NVR or PC(BI)??

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n3wb
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Hello everyone. I stay in a housing complex with 50 units. We currently have an old Dahua NVR looking after 6 Dahua 2 megapixel IR cameras. I want to upgrade the NVR to an AI(artificial Intelligence) unit, 16 channel Dahua model DHI-NVR5216-8P-I so we can add additional cameras onto about 550M of perimeter electric fence. I like the perimeter AI or 'trip wire' alerts you can program into the NVR as well as some other cool alert features it has. My question is, do I go the NVR route or can BI fulfill these features. Secondly, IF BI can do these same things, can I give access to other trustees on our board so they can also view footage from any location? TIA
Tim
 

aristobrat

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Most NVRs don't do AI (or even basic motion detection) --- they don't have nearly near the amount of processor power that a regular PC has. Usually motion detection, smarter motion detection (IVS for Dahua, Smart Events for Hikvision), and AI are done by the camera. The NVR basically just waits around for the camera to tell it that a motion/AI event is happening.

Since Blue Iris runs on a PC, it has more processing capabilities and can watch the incoming video from the cameras and detect motion itself. It can also be triggered by the camera's built-in motion detection or IVS (tripwire, intrusion zones, etc). Or you set Blue Iris to do a combination of both.

What Blue Iris doesn't seem to be able to do is totally integrate with some of the cameras smarter features. For example, if you have a Dahua camera set to alert when a face is detected, Blue Iris can trigger an alert to notify you, but Blue Iris itself doesn't keep a copy of the face image in a separate location for you to go through and review later, like a Dahua NVR can. Same thing with Dahua cameras that have the built-in License Plate Readers.

What I didn't like about my Dahua NVR when I had it was that when I'd use the smartphone app to remotely check in to the NVR and see if there were any new alert recordings, it was cumbersome to use. I'd have to specify a start time/end time, and then it would show me everything that happened between those times. On the Blue Iris smartphone app, when you connect in remotely, it automatically shows you a thumbnail for all of the alerts that happened. I found that it a lot quicker and easier to use.

Both BI and Dahua's NVR can be viewed remotely, but you have to be smart about how you set that up. Setting up a VPN is recommended no matter which device you ultimately end up choosing. Both the NVR and BI have smartphone apps that can be used to view remotely, as well as built-in web servers. I don't know if this has changed, but at one point the Dahua NVR required a browser plugin if you wanted to use the web server. Blue Iris doesn't. That was one less level of hassle to go through.
 

hunternm

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thanks for the good comparison. I am wondering if I use Dahua smartPSS or Lorex PC NVR is it a good alternative to BI? All my cameras are Lorex.
 

fenderman

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thanks for the good comparison. I am wondering if I use Dahua smartPSS or Lorex PC NVR is it a good alternative to BI? All my cameras are Lorex.
Definitely buy the NVR. This way youll appreciate blue iris if you switch at a later point because you want to toss the nvr against the wall.
 

hunternm

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Both BI and Dahua's NVR can be viewed remotely, but you have to be smart about how you set that up. Setting up a VPN is recommended no matter which device you ultimately end up choosing. Both the NVR and BI have smartphone apps that can be used to view remotely, as well as built-in web servers. I don't know if this has changed, but at one point the Dahua NVR required a browser plugin if you wanted to use the web server. Blue Iris doesn't. That was one less level of hassle to go through.
Is it possible to let the phone app to remote view the cameras via vpn as well?
 

tigerwillow1

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I run an NVR and tinkered a little with BI. Aristobat gave some good examples of the tradeoffs. It's like so many other things, one product does some things better while another does other things better. You'd like to find one that has the best of everything and end up settling for the one that's least bad. My opinion is that which is best for YOU depends a lot on how you use the recording device and what you expect from it. I like to suggest if you're able, borrow a PC and run the BI demo version for a while in parallel with the NVR. After doing this my conclusion was that in favor of BI, it has a more intuitive and polished UI. If you don't have IVS cameras, the motion detection is way, way better. In favor of the NVR is that the UI displays the IVS rules and highlights which is tripped during both real time viewing and playback. Important to me, maybe not for somebody else. What sealed it for me is that some of my Dahua cameras send out IVS events over ONVIF amd some don't. Something you need to find out for the cameras you happen to use.
 

fenderman

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Yes, buy the NVR ! I bought one years ago after running BI for some time. You won't regret buying the NVR.
Even the old versions of blue iris from "years ago" were better than modern standalone nvrs. More importantly, how can you provide an opinion on a product you have never used since you gave up on it "years ago".
 
