Small Setup - NVR Recommendation

[R. Rod]

Hello,

I'm working on a small setup of 3 cameras for an airbnb we own.
I got 3 IPC-T2231T-ZS from Andy and I have been playing with them at home.

So far I have installed motionEye and Zoneminder, which have their pros/cons - I'm not a linux expert but I know enough to make it work.
I have made it very far with Zoneminder and zmNinja; user experience is acceptable but not great - the main pain point I have is not getting notifications on zmNinja (not w/o configuring the notification server, etc).

Reading on this forum it looks like the best is to either:
a) Go with BI
b) Use an NVR and keep branding consistent

While I'm open to use BI, I believe it might be an overkill for this small setup.
If I go the NVR route
a) Which one do you recommend?
b) Which mobile application can I use? iDMSS Plus? Would I get push notifications with it?

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,.
R.

 

[fenderman]

Hello,

I'm working on a small setup of 3 cameras for an airbnb we own.
I got 3 IPC-T2231T-ZS from Andy and I have been playing with them at home.

So far I have installed motionEye and Zoneminder, which have their pros/cons - I'm not a linux expert but I know enough to make it work.
I have made it very far with Zoneminder and zmNinja; user experience is acceptable but not great - the main pain point I have is not getting notifications on zmNinja (not w/o configuring the notification server, etc).

Reading on this forum it looks like the best is to either:
a) Go with BI
b) Use an NVR and keep branding consistent

While I'm open to use BI, I believe it might be an overkill for this small setup.
If I go the NVR route
a) Which one do you recommend?
b) Which mobile application can I use? iDMSS Plus? Would I get push notifications with it?

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,.
R.

How is BI overkill but zoneminder not?

 

[R. Rod]

How is BI overkill but zoneminder not?

Fair point, maybe I used the wrong term.

The way I see it I either invest in a small NVR for these 3 cameras or I invest in a pc +BI license for both server and mobile app
Maybe there is not a lot of difference one way or the other.

A small NVR would give me the small footprint I need, and hopefully it is quiet and power efficient. I'm not sure about the mobile experience.

I would like to keep it simple and setup something that is reliable.
I have been tinkering with oss options because I enjoy it, but long enough to understand there is a lot of configuration involved - and to your point, it does feel like an overkill if you just want to keep it simple.

Thanks.
R.

 

[R. Rod]

Is this NVR any good? NVR4104HS-P-4KS2 or just a waste of money compared to a small used pc + BI?

I'm not planning to increase the number of cameras
Consolidating both PC and POE switch into a device like this is attractive for me because the small footprint - the space to setup this is limited

Mainly concerned about usability here.

Thoughts?

 

[vidarak]

Looks like a good option to me. I use gDMSS Plus on my Android mobile with a sibling model. I went from PC to NVR for simplicity and reliability reasons.

 

[fenderman]

Looks like a good option to me. I use gDMSS Plus on my Android mobile with a sibling model. I went from PC to NVR for simplicity and reliability reasons.

Nvrs are not more reliable than pc. They are also not more simple to operate. They just have less options and are extremely limited. That’s why you have another thread about upgrading your limited and outdated nvr.

 

[b0bthebuilder]

BI rocks!
You may start out small but adding cameras is addictive. I started with 3 and am up to 29 now that BI can handle them (using substreams).