I have joined in an attempt to learn more. I am a fan of plug and play systems as my technical skill and patience are limited. My noisy QCK-81 NVR has been good for video but I never liked the search function. I rely on a Kuna door light camera for notifications and remote monitoring, using the NVR for quality video if something happens. Now the QC system is starting to act up so I need a replacement.
Here to learn
- Thread starter AMCPacer
- Start date
Hello, welcome to the forum. Check out the wiki at the top of the page if you haven't already done so.
sebastiantombs
Known around here
Keep in mind that an NVR is, basically, a dumb computer. Using a software driven solution that runs on a real PC has many advantages. An NVR is limited, basically, to cameras from the same manufacturer and has a finite ability to process video. IE it can only handle a specific number of cameras at higher resolutions. A PC driven solution, such as Blue Iris, is compatible with just about any camera with few exceptions and is not limited in terms of the amount of video it can process.
Flintstone61
Known around here
the timeline reviews on my 3 DVR's are all different and the only one I can tolerate is the old Nightowl HDA10-16, which will playback all 12 camera in synchronicity, But usually its just 2-3. It records continuously with a green timeline, overliad by yellow stripes for motion events. The newer night owl has a different user interface. and the Amcrest looks somewhat like the Dahua interface but cut down to basics. i hate hate using that Pentabrid's timeline review. Luckily i was able to keep 2 dvr's running and incorporate them into my PC via IP address or Nightowl HD software. If you can import your camera's into a Blue Iris computer, from your QC nvr, you could see the differences in how video gets saved, viewed, reviewed etc......
Flintstone61
Known around here
I'm not a super tech, but I have learned here also. I have some Cisco network intro classes under my belt ( only 20 years ago LOL), and took some PC repair community college class. then worked at Microcenter on the sales floor and was outnerded everyday by some IT guys looking for parts. I like the EZ button for some things. but I was not liking being the fucked Consumer by Coscto packaged security Camera deals. I said No More bullshit. I'm going to google until I find some good camera people. (Mwahahaha) So here I am 1.5 years into this BI cam forum, and having a good time. I'm not a home automation guy....But never say never.
+1 on consider a Blue Iris/computer combo as an NVR. Keep in mind an NVR is a stripped down computer after all....and isn't true plug-n-play like people believe. You still have to dial the cameras into your setting. Once you do that, might as well go with something that has the best chance of working with many different camera brands. And I have found Blue Iris to be more robust and easier than an NVR. As always, YMMV...
Many of us purchase a refurbished computers that are business class computers that have come off lease. The one I bought I kid you not I could not tell that it was a refurbished unit - not a speck of dust or dents or scratches on it. It appeared to me like everything was replaced and I would assume just the motherboard with the intel processor is what was from the original unit. I went with the lowest end processor on the WIKI list as it was the cheapest and it runs my system fine. Could probably get going for $200 or so. A real NVR will cost more than that.
A member here just last month found a refurbished 4th generation for less than $150USD that came with Win10 PRO, 16GB RAM, and a 1TB drive. Blue Iris has a demo, so try it out on an existing computer and see if you like it. You can pull the cameras from the NVR right into Blue Iris by simply adding in the IP address of the NVR in the camera IP address of Blue Iris and then down about halfway is a camera # and you just select the camera number to bring in.
There is a big Blue Iris or NVR debate here LOL. Some people love Blue Iris and think NVRs are clunky and hard to use and others think Blue Iris is clunky and hard to use. I have done both and prefer Blue Iris. As with everything YMMV...
And you can disable Windows updates and set up the computer to automatically restart in a power failure, and then you have a more powerful NVR with a nice mobile viewing interface.
Many of us purchase a refurbished computers that are business class computers that have come off lease. The one I bought I kid you not I could not tell that it was a refurbished unit - not a speck of dust or dents or scratches on it. It appeared to me like everything was replaced and I would assume just the motherboard with the intel processor is what was from the original unit. I went with the lowest end processor on the WIKI list as it was the cheapest and it runs my system fine. Could probably get going for $200 or so. A real NVR will cost more than that.
