NVR for Dahua 5231 Starlight and a 6mp turret

[NGL]

Thanks in advance.
For the last few years I have been running these 2 cameras w/ Blue Iris to a lap top and it has worked out fine but .. I need longer storage retention..

I may upgrade / add a camera or 2 in the future but can not see myself having more than 4.

With that in mind, can someone point me in the right direction for a NVR?
I have been doing my own homework but it is getting confusing and would rather hear from the group on the direction I should go.

Obviously, longer storage, remote access, ios app are important and not sure what else.. the Blue Iris/Laptop solution has been fine but would like to upgrade and expand a bit. I am also under the impression that ideally, I need to stay with the same brand of NVR as the cameras...

Also might be important to know these are all being run via POE so the NVr would need that capability...

Thank you

 

[aristobrat]

I am also under the impression that ideally, I need to stay with the same brand of NVR as the cameras...

If you want to use the better motion detection in Dahua (IVS) and Hik (Smart Events), that's important if you're going the NVR route. Most NVRs don't have enough horsepower to do their own motion detection so they rely on the cameras to do their own. Most cameras have a "basic" motion detection that can get frustrating because of too many false positives when untuned, and when tunes, may become too insensitive and miss events. Most Dahua/Hik cameras have "better" motion detection built in but the NVR brand needs to match the camera brand to make use of it.

I don't know if this has improved over the years, but when I switched from a Dahua NVR to Blue Iris thing that immediately hit me the first time I used the Blue Iris smartphone app was how much easier it was to see new alerts/clips. Connecting to my Dahua NVR with the Dahua smartphone app, it didn't automatically show any information on new alerts, etc... I had to make it do a search where I had to enter specific start/end date times each time I connected which was a PITA.

 

[samplenhold]

I need longer storage retention

Why dump BI? Just upgrade from a laptop to a desktop with a large HDD.

See the Cliff Notes for PC requirements for BI.

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

 

[IAmATeaf]

^ This, why dump BI if you are happy with it?

Just look on eBay for a decent spec desktop, and use that instead. Drop in a decent size disk for storage, transfer your BI settings over and job done. When choosing a desktop make sure it has room for at least 1 full size hard disk, 2 or moe would be even better and don’t go for something ultra small and compact.

Moving over to an NVR means you’ll have to set things up from scratch as well.

 

[NGL]

I didnt even think about a desktop and it makes sense .. Right now I am running everything on a higher end dedicated laptop.
1 camera is continuous recording the other is motion triggered and both are at higher than recommended frame rates and quality.

In the short term, I bought a 1TB seagate external drive which actually helped out a ton although I am not sure why...
My CPU has dropped to 32%
Memory is at 36%
Disk space has tripled and FPS is in the teens --
all of this is coming from the online BI GUI on my work desktop which is where I do most of the monitoring -
The laptop I run and store it all on just sits in a cabinet..

I might just keep it this way until I upgrade one of the cameras ...