Newbie with detailed questions on H/W support for Blue Iris

[SnarkyBoy]

I am setting up a home system with four PoE cameras. Having not found this site yet, and lured by the low price, I istarted with a ReoLink 4-cam 4 MP system. As the cables run through my attic, I bought a spool of plenum rated Cat5 and the tools to make my own ends. With a bit of practice, that has worked well thus far. I had set up all 4 cameras on a desk for a 'burn-in' to check durability. One of the 4 cameras failed after 3 months, developing solid vertical lines in the image. Once I documentd the failure, Reolink worked to replace the failed camera.

I mounted 2 of the remaining cameras on front and rear exterior of my home, and found that the 4MP ReoLink cameras are sadly lacking in night performance. Any light source washes out surrounding detail - car headlights or tail lights obscure the image, so make/model identification is impossible. Apparently this is where "Wide Dynamic Range" comes into consideration. So Reolink will be replaced entirely with a 2nd gen system: PC, Blue Iris S/W and PoE+ switch. have an Dell Inspiron 620 with a 4-core Intel i5-2320 running at 3.0GHz. The Win 10 Pro operating system runs off a 500MB SSD, and there is a 1TB traditional HDD for trials - which will be upgraded to 4TB.

For power injection I bought a BV-Tech 8-port Gigabit PoE+ switch with 130W capacity and two Ethernet uplink ports. I have looked at HikVission, Dahua, or Amcrest cameras that support high WDR of 120 dB, and Starlight mode. I found a fine Hikvision DS-2CD2347G1-LU with a 4mm lens, but it is considerably bulkier than the ReoLink, which installs discretely. From reading, I understand that these cameras can stream with H.264 and H.265 encoding, and I can process this with Intel QuickSync video support i the GPU of the processor. I have upgraded the BIOS in my PC, and tested the ability to play H.264 encoded video clips by running test files from a site called TechSpot (see link) Guide to HEVC/H.265 Encoding and Playback.

Now the questions.. From testing, I can play H.264 encoded files, but not H.265. (or HEVC) encoding. Digging into the gnarly details of an Intel i5-2320, I learned it is Sandy Bridge with an HD 2000 as GPU., My motherboard will support a 4-core i7-3700 Sandy Bridge with an HD 3000 GPU. Can anyone tell me the differences between the HD 2000 and HD3000, and if upgrading to the i7-3700 will give me H.265 decoding capability. Secondly, I will revisit the camera choices... everyone seems to feel Dahua and Hikvision are the lead contenders, but I need to address the H.265 decoding if I am to be state of the art.

Comments?

 

[The Automation Guy]

I'm still pretty new to the CCTV game, but I don't think I would worry about replacing your equipment just to get H.265 support. H.265 is a more efficient codec which saves space and bandwidth, but neither of those things really matters in a local BI setup. Storage is cheap and bandwidth really doesn't matter unless you are wanting to stream things 24/7 outside of your local network (which would be pretty rare). H.265 actually uses more processing power too, so you will need more CPU power for the same amount of bits/sec.

If you did decide to upgrade, I would suggest that you look into refurbished computers with a much newer generation processor. Those Sandy Bridge processors use a lot of energy and I don't think it is worth spending $100 to replace it with another CPU of the same generation. It would be better to put that $100 towards some newer components.

 

[mat200]

..

Now the questions.. From testing, I can play H.264 encoded files, but not H.265. (or HEVC) encoding. Digging into the gnarly details of an Intel i5-2320, I learned it is Sandy Bridge with an HD 2000 as GPU., My motherboard will support a 4-core i7-3700 Sandy Bridge with an HD 3000 GPU. Can anyone tell me the differences between the HD 2000 and HD3000, and if upgrading to the i7-3700 will give me H.265 decoding capability. ..

