NVR Recommendation

[kouma]

Hello all,

I have 2x Hikvision DS-2CD2087G2-LU and 4x Dahua IPC-B5442E-ZE 4MP IP Cameras. Currently I am using a standalone PoE switch and BlueIris. I am honestly tired of BI because its dedicated hardware requirements and complexity to manage. I would like to use a dedicated NVR with ample storage, feature-rich, secure, and easy to use that allows me to access my cameras remotely via a phone APP without having to setup port-forwarding or whatever on my network.

I would prefer to purchase something from our vendors here, i.e. Andy (Empire Technology.

Please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

Firas

 

[oknoob]

Hello all,

I have 2x Hikvision DS-2CD2087G2-LU and 4x Dahua IPC-B5442E-ZE 4MP IP Cameras. Currently I am using a standalone PoE switch and BlueIris. I am honestly tired of BI because its dedicated hardware requirements and complexity to manage. I would like to use a dedicated NVR with ample storage, feature-rich, secure, and easy to use that allows me to access my cameras remotely via a phone APP without having to setup port-forwarding or whatever on my network.

I would prefer to purchase something from our vendors here, i.e. Andy (Empire Technology.

Please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

Firas

Andy have a Nice Sale going on rigth now with real good prices even on NVRs.

 

[bigredfish]

Look at the 5000 series Dahua NVRs

Now I cant testify as to how well they;ll play with HIK cameras though..

 

[kouma]

Thank you all for the recommendations. I went a head and purchased a NVR5208-8P-4KS2E. Andy confirmed it should work with both Hikvision and Dahua.

 

[Sybertiger]

Don't you need to set up port forwarding anyway to access your NVR remotely?

How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!)

Many camera networks are unsecure, even those installed by professionals. This guide gives basic instruction in how to secure a camera network from the most common types of attacks. Perhaps the most important rule of securing a computer network is to not forward ports to unsecure services...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[bigredfish]

Not if you run a vpn or use P2P

 

[Sybertiger]

If OP had a router that supported OpenVPN directly it would have taken him 5 minutes to set up remote access and be secure at the same time without the need to do any port forwarding. Sounds like he already had a Blue Iris system already up and running. Seems like it would have been simpler, cheaper and less time consuming just to buy a router with OpenVPN since he already had the BI system in place. Maybe $70 - $90 for an Asus router?

Example:

 

[kouma]

Thanks @Sybertiger for bringing this up, I thought this NVR would have one of these cloud services (i.e. Ring or Lorex) that does a reverse proxy to allow you to access your NVR/Cameras without port forwarding, VPN, etc. I guess I was wrong

My current setup includes BlueIris running as a VM and a dedicated PoE switch (Cisco 3750X) all behind a Cisco ASA5520 firewall which allows AnyConnect SSL VPN connections. It is just too complicated and take a lot of electricity. I initially had this because I was working on some certification so I needed a lab to practice. Now I need something simple that my wife and I can connect to using just an APP (no VPN clients, etc.) and that doesn't require spending 1 hour to bring everything up once power is lost for some reason.

Anyways, it seems I still need some kind of way to get to my NVR remotely..Still I am excited to work with this NVR

 

[DanDenver]

Convenience over actionable alerts.

This is why I always ask individuals what they are trying to protect and what their concerns are.

Sounds like you have found what makes you happy!

 

[bigredfish]

Thanks @Sybertiger for bringing this up, I thought this NVR would have one of these cloud services (i.e. Ring or Lorex) that does a reverse proxy to allow you to access your NVR/Cameras without port forwarding, VPN, etc. I guess I was wrong

My current setup includes BlueIris running as a VM and a dedicated PoE switch (Cisco 3750X) all behind a Cisco ASA5520 firewall which allows AnyConnect SSL VPN connections. It is just too complicated and take a lot of electricity. I initially had this because I was working on some certification so I needed a lab to practice. Now I need something simple that my wife and I can connect to using just an APP (no VPN clients, etc.) and that doesn't require spending 1 hour to bring everything up once power is lost for some reason.

Anyways, it seems I still need some kind of way to get to my NVR remotely..Still I am excited to work with this NVR

Dahua has, as I mentioned, their own cloud based system to do what you want without port forwarding or VPN. Its called P2P
It works with their DMSS app, its integrated into your NVR

I dont use it so not an expert with it

DahuaWiki

 

[bigredfish]

As most of the detection is determined by the camera, not the NVR, I find if setup right, a good NVR will provide you virtually the same actionable alerts as BI. Granted BI has a few more bells, but doubtful you’ll see a substantial end difference

 

[kouma]

Dahua has, as I mentioned, their own cloud based system to do what you want without port forwarding or VPN. Its called P2P
It works with their DMSS app, its integrated into your NVR

I dont use it so no an expert with it

DahuaWiki

That’s awesome, I wasn’t sure what P2P meant. I will definitely test it out. This is what I was looking for thanks @bigredfish!

