Lorex vs Dahau

[Tizeye]

About to pull the trigger on a 4 camera/NVR 'starter' system that can add to later. Ruled out Reolink and Swann - based a lot on what is posted on this forum, but the one that has me most interested in the Lorex HDIP84W (4MP LNB4321B or substitute white LNB4163BW) and NVR (NR9082) for $799 less 15% sale $680. I know there is a bias towards Dahau being 'better' but to compare apples to apples it appears the near identical components are the Dahau NVR 5208 ($400 plus another $125 for hard drive) that has the H.265 compression that the 4208 doesn't have and IP bullet camera HFW 4421 ($110) bringing it to a total of $965. Spec wise, appears the only difference would be branding specific alterations. With Dahau could build a more specific system with Starlights and Turrrets, but can always save that for the final two cameras of the complete system. Just wondering about the Lorex as the base starter and use the savings for the other cameras. Going NVR due to not wanting a dedicated computer running 24/7, and I travel with a Mac which Blue Iris doesn't support natively. On the Mac, don't want to partition the small 256SSD to install Windows with Parallel. Cabling is a non-issue as I am custom wiring based on camera placement with CAT6 and won't even use the CAT5e Lorex provides.

Would like some feedback on what you think of the approach.

 

[ThomasPI]

Like you, I'm all Mac but have many iPhones. Camera wise you're comparing a Yugo to a Lexus. I'll gladly spend $500 or so for a dedicated BI machine. I thought I wanted an NVR until I started reading a lot here. Search posts by @CaliGirl who is also a Mac user and had nothing much good to say about her NVR. She switched over to a dedicated BI machine and seems quite pleased.

 

[DavidDavid]

Why do you want cameras?

I got a NVR5216-4KS2 (non poe) from @EMPIRETECANDY and 4tb western digital purple hd (Amazon) for $395.

You can get a poe switch for $50-80+ to run your cameras instead of using the poe on the nvr which is usually better overall.

Then you can pick and choose which Dahua cameras you want depending on the location you're putting them and your needs as opposed to dealing with the poorly designed bullets they supply with that package.

 

[DavidDavid]

And i have 3 of these cameras Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z) at $170 each at important locations for security purposes (3 doors) and i have one (and soon to possibly be more if i figured out the issue with it) of these Amazon.com : HOSAFE 1MB6 HD IP Camera Outdoor 1MP 1280x720P Night Vision ONVIF H.264 Motion Detection Email Alert Remote View Via Smart Phone/Tablet/PC : Camera & Photo for less important locations that i just want to be able to see when im not home such as my chicken coop. At $35 its a steal for a general overview daytime camera. Sucks at night (and for general security) though. - - - hence why i ask why you want cameras in the first place.

I'm very happy with my setup.

 

[DavidDavid]

And @nayr has Mac and loves his Dahua system. SmartPSS runs great on Mac, Linux (using Wine) and Windows.

I think @CaliGirl (she can correct me if I'm wrong) and others that switched to blue iris machines issues with the nvr was with the skipped frames and/or random reboot issues with that nvr. The new firmware fixed the reboots but im not so sure about the dropped frames on ivs events. If you just record 24/7 i don't think people are experiencing the dropped frames around the ivs events.

 

[Tizeye]

Why do I want cameras? As a professional photographer I travel a lot. Perhaps "home" a total of 7 or 8 month a year. Last month in CT and Massachusetts, next month will be in Switzerland for a month or so. Obviously, remote monitoring is a must. Neighbor's home broken into when they took a 10 day cruise to Panama and decides I needed to beef up my security. Got a Ring doorbell figuring a thief will check to see is anyone is home first but wanting a more comprehensive external system. While I have PC's at home (but love the Mac updates this week!) actually protected my data by moving the cpu and backup hard drive to external storage on the CT trip, so obviously they are not going to be running 24/7 powering cameras - but the network remained up and running. While I could build a PC from spare parts in the junk box in the garage, they are very old (three of four generations) processors and motherboards. Too bad has to be a PC to power in IP camera system because a compact and quiet Mac-Mini would be ideal. I have entry doors on all 4 sides of the house so 4 cameras is a minimum. Also not missed if purchased for Lorex is the 60 day return which would cover the 30 days in Switzerland would give me a better idea of requirements and placement, likes, dislikes, etc and with 2-3 months before the next planned trip time to develop a more polished system. Just something to consider.

 

[DavidDavid]

@fenderman will probably comment on the computer aspect (assuming you'd run blue iris) because i don't have any experience with that.

But, either way you you'll want to set up a VPN server on your home network to securely remote view your camera feeds (and other data on your network if you wanted)

And if you're wanting for security purposes... Go with quality cameras like the first one I listed (5231 Starlight) otherwise you may only be able to see that something happened and not necessarily who did that something. .

 

[aristobrat]

IMO:

The big plus the Lorex has is the 60-day return window. That would let you get something setup before your trip and some time to "kick the tires".

These Lorex cameras don't have the new, larger Sony sensor in them. Their day-time image quality is probably excellent, but unless your house is exceptionally well lit on the outside at night, I think you'll find the night-time image quality to be 'meh' at best. The Dahua Starlight series of cameras have the new Sony sensor, and it's amazing at night. Hikvision just started making turrets with this sensor, too. Haven't seen any other brands with them yet.

These Lorex cameras are all wide-angle. Great for situation awareness ("there's something going on in my front yard"), not as great for getting enough detail to ID someone, unless they're pretty close to the camera. The Dahua varifocal Starlight turret allows you to zoom in to fine-tune the viewing angle to what you need.

Going back to the NVR, if the Mac mini has a model with a decent i5 or i7 processor, it might work for Blue Iris if you used Boot Camp to natively run Windows 10 on it. Most folks are snagging $300-$500 Dells or HPs off of eBay for this task, though. Once all configured, it goes into a closet or something (minus the keyboard, mouse and monitor) and then it's accessed remotely. They're not as small as a mini, but they're quiet, and it's not like you're going to fit two Seagate Purple drives in the mini's case anyway, which means a mess of external USB drives. I recently switched from a Dahua NVR to Blue Iris. BI can do so many more things, and remotely playing back clips works sooooo much better.

Since you've got nothing to loose, try the Lorex system, but also hop over to the Dahua forum here and check out the 5231 varifocal turret thread. Consider ordering one from Andy to compare to the Lorex cameras.