H.264 encoding on Dahua/Hikvision/Blue Iris vs Unifi

[Sugarkryptonite]

Hi guys

I've seen a video where it was shown that Ubiquiti's cameras (using Unifi Video software) will do H.264 encoding on the camera themselves, leaving the NVR to have very little CPU utilization (basically next to nothing), and therefore can run many cameras on a rig that has low specs.

Conversely, I've seen quite a few videos and threads on there where people talk about Blue Iris and the hardware requirements for it, along with problems of high processor usage, with most people using Dahua/Hikvision cams. Are those cameras capable of doing the same thing as the Unifi cameras with hardware offload?

Is this only a Blue Iris problem, a camera problem, or what?

Thanks!

 

[fenderman]

Hi guys

I've seen a video where it was shown that Ubiquiti's cameras (using Unifi Video software) will do H.264 encoding on the camera themselves, leaving the NVR to have very little CPU utilization (basically next to nothing), and therefore can run many cameras on a rig that has low specs.

Conversely, I've seen quite a few videos and threads on there where people talk about Blue Iris and the hardware requirements for it, along with problems of high processor usage, with most people using Dahua/Hikvision cams. Are those cameras capable of doing the same thing as the Unifi cameras with hardware offload?

Is this only a Blue Iris problem, a camera problem, or what?

Thanks!

The UniFi cameras do nothing special. In fact, with respect to encoding they are inferior to dahua/hik as uni does not support h.265. They dont support onvif either. They are neutered crap.
Blue iris has not problems with high cpu usage. Just problems with improper setup or buying improper hardware.
Blue iris can accomplish the exact same thing as uni by utilizing the "limit encoding" AND making the appropriate setting changes AND giving up using blue iris's superior motion detection.
Unifi cameras are overpriced garbage.
You dont have to use blue iris. Since you are willing to overpay for unifi, you can but a dahua starlight turret and use it with digital watchdog ipvms for 70 bux per camera.

 

[Sugarkryptonite]

The UniFi cameras do nothing special. In fact, with respect to encoding they are inferior to dahua/hik as uni does not support h.265. They dont support onvif either. They are neutered crap.
Blue iris has not problems with high cpu usage. Just problems with improper setup or buying improper hardware.
Blue iris can accomplish the exact same thing as uni by utilizing the "limit encoding" AND making the appropriate setting changes AND giving up using blue iris's superior motion detection.
Unifi cameras are overpriced garbage.
You dont have to use blue iris. Since you are willing to overpay for unifi, you can but a dahua starlight turret and use it with digital watchdog ipvms for 70 bux per camera.

I take it you're a big fan of Unifi!

From what you said, it seems that Blue Iris' motion detection takes a lot of processing power, then, correct? If so, can you list what is so superior about it compared to others? Also, If possible you can tell me a dealer that sells Dahua cameras (yea...not AliExpress, I actually like someone to talk to if I need support for products) that are cheaper than Unifi's that would be great!

 

[fenderman]

I take it you're a big fan of Unifi!

From what you said, it seems that Blue Iris' motion detection takes a lot of processing power, then, correct? If so, can you list what is so superior about it compared to others?

Its not the motion detection. Its the decoding of the full high res stream.
Look, this is discussed in detail hundreds of times on the forum. If its to difficult for your to search or download the demo to try. They use unifi and be content with overpriced crap.

 

[Sugarkryptonite]

Its not the motion detection. Its the decoding of the full high res stream.
Look, this is discussed in detail hundreds of times on the forum. If its to difficult for your to search or download the demo to try. They use unifi and be content with overpriced crap.

Thanks. Please If possible tell me a dealer that sells Dahua cameras in Canada where I can get them cheaper than Unifi's cams, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[fenderman]

Thanks. Please If possible tell me a dealer that sells Dahua cameras in Canada where I can get them cheaper than Unifi's cams, it would be greatly appreciated.

