Is Blue Iris that much better than iVMS-4200?

[ingeborgdot]

I am new to all of this and have learned a lot in a short period of time. There is a ton left to learn, I understand that. I am trying to find the best possible software to go with my cameras but don't want to spend too much on my software either, if I don't have to. When I was in Blue Iris's website I saw a price that said $59 annually. Do you have to pay for BI every year or is that for support or am I dreaming?
Can someone tell me a short reason why BI is the way to go? Thanks.

 

[fenderman]

I am new to all of this and have learned a lot in a short period of time. There is a ton left to learn, I understand that. I am trying to find the best possible software to go with my cameras but don't want to spend too much on my software either, if I don't have to. When I was in Blue Iris's website I saw a price that said $59 annually. Do you have to pay for BI every year or is that for support or am I dreaming?
Can someone tell me a short reason why BI is the way to go? Thanks.

it is..its not 59 annually, its a one time fee....

 

[ingeborgdot]

fenderman, I take it you use BI. In a sentence, what makes it better?

 

[fenderman]

fenderman, I take it you use BI. In a sentence, what makes it better?

I use it in over 20 instances...for one, it can handle more than just hikvision cameras...superior mobile app, scheduling, motion detection, alerts...60 dollars is a joke when most vms charge a per camera license fee of 50-150.

 

[ingeborgdot]

Can I use my NAS to record to with BI?

 

[fenderman]

Can I use my NAS to record to with BI?

yes...but its always best to also record direct to a drive attached to a pc...

 

[ingeborgdot]

Can I have the viewing on one computer and recording on another. I have a computer that runs 24/7 but it is not in my office area. It is my central machine that is used as one of my sources for music for my whole house audio. I have a ton of space and the computer is fast enough to handle the recording of video. I would just prefer to view it in my office if that would be possible? So, I would have the client in the office computer and the recorder in my other computer. Does that make sense?

 

[fenderman]

Can I have the viewing on one computer and recording on another. I have a computer that runs 24/7 but it is not in my office area. It is my central machine that is used as one of my sources for music for my whole house audio. I have a ton of space and the computer is fast enough to handle the recording of video. I would just prefer to view it in my office if that would be possible? So, I would have the client in the office computer and the recorder in my other computer. Does that make sense?

There is no blue iris client...you can view using the web interface...any vms should be run on a clean system, not a multi use pc...you can also run a cable from the pc to your office for display..

 

[ingeborgdot]

Well, that kinda sucks. Is there a reason why it needs to be a clean system? I'm not questioning, just learning. As for multi-use, like I said it only has music on it and CPU useage is at 1% most of the time and never used for anything else.

 

[fenderman]

Well, that kinda sucks. Is there a reason why it needs to be a clean system? I'm not questioning, just learning. As for multi-use, like I said it only has music on it and CPU useage is at 1% most of the time and never used for anything else.

yes, because you dont want the system going down because of other software...stability is key..how are you serving music from the system? if its just a file server of some sort it should be ok...what are the system specs?

 

[ingeborgdot]

CasaTunes just hooks in to my Russound system through RS232. The CPU useage is so minimal that I should use one of those little tiny computers for it but I've got a horse on it that I built a little while ago because I thought I was going to use it for other things. It is more of a file server as you said. In the time it has been up, it has never gone down.

 

[fenderman]

CasaTunes just hooks in to my Russound system through RS232. The CPU useage is so minimal that I should use one of those little tiny computers for it but I've got a horse on it that I built a little while ago because I thought I was going to use it for other things. It is more of a file server as you said. In the time it has been up, it has never gone down.

what are the system specs...have you confirmed it can run blue iris with your camera load?

 

[ingeborgdot]

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb Quad-Core 3.4 GHz CPU, SSD Main drive, WD Black for storage drives that would only be used for the recorded video.

 

[fenderman]

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb Quad-Core 3.4 GHz CPU, SSD Main drive, WD Black for storage drives that would only be used for the recorded video.

that system is relatively weak equivalent to a modern i3 and does not support intel hd...also its a huge power hog...will likely cost you more to run it than replace it...
How many cams and what resolution?

