NVR Questions

Elgato54

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I have been comparing the homeowner grade stuff for a while. Lorex, Amcrest, Reolink and Dahua.
For the NVR's they give you some features but very little in specs and all seem about the same.
Does one stand out above the others?
Does a 16 port have more processing power or memory than an 8 port? Maybe a larger PS?
Is web access a free product or monthly charge?
Most usable software?
Some have fans while others do not.
Lorex has some small units that support one hard drive and larger ones that support up to 2 10g drives. Price is similar.
Does everyone run their camera system on a separate VPN?
Any recommendations appreciated.
Thanks
 

TonyR

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I have been comparing the homeowner grade stuff for a while. Lorex, Amcrest, Reolink and Dahua.
For the NVR's they give you some features but very little in specs and all seem about the same.
Does one stand out above the others?
Dahua is the OEM for Lorex and Amcrest. Avoid Reolink

Does a 16 port have more processing power or memory than an 8 port? Generally no just allows more cams.
Maybe a larger PS? Generally, yes...to power more cams
Is web access a free product or monthly charge? Varies amongst mfg.'s
Most usable software? All similar
Some have fans while others do not. Yes
Lorex has some small units that support one hard drive and larger ones that support up to 2 10g drives. Price is similar.
Does everyone run their camera system on a separate VPN? No but if remote access & viewing is wanted, it's highly recommended.
Expand the above for my replies.
Also: avoid bullet cameras, the IR ring attracts spiders that build webs across them.
 

mat200

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I have been comparing the homeowner grade stuff for a while. Lorex, Amcrest, Reolink and Dahua.
For the NVR's they give you some features but very little in specs and all seem about the same.
Does one stand out above the others?
Does a 16 port have more processing power or memory than an 8 port? Maybe a larger PS?
Is web access a free product or monthly charge?
Most usable software?
Some have fans while others do not.
Lorex has some small units that support one hard drive and larger ones that support up to 2 10g drives. Price is similar.
Does everyone run their camera system on a separate VPN?
Any recommendations appreciated.
Thanks
Welcome @Elgato54

1: "For the NVR's they give you some features but very little in specs and all seem about the same."
You'll need to take a closer look at the spec sheet on the NVRs.
For the Dahua OEM ones: Lorex ( most of the NVRs are Dahua OEM ), Amcrest, and Dahua - Dahua should be providing the basic spec sheet to Lorex, Amcrest, and others so in theory you should be able to compare them. Look for the bandwidth specs. This will give you a idea of the ability of the NVR to process video streams. The better NVRs will be rated higher, for example Lorex NVR NR9082: Network Bit Rate 320Mbps total

2: "Does one stand out above the others?"
A lot depends on the particular cameras and NVRs. Lorex carries many models, though due to recent BF-cyberweek sales the seems to be out of stock of some of the nicer deals. Amcrest seems to have a limited selection, and not the newer models. I would look for the cameras that have the 1/1.8" sensors.
Reolink is not well liked by members here for numerous reasons including: more affordable components in the cameras producing poorer low light results, issues with iframe and compatibility with Blue Iris, astroturfing this forum, manipulating amazon voting results...

3: Does a 16 port have more processing power or memory than an 8 port? Maybe a larger PS?
( as TonyR already provided an answer I'm going to add some additional info which is appropriate when looking at some of their kits )

Remember to double check the specs of the particular model, and keep track of what you order.
Note that some models of the Lorex NVRs with 8 ports are significantly lower spec'ed compared to the different 16 port NVR models they sell. Lorex recently was replacing the better NVRs in their kits with lower tier models and NOT changing the kit "sku". Which imho is very sneaky and perhaps even fraudulent if a customer ordered the better version of the kit and got sent the cheaper version.

4. Some have fans while others do not.
Typically you only see fans in the NVRs which have internal power supplies. The NVRs which have ac/dc power adapters tend to be smaller NVRs and w/o fans in general.

5. Lorex has some small units that support one hard drive and larger ones that support up to 2 10g drives. Price is similar.
The smaller units / NVRs are typically lower tier models in terms of bandwidth they can handle.

Are you planning to buy an NVR separately?
 

