IP cams with good client/server software?

[wcleme11]

I just completed my cat6 cabling at my home and I'm now in the market for some cameras. Since I currently use a lot of Ubiquiti products I naturally decided to try out a UVC-G3 to see if it would work for me. While there are certainly some things to like about the UVC-G3, I'm finding some missing features on the app side that are cause for concern.

One problem is the lack of push notifications for android. They have it for IOS but not for Android devices. It was mentioned as coming soon a year ago so I'm not hopeful. Email notifications work but they lag anywhere from 10 to 60+ seconds behind the motion event. The other problem I have is no two-way audio support. I want two-way audio on my front door camera and good app support for android to make use of it.

I'm considering taking a look at Hikvision cameras. How is the Android App support? It looks like they have Windows server software to function as an NVR so that's good. I played around a bit with Blue Iris and didn't care for it all. The UI is extremely dated. I know it may work OK but I can't get past the look and feel of it.

 

[fenderman]

The UI is extremely dated. I know it may work OK but I can't get past the look and feel of it.

Its really silly to make a determination on vms software based on whether the UI is dated. It is a monster of flexiblity and functionality for peanuts...
Hikvision has server software ivms but it is limited to hikvision cameras only and offers basic functionality...
There is no quality solution for two way audio unless you pay good money...most cheap options are not full duplex..
The hikvision android app is terrible for video review.
Look at dahua cameras and nvr...
ubiquiti is overpriced garbage.
If you were willing to pay 600 a camera for ubiquiti you have lots of options..take a look at mobotix, they have solutions with built in mic and speakers for outdoor use

 

[wcleme11]

I've been reading this forum for some time now while researching cameras and when it comes to Ubiquiti it seems everyone on here refers to the older generation cameras as being "over priced garbage". The current gen UVC-G3's go for about $130 standalone and $111 in the 5 pack. Spec-wise they are comparable to most of the cheap chinese cams. It sucks that the vendor supplied apps are so lame. I like the fact that BI has a lot of features but in my brief testing of it I wasn't impressed. My wife needs to use this on an android tablet and the BI UI is just not user friendly at all. It crashed several times while trying to open settings on my android tablet, and push notifications were inconsistent. After that I had seen enough.

There is no quality solution for two way audio unless you pay good money...most cheap options are not full duplex..

I was afraid of this answer. I might be looking at an intercom type solution instead of trying to do this on camera.

 

[fenderman]

I've been reading this forum for some time now while researching cameras and when it comes to Ubiquiti it seems everyone on here refers to the older generation cameras as being "over priced garbage". The current gen UVC-G3's go for about $130 standalone and $111 in the 5 pack. Spec-wise they are comparable to most of the cheap chinese cams. It sucks that the vendor supplied apps are so lame. I like the fact that BI has a lot of features but in my brief testing of it I wasn't impressed. My wife needs to use this on an android tablet and the BI UI is just not user friendly at all. It crashed several times while trying to open settings on my android tablet, and push notifications were inconsistent. After that I had seen enough.



I was afraid of this answer. I might be looking at an intercom type solution instead of trying to do this on camera.

If you want a good quality camera that is superb in low light look at the dahua starlight cameras (130-170)..there are several threads discussing them. They are exceptional at night and low light.
Ubiquiti has had many issues including at one point removing rtsp streaming so that their cameras could not be used with third party apps. That is unacceptable.
I have 20+ instances of blue iris running and use the app on my nexus 5x and rarely see a crash, push notifications always work, not sure why you are having issues...The blue iris mobile app is superb and much easier to navigate and use than the hikvison app..reviewing video on the hik app is a joke....on the dahua app its better...
There is a reason blue iris has a huge following here, many users like the options and flexibility, others are fed up with the performance of their NVR's and dont want to pay 50-150 per camera licensing fees.
If you dont need the two way audio function, milestone essentials is free for up to 8 cameras.

 

[bababouy]

I agree with fenderman. We monitor thousands of cameras 24 hours a day, and use almost every vms from smart pss to exacqvision, including hikvision ivms4200. Dahua is the simpliest and most robust for the money. The $5 app includes easy playback and push notifications.

 

[wcleme11]

The current gen UVC-G3 have rtsp enabled as this is how I was testing out blue iris with the UVC-G3 I have now. I have been reading about the Dahua's and it sounds tempting to order one to try out. Video quality was better in the Unifi Video app then it was in Blue Iris but I admit I didn't tweak setting much in BI. One nice feature with UniFi Video is you can link your local server to your UniFi account for easy remote streaming. No need to mess with VPN configuration.

I'll head over to the Dahua thread and read about the starlights some more. I just wish there was better availability, I don't like ordering from some strange place that is a pain to do a return if there is issues.

 

[fenderman]

The current gen UVC-G3 have rtsp enabled as this is how I was testing out blue iris with the UVC-G3 I have now. I have been reading about the Dahua's and it sounds tempting to order one to try out. Video quality was better in the Unifi Video app then it was in Blue Iris but I admit I didn't tweak setting much in BI. One nice feature with UniFi Video is you can link your local server to your UniFi account for easy remote streaming. No need to mess with VPN configuration.

I'll head over to the Dahua thread and read about the starlights some more. I just wish there was better availability, I don't like ordering from some strange place that is a pain to do a return if there is issues.

I know its available now, that is because users were outraged...says alot about a company..you need to set blue iris to record direct to disk or else it will reencode the video which uses lots of cpu and depending on the settings reduces the quality of the image...
Pretty silly to pass your video through their servers...I for one would not trust them...you can order locally and pay 165-310 at B&H...