New to Blue Iris

[Techuser]

Hello All! I am new to Blue Iris and I am very happy to have discovered this piece of software. Was very close to getting a full Reolink setup but really didn't want to deal with an NVR. I have an old PC that I wanted to check with you all if it is up to spec or if I should just buy any old optiplex with a newer CPU. I am thinking of buying maybe 7-8 4k cameras from Andy after reading a lot of your positive reviews on him and his cameras. I don't have any cameras yet in order to test out my PC but really need to make a decision and add them to our house ASAP. My PC Specs:

• i7-5820k
• Asrock x99E-ITX/ac
• Crucial Ballistix Elite 16GB DDR4 - 2666
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 Windforce
• Corsair HXi 850W - Platinum

 

[wittaj]

I say since you have the old PC sitting there doing nothing, give it a try. Worse case is it doesn't work. But I think you follow all the optimizations, you will be fine.

And good call on not going Reolink!

 

[TonyR]

Welcome to IPCT!

It appears you're headed in the right direction regarding contacting Andy and avoiding Reo-blur, especially with Blue iris.

 

[The Automation Guy]

Hello All! I am new to Blue Iris and I am very happy to have discovered this piece of software. Was very close to getting a full Reolink setup but really didn't want to deal with an NVR. I have an old PC that I wanted to check with you all if it is up to spec or if I should just buy any old optiplex with a newer CPU. I am thinking of buying maybe 7-8 4k cameras from Andy after reading a lot of your positive reviews on him and his cameras. I don't have any cameras yet in order to test out my PC but really need to make a decision and add them to our house ASAP. My PC Specs:

• i7-5820k
• Asrock x99E-ITX/ac
• Crucial Ballistix Elite 16GB DDR4 - 2666
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 Windforce
• Corsair HXi 850W - Platinum

I think that system will work just fine with BI and even a dozen or more cameras - especially if you use the "sub-streams" feature now available in BI. You may find that it is uses a lot of electrical power however and since these machines have to run 24/7, you may find it more economical to get a newer (but still used), more power efficient model without all the extra bells and whistles that you really don't need. (This doesn't need to be a "gaming" caliber system to work well).

I would also tell you to make sure if you choose 4k cameras, that you pick ones with a 1/1.2" sensor (or larger). There are only one or two options with this large of a sensor however (the Color4k-k being the most common one). Otherwise you will want to stick with a 4mp camera with a 1/1.8" sensor (or larger). The Dahua "5442" series cameras are very popular because of this resolution/sensor size combination and they come in a wide variety of focal length to ensure you can find a camera that fit's your location and goals for the camera.

 

[looney2ns]

Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris | IP Cam Talk

 

[Techuser]

Thank you all for the advice! Really Helpful! Before I asked for your advice here, I was looking around for used PCs and found these. What do you guys think about these? Are AIOs ok? I thought it would be nice so that it can also be used as the Family computer that would ONLY be used for light web surfing and Microsoft word.

1. https://offerup.com/item/detail/1084059748?q=i7+6700
2. Dell OptiPlex 24 AIO Desktop (Intel i5@3.4GHz/16GB/128GB SSD+1TB HDD...
3. Dell OptiPlex 24 AIO Desktop (Intel i5@3.0GHz/8GB/256GB SSD+750GB...

I think that system will work just fine with BI and even a dozen or more cameras - especially if you use the "sub-streams" feature now available in BI. You may find that it is uses a lot of electrical power however and since these machines have to run 24/7, you may find it more economical to get a newer (but still used), more power efficient model without all the extra bells and whistles that you really don't need. (This doesn't need to be a "gaming" caliber system to work well).

I would also tell you to make sure if you choose 4k cameras, that you pick ones with a 1/1.2" sensor (or larger). There are only one or two options with this large of a sensor however (the Color4k-k being the most common one). Otherwise you will want to stick with a 4mp camera with a 1/1.8" sensor (or larger). The Dahua "5442" series cameras are very popular because of this resolution/sensor size combination and they come in a wide variety of focal length to ensure you can find a camera that fit's your location and goals for the camera.

Thanks for pointing those out. I'm having trouble figuring out what's the best choice for a big house. It's a 2 story house and the front and back yards are pretty big. So if the cameras are mounted in the second story's soffit would they have good views of say up to the sidewalk? Figuring out the positions is kind of difficult.