Elgato54

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Welcome @Elgato54

1: "For the NVR's they give you some features but very little in specs and all seem about the same."
You'll need to take a closer look at the spec sheet on the NVRs.
For the Dahua OEM ones: Lorex ( most of the NVRs are Dahua OEM ), Amcrest, and Dahua - Dahua should be providing the basic spec sheet to Lorex, Amcrest, and others so in theory you should be able to compare them. Look for the bandwidth specs. This will give you a idea of the ability of the NVR to process video streams. The better NVRs will be rated higher, for example Lorex NVR NR9082: Network Bit Rate 320Mbps total
The larger units with an internal power supply seem to have the higher total bit rate. 320 seems to be the best and a lot of the small ones are 80 total. Was not sure if it was a true reflection of power. I like the 9082 but they said it has been discontinued. On some of the packages they were substituting the small one with round corners.

2: "Does one stand out above the others?"
A lot depends on the particular cameras and NVRs. Lorex carries many models, though due to recent BF-cyberweek sales the seems to be out of stock of some of the nicer deals. Amcrest seems to have a limited selection, and not the newer models. I would look for the cameras that have the 1/1.8" sensors.
Reolink is not well liked by members here for numerous reasons including: more affordable components in the cameras producing poorer low light results, issues with iframe and compatibility with Blue Iris, astroturfing this forum, manipulating amazon voting results...

3: Does a 16 port have more processing power or memory than an 8 port? Maybe a larger PS?
( as TonyR already provided an answer I'm going to add some additional info which is appropriate when looking at some of their kits )

Remember to double check the specs of the particular model, and keep track of what you order.
Note that some models of the Lorex NVRs with 8 ports are significantly lower spec'ed compared to the different 16 port NVR models they sell. Lorex recently was replacing the better NVRs in their kits with lower tier models and NOT changing the kit "sku". Which imho is very sneaky and perhaps even fraudulent if a customer ordered the better version of the kit and got sent the cheaper version.

4. Some have fans while others do not.
Typically you only see fans in the NVRs which have internal power supplies. The NVRs which have ac/dc power adapters tend to be smaller NVRs and w/o fans in general.

5. Lorex has some small units that support one hard drive and larger ones that support up to 2 10g drives. Price is similar.
The smaller units / NVRs are typically lower tier models in terms of bandwidth they can handle.
Total network bandwidth seems to be the only real apples to apples comparison. It would be nice if they provided CPU and memory specs.

Are you planning to buy an NVR separately?
No, I will buy a package based around the specific NVR. Like Amcrest for the stand alone option and Lorex for the two year warranty.
Is Color Night Vision significant or just a marketing gimmick?
Thank you for taking the time for such a complete response.
 

BullCity

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I ordered one of their black Friday 4K30 FPS 16 camera deal. It took a couple weeks to arrive and had higher specs then what I ordered. They sent a 32 channel. And had a 8TB hard drive. The one I order was a 16 channel 6TB hard drive.. It was $2199. I put in 2 purple 10TB hard drives for A total of 20TB. It came with 8 cameras with 4X zoom lens and 8 normal. It is very clear on license plates during the daytime But at night looks blank where the license place are. It has a internal power supply and cooling fan. Thinking of investing in a License plate camera hoping it will work with it
 

mat200

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I ordered one of their black Friday 4K30 FPS 16 camera deal. It took a couple weeks to arrive and had higher specs then what I ordered. They sent a 32 channel. And had a 8TB hard drive. The one I order was a 16 channel 6TB hard drive.. It was $2199. I put in 2 purple 10TB hard drives for A total of 20TB. It came with 8 cameras with 4X zoom lens and 8 normal. It is very clear on license plates during the daytime But at night looks blank where the license place are. It has a internal power supply and cooling fan. Thinking of investing in a License plate camera hoping it will work with it
Welcome @BullCity

If you want license plate capture at night, you'll need to dedicate a camera to that as you will need to custom tune the camera's parameters ( see the LPR section )
 

BullCity

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Welcome @BullCity

If you want license plate capture at night, you'll need to dedicate a camera to that as you will need to custom tune the camera's parameters ( see the LPR section )
Thanks I got 2 of them dedicated for it just don't know how to set them
 

looney2ns

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Thank you for taking the time for such a complete response.
You will find also, that some of the NVRs and cameras have features stripped from them that the OEM manufacture has in their own branded cameras.
A lot of us here find that using Blue Iris - Video Security Software on a dedicated refurbed pc from Ebay to be a much better option than any NVR.
 

