Can I add Blue Iris to a Lorex System?

[Cropgun]

Assuming I get a dedicated computer and add it to the grand scheme, will a Lorex NVR and associated cameras work with blue iris?

NVR model: N842A82
Camera model: E892AB

I believe they are ONVIF. ONVIF is one of the selectable protocols in the lorex software for manually adding a camera.

I can imagine what you're thinking:

"Return it all and start over!"

No thanks! Definitely not interested in starting all over. I got a pretty good black friday deal on the kit. Then added an additional 2 matching cameras from ebay. I'm considering adding two more lorex cameras of the same make and model, but am exploring maybe different brands and/or a PTZ.

Ultimately I am happy with what I bought. I could leave it alone right now and be satisfied with the set up. But I do like to tinker. I bough the cameras to appease the Mrs for when I work overnights once a month. I have discovered that I enjoy messing with the set up more than I thought I would.

"Why would you want to do that"

Because I like to tinker and like I said, I enjoy playing with this more than I thought. Which is silly because I like tech. I already bought two IR floods that shoot 300-400 ft. Now I'm wanting to mess with PTZ and other brands of cameras for fun/testing. I realize that other brand cameras will work with blue iris thus my curiousity if the lorex stuff will work or if the lorex NVR will record stuff from other brand cameras provided they are ONVIF.

 

[wittaj]

Yes, many of us use an NVR and Blue Iris. Lorex is in all likelihood a rebranded Dahua NVR. But if an NVR is reachable by IP address, then it will probably work with BI.

 

[Cropgun]

Yes, many of us use an NVR and Blue Iris. Lorex is in all likelihood a rebranded Dahua NVR. But if an NVR is reachable by IP address, then it will probably work with BI.

I had read that Lorex might be a Dahua rebrand. But it seems those are the black boxes. Mine is a white box. Link here: 8-Channel 4K Ultra HD Fusion NVR System with 6 Smart Deterrence 4K (8MP) IP Cameras I bought the 4 camera kit. The 6 camera kit didn't exist a month or so ago when I purchased. Was cheaper also.

The Lorex NVR is on the network and has an IP address. I usually access the NVR from my laptop in a browser instead of the onboard software in the NVR.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[wittaj]

You should be fine then. Go ahead and try the demo version of BI on the laptop to confirm.

 

[mat200]

..

I believe they are ONVIF. ONVIF is one of the selectable protocols in the lorex software for manually adding a camera.
..

HI Cropgun

Check if the cameras can be set to ONVIF protocal - if so:
Should work.. let us know when you can confirm

( Blue Iris machine needs to access the camera's IP .. so you may need a PoE switch unless the NVR can forward the rtsp stream out to the LAN ... )

 

[wittaj]

( Blue Iris machine needs to access the camera's IP .. so you may need a PoE switch unless the NVR can forward the rtsp stream out to the LAN ... )

Probably not necessary - as long as you can access the NVR by IP address you are good. BI has in the add camera section a camera number located below the Video Stream. I simply put in the IP address of the NVR and then selected camera one. Then did add camera again and copied the setup from camera one and then went into the setting and changed it to Camera 2. Repeat for the number of cameras you have...It is some trial and error - my camera number is off one number of what is in the NVR.

 

[srvfan]

Probably not necessary - as long as you can access the NVR by IP address you are good. BI has in the add camera section a camera number located below the Video Stream. I simply put in the IP address of the NVR and then selected camera one. Then did add camera again and copied the setup from camera one and then went into the setting and changed it to Camera 2. Repeat for the number of cameras you have...It is some trial and error - my camera number is off one number of what is in the NVR.

View attachment 77722

I too have a Lorex NVR system (N841 with 8 E891AB cameras) that I just integrated into BI thanks to this post.
After putting the IP address of the NVR in the address line and providing the user name and password, I hit the Find/Inspect button. This provided me with the correct main stream and sub stream paths, and I just had to adjust when I copied for each of the cameras.
Because of your helpful advice, I can continue to utilize my existing system coupled with the power/flexibility of Blue Iris. Thank you!

