HikVision with or without BlueIris

[chandraz]

Noob here and gathering information as much as i can before going wrong way.

I got 3 HikVision DS-2CD2342WD-I's and yet to setup. I am considering blue iris at the moment. I have a macbook pro running 24/7 which may not workout with blue iris(or may be i am wrong). Here are my questions.

1. I want to record video for 2weeks. I am planning to store directly from camera to my ftp server. Is it possible or i have to go with Blue Iris?
2. I want to use Blue Iris only for motion detection and record that video to disk from my old laptop windows i3 with 4gb ram. Is it sufficient to handle the resources required by blue iris? are there any other software (free) to consider for this?
   
3. What are the other possible features which i can do with blue iris keeping in mind that i am not going to buy new computer. I am still figuring out what blue iris can do other than video recording and motion detection?
4. Any pointers to newbies like me to what all features i can achieve and basic features i must have to have.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Camit]

Noob here and gathering information as much as i can before going wrong way.

I got 3 HikVision DS-2CD2342WD-I's and yet to setup. I am considering blue iris at the moment. I have a macbook pro running 24/7 which may not workout with blue iris(or may be i am wrong). Here are my questions.

1. I want to record video for 2weeks. I am planning to store directly from camera to my ftp server. Is it possible or i have to go with Blue Iris?
2. I want to use Blue Iris only for motion detection and record that video to disk from my old laptop windows i3 with 4gb ram. Is it sufficient to handle the resources required by blue iris? are there any other software (free) to consider for this?
   
3. What are the other possible features which i can do with blue iris keeping in mind that i am not going to buy new computer. I am still figuring out what blue iris can do other than video recording and motion detection?
4. Any pointers to newbies like me to what all features i can achieve and basic features i must have to have.

Thanks in advance.

1. Why are you only going to record for 2 weeks? Or did I just read it wrong... ftp is a bad idea it would be much simpler to just use a large HDD for the computer running BI. If you need to get a use HDD.

2.BI will definitely do motion detection with a alert image. i3 is a useless term there are tons of i3 processors with different power rates. I would NOT use a laptop, I would get a dedicated desktop, trust me BI is the way to go..a nice desktop for Bi price range is 300-600 dollars

3.BI has tons of features it's best to try the demo and read the help file. Also remember with bi demo some feature of the software won't be available.

4. Get good cameras don't cheap out here. 120+ dollar range, camera position is very important 6mm cameras on up are recommended for all your choke points enter/exit areas then you can buy a nice wide view 2.8mm camera for the wide view. The 2342 is a ok camera I have couple of those but the dahua starlight is a lot better. Don't let the megapixel game fool you, Just because a cameras says it's 4mp does NOT mean you will get better image quality then a 2mp camera. We all actually recommend a 2mp starlight camera.

 

[bp2008]

1) My Hikvision with an SD card can record to the SD and upload all clips to an FTP as well. Not sure if you can do this without an SD card though.
2) Depends on what i3 model exactly. If it has Quick Sync then you can use hardware acceleration and it will probably be fine. Make sure you plug in the laptop with a network cable, and disable the wifi.
3) Blue Iris can do a ton of things but some of the most useful are all the ways it can respond to motion detection from a camera. It can send you an email, play a sound, send your phone a push notification, run a custom program, etc. It will also serve as your main point of access for live viewing cameras, as it puts them all together under the same interface.
4) Lots of suggestions. But mainly, never trust the camera to be secure. They are notoriously vulnerable to hacks, and you don't want to lose your investment or become a part a botnet.
- 4a) Do not forward any ports to a camera through your router.
- 4b) Disable UPnP in your router, otherwise a camera can sweet talk the router into forwarding ports without your knowledge.
- 4c) If you can, have your router block your cameras from the internet entirely.
- 4d) Consider running a VPN server at your house for remote access, and don't have any incoming ports forwarded (except as necessary to enable the VPN server). This is the most secure you can get. You'll connect your phone or whatever to the VPN server when you want to access the cameras remotely.

