tried setting up task manager without any luck, turned off windows update and keep IVMS minimized. BI pegged the dual xeon Hp Z410 workstation. Milestone is nice but another resource hog. Just my 2 cents...
fenderman
Staff member
- Mar 9, 2014
- 36,891
- 21,407
Note that Blue iris needs to be setup properly, most importantly is setting it to record direct to disk, otherwise it cannot handle many multimegapixel ipcameras... A 300-500 dollar haswell i5 or i7 system is all you need to run 99 percent of all setups using blue iris.
exacq is very low on cpu use however the license fee is 50 per camera for basic functions..if you want something "advanced" like writing to nas or two way audio you have to pay 100 per license.
How many 3mp cam BI work with comfortably? I had 3 2032's on it and the PC was a dog. Im used to the $100 licenses, Axis CS clobbers you 100 per camera. Been a while since I used BI, might have to look in to it again...... on another note how the hell do I turn off the spell check, its missing key stroks.....
fenderman
Staff member
- Mar 9, 2014
- 36,891
- 21,407
It depends on your cpu and some other factors like frame rates whether the pc is displaying the cameras or blue iris is minimized.
For reference an i5-haswell can comfortably handle 5-6 3mp with lots of room to spare, estimate 50 percent or so, depending on other various settings. I have a i7-4770 system with 10 cameras 26 megapixels total (actually +1vga camera), 15-20fps running at about 30 percent, most of the cameras are displayed live a few hidden, motion detection recording, when cameras record it bumps up a bit)...No way I would pay 100 per license for the other vms options...the BI developer adds new functions and features on a monthly basis...
Setting the cameras to direct to disk is key.