 

[wittaj]

2nd story locations are problematic if you use a fixed lens camera. You need a varifocal and enough distance to "flatten" the angle.

I started with the four 2.8mm cameras and I was like "I can place one on each corner of the house and see my whole property and the whole neighborhood." A newbie loves the wide angle "I can see the whole neighborhood" of the 2.8mm fixed wide angle lens. I LOVED IT WHEN I PUT IT UP. I could see everything that would be blocked looking out the windows.

It is easy to get lured in to thinking the wide angle "see the whole neighborhood" because you are watching it and you see a neighbor go by and you are like "Look at that I can tell that is Heather out walking." and "Yeah I can tell our neighbor 4 down just passed by". Or you watch back the video of you walking around and are like "yeah I can tell that is me".

Little do we realize how much WE can identify a known person just by hair style, clothing, walking pace, gait, etc.

Then one day the door checker comes by. Total stranger. Totally useless video other than what time the door checking happened.

Then you realize that this wide-angle see the whole neighborhood comes at a cost and that cost is not being able to IDENTIFY who did it. These 2.8mm wide angle cameras are great overview cameras or to IDENTIFY someone within 10 feet of the camera. At 40 feet out you need a different camera.

And like most, I stuck these wide angle cameras on the 2nd story to be able to see even more, which then means any IDENTIFY distance is lost vertically. Someone needs to be within 10-13 feet to identify someone with a 2.8mm lens. A camera placed 16-20 feet up means the entire IDENTIFY distance is lost in the vertical direction. You will get a good shot at the top of the head and hat though LOL.

So then we start adding more cameras and varifocal cameras so that we can optically zoom in to pinch points and other areas of interest to get the clean IDENTIFY captures of someone. While the varifocals are great at helping to identify at a distance, they come at a cost of a reduced field of view, just like the wide-angles are great at seeing a wide area, but they come at the expense of IDENTIFY at distance.

Here is a thread I created showing the differences between a 2.8mm focal length trying to IDENTIFY at distances beyond what one should (more than 10-15 feet at night).

The Importance of Focal Length over MP in camera selection

 

[looney2ns]

Thank you all for the advice! Really Helpful! Before I asked for your advice here, I was looking around for used PCs and found these. What do you guys think about these? Are AIOs ok? I thought it would be nice so that it can also be used as the Family computer that would ONLY be used for light web surfing and Microsoft word.

1. https://offerup.com/item/detail/1084059748?q=i7+6700
2. Dell OptiPlex 24 AIO Desktop (Intel i5@3.4GHz/16GB/128GB SSD+1TB HDD...
3. Dell OptiPlex 24 AIO Desktop (Intel i5@3.0GHz/8GB/256GB SSD+750GB...

Thanks for pointing those out. I'm having trouble figuring out what's the best choice for a big house. It's a 2 story house and the front and back yards are pretty big. So if the cameras are mounted in the second story's soffit would they have good views of say up to the sidewalk? Figuring out the positions is kind of difficult.

AIO No, not a good choice.
And NOTHING else should be used on the computer besides BI.
Any camera mounted higher than 7-8ft will only see the tops of heads.
See the link I gave you above.

 

[looney2ns]

The Dell Optiplex SFF is perfect you linked, but that price is a little on the high side.

 

[TonyR]

AIO No, not a good choice.

+1^^^ regarding no-go with the AIO's for BI.
It's essentially a laptop (also not recommended) with an external keyboard! Trust me, I've been inside close to 2 dozen in the past 6 years.
Zero expansibility is one of the biggest issues against it.

 

[The Automation Guy]

The Dell Optiplex SFF is perfect you linked, but that price is a little on the high side.

Agreed. You can find the same machine with the i7-6700 and 16gb of RAM and larger harddrives for $300 or less on EBay. Of course you probably have to pay some shipping. So depending on how much and extra 8gb of ram costs, it's certainly not a terrible deal either.

 

[looney2ns]

Agreed. You can find the same machine with the i7-6700 and 16gb of RAM and larger harddrives for $300 or less on EBay. Of course you probably have to pay some shipping. So depending on how much and extra 8gb of ram costs, it's certainly not a terrible deal either.

I saw several yesterday looking around Ebay for around $200.

