New to Cameras and Need Advice

[GrumpierGrunt]

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.

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

No missing parts. - Fully cleaned with all non-original labels removed.

www.ebay.com

 

[wittaj]

That is more than adequate for your needs.

 

[mat200]

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.

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

No missing parts. - Fully cleaned with all non-original labels removed.

www.ebay.com

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 .. )

 

[looney2ns]

Yes, there is space for an additional spinning hard drive.

 

[TonyR]

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.

 

[GrumpierGrunt]

Thanks everyone for the help! Quick question, is this the same computer that I linked above?

Seems like I could probably save $50 with this one:

Dell Optiplex 7060 SFF intel Core i5-8th gen 16GB RAM 256GB SSD win 11 pro | eBay

<p>Dell Optiplex 7060 SFF Hexa-Core i5-8th gen 16GB DDR4 RAM 256GB SSD Win11 PRO. </p>

www.ebay.com

 

[GrumpierGrunt]

Also, for the WD Purple drive, is RAM cache worth paying more for? Options at B&H are 5460 RPM at 128 MB for $180 or 5400 RPM at 256 MB for $215.

 

[TonyR]

Thanks everyone for the help! Quick question, is this the same computer that I linked above?

Seems like I could probably save $50 with this one:

Dell Optiplex 7060 SFF intel Core i5-8th gen 16GB RAM 256GB SSD win 11 pro | eBay

<p>Dell Optiplex 7060 SFF Hexa-Core i5-8th gen 16GB DDR4 RAM 256GB SSD Win11 PRO. </p>

www.ebay.com

Yes and it's got 16GB RAM vs 8GB....go for it!

 

[GrumpierGrunt]

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.

 

[TonyR]

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.

 

[wittaj]

Those in law say it is better to have the camera time stamps than thr BI overlay as the overlay is considered altering the video.

You can set up different profiles to turn off alerts when home.

 

[GrumpierGrunt]

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?

 

[wittaj]

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.

 

[GrumpierGrunt]

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!