STARVIS vs Starlight ?

[rpscuba]

I think I am about to pull the trigger on the IPC-HDW5231R-ZE 2MP from Andy's Amazon Store. I just wish I could get it here a little faster than listed - I have selected the upgrade shipping but that still has a wide range of delivery dates. Amazon Prime has destroyed me...

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

I think I am about to pull the trigger on the IPC-HDW5231R-ZE 2MP from Andy's Amazon Store. I just wish I could get it here a little faster than listed - I have selected the upgrade shipping but that still has a wide range of delivery dates. Amazon Prime has destroyed me...

Friday can ship out, this new model stock use up now, we will get 40pcs new stocks on Friday. They are on the way, Friday ship out Monday or Tuesday can be there. If buy different models, ship what we have stocks. Normally we ship out all the same day as we get the stocks. Just select normal way, we all ship via DHL, no worry for that wide time range.

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

Normally we use fast way for the members here if they buy on Amazon, so no need to costs more! Amazon has higher transaction cost, so price will be little higher than Aliexpress, for US guys, Amazon is safe to use, Aliexpress not.

 

[rpscuba]

Normally we use fast way for the members here if they buy on Amazon, so no need to costs more! Amazon has higher transaction cost, so price will be little higher than Aliexpress, for US guys, Amazon is safe to use, Aliexpress not.

Order placed!

 

[aristobrat]

Surely there is a substantial difference between 8mp and 2mp cameras and what they can discern at any given dime during the day?

IMO, more MP doesn't always make for a more useful picture.

Here's what the IPVM Camera Calculator V3 looks like in my backyard (which is only 75ft wide) with a 2MP camera (green triangle) and an 8MP camera (blue triangle) added on the corners of the house, facing to the opposite far corners of the yard.

YARD LAYOUT:


Expected view (of someone in far corner) from the 2MP:


Expected view (of someone in far corner) from the 8MP:


Actual view of someone in the far corner from my 2MP 5231 zoomed out to 2.8mm:


IMO, for my yard, an 8MP during the day wouldn't add much more usefulness, and I'd def. miss it at night.

 

[rpscuba]

IMO, more MP doesn't always make for a more useful picture.

Here's what the IPVM Camera Calculator V3 looks like in my backyard (which is only 75ft wide) with a 2MP camera (green triangle) and an 8MP camera (blue triangle) added on the corners of the house, facing to the opposite far corners of the yard.

YARD LAYOUT:
View attachment 28734

Expected view (of someone in far corner) from the 2MP:
View attachment 28735

Expected view (of someone in far corner) from the 8MP:
View attachment 28736

Actual view of someone in the far corner from my 2MP 5231 zoomed out to 2.8mm:
View attachment 28737

IMO, for my yard, an 8MP during the day wouldn't add much more usefulness, and I'd def. miss it at night.

Thank you. Your post has been most helpful to me.... I really appreciate seeing real examples. Very helpful!!

 

[rpscuba]

What is everyone using for their NVR with the Dahua cameras? At the present time I have a Toshiba IK-WD04A camera on a QNAP NAS running the QVR Pro Client. So far so good for that crappy little camera... Not sure how good it will work with the IPC-HDW5231R-ZE?

 

[Parley]

I am using a Hikvision 7608NI-I2/8P that has a mix of Hikvision and Dahua cameras with no problems.

 

[rpscuba]

This will surely show how much of a noob I am, but the cameras intelligent features like tripwire, intrusion and face detection work? Is that something that is 100% done inside the camera or does it require a specific NVR in order to realize all of the benefits?

 

[tangent]

This will surely show how much of a noob I am, but the cameras intelligent features like tripwire, intrusion and face detection work? Is that something that is 100% done inside the camera or does it require a specific NVR in order to realize all of the benefits?

It's done in camera, but not all devices/programs that can record the cameras recognize these alerts. Rudimentary video based motion detection on camera works with most options but features like tripwire, intrusion, etc. typically work best and may only work with the same brand nvr.

Software VMS like Blue Iris is often doing it's own video analytics and may not recognize this info from the camera. VMS typically can perform better analytics so not recognizing IVS from the camera isn't that big of a deal, though it is possible but messy to connect the dots with some external software if you really want.

