Dahua NVR or Blue Iris?

[Barboots]

I have a new second surveillance site with 2x Dahua 5442TMP-ASE and maybe a few of my 2MP Starlight hand-downs. I need an NVR, and am trying to decide which way to go. The cheapest/easiest option is to buy a bottom of the range Dahua NVR for a few hundred bucks (AU) and be done with it.

An alternative is to upgrade my home NVR... a basic Dahua 4116... and move this unit to the subject site. This would mean I have to choose a new NVR or move to Blue Iris, and my immediate thought from viewing here is that I do not have the IT chops to manage Blue Iris. Comments on the learning curve for "non-command line" 50 year olds appreciated.

I have just started with the 5442 and the Human Detection is impressive. So putting technical aptitude aside momentarily, I wonder how Push Notifications from the WizSense features of the 5442 work if:

• the NVR does not support Human Detection (for example), AND;
• you have the cameras blocked to the internet.

Is there a pathway for these notifications in the above example? I saw a command line solution which I think was required for Blue Iris, and I got cold on it real fast, but then realised my 4116 does not have this feature inbuilt either. Does an un-equipped Dahua NVR "pass through" these notifications from the cams? Does Blue Iris???

Anecdotally... to quickly set up this new site I've enabled P2P on the cams and run them through mobile data, with access via DMSS. It actually works extremely well. I understand the concerns surrounding P2P, and don't use it on my home network, but I must say the convenience creates much temptation when compared the the OpenVPN arrangement I use to access my home! Anyway, moving to a secure communications protocol, is one possible advantage of using Blue Iris that I could set up OpenVPN on the computer, meaning I don't need an additional router between it and the mobile data modem? ie: 4G LTE modem -> POE Switch -> BI PC with OpenVPN. Or is this not possible and/or insecure AF?

Apologies for my ramblings. Please be nice :-D

Cheers, Steve

 

[Flintstone61]

I run both at home as a way out of my learning curve from Dvr's to NVR's to BI.
It's an experiment with my own classroom of hardknocks,
rather than beat my buddies, @looney2ns and @TonyR and @wittaj to death with too many repeat questions.
I'm 62, I'm starting to forget shit.
I'm not doing anything fancy with my 5442's except for plate recognition in a few instances. and Zone crossing motion commands. I have been screwing around with BI for about 1.5-2 years, and have barely got my pinky toe in the water.
I'm not a command line, guy either. but I saw some examples of zone crossing commands like A>B, B>A, B>c C>B, A, etc etc....So i drew the a b and c boxes in Bi and tada! i have less false motions from tree branches.

 

[Flintstone61]

I have both at the Condo as well, because some of the legacy Coax runs are quite long, and the cams in some places work ok, So i hooked up a Refurb Nightowl 16CH DVR and run the Nightowl Windows software, so i can do the same thing over there as I added new IP cams to BI, I built out quite a nice set up.

 

[Flintstone61]

This is what I'm able to quickly review when i get home from work with BI. all the traffic coming by the side yard, Watching for patterns to emerge of regular folk, and who are the outliers, up to no good, cruising back and forth at 2 am thru parking lots of the 3 complexes across the street.
Maybe its the paper boy/man/person...maybe its a door checker, maybe it's a convert chopper.
I see patterns develop on BI more easily because the timeline review works for my brain....

 

[Flintstone61]

I like this view.......
it shows me a chronological event view of recent motion captures. either of ALL cams or just 1 cam.

 

[Barboots]

I like this view.......
it shows me a chronological event view of recent motion captures. either of ALL cams or just 1 cam.
View attachment 161753View attachment 161754

Yeah that's pretty cool right there. Encouraging!

 

[wittaj]

Many here got into BI in their 50s or later LOL.

The learning curve isn't all that steep. And it is way more flexible and easier to use than any NVR I ever owned.

The basic default settings in BI can get you up and going in no time at all. Basic default settings for motion, etc. are way better than the default of an NVR.

Then comes the fun part of customizing it to your needs and situations. You can spend as much or as little time on this as you want.

But it has way more features than any NVR.

I had NVRs for many years. It was a frustrating experience.

There is a big debate here on which is better. Personally I found the NVRs to be too clunky and not very user friendly and got to the point that I was reactive instead of proactive. I literally tested BI and knew within a few minutes it was better than any NVR I ever had.

Like literally I would go months on end not even looking at the NVR videos because the interface was too clunky and would take forever to pull up any motion from the night before. And ended up turning off the alerts because there were so many false triggers. I would only look at it if I could tell someone messed with something on my property or a neighbor asked me if my cameras caught anything.

With BI, in addition to being able to configure it such that I get notifications whenever someone gets too close to my house, I can literally in less than 30 seconds every morning do a quick review to see if there was any suspicious activity or people walking down the sidewalk at 2am. I could never do it that fast with an NVR.

