Question regarding NVR

F

firespread01

n3wb
Mar 17, 2025
20
3
California
Hey all! Thanks for all of the help recently. I have a silly question yet again. With a less than or equal to 8 camera setup, should I use an NVR? I saw how blue iris is good but I don’t know if I have a spare working PC? Is it like possible to run BI on an NVR or do I get an NVR and hook it up to a pc with BI?
Sorry if this is a weird question I’m brand new to security cameras.
 
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An NVR runs its own proprietary firmware, so no you cannot run BI on an NVR.

An NVR is not needed to hook up a PC with BI, though many have both for redundancy.

Once you get past 2-3 cameras, then using a VMS system is ideal - either an NVR by same brand as cameras is ideal or a 3rd party like PC/BI.

Spare PC means nothing. Graphics card may or may not be needed. What are the specs of the computer - intel and if so which i and gen number. If another chip, which one?
 
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Connect the cameras to a POE switch and the POE switch to the ethernet port of a PC.

But many here do what is called a dual NIC and install another ethernet port into the PC.

All the cameras go to one ethernet port on one IP subnet and the internet goes to the other ethernet port on a different subnet.

That keeps the cameras from accessing the internet and phoning home or being hacked.
 
JPmedia said:
I presume all cameras are connected to a POE switch. The NVR and PC running BI access the camera network through the POE switch?
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Generally it can be done 2 different ways:
  • Many POE NVR's can stream the cams to BI using channel numbers of the NVR configured in BI, the NVR hosts the cams on a private network. Each cam in BI will have the same IP (the NVR's LAN IP) but will have a different channel number configured in BI.
  • If the cams are powered by a POE switch then they are NOT on the NVR's private network but instead are placed on the same subnet as the BI server's LAN. Each cam will have a unique IP in the same subnet as the NVR's LAN,
 
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TonyR said:
Generally it can be done 2 different ways:
  • Many POE NVR's can stream the cams to BI using channel numbers of the NVR configured in BI, the NVR hosts the cams on a private network. Each cam in BI will have the same IP (the NVR's LAN IP) but will have a different channel number configured in BI.
  • If the cams are powered by a POE switch then they are NOT on the NVR's private network but instead are placed on the same subnet as the BI server's LAN. Each cam will have a unique IP in the same subnet as the NVR's LAN,
Click to expand...
It would be helpful to see a wiring diagram of the first scenario. It would be easier for me to understand how it works. Anyone have a diagram handy?
 
JPmedia said:
It would be helpful to see a wiring diagram of the first scenario. It would be easier for me to understand how it works. Anyone have a diagram handy?
Click to expand...
All the cams are plugged into the individual POE ports on the NVR. The NVR assigns IP's in a private subnet, not like the NVR's LAN.
The NVR's LAN port is connected to the same switch/LAN as the BI server's LAN port and they are in the same subnet.
In BI, all the cameras have the same IP (same IP as the NVR's LAN IP) but a different channel number.
 
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TonyR said:
All the cams are plugged into the individual POE ports on the NVR. The NVR assigns IP's in a private subnet, not like the NVR's LAN.
The NVR's LAN port is connected to the same switch/LAN as the BI server's LAN port and they are in the same subnet.
In BI, all the cameras have the same IP (same IP as the NVR's LAN IP) but a different channel number.
Click to expand...
I understand the connections now, but how does the PC running BI access the private subnet of cameras managed by the NVR?
 
JPmedia said:
I understand the connections now, but how does the PC running BI access the private subnet of cameras managed by the NVR?
Click to expand...

They don't access the private subnet - they only receive the video feed from the NVR that is on the same LAN subnet with the BI PC

In BI, you select add camera and put the IP address of the NVR into the IP address location. Put in username and password and hit find/inspect and let BI do its thing.

Then about halfway down is a pull down for Camera number and pick camera 1 and then hit ok. The camera should show up. Then add camera and the select copy and copy this camera and then change the number 1 to a 2 and then repeat for your cameras by selecting add camera and add IP address of NVR and selecting next camera number. So if you have 8 cameras on the NVR, you repeat this process 8 times in BI.

OR depending on your NVR, in BI it may populate all the cameras in the main and substream pulldown boxes and you just select a camera number and then add another camera and select the next pulldown.
 
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JPmedia said:
I understand the connections now, but how does the PC running BI access the private subnet of cameras managed by the NVR?
Click to expand...
It doesn't.
As state previously, "....Many POE NVR's can stream the cams to BI using channel numbers of the NVR configured in BI, the NVR hosts the cams on a private network. Each cam in BI will have the same IP (the NVR's LAN IP) but will have a different channel number configured in BI.'

IOW, if NOT plugged into the NVR's POE ports you don't stream from the cams, you stream from the NVR via its LAN IP and channel num,bers in BI.
 
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Ok, still trying to wrap my head around this. Can you access each camera's webpage from BI to make adjustments? How does BI find and collect all the camera IP info to stream the cameras? And most importantly, what is the advantages and disadvantages of setting up in this way?
 
JPmedia said:
Ok, still trying to wrap my head around this. Can you access each camera's webpage from BI to make adjustments? How does BI find and collect all the camera IP info to stream the cameras? And most importantly, what is the advantages and disadvantages of setting up in this way?
Click to expand...

No - however you set it up, BI cannot access the camera webpage GUI. BI simply takes the video feed.

If you are feeding it from an NVR to the BI computer, then you access the camera GUI via the NVR method to get to the camera GUI.

I shared in Post #15 how BI finds the camera feeds. With the NVR method - it doesn't find the individual camera IPs, just the NVR and then each camera is a channel.

If they are connected to a POE switch, then you log in to each camera individually.

The only advantage to doing it this way are for the many people that already bought an NVR and then decided to go the BI/PC route - they don't need to buy a POE switch and are essentially using the NVR as a POE switch and redundant recording.

If you know you want to go the BI route, then an NVR is not needed as the BI/PC is the NVR at that point.
 
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wittaj said:
No - however you set it up, BI cannot access the camera webpage GUI. BI simply takes the video feed.

If you are feeding it from an NVR to the BI computer, then you access the camera GUI via the NVR method to get to the camera GUI.

I shared in Post #15 how BI finds the camera feeds. With the NVR method - it doesn't find the individual camera IPs, just the NVR and then each camera is a channel.

If they are connected to a POE switch, then you log in to each camera individually.

The only advantage to doing it this way are for the many people that already bought an NVR and then decided to go the BI/PC route - they don't need to buy a POE switch and are essentially using the NVR as a POE switch and redundant recording.

If you know you want to go the BI route, then an NVR is not needed as the BI/PC is the NVR at that point.
Click to expand...
Ok, understand now. I guess it depends on the application and the user. For me, I would want to use a separate POE switch, as I believe both the NVR and PC running BI would have the same access, yes, or no?
 
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