Welcome @SnarkyBoy

I concur with @The Automation Guy . If you are going to spend money upgrading your PC setup - make a bigger jump. You can find some nicer used business class PCs for not too much.. just see what others are getting for Blue Iris + used PCs setups.

 

[SouthernYankee]

---------------------------------------------
I purchased a HP elitedesk tower i7-4790 with 16GB of memory and windows 10 pro off ebay for $150.00, that was an extremely good deal. I waited and search for a long time to get that price.
You have a running PC system stick to it till you max it out, get better cameras first
BI does not support H.265 for hardware acceleration, so stick to H.264, as said before space is cheap. The i5-2320 does not support hardware acceleration supported by BI, but with your current system load you do not need it.

Look at the wiki for BI hardware selection. Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris
-------------------------------------------
My standard welcome to the forum message.

Please read the IP Cam Talk Cliff Notes and other items in the IP Cam Talk Wiki. The wiki is in the blue bar at the top of the page.

Read How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!) in the wiki also.

Quick start
1) If you do not have a wired monitored alarm system, get that first
2) Use Dahua starlight cameras or Hikvision darkfighter cameras or ICPT Night eye cameras (Store | IP Cam Talk) if you need good low light cameras.
3) use a VPN to access home network (openVPN)
4) Do not use wifi cameras.
5) Do not use cloud storage
6) Do Not use uPNP, P2P, QR, do not open ports,
7) More megapixel is not necessarily better.
8) Avoid chinese hacked cameras (most ebay, amazon, aliexpress cameras(not all, but most))
9) Do not use reolink, ring, nest cameras (they are junk), no cloud cameras
10) If possible use a turret camera , bullet collect spiders, dome collect dirt and reflect light (IR)
11) Use only solid copper, AWG 23 or 24 ethernet wire. , no CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum)
12) use a test mount to verify the camera mount location. My test rig: rev.2
13) (Looney2ns)If you want to be able to ID faces, don't mount cams higher than 8ft. You want to know who did it, not just what happened.
14) Use a router that has openVPN built in (Most ASUS, Some NetGear....)
15) camera placement use the calculator... IPVM Camera Calculator V3

Cameras to look at
IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED Review IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED (Full Color, Starlight+)
IPC-T5442TM-AS Review-OEM 4mp AI Cam IPC-T5442TM-AS Starlight+ - 4MP starlight+
IPC-HDW2231R-ZS Review-Dahua IPC-HDW2231RP-ZS Starlight Camera-Varifocal
IPC-HDW2231T-ZS-S2 Review-OEM IPC-T2231T-ZS 2mp Varifocal Starlight Camera
IPC-HDW5231R-ZE Review-Dahua Starlight IPC-HDW5231R-ZE 800 meter capable ePOE
IPC-HFW4239T-ASE IPC-HFW4239T-ASE
IPCT-HDW5431RE-I Review - IP Cam Talk 4 MP IR Fixed Turret Network Camera
DS-2CD2325FWD-I
IPC-T2347G-LU Review of the Hikvision OEM model IPC-T2347G-LU 'ColorVu' IP CCTV camera. (DS-2CD2347G1-LU)
N22AL12 New Dahua N22AL12 Budget Cam w/Starlight -- low cost entry

Other dahua 4MP starlight Dahua 4MP Starlight Lineup

My preferred indoor cameras
DS-2CD2442FWD-IW
IPC-K35A Review-Dahua IPC-K35A 3mp Cube Camera

If interested in Blue Iris and other setup items see the following post

Newbie Starter Guide to IP Cam System – VPN setup – Computer Hardware – Blue Iris – Dahua Cameras

This is an intermediate / newbie guide for people just starting out looking for a surveillance setup. I know this setup might not be for everyone and there are many options. You can find a lot of this information in the Wiki: IP Cam Talk Wiki | IP Cam Talk A great place to start in the Wiki...

ipcamtalk.com

Read,study,plan before spending money ..... plan plan plan
Test do not guess

 

[SouthernYankee]

if you are interested in International Dahua cameras, a forum member sells dahua (and some Hikvision) and ships world wide. You can read some of the members recommendations on his service. He also provides cameras to other forum member for evaluation and reviews.
you can email him for a quote, or purchase from his Aliexpress store or his Amazon store. The cameras are fully upgradable, he posts upgrade software when available.

