I am looking for a good Blue iris alternative. I need motion detection and ideally AI analysis to flat video to make finding incidents easier correting video fisheye would be helpful too as i currently have a doorbell cam and am looking to add a few more bullet cameras. any suggestions?
I never tried this one Shinobi - Simple CCTV and NVR Solution - Home but it is a lot newer than zoneminder.
I have seen it, but i wanted to know from smeone that has tried some out. There dont seem to be many reviews of CCTV software.
fenderman
Staff member
- Mar 9, 2014
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Why dont you try it yourself? The base non pro version is free, but the pricing for the pro version (if used commercially) is insane as well as the pricing for mobile app. Why are you limiting yourself to open source. There are many great vms solutions.
I was hoping for people that have tried the software for a while before I try to put my cameras on it. Is there a need to but Shinobi? It seems to have ass of the features of CE. Do they charge for their app? The main reason for the open source requrment is because i have a de-googled android phone that runs almost entrly opensource software and it would be nice to keep it that way.
I'm not sure Shinobi has native mobile apps. I think it just has a web interface that you open in a browser (which can be plenty powerful enough if they built it well).
I've been using Blue Iris for ten years now and I'm still very happy with it. At this point you could not pay me to switch to something else, and I recommend Blue Iris with full confidence to anyone who needs security camera recording software. It is hardly any more expensive than it was ten years ago, and it is way more powerful than it was back then and keeps getting better.
I've sampled other VMS products before (only ones with free versions) but none were good enough to make me jump ship. I even tried the free version of Milestone XProtect in late 2017, around the time I was getting UI3 (Blue Iris web interface) into its beta testing phase. I had a need for software to run just one camera in my office, and it was the perfect excuse to see what a very well funded high-end VMS product was like. And I wanted to see how my UI3 project stood up against a major player in the VMS arena. I was not impressed. Xprotect was massive bloatware. And more importantly, I could not get it working with my camera. So I ditched it, installed Blue Iris, and everything was fine in a matter of minutes.
I've been using Blue Iris for ten years now and I'm still very happy with it. At this point you could not pay me to switch to something else, and I recommend Blue Iris with full confidence to anyone who needs security camera recording software. It is hardly any more expensive than it was ten years ago, and it is way more powerful than it was back then and keeps getting better.
I've sampled other VMS products before (only ones with free versions) but none were good enough to make me jump ship. I even tried the free version of Milestone XProtect in late 2017, around the time I was getting UI3 (Blue Iris web interface) into its beta testing phase. I had a need for software to run just one camera in my office, and it was the perfect excuse to see what a very well funded high-end VMS product was like. And I wanted to see how my UI3 project stood up against a major player in the VMS arena. I was not impressed. Xprotect was massive bloatware. And more importantly, I could not get it working with my camera. So I ditched it, installed Blue Iris, and everything was fine in a matter of minutes.
I have heard a lot of good things about blue iris however my concern is windows rebooting when something happens and i would have to tack the cost of windows onto the price of blue iris as i am using a dell R710 so it is not licenced for windows and I really just avoid windows like the plague for something that needs to run 24x7
PatPend
Pulling my weight
- Jul 10, 2016
- 160
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I had the same concerns and I'm no Windows fan but I will admit, BI on Windows 10 Pro has been very reliable for me. 10 Pro allows you to disable automatic updates easily, which is a big help.
BI costs what, $60? Bargain of the century if you ask me. Win 10 Pro is $150. What is your time worth? I struggled with Zoneminder for a few years. It was super inefficient and didn't record audio and was generally a huge PITA on which I wasted hours of my life.
Buy once, cry once as they say.
sebastiantombs
Known around here
You can pick up legit Win10/Pro license keys for ~$20 USD so cost isn't much of a factor. Shut off updates and it'll run forever. My system hasn't had a BSOD incident in well over seven years, since I shut down updates and only update what I want, when I want. Compared to jumping through the hoops of rooting a phone that's child's play, heck I did it.
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IAmATeaf
Known around here
I do t think I’ve ever had a windows desktop crash and restart randomly, yes if there are hardware problems then it might but otherwise no.
Most here turn off windows updates and only install them in a controlled manner, so for example I update mine once every 3 or so months and when I’m there so that I can ensure BI is back up and running after the updates have been installed.
Most here turn off windows updates and only install them in a controlled manner, so for example I update mine once every 3 or so months and when I’m there so that I can ensure BI is back up and running after the updates have been installed.
fenderman
Staff member
- Mar 9, 2014
- 36,892
- 21,408
As others have said, your thought process is tainted.
Any device you buy is basically a computer - NVR running on Linux is essentially a water down computer.
If you turn off Windows updates, set it up to restart on a power outage/reboot, etc. and run BI as a service and you have a more powerful NVR.
CCTVCam
Known around here
- Sep 25, 2017
- 2,834
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You can get windows 10 for free. When MS did the free upgrade from Win 7/8 to 10 they released Universal keys. All the resellers are doing is selling you these keys. Hunt around the internet and you'll find them. I guess MS can't withdraw them because millions of PC's worldwide were legitimate upgrades made using these keys.
Power outageags are not an issue as I have a large rack mount UPS. My concern is power useage as my parents want to keep it really down now and windows update re enabling it's self or something stupid and it updateing right before someone steals something or breaks in as I know linux or freebsd will not do that and have been rock solid for me and windows cant get the start menu to work 24x7. from what I have seen I think I will go with Frigate.
Thanks I will keep this in mind for future use and now I know what my professor was alluding to in class.