 

[DanDenver]

As most of the detection is determined by the camera, not the NVR, I find if setup right, a good NVR will provide you virtually the same actionable alerts as BI.

I find that if there is no AI then it is false alerts all day.

False alerts amount to wasted time for me.
Plus, if a real alert happens it can easily get lost in the noise of all the false alerts, you just get hardened to all of the alerts coming at you.

My belief Is that a modern security camera system for residential use should have AI somewhere in the equipment chain. Without it you are being alerted for shadows, bunnies etc.

At that point you essentially have a "historical recording device" for your property, not something that can let you know when you should be paying attention

 

[Sybertiger]

Thanks @Sybertiger for bringing this up, I thought this NVR would have one of these cloud services (i.e. Ring or Lorex) that does a reverse proxy to allow you to access your NVR/Cameras without port forwarding, VPN, etc. I guess I was wrong

Call me cheap...LOL...but I truly hate paying monthly service fees (cloud, et. al) if I can avoid it. I hate how they jack up the price whenever they feel like it. Seems that I can't avoid my ISP and whatever subscription internet TV provider but if I can avoid monthly fees I do. The cloud based services, as you probably know, have been the subject of many hack/breech headlines so just another reason for me to avoid. But I get your point about usability by others who might not be very technical. I just set up a Blue Iris system for my 86 year old dad and fingers crossed, it's working out very well. He knows how to access it via his phone, tablet and laptop using the UI3 system in a browser (I created shortcuts so he just clicks them). And, when he's not at home he knows to click the OpenVPN button first before clicking the UI3 shortcut on his phone. I should look into how to enable OpenVPN on his phone automatically when he is out of range of his home WiFi. He gets automatic Pushover alert to his phone and tablet to so all he has to do is click the push alert to see a snapshot and it includes a link to automatically play the video snippet of the alert.

For your scenario it sounds like an NVR is the perfect solution.

I have my system plugged into a UPS to deal with power glitches but without it the system always rebooted on it's own so there wasn't any setup time to get it up and running again. Here's a copy of the report from my UPS that monitors power usage. I also have my NAS plugged into it so the power usage is a little higher. I can live with $9 extra a month for power usage of the BI system that has 9 cams running.

 

[bigredfish]

Yep Im a VPN advocate myself. Dahuas P2P implementation, or any cloud service, means you're relying on their systems

Agree with AI as a must have, most Dahua cameras now have some level of AI. I rarely get false alerts with 5442 cameras using IVS with AI

 

[bigredfish]

That’s awesome, I wasn’t sure what P2P meant. I will definitely test it out. This is what I was looking for thanks @bigredfish!

Its free

 

[Sybertiger]

As most of the detection is determined by the camera, not the NVR, I find if setup right, a good NVR will provide you virtually the same actionable alerts as BI. Granted BI has a few more bells, but doubtful you’ll see a substantial end difference

I agree. It truly depends upon what you want your camera system to do. The NVR approach is clearly a much more clean tidy package. But it lacks a lot of versatility but for most they don't care about that. It is true that Blue Iris can be as complicated as you want to make it by using all the features that a lot of users will never utilize. It can be fairly simple too.

AI built into the cams is a must IMHO. I concur that the AI in the 5442 Dahau cam is excellent but we all probably have some older cams that may have AI but not as robust as the 5442. When Blue Iris incorporated AI it became a game changer. Now you have the ability to have AI on top of AI and it also opens up the ability to do some things that I don't think an NVR can do but I could be wrong. Here's an example that I don't know if an NVR can do. I have one of my cams that monitors part of the front yard cloned in BI to be on the lookout for the mailman. It only looks for the mailman coming into the community and ignores him leaving. This is what it looks like when AI sees him and also I included what the push notification to my cell phone or table looks like. It includes a link that automatically plays the video of him arriving. I could be wrong but maybe an NVR can do that. Certainly a lot of people could care less about a notification about the mailman, Fedex, UPS, etc arriving but this was just an example. My 86 year old dad appreciates it because it saves him from guessing if the mailman came or not and if he should walk out to the mailbox.

 

[bigredfish]

Yep good example. A good camera and NVR can indeed identify a vehicle and direction, person, and even if it "loiters" at a certan spot and push that event. But no, they dont ID it as a mail truck specifically.

 

[bigredfish]

Though they are getting close

5200 series

Performance	8/16/16 channels
Human Body	Top; top color; bottom; bottom color; hat; bag; gender; age; umbrella
Vehicle	Plate No.; type; color; vehicle type; logo; plate color; ornament; calling; seatbelt; region
Non-motor Vehicle	Type; color; number of passengers; helmet
AI Search	Supports searching for target video by metadata
ANPR by Camera
Performance	4 channels

 

[Sybertiger]

All they have to do is plug it into GOOGLE LENS. If you haven't used Google Lens before it pretty amazing and scary how quick it is to identify objects all through Google's servers.