Andy
@EMPIRETECANDY
kingsecurity2014@163.com
Andy's ipcamtalk vendor forum: EmpireTech Andy
Andy's AliExpress store: Empire Technology Co., Ltd - Amazing prodcuts with exclusive discounts on AliExpress
Andy's Amazon store: EmpireTech-Andy @ Amazon.com:

 

[SnarkyBoy]

Wow... Thanks for the quick and detailed responses. The info on not pursuing H.265 encode support is particularly useful. To maximize storage, I will get a WD purple 8TB HDD once I get the platform debugged. Southern Yankee,
thanks for the very detailed startup guide. For Cat5 Cable I did in fact go for solid copper plenum rated cable, which seems very robust. Now, to address the cameras, I did purchase one Starlight camera, a Hikvision DS-2CD2347G1-LU 4mm
Fixed Turret 4MP. (See camera thumbnail below.) This came through Amazon, so I hope it isn't hacked. It chose this because it specifies 120dB of dynamic range and color at very low light levels. Physically it is about 30% larger than the ReoLink,
which makes covert install a bit more challenging on the front of the house. If I could get this form factor and capability in a more compact package, It would be ideal.

On my first bench attempt to power it up through PC, Blue Iris, and the POE+ switch, I had two strange responses. First of all the IR illuminators came on with high intensity visible yellow light for about 5 seconds, which shocked me...
because they are IR sources, not visible.. Part of a self check initialization sequence? Maybe someone has experience with this model.

Secondly, I could not detect the camera with BlueIris. The BV Switch indicates that power is being supplied, and data transfer is active, but I cannot locate any IP address in the Camera page.
I am going through the Hikvision support docs now... it suggests something about unlocking or registering the camera to activate it... that's a bit odd. Is this a Hikvision policy in general? Maybe I am misunderstanding.

 

[mat200]

..Now, to address the cameras, I did purchase one Starlight camera, a Hikvision DS-2CD2347G1-LU 4mm
..
On my first bench attempt to power it up through PC, Blue Iris, and the POE+ switch, I had two strange responses. First of all the IR illuminators came on with high intensity visible yellow light for about 5 seconds, which shocked me...
because they are IR sources, not visible.. Part of a self check initialization sequence? Maybe someone has experience with this model.
..

HI @SnarkyBoy

Specs look nice on the camera, note those "IR illuminators" are LED lights ( as in white lights )

"The camera also contains a powerful auxiliary white light source to enhance colors and illuminate the scene when it approaches total darkness or on a defined schedule "
ref:

https://us.hikvision.com/sites/default/files/data_sheet/cv_ds-2cd2347g1-lu_100219na.pdf

 

[SouthernYankee]

The Ip address of a new hikvision camera should be 192.0.0.64 . If your PC address is not on the 192.0.0.xx subnet BI will not find it. Try logging into the camera with internet explorer. Or use the SDAP hikvision utility to change the address

 

[SnarkyBoy]

mat200....thank you for that detail... However the surveilled scene should never be completely dark as there are street lights. I am looking for color in low light levels. I am a bit troubled that a "Starlight" camera needs a powerful white light light source. Also..whats the point of covert surveillance device if you advertise it with built in illumination? My present ReoLink as shown in last post gives off a visible red glow when in night mode. I may send this back in exchange for a Starlight camera with no visible illuminator
mechanism. Southern Yankee - thanks for the detail on the IP address.. the network connection is minimal for the bench test... PC to Switch downlink port, and one camera to the POE+ port (switch shown below). The IP address fails to show whether I connect the PC to the downlink port or to one of the POE+ ports.