 

[Techuser]

Thanks a bunch everybody! I've been held back with work but finally got a Dell OptiPlex 3060. It has an i5 8400, RX 550 2GB, 12GB DDR4, 64GB M.2, and 2TB HDD. Hopefully this can handle the cameras I got.

I got 7 these cameras. The installer that came by to look around said that this camera is pretty good for all of the positions in our house, also because they are adjustable up to 12mm, that's pretty cool. I'm going to set Blue Iris on the Optiplex today and see how it goes, should be getting the cameras delivered later today. Are there any good guides on working with Empiretech's cameras and getting them on the latest firmware and set up in Blue Iris? Want to test them out and set them up before the installer comes by and installs them on Tuesday. Really excited!

 

[wittaj]

No need really to update to latest firmware as they should have came with the best firmware, which may not be the latest. Something to keep in mind. Most of us do not update firmware if the camera is working for our needs as it usually breaks something.

You need to set up each camera one at a time. Do not plug in all at once as they all come with an IP address of 192.168.1.108 and you will IP conflict them if you plug them all in at the same time.

It is recommended you get a second NIC to put all the cameras on one NIC that is isolated from the internet.

Here is how most of us get the cameras to the IP address of our system:

The default IP address of the camera is 192.168.1.108, which may or may not be the IP address range of your system.

Unhook a computer or laptop from the internet and go into ethernet settings and using the IPv4 settings manually change the IP address to 192.168.1.100

Then power up your camera and wait a few minutes.

Then go to INTERNET EXPLORER (needs to be Explorer and not Edge or Chrome with IE tab) and type in 192.168.1.108 (default IP address of Dahua cameras) and you will then access the camera.

Tell it your country and give it a user and password.

Then go to the camera Network settings and change the camera IP address to the range of your system and hit save.

You will then lose the camera connection.

Then reverse the process to put your computer back on your network IP address range.

Next open up INTERNET EXPLORER and type in the new IP address that you just gave the camera to access it.

OR use the IPconfig Tool, but most of us prefer the above as it is one less program needed and one less chance for the cameras to phone home.


As far as setting them up in BI, simply select add camera and then type in the IP address, username and password and hit find/inspect and let BI do its thing.

Also make sure you follow every optimization in the wiki. Substreams are a must.

Optimizing Blue Iris's CPU Usage

Blue Iris uses a lot of CPU time. In most Blue Iris installations, your CPU is the limiting factor which determines how many cameras you can have. As such, it is extremely important to optimize your configuration to ensure you can get the most out of your system while consuming the least...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[Techuser]

@wittaj Thanks for all of the help! Couldn't have been able to figure out how to access the cameras and set them up without your help! I got them all added and set up with blue iris. The installer says he wants a way to be see them on his phone while working so it'll be easier for him to get them installed the correct way the first time. Is there a quick and easy way to give him remote access that I can then revoke afterwards? I haven't had time to work on getting the PC isolated on it's own VLAN and set up any VPNs just yet. I will have to do all that later on when I have free time away from work. Just need the fastest and easiest way to give him access for the day. He's coming by tomorrow morning. Really appreciate all the help!

 

[sebastiantombs]

Use the built in web GUI for Blue Iris called UI3. Access with a Chrome based browser, pc or phone, at the lan address of the Blue Iris machine, 192.168.x.x:81 , the port number is key. You will need to create a user in Blue Iris for the installer and grant that user ID rights to view all cameras, but not with admin rights.

Alternately he can log into each camera individually, using their own IP addresses.

 

[looney2ns]

@wittaj Thanks for all of the help! Couldn't have been able to figure out how to access the cameras and set them up without your help! I got them all added and set up with blue iris. The installer says he wants a way to be see them on his phone while working so it'll be easier for him to get them installed the correct way the first time. Is there a quick and easy way to give him remote access that I can then revoke afterwards? I haven't had time to work on getting the PC isolated on it's own VLAN and set up any VPNs just yet. I will have to do all that later on when I have free time away from work. Just need the fastest and easiest way to give him access for the day. He's coming by tomorrow morning. Really appreciate all the help!

Hmm, me thanks that's a red flag. If your installer had basic IP cam knowledge, he would know he could easily view each cam without connecting to Blue Iris.

I hope he's not mounting these cams any higher than 8ft off the ground.