Small Form Factor NVR Plan

[gleebit]

Been reading up on setting up an NVR at the house. Seems most of my questions brought me to threads on this forum, so decided to join in. Saw that a lot of folks look for used PCs and put large disk drives in them. Also saw that some have used small form factor PCs with SSDs with varying success.
I have a small area on a book case next to the loft computer desk that I put my Synology router and NAS and I've decided to go the SFF route. I did look into finding a used PC. I figured my time is also worth something and I'd rather not spend time cleaning up an old PC and dealing with possible old-stuff-failures. And I'd rather put a small brick PC tucked next to my router and not be an eye sore to the wife.

I've played with the Synology Surveillance station (2x default licenses) with my existing cameras and it works well, but dang their additional licenses are expensive. I guess monitor traffic goes through their servers or something and they need to get paid for that. I figure I'll join the Blue Iris crowd. I'm going to store video to DAS and wall off the cameras from my Synology NAS and other 1st class devices on my LAN.

Planning to implement the following:
Beelink EQi12 24GB / 500GB / i5-12450H ($429) (Has dual M.2 slots)
WD Black 2TB SN770 SSD ($119) in second M.2 slot
Blue Iris ($63)
NVR total: $611
I'll use 3 of my existing cameras from Foscam (HT2, VP5) and get a Reolink PTZ. I want to try the Reolink Mixtrack WiFi ($136) with the spot lights for the front driveway area.
I haven't exposed the Foscam cameras to the harsh outdoors, but so far I like them. I don't have to create any Foscam accounts to get them working. I am assuming the same for Reolink. The Foscam cameras worked well with connecting to BI without issues. PTZ worked well. I'll probably add two cameras in the chicken coop later for a total of 6 cameras. But 4 to start.

Based on my calculations, I'll have about an average of 4MP cameras, 15FPS, and 5 days of retention. With 6 cameras I would need about 1.3TB of storage.

I'll post back after I get this setup and hopefully will have a successful report. Anxious to see how the Beelink and SSD hold up. My experience with outdoor cameras tells me the cameras, taking the sun and rain, will be the weakest link.

 

[Flintstone61]

I wont get into the Pro/cons of Micro PC's...
but the Reolink youre looking at....The CMOS sensor(s) combined with the megapixels will look good in bright light but not great at night.
Plus Reolinks don't have much shutter speed adjustment to fine tune the image for day/night.
to compensate for the poor sensor/Megapixel ratio, you'll LED's running at night.
This will set off annoying amounts of motion with Moths, bugs, etc. and send your Autotrack flailing about.
I've seen talk in the forums about PTZ's manufacturers using death cycle count for the EOL of the PTZ motor.
not sure about this cam.
Since it is not Power over ethernet powered, it needs a 120 VAC power source nearby for the cord.
PTZ's for a primary camera will need to be in a static position to really catch motion and identify things. Auto track
PTZ's are fun, but you'll want a good 4mp cam on a 1/1.8 CMOS sensor in a fixed position to really capture stuff consistently.

 

[TonyR]

I see you joined IPCT yesterday....welcome!

I also can tell you didn't read much about how Reolink and Blue Iris don't play nice....they don't. For the most part, only the Reolink doorbell gets some kudos on this forum.

Wi-Fi can be problematic (intermittent, drops outs, etc.) for IP cameras streaming video constantly. I would use only direct wire (Ethernet) for mission critical surveillance.

And for the record, a Beelink is not a SFF....it's a mini-PC.

 

[wittaj]

+1 above

Beelink is a NUC with inadequate cooling and a CPU that throttles performance in favor of thermal control and needs USB drives and is not a good choice for BI. Some claim they use it just fine, but I suspect they haven't had an issue where they had to review and found the key time was missing.


Since you mentioned Reolinks....

Keep in mind that reolinks, especially at night are horrible.

If all you care about is to look around, then probably ok. But if you plan to be able to use them in the event something happens and you need to get the police involved, return them....


