Jumping ship from Sighthound to Blue Iris ..... starting over

[ropedrag]

As a Mac household for the past 10 years the options are extremely limited so Sighthound is what we've rocked for the past 5 years as our security camera software. Never really operated 100% correct and the with the latest Mac update, Big Sur, things are a complete disaster!

I've always looked over the fence at Blue Iris and shed a little tear knowing it wasn't available for us folks on Mac (without lots of effort and knowledge well above my skill set).

Well I've purchased a PC to basically dedicate to Blue Iris so here we go! I won't argue that my PC purchase is financially the best option but it appears it will work. My old imac needed replacing as well so I've order the new Mac Mini with the M1 chip, and monitor that will run both Mac and PC (switched) and will allow keyboard and mouse sharing as well. For the PC,..... to keep some symmetry on the desk top, it's the Lenovo mini 5 with a i7-10700T chip, 16MB DDR4 ram, 512GB M.2 and I'm slapping in a 2TB Crucial MX500 2.5" SATA SSD to use as the local hard drive. I'm like, holy crap what did I just do! But if it functions well and I can get some years out of it I'll be happy enough.

IF the PC can handle our 5 cameras without too much trouble I may also ditch our Smartthings hub and run with Homeseer for home automation as well. Yep, another software you need PC for that would be fun to have. Anyway this would be a bonus and I'll be able to better asses if it's an option after I get BI set up.

This is going to be a big learning curve for me, excited but dreading it as well as life is too busy and stressful as it is, and my other hobbies are deep rabbit holes of complexity that don't give any crossover benefit with this endeavor.

Cameras

Dahua 4MP N44BN52
Dahua (2) 2MP HDW5231R-Z
Dahua 2MP SD52C225u-HNI (PTZ)
Hikvision 3MP DS-2CD2432F-IW

 

[sebastiantombs]

You should have no problems with those cameras on that processor, especially if you utilize sub streams in all of them. My only comment is that an SSD for video storage may not be the best choice. While SSD has come a long way I'm not totally convinced that they can last when being written to constantly with no let up. I'd go with an old style platter drive in the 8GB range, but that's just conservative old me.

You can see my camera list in my sig. The i7-6700K handles all of them and runs at 10-15% depending on the level of motion being seen in the cameras. I am using sub streams on all but the Amcrest and SV3C.

 

[TonyR]

If you haven't already done so, I suggest you read "Optimizing Blue Iris' CPU Usage" in the Wiki.

Also, put Win 10 (a fresh install from a USB flash drive created with the MS Media Creation Tool is recommended), BI program and BI's "db" folder" on the SSD and direct video clips to a surveillance-rated hard drive, such as a WD Purple.