 

[looney2ns]

PLEASE read the cliff notes.

 

[rpscuba]

PLEASE read the cliff notes.

Thanks. I started reading the Cliff Notes yesterday. As you know there are hundreds of links in the document, each one leading down a rabbit hole that leads to another dozen rabbit holes. I am slowly moving through the information as time permits. I also like to hear other opinions and points of view; live discussions like this one - I think this medium also provides invaluable information. Documents become dated, new products and new ideas happen every day and since I am starting from the ground up (basically) I want to have lots of opinions and input.

 

[rpscuba]

What NVR does everyone favor for their Dahua cameras? At the end of the day, I see having an absolute maximum of 5 cameras. Very likely be in the 3 range though.

As I mentioned earlier, I have a QNAP NAS running QVR Pro - which isn't terrible... as far as I know anyway. But I would like to take advantage of some of the Dahua intelligent features I think, right?

 

[tangent]

Thanks. I started reading the Cliff Notes yesterday. As you know there are hundreds of links in the document, each one leading down a rabbit hole that leads to another dozen rabbit holes.

Instead of chasing every rabbit, simply read the document in it's entirety once first. The cliff notes document hasn't been around that long. It exists because people were getting tired of answering the same 15 questions over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Security cameras change at a rate much slower than moore's law.

If you want a rabbit to chase, read the hundreds of pages of information in the documents attached to this thread: Resource Guide on IP Technology for all Noobs

 

[rpscuba]

First and foremost, thanks to everyone here for all of the tips and wise advise. Before I posted to this forum I was pretty set on spending a lot of money on an 8 (or even 12) megapixel cameras for my new house. You all saved me a lot of money and disappointment. Thanks to all of you.

Second (and here is where I'm probably going to step in "it" with a few of you) I sense a bit of frustration from some of you that I have asked some questions that have already been asked here in IP Cam Talk. This sometimes confuses me but at the same time I understand why it happens... I see these types of forums as valuable resources where people come to have a dialogue about their topics of interest. It is a place to share ideas and differing opinions. Simply pointing someone to a previous post (or Wiki in this case) and then being dogmatic in the rest of your posts about it is not particularly helpful to anyone. I have now fully read the Cliff Notes. The Cliff Notes are fantastic information, kudos to the author(s), nice work. If everyone agrees that the Cliff Notes are the end-all-be-all then just close the Dahua thread and have a permanent link to the Wiki instead. I'm kidding, but that is kind of how I think some of you feel.

So, I still have more questions but am not likely to ask because the topic was broached in the Cliff Notes already. Kind of stinks.

Again, thanks to everyone here who helped me. I think I will be able mix and match my resolutions now and get the real coverage (day and night) that I really wanted.

 

[tangent]

Second (and here is where I'm probably going to step in "it" with a few of you) I sense a bit of frustration from some of you that I have asked some questions that have already been asked here in IP Cam Talk. This sometimes confuses me but at the same time I understand why it happens... I see these types of forums as valuable resources where people come to have a dialogue about their topics of interest. It is a place to share ideas and differing opinions. Simply pointing someone to a previous post (or Wiki in this case) and then being dogmatic in the rest of your posts about it is not particularly helpful to anyone. I have now fully read the Cliff Notes. The Cliff Notes are fantastic information, kudos to the author(s), nice work. If everyone agrees that the Cliff Notes are the end-all-be-all then just close the Dahua thread and have a permanent link to the Wiki instead. I'm kidding, but that is kind of how I think some of you feel.

So, I still have more questions but am not likely to ask because the topic was broached in the Cliff Notes already. Kind of stinks.

It isn't uncommon for new users to want personal answers to every single question they have. That model isn't sustainable and it lowers the signal to noise ratio of the most useful content on the forum making it harder to find.

Feel free to ask your questions, just know that we expect people to put some effort into finding the answers and learning about this stuff themselves. The way someone asks a question is often pretty revealing as to how much effort they've put into finding the information. The cliff notes file isn't the end all be all, but it's a good starting point.

 

[rpscuba]

It isn't uncommon for new users to want personal answers to every single question they have. That model isn't sustainable and it lowers the signal to noise ratio of the most useful content on the forum making it harder to find.