 

[mat200]

mat200....thank you for that detail... However the surveilled scene should never be completely dark as there are street lights. I am looking for color in low light levels. I am a bit troubled that a "Starlight" camera needs a powerful white light light source. Also..whats the point of covert surveillance device if you advertise it with built in illumination? My present ReoLink as shown in last post gives off a visible red glow when in night mode. I may send this back in exchange for a Starlight camera with no visible illuminator
mechanism. Southern Yankee - thanks for the detail on the IP address.. the network connection is minimal for the bench test... PC to Switch downlink port, and one camera to the POE+ port (switch shown below). The IP address fails to show whether I connect the PC to the downlink port or to one of the POE+ ports.

View attachment 52150

Hi @SnarkyBoy

0) This camera by no means is a "covert surveillance device"
1) You happened to pick a model with white LED lights. Does it need them? No, not if there is enough ambient light.
2) Some people like the white LED lights, otherwise we would not see floodlight camera and white LED light camera models sold.
3) You should be able to turn off the LED lights.
4) Specs are still very good for the camera, and it should perform very well according to the specs.

 

[SnarkyBoy]

Seriously...thanks for all the quick and detailed support. So it looks like the 52150 is overkill for this particular position, and I made a bad choice. With some more research, I found a Dahua model
IPC-HDW1431S 4MP (specs attached) that is identical in size to the ReoLink, with better WDR and overall performance at night. So I can salvage most all of the existing installation. The 3.6mm option
will match existing field of view also. I can use the other camera on the garage entrance and protect the entire east side of the house.

Thanks again for the honest feedback on my choices and work to date.

 

[mat200]

Seriously...thanks for all the quick and detailed support. So it looks like the 52150 is overkill for this particular position, and I made a bad choice. With some more research, I found a Dahua model
IPC-HDW1431S 4MP (specs attached) that is identical in size to the ReoLink, with better WDR and overall performance at night. So I can salvage most all of the existing installation. The 3.6mm option
will match existing field of view also. I can use the other camera on the garage entrance and protect the entire east side of the house.

Thanks again for the honest feedback on my choices and work to date.

Hi @SnarkyBoy

The Hikvision camera ( Hikvision DS-2CD2347G1-LU 4mm ) is far superior to anything Reolink currently has available, and is far superior to the 4MP bullet IPC-HDW1431S.

Naturally it is up to you which camera you want, personally I would keep it.

 

[SnarkyBoy]

mat200,

I agree that the 2CD2347G1 is a top performer.. I will likely keep it. I just need to find a proper location because of its size. Let me ask the question a different way. Is the Dahua HDW1431S, significantly better
than the ReoLink? I would think so, based on the WDR performance... of which ReoLink has zero Dynamic Range capability...so not much of a comparison. But the 1431S is not a Starlight, like the 2CD2347G1,
and I dont expect the same performance. BTW... the Dahua 1431S is what I could call a turret (a tennis ball with manual gimbal adjust) it is not a cylindrical housing. Maybe I dont know my terms well enough.

 

[mat200]

mat200,

I agree that the 2CD2347G1 is a top performer.. I will likely keep it. I just need to find a proper location because of its size. Let me ask the question a different way. Is the Dahua HDW1431S, significantly better
than the ReoLink? I would think so, based on the WDR performance... of which ReoLink has zero Dynamic Range capability...so not much of a comparison. But the 1431S is not a Starlight, like the 2CD2347G1,
and I dont expect the same performance. BTW... the Dahua 1431S is what I could call a turret (a tennis ball with manual gimbal adjust) it is not a cylindrical housing. Maybe I dont know my terms well enough.

Hi @SnarkyBoy

Dahua makes a bullet and eyeball / turret version of many cameras like the IPC-HDW1431S... they also make a ton of different models, some more affordable than others, other better.