What you mean a missing hand isn't normal LOL :lmao (plus look at the blur on the face and he is barely moving and this should be ideal indoor IR bounce and it struggles):

How about missing everything but the head and upper torso

The invisible man, where can he be. Thank goodness he is carrying around a reflective plate to see where he is LOL (hint - the person is literally in the middle of the image at the end of the fence)

I've seen better images on an episode of ghost hunters

And of course, this is an example from Reolink's marketing videos - do you see a person in this picture...yes, there is a person in this picture.... Could this provide anything useful for the police other than the date and time something happened? Would this protect your home? The still picture looks great though except for the person and the blur of the vehicle... Will give you a hint - the person is in between the two visible columns:

Bad Boys
Bad Boys
Watcha gonna do
Watcha gonna do
When the camera can't see you


Here is the unofficial Reolink thread.

You can see all the attempts people have provided to demonstrate the quality of Reolink, and they are all a blurry mess at night or missing body parts or other messes.

We have challenged someone to provide a clean capture of someone moving at night with a Reolink and as you can see with 20 pages, nobody has yet to provide a usable image with motion at night.

Reolink's algorithm is designed to produce a nice bright static image at night and that comes at a cost of blur and ghost and missing body parts at night.

Reolink: Deconstruction of a dangerous misleading youtube review "Finding the BEST 4K Security Camera NVR Package (Reolink vs Amcrest vs Swann)"

 

[Flintstone61]

Of course you can buy it.... and put up a Forum review. Apperently according to this reveiwer there is a wifi and a POE version.

 

[Flintstone61]

 

[looney2ns]

Avoid Reolink, except for their Doorbell cam.
PTZ cams have a habit of looking the wrong direction when something happens.

If you want good reliability, don't use the mini Beelink pc.

Best bet is one of these: SFF Computers
Most find there is no "cleaning up" needed of these machines. If there is, a can of air and 5 minutes will get any crude out.
Just purchase from sellers with good ratings.

 

[mat200]

Been reading up on setting up an NVR at the house. Seems most of my questions brought me to threads on this forum, so decided to join in. Saw that a lot of folks look for used PCs and put large disk drives in them. Also saw that some have used small form factor PCs with SSDs with varying success.
I have a small area on a book case next to the loft computer desk that I put my Synology router and NAS and I've decided to go the SFF route. I did look into finding a used PC. I figured my time is also worth something and I'd rather not spend time cleaning up an old PC and dealing with possible old-stuff-failures. And I'd rather put a small brick PC tucked next to my router and not be an eye sore to the wife.

I've played with the Synology Surveillance station (2x default licenses) with my existing cameras and it works well, but dang their additional licenses are expensive. I guess monitor traffic goes through their servers or something and they need to get paid for that. I figure I'll join the Blue Iris crowd. I'm going to store video to DAS and wall off the cameras from my Synology NAS and other 1st class devices on my LAN.

Planning to implement the following:
Beelink EQi12 24GB / 500GB / i5-12450H ($429) (Has dual M.2 slots)
WD Black 2TB SN770 SSD ($119) in second M.2 slot
Blue Iris ($63)
NVR total: $611
I'll use 3 of my existing cameras from Foscam (HT2, VP5) and get a Reolink PTZ. I want to try the Reolink Mixtrack WiFi ($136) with the spot lights for the front driveway area.
I haven't exposed the Foscam cameras to the harsh outdoors, but so far I like them. I don't have to create any Foscam accounts to get them working. I am assuming the same for Reolink. The Foscam cameras worked well with connecting to BI without issues. PTZ worked well. I'll probably add two cameras in the chicken coop later for a total of 6 cameras. But 4 to start.

Based on my calculations, I'll have about an average of 4MP cameras, 15FPS, and 5 days of retention. With 6 cameras I would need about 1.3TB of storage.

I'll post back after I get this setup and hopefully will have a successful report. Anxious to see how the Beelink and SSD hold up. My experience with outdoor cameras tells me the cameras, taking the sun and rain, will be the weakest link.

Hi @gleebit

Do let us know how it turns out.

I know I was at one point also looking at a mini-PC for my NVR solution

note:

Many members look to spend less on the PC, and get better cameras than Reolinks.

Thus why the recommendation of the used business class PC which would be large enough to hold a 3.5" HDD for the video, and an SSD for the OS / VMS

Yes an SFF PC would take up more space, however the 3.5" HDD should do better in terms of storage value vs an SSD for video.