Stand alone NVR or PC Based NVR - What are your favs?

stevef22

stevef22

Getting the hang of it
Mar 7, 2016
158
32
Hello all,

Is there one feature rich NVR/DVR you like to use? or... just use a PC with blue iris?

I know it depends on situation. But If I had 5 clients with 8 IP cameras each. How would you set this up? Give them each a standalone NVR/DVR?

Heard good things about this NVR
http://www.amazon.com/Synology-Netw...453992&sr=1-8&keywords=network+video+recorder

But you guys probably have your favs as well. Total newb here. Thanks a bunch! :peaceful:
 
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Man that Synology is really getting up there in price. Yes, it appears to include the camera licenses, but still, no disk. You can easily get a computer for between $350 and $500 that can handle 8 cameras and then some. Throw on Blue Iris for another $60 and be done with it.

Or get a brand specific DVR of your liking for a whole let less $$. This may have less features than a BI setup, but to each their own.
 
In my opinion a standalone NVR has an advantage for ease of use, especially if you are setting up cameras for people who are not technically inclined. Blue Iris + PC is a fantastic choice for "do it yourself" people who like to tinker and customize.

I assume you're installing cameras for clients? If so I would try to go the foolproof route and use a standalone NVR to just set it and forget it.

As far as NVR brands go I couldn't tell you, but one of the first brands I would look at is Hikvision.
 
While standalone NVR's easy to set and forget, they are lacking in alert and scheduling options. Remote playback via mobile app is also a huge pain with some manufactures (hikvision for example)..the blue iris mobile app is much better. Folks who are not technically inclined should not be touching an NVR or a pc based NVR. You couldn't pay me enough to use a standalone NVR. I have many non technical users using blue iris, all they do is use the mobile app - they are very happy.. Easy. Remember to disable auto update.
 
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Thanks so much everyone for feedback. Im taking lots of notes and getting used to feeling stupid. Learning allot
 
It all depends on what is important to you, I take a different approach from nearly everyone here.. I could give two fucks less about motion detection and notifications; with h264/h265 and cheap 4-6TB disks I say screw all that nonsense and just record constantly and continuously.. nothing is ever missed.. I understand that notifications that do not have an extremely high reliability factor are basically pointless.. How many times are you going to let your security system wake you up to a bit of trash blowing across the yard before you start ignoring it and sleep through someone actually stealing your shit.. until I reach 99% reliability factor I am not interested in being notified... for me motion detection is mainly usefull for highlighting activity on a continuous recording.. I wont trust it for triggering recordings, let alone notifying me of something.

Scheduling options are pretty damn critical tho, your cameras will work so much better if you can fine tune settings for day/night independently and trigger them at the right times, instead of trying to find a compromise configuration for both..

Standalone NVR's are going to take a fraction of the power a BlueIris server is, the Dahua one I am eyeing right now uses 8W under normal conditions.. good luck getting BluIris to work in that envelope, on a machine running 24/7/365 power efficiency gains that massive are worth considering.

You couldn't pay me enough to put a windows machine on my network, no matter how awesome BlueIris is... just gave away a new unused camera because it required f'n ActiveX to do anything with it.
 
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nayr said:
Standalone NVR's are going to take a fraction of the power a BlueIris server is, the Dahua one I am eyeing right now uses 8W under normal conditions.. good luck getting BluIris to work in that envelope, on a machine running 24/7/365 power efficiency gains that massive are worth considering.
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Just want to point out that a standard/average Blue iris setup will draw 30-40w using a modern haswell system. While not 8w, the difference is not that dramatic.
Most folks have windows machines on their networks and are doing just fine :)
 
IMHO, When I can run 5 of these NVR's for the same cost as one of yours, its pretty dramatic.. The Dahua I am looking at is going to cost me $250 all said and done, whats your modern haswell going to run along with a BI license for 16 cams? Close to twice that I figure for a refurb system.

