PCNVR4200 vs HikCentral vs IVMS5200

[venturis]

I need some advice on the best PCNVR software to replace the completely out of date Hikvision PCNVR 4200.

I’ve been happily using PCNVR4200 on my home server for monitoring 4 Hikvision cameras. Over time the cameras have been slowly upgraded from the original 3MP Turrets to now having a mix if 3MP, 4MP and 8MP.

PCNVR4200 stopped receiving updates in 2012 so a lot of the new functionality provided by the lastest Hikvision IP cameras can’t be leveraged. Features such as H.246+, H.265 and H.265+ can’t be enabled with PCNVR4200.

Whilst this was not a show stopper, I recently hit the limits of the software when I upgraded to an 8MP 2CD2385FWD-l. I found that PCNVR4200 would stop recording the stream if I raised the bit rate over 4096mbps and only if keep the framerate below 10fps or less.

This limitation really impacts the quality of the recorded image as the clarity needed to read license plates and see other details, even at close range is lost.

I need to migrate to new PC based NVR software but want to stay within the Hikvision ecosystem so I can continue to use the Hikvison mobile apps and tools.

I know I can use IVMS4200 client as a PCNVR but it lacks the mobile software connectivity which is an absolute must have.

Hivksion make two other software products called IVMS5200 and Hikcentral.

IVM5200 is commercial paid software. Hikcentral is also paid software but has a free version with some limitations.

The problem is that I don’t really know if either is suitable for a small installation with only 4 cameras and I’m also not sure if functionality they provide is too complicated to set up and maintain.

I’d really like to enable H.265+ on my cams to take advantage of the reduced data bandwidth and storage which I believe both products should do. I’d also like to use some of the analytical features. I believe both packages also support mobile apps for remote access.

I’ve tried installing both on a test machine but the learning curve is a little steep and I really can’t tell if I’m heading down dead-end path only to find out that neither package is suitable for my simple needs.

If anyone has experience with either package in a small environment please provide some advice.

 

[fenderman]

Do yourself a favor and move away from anything ivms...
look at milestone which is free for up to 8 cameras or blue iris (60)....lots more functionality..you wont get h.265+ as it is proprietary but h.265 will work.

 

[venturis]

Do yourself a favor and move away from anything ivms...
look at milestone which is free for up to 8 cameras or blue iris (60)....lots more functionality..you wont get h.265+ as it is proprietary but h.265 will work.

I've tried Blueiris a few times in the past. For some reason I've never really felt comfortable with the interface. I also found the CPU usage was much higher than PCNVR4200 for the same camera setup. I've seen the wiki articles on reducing CPU loading but I was never happy enough to stick with it.

I actually forgot about Milestone Xprotect. I've tried that in the past but for reasons that I can't recall reverted back to PCNVR4200. Maybe it's time to have a another look at it.

 

[fenderman]

I've tried Blueiris a few times in the past. For some reason I've never really felt comfortable with the interface. I also found the CPU usage was much higher than PCNVR4200 for the same camera setup. I've seen the wiki articles on reducing CPU loading but I was never happy enough to stick with it.

I actually forgot about Milestone Xprotect. I've tried that in the past but for reasons that I can't recall reverted back to PCNVR4200. Maybe it's time to have a another look at it.

you did not setup blue iris properly...you need to read the wiki and spend 100 dollars on the proper hardware...it is full of features not available on ivms or milestone and its mobile app is exponentially better than both. also note that direct to disk does not work in the demo so the cpu usage will be much higher...
ivms/pcnvr is a joke.

 

[venturis]

Ok.....I understand that that there will be people advocating that I should move away from any of the Hikvision products for many reasons but can someone humor me and give me an idea of what I'd be in for if I do go against the current advice and stick with either IVMS5200 or Hikcentral?

 

[fenderman]

Ok.....I understand that that there will be people advocating that I should move away from any of the Hikvision products for many reasons but can someone humor me and give me an idea of what I'd be in for if I do go against the current advice and stick with either IVMS5200 or Hikcentral?

why dont you try it and let us all know, if you were happy with pc nvr, you have low expectations so you should be fine with the other hikvision offerings....you can lead a horse to water...

 

[Securame]

And why not just get a Hikvision NVR?

If you do want to stay on a computer/Windows platform, I would also try Mliestone or Blueiris. iVMS4200 PCNVR has been dead for a long time, and for a home installation 5200 or Hik-central doesn't make much sense.

 

[venturis]

And why not just get a Hikvision NVR?

If you do want to stay on a computer/Windows platform, I would also try Mliestone or Blueiris. iVMS4200 PCNVR has been dead for a long time, and for a home installation 5200 or Hik-central doesn't make much sense.

Your'e right.....an NVR would be an ideal solution but given that I already have a Xeon based server with 16GB ram and tonnes of HDD capacity it doesn't make sense to buy another piece of hardware to take up more space and use more power.

The server performs several functions so it is needed in any event plus, it is mostly lightly loaded so should easily do double duty as a PCNVR and it already does.

I agree that a Hikvison NVR would be easier and provide a technically better solution but at a significantly higher cost than a windows based system.

I haven't ruled anything out yet. I've downloaded Milestone to give it another try.