 

[mat200]

I too have a Lorex NVR system (N841 with 8 E891AB cameras) that I just integrated into BI thanks to this post.
After putting the IP address of the NVR in the address line and providing the user name and password, I hit the Find/Inspect button. This provided me with the correct main stream and sub stream paths, and I just had to adjust when I copied for each of the cameras.
Because of your helpful advice, I can continue to utilize my existing system coupled with the power/flexibility of Blue Iris. Thank you!

Indeed @srvfan

This is great news.
1) can have redundancy now ( buy a spare PoE switch for testing and emergency operations )
2) can have all sorts of fun with Blue Iris and any AI / smart home integrations now

 

[srvfan]

Indeed @srvfan

This is great news.
1) can have redundancy now ( buy a spare PoE switch for testing and emergency operations )
2) can have all sorts of fun with Blue Iris and any AI / smart home integrations now

You’re right on target. It’s nice to have redundancy in case of issues. For example, in case I have issues with the BI app or VPN, I will still get the alert and can utilize the Lorex app to view the cameras.

 

[Cropgun]

So I had time to play with this. Couldn't get it working until I came back to this thread and saw someone else's method of adding the NVR itself. Now its working and I have proof of concept. Is there a trial version of the mobile app?

@srvfan are you able to get two way audio working with blue iris as well as the the active deterrence lights?

edit

I can only get one camera working. I have 5 feeding the NVR but no matter which camera number I select I get the same stream

 

[srvfan]

So I had time to play with this. Couldn't get it working until I came back to this thread and saw someone else's method of adding the NVR itself. Now its working and I have proof of concept. Is there a trial version of the mobile app?

@srvfan are you able to get two way audio working with blue iris as well as the the active deterrence lights?

edit

I can only get one camera working. I have 5 feeding the NVR but no matter which camera number I select I get the same stream

As of this point, I cannot get two-way audio working within the app. I cannot try the BI computer itself bc I do not have an external microphone. That’s not to say it can’t be done; I just haven’t been able to figure it out yet. I don’t believe that there is a trial version of the mobile app. At least I couldn’t find one on the iOS App Store.
As far as only getting one camera to work with the NVR; I have found there are a couple of settings to change. One is the camera/channel selection you mentioned under the URL box. However, you also have to change the channel selection on the mainstream and sub stream boxes.
I cheated a little bit. After I got the first channel set up, I made a copy of the settings and saved to my desktop. Then, instead of going through the whole IP set up again, I chose add new camera and then chose to load that particular camera. All I had to do was change the channel number and the stream settings to adjust for the new channel. By doing this, I was able to eliminate having to set up profiles and mobile alert settings on each new camera. Little long winded but hope this helps.

 

[Cropgun]

As of this point, I cannot get two-way audio working within the app. I cannot try the BI computer itself bc I do not have an external microphone. That’s not to say it can’t be done; I just haven’t been able to figure it out yet. I don’t believe that there is a trial version of the mobile app. At least I couldn’t find one on the iOS App Store.
As far as only getting one camera to work with the NVR; I have found there are a couple of settings to change. One is the camera/channel selection you mentioned under the URL box. However, you also have to change the channel selection on the mainstream and sub stream boxes.
I cheated a little bit. After I got the first channel set up, I made a copy of the settings and saved to my desktop. Then, instead of going through the whole IP set up again, I chose add new camera and then chose to load that particular camera. All I had to do was change the channel number and the stream settings to adjust for the new channel. By doing this, I was able to eliminate having to set up profiles and mobile alert settings on each new camera. Little long winded but hope this helps.

@srvfan

hey I can't seem to figure out what substream settings you're talking about. I've been playing with this about an hour or so and no matter what I do I can only get one camera.



As discussed, changing the cam# to a different number does nothing. I assume you're talking about changing something in the stream profiles. I have tried different cam numbers and tried IP addresses as listed on the NVR for different cameras and still nothing changes. I assume those are you stream settings you are referring to. Any chance you could send a screen cap or more insight on this as its kicking my butt.

 

[srvfan]

Good evening @Cropgun
Sorry for the delayed response. I’m currently away from where I can take screenshots from my BI computer. However, I will work on taking your screenshot and drawing on it and sending it back. Just wanted to give you a quick response, but I will send something in about an hour or so. Stay tuned.