 

[ingeborgdot]

So, what would you recommend? I have 1 cam right now but will be getting up to 4 soon and should up it to 6 or more within the next couple of months. I am running 1920x1080 right now. I am using Hikvision 2342 right now and hope to get several more of those but most should be of that quality.
Oh, I also have the Radeon 6800 video card running.

 

[fenderman]

So, what would you recommend? I have 1 cam right now but will be getting up to 4 soon and should up it to 6 or more within the next couple of months. I am running 1920x1080 right now. I am using Hikvision 2342 right now and hope to get several more of those but most should be of that quality.
Oh, I also have the Radeon 6800 video card running.

search the forum for optiplex or elitedesk..you want intel i5 second generation or higher...100-300 dollars...300 will get you a modern i5-6500 system...
you will be able to run your cams on your current system but you are wasting money...put a killawatt meter on it.

 

[ingeborgdot]

What if I went i7 or xeon E3 which is made more for running 24/7 than i7 and even cheaper.

 

[fenderman]

What if I went i7 or xeon E3 which is made more for running 24/7 than i7 and even cheaper.

xeon has nothing to do with running 24/7....
you dont need an i7 for your load...
you also need a processor that has intel hd with quicksync...compare apples to apples..the xeon you are likely looking at is weaker than a modern i5-6500..

 

[aristobrat]

For specific processor recommendations, check out the Wiki that the admins are putting together:
Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris | IP Cam Talk

Two blurbs to read -- the part about how important it is that the process has Intel Quick Sync built-in (this how an i5 can out perform a Xeon), and how dedicated video cards don't usually add any value.

My personal reasons for switching from a Dahua NVR to BI:

• BI gets regular updates, and the developer is accessible. My Dahua NVR has big bugs I doubt will ever get fixed. Ever...
• BI (through the $9.99 smartphone app) is easily 10x more responsive when I view video over LTE compared to the Hik and Dahua iOS clients.
• BI motion detection is so much more configurable than the motion detection built into cameras. ****
• Sooooooooo much community support for BI here.
• If you watch the BI forums over time, you'll see cool stuff people use BI for and you can "borrow" their ideas.
• BI just flat out has more options and possibilities to do things. When my driveway camera senses motion, it sends my iOS devices a notification, and then it makes a web call to my home automation portal which makes the alarm system speak "DRIVEWAY" inside the house. Stuff like that.
• Supports profiles. Normally I want it to alert me if someone's in my yard. But I don't an hour of alerts every time I mow the lawn. So I have a "silent" profile I can switch it to temporarily so I don't get 1000 alerts.

**** I will say that although I'm still learning, I haven't been able to get BI's motion detection yet to match the accuracy I got from the IVS features on my Hik Starlights. It's pretty close though, and I still have things to try. I think this is more a shout-out to how great Dahua's IVS more than anything.

 

[ingeborgdot]

Intel Core i5-6500 Intel Xeon E3-1245 v5
3.20 GHz Frequency 3.50 GHz
3.60 GHz Turbo (1 Core) 3.90 GHz
3.40 GHz Turbo (All Cores) 3.70 GHz
4 Cores 4
No Hyperthreading Yes
No Overclocking ? No
6 MB Cache 8 MB

Intel HD Graphics 530 GPU Intel HD Graphics P530
0.35 GHz GPU frequency 0.35 GHz
1.15 GHz GPU (Turbo) 0.35 GHz
9 GPU Generation 9
12.0 DirectX Version 12.0
3 Max. displays 3
24 Execution units 24


Actually the Xeon is more powerful and robust than the i5 is for about the same money. I really don't know why people don't use it more unless they are planning on overclocking.
Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 family supports 4 cores and also supports the fastest available frequency (3.5 GHz Intel Xeon processor E3-1280), Intel Turbo Boost Technology, and Intel HT Technology.
It is similar to the Intel Core i7 processor, but supports accelerated graphics performance for professional applications, called Intel® HD Graphics P3000§ (available with specific SKUs), as well as
ECC memory.