Elgato54

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Can anyone tell the difference between the Lorex NR9163 and the N881A63B ?
Thanks
 

Tom S

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I ordered one of their black Friday 4K30 FPS 16 camera deal. It took a couple weeks to arrive and had higher specs then what I ordered. They sent a 32 channel. And had a 8TB hard drive. The one I order was a 16 channel 6TB hard drive.. It was $2199. I put in 2 purple 10TB hard drives for A total of 20TB. It came with 8 cameras with 4X zoom lens and 8 normal. It is very clear on license plates during the daytime But at night looks blank where the license place are. It has a internal power supply and cooling fan. Thinking of investing in a License plate camera hoping it will work with it

I would like to see exactly what you order and some pics of the license plate captures. How far away are you able to capture license plates in the daytime?
 

mat200

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Can anyone tell the difference between the Lorex NR9163 and the N881A63B ?
Thanks
Hi @Elgato54

Good question... they basically look the same from a quick glance. Though I noticed the back of the NVRs are a bit different, as 8 ports on one are marked with "green" background - perhaps indicating a different PoE standard? or ??? So check the PoE power specs in the spec sheet and see if there is something to do with the ports.

4K Ultra HD 16 Channel Security NVR, 3TB Hard Drive, POE, Records 4K (4 x 1080p) at 30FPS, with Audio Recording
NR9163
spec sheet

4K Ultra HD 16-Channel Security NVR with Lorex Cloud Connectivity and 3TB Hard Drive
N881A63B-W
spec sheet:


1576543806438.png



and the N881A63B-W image of the NVRs back:

1576543910977.png
 

BullCity

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I would like to see exactly what you order and some pics of the license plate captures. How far away are you able to capture license plates in the daytime?
I will have to get the picture of the camera system. Camera is around 12' up on a wall. Driveway exit is about 50' I think away . Image was very sharp. But the vehicles are not moving that fast. At night it sucks. I just try some settings off the Lpr thread. It did bring out where you can see there's a plate and numbers but I could not make it out. I think I will try to remote access the camera by itself to see if I can ajust The other settings that the NVR did not have listed under the camera settings. Also there is a profile for normal, day, and night but cannot find how to automatically switch them. They're all the same settings but you can adjust each profile and save.
 

K175un3

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Hello Elgato54, I think that lower resolution cameras with bigger pixel sizes will beat the hell out of newer 4K cameras in low light conditions and will also help keep costs down and allow you to spend more money on the more important components (don't forget cabling!). Also 4K will create a lot of data, so big and expensive Hard Drives would be a necessity instead of a would like or want.

Recently got these Dahua products.

NVR: NVR5416-16P-4KS2E

CAMS: IPC-HDW4231EM-ASE

We're still getting acquainted and have a love hate relationship at times (I love them and they hate me at times).

But learning fast and there good, solid products. Just got to tweak the cameras settings to get the best out of them. But I do get decent images out of the box with some basic tweaks, and with advanced tweaking I know that I can get better form them.
 

Elgato54

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Hello Elgato54, I think that lower resolution cameras with bigger pixel sizes will beat the hell out of newer 4K cameras in low light conditions and will also help keep costs down and allow you to spend more money on the more important components (don't forget cabling!). Also 4K will create a lot of data, so big and expensive Hard Drives would be a necessity instead of a would like or want.

Recently got these Dahua products.

NVR: NVR5416-16P-4KS2E

CAMS: IPC-HDW4231EM-ASE

We're still getting acquainted and have a love hate relationship at times (I love them and they hate me at times).

But learning fast and there good, solid products. Just got to tweak the cameras settings to get the best out of them. But I do get decent images out of the box with some basic tweaks, and with advanced tweaking I know that I can get better form them.
Nice NVR and cameras. You really prefer the 2k over the 4k?
Are all 16 ports POE?

