Do you recommend Blue iris or NVR for my needs?

[Jimbob]

Hello,

I'm a little confused by all the different NVR options available, and Blue Iris.

My understanding is that Blue Iris does everything a standalone NVR can do, and more. However, perhaps it's overkill for what I need, and not worth the "extra" cost/effort. (ie: I would have to get a Windows computer, set it all up, monitor it, periodically reboot it, install and tweak/configure Blue Iris, etc..)

An NVR seems like a lower-cost option, and is more "plug and play". The NVR that I'm considering to get would be the Amcrest NV4108-HS, because 7 of my 8 cameras are Amcrest, and I've heard staying with the same brand is a good idea.

Here's my list of needs for the NVR/Blue Iris:

- I have 8 Amcrest cameras. (4 wifi and 4 wired. Some are 2 megapixel and some are 3 megapixel)
- Four cameras will will be plain old "record 24x7" (no motion detection/alerts/etc).
- Four cameras it would be nice to set them up with motion detection that will send me an email or app alert.
- For those motion detection cameras it would be nice to set up "exclusion" zones (so motion from cars/road won't trigger an alert).
- I would like to be able to use my phone, from anywhere in the world (assuming I am connected to the internet) to view real-time camera feeds from any of my 8 cameras.
- I would like to be able to use my phone, from anywhere in the world, to review stored footage.

What do you think? Is Blue Iris recommended? Is the Amcrest NVR (or perhaps a different one?) a better solution?

Thanks!

 

[looney2ns]

As @fenderman has told you, a $100 windows machine with BI, BI will run circles around any NVR.

NVR's are not as plug and play as you are imagining.

Read attached.

 

[aristobrat]

- Four cameras it would be nice to set them up with motion detection that will send me an email or app alert.
- For those motion detection cameras it would be nice to set up "exclusion" zones (so motion from cars/road won't trigger an alert).

Most NVRs make the cameras look for motion detection. This means you're restricted to the motion detection capabilities of each of your cameras.

On most cameras, "motion detection" has very few options that you can tune to avoid false alerts. The more tuning you to do to avoid false alerts, the higher the likelihood that the camera will miss true motion.

A lot of cameras have an additional (and more sophisticated) level of motion detection, with capabilities like tripwires, intrusion zones, etc. Dahua calls this IVS, and I think Hikvision calls this Smart Events. My experience with Dahua is that IVS is leaps and bounds more reliable than "motion detection". The catch is that this more sophisticated motion detection usually only works with a DVR from the same manufacturer as the camera. i.e. if a Hikvision camera has a Smart Event happen, it can't tell a Dahua NVR to start recording (or email, or whatever...).

What's cool about Blue Iris is that instead of being limited to whatever motion detection capabilities come built-in to your cameras firmware, .. you can have BI do motion detection (on the PC) as it receives the video streams from your camera. This means you get the same motion detection abilities across all of your cameras. With BI, motion detection can be simple (i.e. just color in the area of the camera image you want it to look for) to very advanced (having multiple areas on the cameras image, but only triggering if motion happens in one area and moves to another area, etc).

If you have a PC, try the demo version of Blue Iris and see what you think. Demo version sometimes uses more resources than the paid one, but you get 14 days (I think?) to play with it for free. Unfortunately the Blue Iris phone app doesn't have a free demo, but it's makes checking my BI system when I'm out and about sooooooo much easier and quicker than the Dahua iOS app.

 

[Jimbob]

Thank you. That was very helpful to me! Some of us are very stupid, and we don't "get" things quickly. I really appreciate the time and effort you put into writing this up. It is much clearer now, what are the some of the big differences and advantages/disadvantages between a standalone NVR and Blueiris.

 

[TCB]

Hello,

I'm a little confused by all the different NVR options available, and Blue Iris.

My understanding is that Blue Iris does everything a standalone NVR can do, and more. However, perhaps it's overkill for what I need, and not worth the "extra" cost/effort. (ie: I would have to get a Windows computer, set it all up, monitor it, periodically reboot it, install and tweak/configure Blue Iris, etc..)

An NVR seems like a lower-cost option, and is more "plug and play". The NVR that I'm considering to get would be the Amcrest NV4108-HS, because 7 of my 8 cameras are Amcrest, and I've heard staying with the same brand is a good idea.

Here's my list of needs for the NVR/Blue Iris:

• I have 8 Amcrest cameras. (4 wifi and 4 wired. Some are 2 megapixel and some are 3 megapixel)
• Four cameras will will be plain old "record 24x7" (no motion detection/alerts/etc).
• Four cameras it would be nice to set them up with motion detection that will send me an email or app alert.
• For those motion detection cameras it would be nice to set up "exclusion" zones (so motion from cars/road won't trigger an alert).
• I would like to be able to use my phone, from anywhere in the world (assuming I am connected to the internet) to view real-time camera feeds from any of my 8 cameras.
• I would like to be able to use my phone, from anywhere in the world, to review stored footage.

What do you think? Is Blue Iris recommended? Is the Amcrest NVR (or perhaps a different one?) a better solution?

Thanks!

 

[TCB]

From my personal experience and opinion; it seems Blue Iris Technical support is scarce, even when you pay for priority support, and is mainly self-service using their forum or manuals etc. since there is no "call-in" phone number. Each email thread bounces your email to the end of their support queue, so it can take a week to get an inadequate response. (However, Blue Iris will take your money for the software, renewal and insufficient technical support.). Save yourself money and headaches, by getting an established company that provides technical and maintenance support in a realistic, timely manner.

 

[wittaj]

^ You realize BI is basically a one man show and as such doesn't have a call center.

AND THIS IS OVER A 3.5 YEAR THREAD SO THE OP PROBABLY ALREADY HAS BEEN USING SOMETHING FOR 3 YEARS lol...

A member here just last week has an issue with a Dahua camera and it has been escalated up to Level 3 support and has been there over a week. And they are a large corporation. When BI does get back to you they can solve it because it is one man that knows the program in and out. A large corporation will simply keep passing you around and then give up. Had that just this week with a large software company...

Or buy a Lorex or Reolink and call their customer service. In many instances, the caller knows the product better than the call center rep.

Whenever I have called customer support on an electronic, I end up knowing more than the person answering the phone....

But if you are that unhappy with BI, and do not post the problem you have that are probably user error that members of a free forum could help with, then go ahead and buy a VMS program that will cost you more in license for just one camera than all of BI and then complain about their support as well.