New to Cameras and Need Advice

G

GrumpierGrunt

n3wb
Sep 25, 2023
6
8
New York City
Hi all, new here and really appreciate reading some of the older posts and advice from past newbies who have been in a similar position.

I inherited (from my father) a cam setup that likely needs some updating. The setup is five Flir 2.1 MP wired cameras, a POE switch and a Uniview NVR. Recently, the mobile app has lost all display and playback functions. If I pull up the display direct from the NVR, the real time display from the cameras is present, but when I try navigating with the remote to troubleshoot, I just get loud beeps.

I don’t view the cameras much, it is mostly my mom who likes watching the cats on her mobile app. Rather than troubleshoot, I figured I should just do some upgrading to something a little more modern and flexible. I’m happy with the cameras, but wanted to either replace the NVR with a more current NVR (anke or amcrest) or Blue Iris. I’m leaning blue iris.

Do these specs seem alright for a dedicated BI rig? Is there additional space for a WD Purple 8TB drive? Any advice or suggestions welcome, trying to learn.

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GrumpierGrunt said:
Hi all, new here and really appreciate reading some of the older posts and advice from past newbies who have been in a similar position.

I inherited (from my father) a cam setup that likely needs some updating. The setup is five Flir 2.1 MP wired cameras, a POE switch and a Uniview NVR. Recently, the mobile app has lost all display and playback functions. If I pull up the display direct from the NVR, the real time display from the cameras is present, but when I try navigating with the remote to troubleshoot, I just get loud beeps.

I don’t view the cameras much, it is mostly my mom who likes watching the cats on her mobile app. Rather than troubleshoot, I figured I should just do some upgrading to something a little more modern and flexible. I’m happy with the cameras, but wanted to either replace the NVR with a more current NVR (anke or amcrest) or Blue Iris. I’m leaning blue iris.

Do these specs seem alright for a dedicated BI rig? Is there additional space for a WD Purple 8TB drive? Any advice or suggestions welcome, trying to learn.

www.ebay.com

DELL OPTIPLEX 7060 SFF Intel i5 8th 8GB 240GB W10Pro. Very Good. 1 year warranty | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for DELL OPTIPLEX 7060 SFF Intel i5 8th 8GB 240GB W10Pro. Very Good. 1 year warranty at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
Click to expand...

Hi GrumpierGrunt

" .. but wanted to either replace the NVR with a more current NVR (anke or amcrest) or Blue Iris. I’m leaning blue iris."

Annke = typically Hikvision OEM
Amcrest = typically Dahua OEM

you ideally want to match the cameras OEM to the nvr OEM ..

That is if Hikvision OEM cameras look for a Hikvision OEM
if Dahua OEM cameras look for a Dahua OEM

Blue Iris will work with basically any OEM that meets specs ( ONVIF, rtsp .. )
 
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Good choice for a BI server.
  • Be sure to do a fresh install of Win 10 Pro using the Media Creation Tool on a USB stick.
  • Put Windows, BI and BI's "db" folder on the SSD.
  • Put BI video clips on a surveillance-rated, spinning HDD such as a WD Purple.
 
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Hi everybody! Just to circle back, I was successfully able to buy a solid computer and install blue iris. I was also able to add my five wired cameras and it’s working great. My CPU usage with some of the optimizations is also great, hovering around 20 percent.

I just have two questions…
So I have two time and date stamps, one from BI and one from the camera. How do I turn off the camera stamp? Do I have to go through each camera by typing in the IP address?

Also, I turned off alerts because someone is usually home and it kinda brought up my CPU usage. For the BI IOS app, how do I access clips? I’m saving clips to my WD purple drive, but the app only shows me an empty tab for alerts (again, alerts are off).

My clips are in two hour increments.
 
In BI's "camera" settings, "Video" tab, you can see the cam's IP address; just click on that to open your browser to the cam's webGUI where you can disable the cam's time/date overlay.

To show clips, click on the camera icon (cameras) to the left of the lightning bolt (alerts) down at the bottom; clips should be on the right side.
 
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Thanks for the tip! Did not consider that in wanting to remove the TS.

Related to the app, I can’t seem to pull up saved clips. I can only see alerts (for which I am not recording). Is it possible to view clips in the mobile iOS app?
 
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Most of us use the native UI3 viewer when on mobile devices.

Open up a browser and type in the IP address of the BI machine along with : port number you are using and you will find it to be much more useful than the BI app.
 
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Oh yeah, this web browser version is so much better.

I think I’m all set for now, thank you everyone for your help and feedback! I’m really glad I went with BI and was able to purchase it through the site, I hope the forum got a cut to help keep this wonderful community going.

Thanks again!
 
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