 

[srvfan]

@Cropgun

OK, so I have a Lorex system (N841 with E891AB cameras) much like you; 8 channels, 8 cameras. I’m going to walk through exactly what I did and try to provide screenshots. I’m going to go and just start from the very first, and just pretend you have not added anything to BI just yet.

• I chose to add a camera to BI; in the first dialog box, I named my camera, chose Network IP, and then the options I wanted (audio, motion, and direct-to-disk).
• I typed in the address of the NVR (not the camera addresses since they are running directly into the N841). I typed in the user name and password of the NVR, but instead of just hitting OK, I personally hit the Find/Inspect button to the right of the address bar. An inspection box was opened and ran through to get the parameters.

• Once that runs, hit Close which should populate the Stream Profile for the Mainstream (red highlight). This should read something like /cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0&unicast=true&proto=Onvif .

• Click OK twice to load the stream into BI. At this point, you can go back into that camera setting and populate the Substream option. If you desire to add the substream go to #5; if not go to #6.

• To add substream, right click the video feed and choose Camera settings. Go to Video and then choose Configure. Go to the substream drop down box (green highlight) and choose substream (this may appear as Channel5 substream, but choose anyway). It should populate the same address as the mainstream, but subtype should read as 1 instead of 0 (/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=1&unicast=true&proto=Onvif). Click OK twice to go back to BI main console.

• Go back into Camera settings and then the General tab. Choose Export at the bottom and save the configuration to your desktop. Now you can close the camera options and go back out to the main console.

• When adding a new camera from the NVR, choose add a new camera and then, instead of Network IP, choose Import from exported file. This should open a dialog box and you can choose the camera settings you just saved. Go to Video and choose Configure. Change the Cam# box to reflect the channel/camera from your NVR you are adding (purple box).
  
• Go to the Mainstream address bar (red highlight from before, step 3). The address should be populated; be sure to change the channel # in that address bar to reflect the purple box. Do the same thing for the substream address bar (if you chose to add a substream).

That was the process that I figured out to add my Lorex NVR and associated cameras. I know I went a little long, but I try to detail everything as much as possible. Hope this helps.

 

[Cropgun]

@srvfan

Hey thanks again for the help. So this has helped me narrow down the problem. The only selection I am allowed to make in the stream profiles drop down boxes is "(default)" as shown in my first screen capture. There is no other selection I can make. We have the exact same part number\ NVR and cameras. More investigation needed on my end.

 

[srvfan]

@srvfan

Hey thanks again for the help. So this has helped me narrow down the problem. The only selection I am allowed to make in the stream profiles drop down boxes is "(default)" as shown in my first screen capture. There is no other selection I can make. We have the exact same part number\ NVR and cameras. More investigation needed on my end.

Make sure you hit the find/inspect button to the right of the address bar. If that does not populate the mainstream, I would try entering the stream rtsp as I listed for both main and sub streams. At this point, that’s about all I can think of to try. Of course I am pretty new to this so I M probably missing something.

 

[Cropgun]

Yeah I hit the inspect button. I will try manually entering the pathway. I wonder if there is a setting you enabled on your NVR that I did not

 

[srvfan]

Yeah I hit the inspect button. I will try manually entering the pathway. I wonder if there is a setting you enabled on your NVR that I did not

Not that I am aware of. When I first got the system, I just set up my password and plugged the cameras in; from there it was just motion zones and audio that I set up for each camera. The only extra thing I did was scan the QR code on the side of the NVR, but that was just to utilize the Lorex Home application.

 

[Cropgun]

@srvfan

Out of curiousity what are you using for your IP address for your NVR? does it start with 10.1.x.x or is a 192.168.x.x Mine is 192.168.x.x

 

[srvfan]

@srvfan

Out of curiousity what are you using for your IP address for your NVR? does it start with 10.1.x.x or is a 192.168.x.x Mine is 192.168.x.x

Mine is 192.168.x.x. I know that when I go into the NVR and look at the device IP addresses for the cameras, it shows them as 10.x.x.x. But the main NVR IP is the 192 address which is what goes into BI.