My DIY Alternative to Reolink's 180 Degree Camera

Well named, Sir. Well named indeed. It is pretty cheap too. Within my specified price range. Thanks. I am sticking with my DIY solution for now. It is built. I had the cameras anyway.

At some point, I feel that Dahua/Amcrest is likely to market a 180 degree camera and I'll buy that if my kluged up dual Amcrest 5MP camera solution proves unacceptable.

Meanwhile, it is time to visit the grandkids and then eat and drink too much. Happy Thanksgiving and that you for all your help and support.
Pete
 
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Pete6 said:
Well named, Sir. Well named indeed. It is pretty cheap too. Within my specified price range. Thanks. I am sticking with my DIY solution for now. It is built. I had the cameras anyway.

At some point, I feel that Dahua/Amcrest is likely to market a 180 degree camera and I'll buy that if my kluged up dual Amcrest 5MP camera solution proves unacceptable.

Meanwhile, it is time to visit the grandkids and then eat and drink too much. Happy Thanksgiving and that you for all your help and support.
Pete
Click to expand...
Dahua already sells a 180 degree camera. New Dahua 180 Degree Bullet Camera (IPC-Color4K-180)
There is a turret style version as well.
 
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I have had a change in thinking. I think now that I may move to Blue Iris. I am currently starting this process. I have ordered an 8-port PoE switch to replace the NVR. I have a fairly new Dell OptiPlex 3060 that has an i5-8500 6-core processor. I'll upgrade the boot disk to an M.2 256GB SSD and put the 4TB 7200 rpm enterprise grade hard disk from the NVR in there as a data disk.

Using this I should be able to use my existing Reolink Duo 2 camera and by sending back the Amcrest NVR (which I do not love) to Amazon for a full refund, I shall ot be far out of pocket from where I am now. I can then by a copy of B;ue Iris from this website.

All this will, of course take some time to fully implement, so I have a fun project over the Holiday period.
 
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Pete6 said:
I have had a change in thinking. I think now that I may move to Blue Iris. I am currently starting this process. I have ordered an 8-port PoE switch to replace the NVR. I have a fairly new Dell OptiPlex 3060 that has an i5-8500 6-core processor. I'll upgrade the boot disk to an M.2 256GB SSD and put the 4TB 7200 rpm enterprise grade hard disk from the NVR in there as a data disk.

Using this I should be able to use my existing Reolink Duo 2 camera and by sending back the Amcrest NVR (which I do not love) to Amazon for a full refund, I shall ot be far out of pocket from where I am now. I can then by a copy of B;ue Iris from this website.

All this will, of course take some time to fully implement, so I have a fun project over the Holiday period.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure you'll soon come to appreciate BI. Lots of assistance on this forum, too.
If you didn't already know, be sure to optimize BI's settings for the best performance, especially by using sub streams.
 
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You do need to be aware that there can be problems between Reolink cameras and Blue Iris due to the way Reolink plays with frame, iframe and bit rates and that Reolink doesn't adhere to many standards that can cause problems. I'm not saying that they won't work but am saying that some are pretty marginal. Reolink tries to keep you locked into their products this way.
 
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sebastiantombs said:
You do need to be aware that there can be problems between Reolink cameras and Blue Iris due to the way Reolink plays with frame, iframe and bit rates and that Reolink doesn't adhere to many standards that can cause problems. I'm not saying that they won't work but am saying that some are pretty marginal. Reolink tries to keep you locked into their products this way.
Click to expand...
What you say does not surprise me in the least. Reolink does some fun stuff with cameras be their approach seems to be, "Make it work any way we can.", and, "Keep it Reolink only."

Just this morning I am playing with iSpy on my i7 PC and whilst I only have 6 cameras up (the other are still plugged in to the NVR's PoE ports) I have the Reolink Duo 2 working fine on the sub-stream. This is beginning to look promising.
 
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I finally bit the bullet and bought Blue Iris yesterday. I need to wait for part to arrive for the PC it will run on but I am giving up on the DVR. It was just too limiting in what it would do. The Reolink camera is now working fine on BI. No surprise there...
 
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Pete6 said:
I finally bit the bullet and bought Blue Iris yesterday. I need to wait for part to arrive for the PC it will run on but I am giving up on the DVR.
Click to expand...
Great!
I recommend performing a clean install of Windows using the MS Media Creation Tool (I use a 16GB USB stick).
Put Windows, BI and BI's "db" folder on the SSD, BI's video clips to the HDD.
 
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TonyR said:
Great!
I recommend performing a clean install of Windows using the MS Media Creation Tool (I use a 16GB USB stick).
Put Windows, BI and BI's "db" folder on the SSD, BI's video clips to the HDD.
Click to expand...
It will be run on essentially a new PC. I had one lying around that was minus CPU, memory and boot disk. So at Windows install time, it will be a new installation. I will most likely run Windows 11 since the PC is able to do so. This PC will be dedicated to Blue Iris and probably headless once the install is up and running.
 
Pete6 said:
It will be run on essentially a new PC. I had one lying around that was minus CPU, memory and boot disk. So at Windows install time, it will be a new installation. I will most likely run Windows 11 since the PC is able to do so. This PC will be dedicated to Blue Iris and probably headless once the install is up and running.
Click to expand...

Just keep in mind that many people have come here with problems with Win11 and BI. No reason to run Win11, especially since you said the machine will be dedicated to BI.
 
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Uh-huh. Thank you. I was wondering if someone might advise me thus. I can stick with Windows 10 easily. I shall do that.

I shall not have all the parts delivered until at least Wednesday next week and I have other stuff going on too. so I may not have a working PC until the end of next week. BI is a big place and it does lots of things. Happily there are loads of videos and lots of write ups too. The manual is well written and easily searchable. I shall become expert in a few weeks. That said, my own definition of expert is, "ex" as in has been and "spert" as in a drip under pressure.

You help is appreciated. Than you. I expect to get stuck any time soon.
 
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