A member here just last month found a refurbished 4th generation for less than $150USD that came with Win10 PRO, 16GB RAM, and a 1TB drive. Blue Iris has a demo, so try it out on an existing computer and see if you like it. You can pull the cameras from the NVR right into Blue Iris by simply adding in the IP address of the NVR in the camera IP address of Blue Iris and then down about halfway is a camera # and you just select the camera number to bring in.
There is a big Blue Iris or NVR debate here LOL. Some people love Blue Iris and think NVRs are clunky and hard to use and others think Blue Iris is clunky and hard to use. I have done both and prefer Blue Iris. As with everything YMMV...
And you can disable Windows updates and set up the computer to automatically restart in a power failure, and then you have a more powerful NVR with a nice mobile viewing interface.
mat200
IPCT Contributor
- Jan 17, 2017
- 15,137
- 25,595
Welcome @AMCPacer
It's ok to use multiple products to get what you want done, thus imho having a couple of affordable cloud cameras in addition to a quality on premise security camera system is a reasonable option.
In terms of the QC NVR, it appears to be a Dahua OEM NVR with the IVS and AI features, so perhaps one of the higher tier models.
So the cameras that came with the kits should also be Dahua OEM cameras and most recently will have good rtsp feeds which can work with Blue Iris
( do expect to need to sync IP address, port info, users/password, and substream info )
If it is the NVRs PoE ports which are failing you could try an external PoE switch and connect the cameras to the NVR manually ( external ) to the NVR.
If is is the NVR power supply, that can also be replaced - as can the fans and of course the HDD ( if you want to replace these )
FYI - Documenting the information here in case we need it
From
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Flintstone61
Known around here
So hopefully if it was a package, the cams might be dahua hardware, which means there is hope. LOL looks like it's a fairly capable nvr.
Thanks everyone, I found the QC difficult to use from day one. It took some time on the phone with Costco's help line to get the cameras synced and the time correct. Lately I have to manually reset the camera to constantly record every few days. I may try to set up Blue Iris on a dedicated computer with an SSD hard drive. I will post my system and hopefully solution in another thread when I get started on it.
sebastiantombs
Known around here
DanDenver
Getting comfortable
I am in the middle of migrating from a hardware NVR (LaView) that I have been running for about 5 years to Blue Iris. Started about 2 weeks ago. I cant say how much more happier I am now with Blue Iris. I work in IT, had several friends there that were using Blue Iris but I did not want to make that move as I really enjoyed the idea of 'plug and play' offered by hardware based NVR's. But now that I have made the decision to migrate I have learned that Blue Iris is just as easy. But the implementation is so much better (at least with AI engaged). Previously I got so many useless alerts with my pre-built NVR. Now everything is 'actionable' meaning I only get alerts when something has actually happened of interest. whether is is a car pulling into my driveway, a person approaching the front/back door, it just alerts so much better. So much better in fact that I am now working on how to automate the profiles via HomeSeer so that I can step outside and not get an alert on my self. Before, stepping outside just meant one more alert of thousands (At some point I just turned that off alerts in LaView).
My wife opted out of LaView in the first few months as they were all so useless (tree moving, shadow changing, squirrel, etc)
I have yet to opt her into any of the alerts from Blue Iris as I am still learning, but for me the difference is like 'the promise land'. So far all alerts have been helpful and actionable. No more, bunny hopping across the driveway alerts
My wife opted out of LaView in the first few months as they were all so useless (tree moving, shadow changing, squirrel, etc)
I have yet to opt her into any of the alerts from Blue Iris as I am still learning, but for me the difference is like 'the promise land'. So far all alerts have been helpful and actionable. No more, bunny hopping across the driveway alerts