This is just like a vehicle brand - say Toyota or Nissan.

So the question you're basically asking... is something along these lines
Is this X model Toyota significantly better than the Yugos? ( or whatever brand you want to replace there. )

My answer is: Why not look for a model of car that works best for yourself?

 

[SnarkyBoy]

OK... Latest info. I got frustrated with the complexity of the 2CD2347G1 and ordered the simple Dahua 1431S. Connecting this to the PoE Switch port 1, and my Computer to PoE port 8, with my modem LAN on the uplink port, I am able to both contact Dahua for their users information and tools, and also interrogate the camera with BI software. Good news is that I am able to detect the camera using Settings / Cameras Configure / Find Inspect. I in theory have an accessable RTSV port. But when attempting to stream video.. I get an error 8000007a on the screen. I am inserting both snips for discussion. In terms of the camera password, I went with the default of "admin" from discovery, then tried a recommended "ONVIF" Out of frustration, I used the Dahua config tool to "initialize" the camera and set a new password. The config software initially reported that the device had not been initialized, as it couldnt talk through a LAN interface. When I reconfigured and launched it a second time, I showed that the camera HAS been initialized. I think I am only making things worse at this point... so any 'lessons learned' feedback from the community will help here. Once I get my sea legs with this camera, I will work with the more capable Hikvision 2CD(etc).

 

[SouthernYankee]

This is not your problem put you must change the IP address of the camera, before adding it to BI. All dahua cameras use 192.168.1.108. If you do not change it you will not be able to add another dahua camera.

Use IE and log into the the camera, change the username and password. Change the IP address to something that is not used on your home network. Set the address to static.
You do not need to download the pugin, just click the setting tab > network > tcp/ip.

 

[SnarkyBoy]

Hmm..... OK... Did that.... logged into the camera directly at 192.168.1.108 and got a beautiful live image....so that was encouraging.
Then I used settings to change the IP address to 192.168.201.200. The camera complained that the gateway was not the same, so I copied the
IP address there as well. I made one more change to the video format from PAL to NTSC which is the American Standard.

Now I cannot access the camera via the updated IP address either thru the browser, or through Blue Iris. I should disclose at this point
that although I am knowledgeable in electronics design and manufacture, the intricacies of TCB/IP and network protocol have
always flummoxed me. So I fear I may have done something naive and wrong.

 

[SouthernYankee]

What is the up address of your pc, what is the internal address of your router. For a simple setup the first 3 numbers need to be the same. 192.168.1.xxx

 

[SnarkyBoy]

What is the up address of your pc, what is the internal address of your router. For a simple setup the first 3 numbers need to be the same. 192.168.1.xxx

Router is not a factor quite yet... I have my PC directly addressed to the POE switch port. However, I see the mistake.. mu IPv4 address partial address is 192.168.1.xxx
So changing the third camera grouping to .201. was a bad idea. However... have I become in-communicator with the camera now? How do I switch it back if I cant
talk to it?

 

[SnarkyBoy]

OK... finally some progress. I decided on a reset to factory settings... which could not be done via IP connection, since I couldn't talk to the camera. So I researched Dahua videos
and opened the camera, found the hardware reset button, and held it down for 30 seconds. Then I re-registered and activated the camera online and SNAP... I can log
into the camera with my browser. Next, I brought the BI software online and went through the Settings -> Video -> Configure -> Inspect procedure while the camera
is still at the default IP address of 192.168.1.108. BI had no problem opening port 80 of the IP address and connecting. Going back to the live screen.. now I get
real-time video via BI display. Before further tinkering with this camera, I will mount it outside temporarily to see if the WDR at night is better than ReoLink as
the specs suggest. Next I will tackle the Hikvision 2CD..etc camera,.. I expect I have to ';activate' that with Hikvision like I needed to do with the Dahua.

So thanks for the support thus far.. It feels more like and adventure now, as opposed to butting my head against a brick wall.