Here is the search tool of all the NVR versus BI comparisons:

blue iris vs nvr ip cam site:ipcamtalk.com - Google Search


I have had whatever the NVR operating system is running on go out. TWICE. Got to buy a whole new NVR - TWICE

I have had the ethernet port go out on an NVR. Got to buy a whole new NVR.

i had the HDMI port go out on an NVR. Got to buy a whole new NVR.

Most I ever got was 2.5 years. The only working part was the HDD that I simply moved from the old NVR to the new one. I got to the point of realizing that an NVR is simply a stripped down computer, so I went to BI and never looked back. I got tired of buying a whole new unit.

So in my BI Computer, at least if the HDD goes out, I can just replace it. If the ethernet card goes out, I can just replace it. If the HDMI port goes out, I can just replace it. etc.

Personally I gave up on NVRs because I have found them to be clunky and a struggle to review clips and if a component goes out like the internet port, then you are stuck buying a new NVR whereas a computer part goes out and you replace just that component. I went to BI on a dedicated machine and haven't looked back.

Keep in mind an NVR is simply a watered down computer....even a 4th gen computer for Blue Iris has more capabilities than the more expensive line NVR.

 

[Barboots]

The basic default settings in BI can get you up and going in no time at all. Basic default settings for motion, etc. are way better than the default of an NVR.

I think I'm getting convinced now. Reading this I just played around using an old i3 2400 I had idle, and within a short time got all my cams enabled (bar one) and three recording full-time. The i3 started to die in the ass after that... but I'm now looking at HP Elitedesk i5-8500 as I think I'll dive in and see how I go.

Hopefully you all don't regret my decision ;-)

 

[Flintstone61]

And so another seemingly normal person was saved from the Matrix.

 

[Barboots]

Not so many i5-8500 EliteDesks, so I have a list of some others I'm considering. Pricing is AU so will be higher than y'all are used to seeing.

The two that have video cards also have onboard with Quick Sync, so i could possibly scrape back a few bucks there. What do you think???

HP ELITEDESK 800 G3 SFF INTEL CORE I5-7500 3.4GHZ 8GB 128GB SSD WIN11 PRO USB-C	$197.77​
HP EliteDesk 800 G3 SFF PC i5-7700 @3.60GHz 8GB RAM 256GB SSD 500GB HDD Win 11	$228.40​
HP EliteDesk 800 G4 SFF PC i5-8500 8GB RAM 128GB SSD 500G HDD Win 11 AMD R7 430	$285.20​
HP EliteDesk 800 G3, i7-7700, 32GB DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD, Nvidia NVS 310, Windows 10 Pro	$300.00​

 

[fenderman]

Not so many i5-8500 EliteDesks, so I have a list of some others I'm considering. Pricing is AU so will be higher than y'all are used to seeing.

The two that have video cards also have onboard with Quick Sync, so i could possibly scrape back a few bucks there. What do you think???

HP ELITEDESK 800 G3 SFF INTEL CORE I5-7500 3.4GHZ 8GB 128GB SSD WIN11 PRO USB-C	$197.77​
HP EliteDesk 800 G3 SFF PC i5-7700 @3.60GHz 8GB RAM 256GB SSD 500GB HDD Win 11	$228.40​
HP EliteDesk 800 G4 SFF PC i5-8500 8GB RAM 128GB SSD 500G HDD Win 11 AMD R7 430	$285.20​
HP EliteDesk 800 G3, i7-7700, 32GB DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD, Nvidia NVS 310, Windows 10 Pro	$300.00​

Do not buy any 7th gen systems. There is a huge leap from 7th to 8th gen. Also 7th gen cannot run windows 11 in the event you want to install it now or at a later point. For example, the i7-7700 is actually weaker than the i5-8500.

 

[Barboots]

Do not buy any 7th gen systems.

Thanks mate. Appreciate you fending off this option ;-)

 

[Barboots]

My options now seem to be :

HP EliteDesk 800 G4 SFF i5-8500, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, 500G HDD, Win 11 AMD R7 430 $285 (delivered, with Tax Invoice)
HP ProDesk 600 G4 SFF i5-8500, 16GB RAM, 500Gb NVMe SSD, 1Tb HDD, Win 11 $255 (40 minutes drive, no Tax Invoice)

Any thoughts on the expandability of having an extra drive bay in the EliteDesk versus the larger system SSD and extra memory of the ProDesk? My thoughts are that the system SSD is fine at 128GB... though I know nothing of BI database size... and many seem to be doing fine with only 8GB of memory.

 

[Barboots]

Bought a mint EliteDesk 800 G4 SFF i7-8700 with 8Mb RAM and a 128SGb SSD. Have the demo BI installed, and cleared out all the Win11 junk. Waiting on a 14TB Purple and I'll be getting stuck into it. Watching online markets for a cheap/good extra 8GB of RAM.

Is there a "cliff notes" equivalent for BlueIris 5?