Again it's all explained in the cliff notes. It's not only that the dahua will be cheaper, it's thst the image quality will be significantly better and it will have a larger feature set and will not lock you in to unifi.

 

[Sugarkryptonite]

Again it's all explained in the cliff notes. It's not only that the dahua will be cheaper, it's thst the image quality will be significantly better and it will have a larger feature set and will not lock you in to unifi.

Yea, I've been through all that. Basically buy from Andy on AliExpress. I've done that before, but I actually prefer to buy products locally to me, that way I can walk into a store and actually talk to someone/get my product replaced right away, instead of waiting a week/sending a defective product back to China. Obviously you're right, the Unifi cameras are more expensive, probably have less features, but most people on here seem to negate the fact that you can buy them locally (at $200 CAD), whereas buying a Dahua camera locally from what I've seen start at $250-300. Buying a Dahua cam for cheaper from a country 7000 miles away isn't for me...and doesn't inspire any confidence. Please keep that in mind when you say they're much cheaper...

 

[fenderman]

Yea, I've been through all that. Basically buy from Andy on AliExpress. I've done that before, but I actually prefer to buy products locally to me, that way I can walk into a store and actually talk to someone/get my product replaced right away, instead of waiting a week/sending a defective product back to China. Obviously you're right, the Unifi cameras are more expensive, probably have less features, but most people on here seem to negate the fact that you can buy them locally (at $200 CAD), whereas buying a Dahua camera locally from what I've seen start at $250-300. Buying a Dahua cam for cheaper from a country 7000 miles away isn't for me...and doesn't inspire any confidence. Please keep that in mind when you say they're much cheaper...

The 200 dollar unifi cameras is complete garbage, terrible image quality.
You can buy a dahua fixed starlight for 100 bux. You can buy a SPARE camera and sill be ahead with MUCH better image quality and you wont even have to go to the store to replace it. Camera failures are very rare. Of the hundreds of cameras I have installed only a handful had to be replaced and all but one of those occurred well after any unifi warranty would have long expired. In the US you can buy the same dahua camera for 160. So 250 canadian makes sense for a LOCAL purchase. So if you are buying the dahua local why not spend the extra 50 bux for a superior product? your logic is not adding up. If you REALLY look around and find a local supplier you can buy it for less. Your logic does not add up.
So go ahead, get your "confidence" by buying local...youll lose it as soon as you see how crappy the video is and that you are now LOCKED into a unifi setup because at best the camera only supports rtsp - at least for now, they may decide to remove that function as they did in the past.

 

[anijet]

Buy two Dahuas for every one Unifi you could have a 50% failure rate and still be even money. Plus you have a much better product. I have 7 Dahuas from Andy and have had zero failures in almost 2 years. I think I'm way ahead.
Unifi, at double money, makes no sense.

 

[Sugarkryptonite]

Buy two Dahuas for every one Unifi you could have a 50% failure rate and still be even money. Plus you have a much better product. I have 7 Dahuas from Andy and have had zero failures in almost 2 years. I think I'm way ahead.
Unifi, at double money, makes no sense.

So you would recommend IPC-HDW1320S? That's the only one that fits that price point.

 

[fenderman]

So you would recommend IPC-HDW1320S? That's the only one that fits the price point. I have the WiFi model and it's...alright.

No, horrible choice you did not read the wiki.

 

[Sugarkryptonite]

No, horrible choice you did not read the wiki.

Lol. I did. I was just responding to the gentleman that said I could buy TWO for the price of ONE Unifi and still be ahead money wise. That's the only one that fits that case.

 

[fenderman]

Lol. I did. I was just responding to the gentleman that said I could buy TWO for the price of ONE Unifi and still be ahead. That's the only one that fits that case.

Really? Now you are nit picking over 20 bucks. Honesty you deserve unifi. You have no intention of looking at anything else. Buy it already and enjoy. You can lead a horse to water....

 

[Sugarkryptonite]

Really? Now you are nit picking over 20 bucks. Honesty you deserve unifi. You have no intention of looking at anything else. Buy it already and enjoy. You can lead a horse to water....