I know you guys are all doing just fine, and I admit I do get jealous from time to time with some shit BI can do.. but I quickly get over my self, want and need are two different things.. and after 2 decades of upholding a household Microsoft ban I need to stand my ground more than I want some cool red boxes around moving objects :P

This is not an Apple House, this is a Unix house.. just so happens OSX is Unix so I hack it to run on my PC's.. Ive never given as much as a dollar to Apple, but only because my wife and I use separate accounts and she buys her iCrap with her own money.
 
nayr said:
IMHO, When I can run 5 of these NVR's for the same cost as one of yours, its pretty dramatic.. The Dahua I am looking at is going to cost me $250 all said and done, whats your modern haswell going to run along with a BI license for 16 cams? Close to twice that I figure.
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Its not about the multiple. The cost increase difference is what is relevant. Even at high rates, it amounts to 40-60 dollars a year. For me that is worth it for the ease of video review on the mobile app alone. Blue iris is way more than red boxes around motion. Its super customizable. Not everyone can code like you can.
As far as the cost, 99.9 percent of users dont have 16 cameras. Blue iris is 60 dollars, regardless of the camera count. I buy haswell i5's running windows 7/10 pro, with 3 year next business day warranties for 300 (just picked up 5 for 280 each)..that is sufficient for most installs. I have installed hikvision/dahua NVR's. Once you go to software based vms, its night and day. Everyone has their preference and there is no right or wrong way, but personally, I gave up on the standalone and refuse to deal with them except as a basic 24/7 recorder.
 
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fenderman said:
Its not about the multiple. The cost increase difference is what is relevant. Even at high rates, it amounts to 40-60 dollars a year. For me that is worth it for the ease of video review on the mobile app alone. Blue iris is way more than red boxes around motion. Its super customizable. Not everyone can code like you can.
As far as the cost, 99.9 percent of users dont have 16 cameras. Blue iris is 60 dollars, regardless of the camera count. I buy haswell i5's running windows 7/10 pro, with 3 year next business day warranties for 300 (just picked up 5 for 280 each)..that is sufficient for most installs. I have installed hikvision/dahua NVR's. Once you go to software based vms, its night and day. Everyone has their preference and there is no right or wrong way, but personally, I gave up on the standalone and refuse to deal with them except as a basic 24/7 recorder.
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Can you point me in the direction of what this computer actually looks liek? ebay link or something. I am assuming it is some kind of server rather than desktop?

For my situation, i would ideally like a rack mountable computer as i have a 12U rack that just has a few switches etc for data around the house. But in that same breath, needs to be reasonably quite, i already have turned of the fans in the rack for being too noisy. Will one day replace the fans with something more quite

thanks
 
JohnnyBoy said:
Can you point me in the direction of what this computer actually looks liek? ebay link or something. I am assuming it is some kind of server rather than desktop?

For my situation, i would ideally like a rack mountable computer as i have a 12U rack that just has a few switches etc for data around the house. But in that same breath, needs to be reasonably quite, i already have turned of the fans in the rack for being too noisy. Will one day replace the fans with something more quite

thanks
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google hp elitedesk small form factor...super quiet..paying double for it to be rackmountable is silly. You can buy tower or ultra silim systems as well..they are standard business systems.
 
For me there is no option to use a PC.
I installed a chinese nvr a year ago in a small chamber an never touched it since then. I had several PC-based software solutions but nothing worked for me. I had so many reboots, hang ups, and so on. I tested on Windows and Linux but both could not compare with a standalone nvr.
If i compare the price, it is a no go also. My nvr cost me about 120$ and it has 8 chanel 1080p.
This is on private property and it works ok. I am changing cameras right now, because i am using 5mp cameras which have a motion detect raster of 4x4 blocks.
My nvr is capable of connecting to cameras with i8, i9 or onvif protocol, is tuneable without end and reliable.
I can watch it from my pc and it has almost the same look like if i watch it on the local monitor.
 
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