I have been pulling Cat6 for weeks. Tough in an older house with no attic.

Did you have to purchase separately or does someone offer packages?
Thanks
 

K175un3

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The 2MP cameras have better low light capabilities due to the larger pixel size on the CMOS, so they're a better choice in some respects. And the price is a lot more reasonable on the pocket, which is always good as allows you to spend money better elsewhere as I mentioned in my previous post.

4K cameras though are much newer and less developed at the moment in comparison, but with time they'll improve. And the premium price is enough to dissuade me from them as well, I'm frugal you see.

And I've yet to confirm all 16 ports are POE capable or not, as it seems Dahua and resellers don't really seem to have a consistent answer about it.

But I can confirm that ports 1-8 are ePOE capable, which supposedly allows you to have long cable runs to cameras without needing to use anything else in them.

And as I'm UK based Elgato54, had some issues trying to get hold of system components (cams and NVR were separately chosen by me, so no kits available unless a reseller has bundled them).

I was getting told by almost everywhere I contacted that I could only get everything from an installer, including enlightenment (in the pocket that is) as I would have been charged a markup and installation fee as well.

Finally I found somewhere that could and would order components for me and so far impressed by them, just having to learn about more of the advanced side IP CCTV and how to tweak it to get the best out of it. But at least I have a background in PC's and a reasonable knowledge of networking. So it's not been that bad, just annoying as hell at times.

And please check video footage of various cameras on YouTube, they can be useful and very enlightening.

And remember that newer isn't necessarily better.
 

BullCity

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The 2MP cameras have better low light capabilities due to the larger pixel size on the CMOS, so they're a better choice in some respects. And the price is a lot more reasonable on the pocket, which is always good as allows you to spend money better elsewhere as I mentioned in my previous post.

4K cameras though are much newer and less developed at the moment in comparison, but with time they'll improve. And the premium price is enough to dissuade me from them as well, I'm frugal you see.

And I've yet to confirm all 16 ports are POE capable or not, as it seems Dahua and resellers don't really seem to have a consistent answer about it.

But I can confirm that ports 1-8 are ePOE capable, which supposedly allows you to have long cable runs to cameras without needing to use anything else in them.

And as I'm UK based Elgato54, had some issues trying to get hold of system components (cams and NVR were separately chosen by me, so no kits available unless a reseller has bundled them).

I was getting told by almost everywhere I contacted that I could only get everything from an installer, including enlightenment (in the pocket that is) as I would have been charged a markup and installation fee as well.

Finally I found somewhere that could and would order components for me and so far impressed by them, just having to learn about more of the advanced side IP CCTV and how to tweak it to get the best out of it. But at least I have a background in PC's and a reasonable knowledge of networking. So it's not been that bad, just annoying as hell at times.

And please check video footage of various cameras on YouTube, they can be useful and very enlightening.

And remember that newer isn't necessarily better.
All of the ports are PoE but u r right the 4k look worse then my 1080p cameras at night. I got 12 up so far.
 

K175un3

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BullCity, you see my point. I'm not saying that 4K is terrible, it's just not quite developed enough yet and given time the technology will improve.

I have an interest in Astronomy, only a basic one at that but I do have some nice toys to play with and I'd get lost without Stellararium. And in Astrophotography, pixel size is of greater importance than pixel density.

So for the best low light performance you're looking for a large size sensor with a low pixel density. As this allows for shorter exposures as more light is captured by the sensor.

So think of the pixel on the sensor as a target. And the bigger the target, the more easier it is for photons to hit it.
 

BullCity

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BullCity, you see my point. I'm not saying that 4K is terrible, it's just not quite developed enough yet and given time the technology will improve.

I have an interest in Astronomy, only a basic one at that but I do have some nice toys to play with and I'd get lost without Stellararium. And in Astrophotography, pixel size is of greater importance than pixel density.

So for the best low light performance you're looking for a large size sensor with a low pixel density. As this allows for shorter exposures as more light is captured by the sensor.

So think of the pixel on the sensor as target. And the bigger the target, the more easier it is for photons to hit it.
Makes sense
 
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