Thank you.

 

[ataylor]

I very nearly ordered unified kit last week until I saw this fourm I have a unifi router at home and I've deployed over 18 pro AP's at work - their networking kit is great so why not assume their cameras are too?...

But after much research and specifically look for a reason to buy unifi cameras, I could not justify it with so much evidence against it.

The G3's cost around £120 here and the G3 pro is around £260 and their NVR is over £300 for a little nuc machine... I've managed to get x3 IPC-HDW5231R-ZE for £144 each (including the wall mounts) and my NVR is a HPZ420 with 16GB of ram and a Xeon 1620 @ 3.70ghz (very powerful kit for the ££)

The HDW5231R-ZE turret from my understanding (correct me if I'm wrong) is more feature rich and better performing than the G3 pro (which is also bullet form factor attracting spiders) more more kit for the money - and if you don't need the inbuilt mic you get get a HDW2231R-Z(Still getting my head around the models so may have quoted the wrong one here) which you can pick up for cheaper than the standard G3!

My kit has not arrived yet but I feel much more confident and happy with my purchase after reading overwhelming evidence that this is the correct decision.

Now I agree that I would prefer to buy cameras locally as would get better support for warranty but when I can get it this cheap from Andy - I'm willing to take the risk - if your not, pay the premium.

 

[ataylor]

I very nearly ordered unified kit last week until I saw this fourm I have a unifi router at home and I've deployed over 18 pro AP's at work - their networking kit is great so why not assume their cameras are too?...

But after much research and specifically look for a reason to buy unifi cameras, I could not justify it with so much evidence against it.

The G3's cost around £120 here and the G3 pro is around £260 and their NVR is over £300 for a little nuc machine... I've managed to get x3 IPC-HDW5231R-ZE for £144 each (including the wall mounts) and my NVR is a HPZ420 with 16GB of ram and a Xeon 1620 @ 3.70ghz (very powerful kit for the ££)

The HDW5231R-ZE turret from my understanding (correct me if I'm wrong) is more feature rich and better performing than the G3 pro (which is also bullet form factor attracting spiders) more more kit for the money - and if you don't need the inbuilt mic you get get a HDW2231R-Z(Still getting my head around the models so may have quoted the wrong one here) which you can pick up for cheaper than the standard G3!

My kit has not arrived yet but I feel much more confident and happy with my purchase after reading overwhelming evidence that this is the correct decision.

Now I agree that I would prefer to buy cameras locally as would get better support for warranty but when I can get it this cheap from Andy - I'm willing to take the risk - if your not, pay the premium.

Also - my first post... Hi guys!

 

[Sugarkryptonite]

I very nearly ordered unified kit last week until I saw this fourm I have a unifi router at home and I've deployed over 18 pro AP's at work - their networking kit is great so why not assume their cameras are too?...

But after much research and specifically look for a reason to buy unifi cameras, I could not justify it with so much evidence against it.

The G3's cost around £120 here and the G3 pro is around £260 and their NVR is over £300 for a little nuc machine... I've managed to get x3 IPC-HDW5231R-ZE for £144 each (including the wall mounts) and my NVR is a HPZ420 with 16GB of ram and a Xeon 1620 @ 3.70ghz (very powerful kit for the ££)

The HDW5231R-ZE turret from my understanding (correct me if I'm wrong) is more feature rich and better performing than the G3 pro (which is also bullet form factor attracting spiders) more more kit for the money - and if you don't need the inbuilt mic you get get a HDW2231R-Z(Still getting my head around the models so may have quoted the wrong one here) which you can pick up for cheaper than the standard G3!

My kit has not arrived yet but I feel much more confident and happy with my purchase after reading overwhelming evidence that this is the correct decision.

Now I agree that I would prefer to buy cameras locally as would get better support for warranty but when I can get it this cheap from Andy - I'm willing to take the risk - if your not, pay the premium.

Thanks for your input! Welcome to the forum.