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I run an NVR and tinkered a little with BI. Aristobat gave some good examples of the tradeoffs. It's like so many other things, one product does some things better while another does other things better. You'd like to find one that has the best of everything and end up settling for the one that's least bad. My opinion is that which is best for YOU depends a lot on how you use the recording device and what you expect from it. I like to suggest if you're able, borrow a PC and run the BI demo version for a while in parallel with the NVR. After doing this my conclusion was that in favor of BI, it has a more intuitive and polished UI. If you don't have IVS cameras, the motion detection is way, way better. In favor of the NVR is that the UI displays the IVS rules and highlights which is tripped during both real time viewing and playback. Important to me, maybe not for somebody else. What sealed it for me is that some of my Dahua cameras send out IVS events over ONVIF amd some don't. Something you need to find out for the cameras you happen to use
Same here...used BI for a while and finally didn't like the Windows environment, which was not always stable. It costed me a lot of time to "administer" BI. Then i installed the NVR...never had to look after it...always working fine :) .
 

Sybertiger

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If you buy a NVR you may be locked into that manufacturer's cameras. If you buy AI cams then you can utilize the AI features you like to trigger IVS alerts in BI. Plus, to beef up your triggers you can also use BI detection in conjunction with the AI cams. Use either or use both at the same time. More flexibility. NVR you are at the mercy of the manufacturer for new features or they many not support the NVR as it get "too old" whereas BI is always adding new capabilities.
 

fenderman

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Same here...used BI for a while and finally didn't like the Windows environment, which was not always stable. It costed me a lot of time to "administer" BI. Then i installed the NVR...never had to look after it...always working fine :) .
The windows environment is very stable. It is the user who gums things up like trying blue iris on a family home pc used for other crap, failing to perform a clean install or updating every other minuet. I have over 20 blue iris systems running problem free and super stable. On the other hand you have users with issues with their NVR's (see the many threads on the topic). If you use common sense, blue iris running on windows will be just as stable as any nvr. Blue iris takes absolutely no more time than an NVR to "administer". That is simply a false statement.
 
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If you buy a NVR you may be locked into that manufacturer's cameras. If you buy AI cams then you can utilize the AI features you like to trigger IVS alerts in BI. Plus, to beef up your triggers you can also use BI detection in conjunction with the AI cams. Use either or use both at the same time. More flexibility. NVR you are at the mercy of the manufacturer for new features or they many not support the NVR as it get "too old" whereas BI is always adding new capabilities.
If an NVR can give you the features you're after, than I would choose the NVR. With what you want, you'll probably need a high-end NVR , but at the end it'll give you a stable system...which i think is quiet important. I bought mine a few years ago and haven't touched it ever since :) .
 

fenderman

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If an NVR can give you the features you're after, than I would choose the NVR. With what you want, you'll probably need a high-end NVR , but at the end it'll give you a stable system...which i think is quiet important. I bought mine a few years ago and haven't touched it ever since :) .
The notion that an NVR is more stable than a Blue Iris PC is completely false and comes from your inexperience with both.
 
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Sybertiger

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If an NVR can give you the features you're after, than I would choose the NVR. With what you want, you'll probably need a high-end NVR , but at the end it'll give you a stable system...which i think is quiet important. I bought mine a few years ago and haven't touched it ever since :) .
That's the problem...a NVR canNOT give all the features. Some people don't even realize they want the features they are missing.
 
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That's the problem...a NVR canNOT give all the features. Some people don't even realize they want the features they are missing.
I agree...you should first know what features you want. A lot of features are not needed.
At the beginning I have eg tried all sorts of motion detection...but this didn't work very well with the NVR nor BI ....i just got too many false alerts. Finally I fitted a PIR sensor to solve my issue.
 

fenderman

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I agree...you should first know what features you want. A lot of features are not needed.
At the beginning I have eg tried all sorts of motion detection...but this didn't work very well with the NVR nor BI ....i just got too many false alerts. Finally I fitted a PIR sensor to solve my issue.
I think you mean that YOU dont need or just live without a lot of features. Basic tasks like disabling motion detection alerts for indoor cameras only when you return home are nearly impossible with an NVR. Too bad you didnt spend time to learn blue iris zone crossing to fine tune your alerts. That is plain user error. There are lots of other deal breaker features for many that you failed to learn about or didnt exist when you used blue iris many years ago. PIR is very limiting as it will cause you to miss alerts in the distance that may be important. Blue iris now also supports Sentry artificial intelligence to distinguish humans, cars, pets etc.
 
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