 

[chandraz]

1. Why are you only going to record for 2 weeks? Or did I just read it wrong... ftp is a bad idea it would be much simpler to just use a large HDD for the computer running BI. If you need to get a use HDD.

2.BI will definitely do motion detection with a alert image. i3 is a useless term there are tons of i3 processors with different power rates. I would NOT use a laptop, I would get a dedicated desktop, trust me BI is the way to go..a nice desktop for Bi price range is 300-600 dollars

3.BI has tons of features it's best to try the demo and read the help file. Also remember with bi demo some feature of the software won't be available.

4. Get good cameras don't cheap out here. 120+ dollar range, camera position is very important 6mm cameras on up are recommended for all your choke points enter/exit areas then you can buy a nice wide view 2.8mm camera for the wide view. The 2342 is a ok camera I have couple of those but the dahua starlight is a lot better. Don't let the megapixel game fool you, Just because a cameras says it's 4mp does NOT mean you will get better image quality then a 2mp camera. We all actually recommend a 2mp starlight camera.

1) My Hikvision with an SD card can record to the SD and upload all clips to an FTP as well. Not sure if you can do this without an SD card though.
2) Depends on what i3 model exactly. If it has Quick Sync then you can use hardware acceleration and it will probably be fine. Make sure you plug in the laptop with a network cable, and disable the wifi.
3) Blue Iris can do a ton of things but some of the most useful are all the ways it can respond to motion detection from a camera. It can send you an email, play a sound, send your phone a push notification, run a custom program, etc. It will also serve as your main point of access for live viewing cameras, as it puts them all together under the same interface.
4) Lots of suggestions. But mainly, never trust the camera to be secure. They are notoriously vulnerable to hacks, and you don't want to lose your investment or become a part a botnet.
- 4a) Do not forward any ports to a camera through your router.
- 4b) Disable UPnP in your router, otherwise a camera can sweet talk the router into forwarding ports without your knowledge.
- 4c) If you can, have your router block your cameras from the internet entirely.
- 4d) Consider running a VPN server at your house for remote access, and don't have any incoming ports forwarded (except as necessary to enable the VPN server). This is the most secure you can get. You'll connect your phone or whatever to the VPN server when you want to access the cameras remotely.

Thanks for the inputs.

1. I just found out that Hikvision can upload only images to FTP location and not saved as videos(yet to test). There are tools which can convert them and play as videos. I will look into samba setup to storage them to my network connected storage(not nas). I am doing this only to minimize blue iris doing much stuff and continuous recording is not one of them.
2. I want to use my existing laptop temporarily as i want to buy good desktop and before I buy I want to test too as my requirements may change in future.
3. I liked the push notification feature that's the only thing i am looking for now as i try i understand more on BlueIris tools and its usage.
4. VPN is the route i am going to do. I already have my home vpn setup and i access all my drives same way. I am not going to do any port forwarding and no internet connection required for my cameras. I only need notification on my phone and record videos on my backup disk if i ever want to watch if not i will discard them.

Hope I am on right path. I bought the cameras from BHPhotoVideo with warranty. I found this only reliable (sort of) and only vendor i knew and an authorized sellers for Hikvision. I am new to this world so trusting guys and how the warranty works from guys who are selling here(no offense) is kind of grey area for me.

Any additional newbie pointers are greatly helpful.

 

[bp2008]

Many people around here will say the warranty doesn't mean much if you can buy 5 cameras without a warranty for the price of 3 cameras with a warranty.

 

[rnatalli]

Many people around here will say the warranty doesn't mean much if you can buy 5 cameras without a warranty for the price of 3 cameras with a warranty.

I'm one of them. Even with warranty on something, dealing with manufacturers is never easy when it comes to smaller electronics. Not worth it for something like a camera IMO.

 

[LeeH]

I only record for 1 week, is that not very long???