 

[Scoobs72]

Following this with interest as I'm in a similar situation as you Venturis. Let us know how you get on.

 

[venturis]

I'm basically answering my own post however I thought it might be of benefit to someone in future.

I'v tried two software packages so far. Hikcentral and Milestone Xprotect Essentials+

My first attempt at Xprotect Essentials+ was on a bare metal computer running Windows 7. After getting over a couple of installation issues I finally had the software installed with all cams using the ONVIF protocol.

Everything initially seemed to be heading in the right direction but I had a lots of problems logging into the central server with the remote client. Turned out that changing my windows user password after installation of Xprotect seemed to break remote login. I could only log into the central server after changing my local windows user password back to the password prior to installation of Xprotect.

H.265 does work however CPU usage was maxed out when viewing 4 cams on either the Web interface or the mobile app.

The motion detection also seemed to work well but at the expense of CPU load. I would have been preferred to have used the camera's built in motion detection to offload the work to the camera rather than the PC CPU.

I could not for the life of me find a way to continuously record. All my recordings were motion activated only. After more searching on forums I found that I needed to set up a "Rule" on the server to record continuously. I don't understand the logic behind that.

I found the Playback interface very clunky. Video playback was not smooth. Motion detect markers are mixed in with the continuous recordings. There appears to be no way to skip between the motion events only but that could just be that I've not work out how to do this.

To overcome the user account password issue I resorted to wiping all the software and starting again. This time I was careful to set up my local user account before installing Milestone.

This time I got everything working on my cams using the latest driver pack. The remote client app was working fine but when I tried using either the mobile app or the web interface, two of the cameras would not show the video stream. Numerous attempts to remove and reinstall the cams and scanning through all the settings to try to find the culprit revealed nothing.

The wash up of two weekends work was that Milestone has potential but it could also be problematic. If you manage to get everything up and running without issues you should consider yourself fortunate.

Next on to Hikvision's free HikCentral software. Initially, it looked to be very promising but once installed I quickly found that the free version doesn't seem to allow the installation of an independent recording server. The only means of recording was to set up a network storage on the individual cams through the camera web interface.

The software seems to be an interface that integrates the individual camera web interfaces into a single environment. When trying to set up the various cam settings such as motion detection, I was thrown straight into the camera web interface.

Hikcentral is just an interface that provides a semi-convenient way to access multiple cams without the need to launch individual web interfaces through the IP address.

I am assuming that the licensed version has a central recording server but as it stands, the free version seemed to provided less functionality than PCNVR4200 and iVMS4200 client.

I have not attempted to use IVMS5200 yet. I'll save that for another weekend.

 

[Scoobs72]

Hi Venturis, I tried IVMS4200 but I could not get it to work with the IVMS4500 app for live viewing without port forwarding the cameras to my router....which for me is a big no-no. I've since implemented OpenVPN so might give it another try, first vpn'ing into my server and then trying to view the cameras with IVMS4500.

 

[venturis]

IVMS4200 does not support the remote mobile app. You need PCNVR4200 or a fully fledged NVR to use IVMS4500.

Agree that making cams internet accessibile is a big risk. Using a VPN is a workaround however it's messy and cumbersome to have to connect to the VPN server on your router before opening IVMS4500.

PCNVR4200 has support for both a web interface and the Hikvision IVMS4500 mobile app however it is no longer supported and hasn't been updated since 2011 or 2012. Consequently you miss out on support for new features in the latest cams.

Currently testing Milestone Xprotect. Its starting to settle down after the forth completely fresh installation and re-configuration.

The benefits I'm seeing from Xprotect Essentials + is :

1. It's FREE for up to 8 cams
2. Web Client accessible from any browser WITHOUT browser plugins or activeX.
3. Mobile app with support for playback of recorded footage.
4. Dedicated client app with support for Hardware acceleration if using Nvidia or Intel Quicksync hardware.
5. CPU usage on the server hardware is pretty low if you dont' go overboard with the motion detection settings.
6. Supports H.265 encoding.

 

[rudkowski]

IVMS4200 does not support the remote mobile app. You need PCNVR4200 or a fully fledged NVR to use IVMS4500.

Agree that making cams internet accessibile is a big risk. Using a VPN is a workaround however it's messy and cumbersome to have to connect to the VPN server on your router before opening IVMS4500.

PCNVR4200 has support for both a web interface and the Hikvision IVMS4500 mobile app however it is no longer supported and hasn't been updated since 2011 or 2012. Consequently you miss out on support for new features in the latest cams.

Currently testing Milestone Xprotect. Its starting to settle down after the forth completely fresh installation and re-configuration.

The benefits I'm seeing from Xprotect Essentials + is :

1. It's FREE for up to 8 cams
2. Web Client accessible from any browser WITHOUT browser plugins or activeX.
3. Mobile app with support for playback of recorded footage.
4. Dedicated client app with support for Hardware acceleration if using Nvidia or Intel Quicksync hardware.
5. CPU usage on the server hardware is pretty low if you dont' go overboard with the motion detection settings.
6. Supports H.265 encoding.

@venturis Any update on this? I'm in similar boat and wondering if you stuck with Xprotect or not?