Feel free to ask your questions, just know that we expect people to put some effort into finding the answers and learning about this stuff themselves. The way someone asks a question is often pretty revealing as to how much effort they've put into finding the information. The cliff notes file isn't the end all be all, but it's a good starting point.

I've been online and a member of forums/bulletin boards since the internet started, no joke. I am a member of dozens of forums from home theater to Ford trucks to r/c helicopters... I'm not a noob when it comes to forums like I am to IP cameras. In fact, in some forums I am the expert, just like you are here. I always help when/where I can provide advise. Never ever have I pointed anyone to a link without first answering their question. Links to previous posts are invaluable, I understand that, but it typically takes less than a minute to type out an educated reply that directly answers someones question. Undoubtedly you are familiar with the Photobucket debacle a few years ago where they went from offering free image hosting to subscription only. Thousands - if not millions - of forum posts are now basically worthless, only showing a Photobucket logo instead of the instructional photos that were once there. So you always have to be extra careful of this, lots of previously informative posts are now worthless without the pictures.

I guess we can agree to disagree (amicably of course!) on our forum philosophy. Personally, I don't see it as an issue treating each member personally and letting the educated members answer each question directly regardless of the number of times its answered elsewhere in the forum. I have been in other forums where the moderators and senior members were very rude and quite unhelpful to most every new member when they asked a common question about something. It was awful and I left... I doubt if the forum even exists anymore. It was basically for a small tight group of people to discuss things among themselves - where anyone new or needing help was a nuisance. In addition, I have been a victim of searching forums and finding dated information that was no longer correct - and it cost me time and money that was unnecessary. Perhaps this is why I always prefer to ask and receive live feedback. At the end of the day I am still a guest here and I really do appreciate the help and knowledge I have received here in a couple of days. I have lots more to learn and hopefully this is the right place to have my questions answered as they come up.

Thanks.

 

[tangent]

I always help when/where I can provide advise. Never ever have I pointed anyone to a link without first answering their question. Links to previous posts are invaluable, I understand that, but it typically takes less than a minute to type out an educated reply that directly answers someones question.

And that's exactly what happened early in this very thread...

I doubt your Qnap will be aware of IVS events.

 

[aristobrat]

I doubt your Qnap will be aware of IVS events.

I don't think I've heard of anything 3rd-party (like Qnap/Synology's surveillance software) that is currently able to see Dahua IVS events.

Someone posted a PERL script here that could trigger based on them, and IIRC Blue Iris has the foundation to be aware of them (the "Get events with PullPointSubscription" option), but the last I read (a few months ago), it wasn't working.

My experience with Blue Iris has been that its server-side motion detection works just about as well as Dahua's IVS events. It has more capabilities, but I just haven't been able to nail down false alerts caused by rapidly moving shadows from puffy white clouds flying by on windy, sunny days. Dahua IVS never alerted on those. I've gotten BI setup to mostly not alert me on those (using zone crossings, etc), but there are some days where I just have to mute BI alerts for two hours at at time, until that weather passes. That's my only gripe about BI. Other than that, I love it so much more than my old Dahua NVR (since sold).

 

[rpscuba]

I don't think I've heard of anything 3rd-party (like Qnap/Synology's surveillance software) that is currently able to see Dahua IVS events.

Someone posted a PERL script here that could trigger based on them, and IIRC Blue Iris has the foundation to be aware of them (the "Get events with PullPointSubscription" option), but the last I read (a few months ago), it wasn't working.

My experience with Blue Iris has been that its server-side motion detection works just about as well as Dahua's IVS events. It has more capabilities, but I just haven't been able to nail down false alerts caused by rapidly moving shadows from puffy white clouds flying by on windy, sunny days. Dahua IVS never alerted on those. I've gotten BI setup to mostly not alert me on those (using zone crossings, etc), but there are some days where I just have to mute BI alerts for two hours at at time, until that weather passes. That's my only gripe about BI. Other than that, I love it so much more than my old Dahua NVR (since sold).

So, in everyones experience, what are the truly helpful intelligent features of the Dahua cameras? The ones that you really couldn't do without? Maybe its not worth upgrading to a Dahua NVR specifically for intelligent features that I may never use long term - other than just playing with them because they are there...