STARVIS vs Starlight ?

BI is overall head and shoulders above any NVR. It takes time to tune it to prevent falsing. And I'm not certain in every case you will be able to avoid some falsing.
For me, I'm not using any of the cams built-in alert functions, because BI does a much better job. YMMV
 
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rpscuba said:
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...
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Something that produces reliable alerts and flags them in your recording timeline is necessary. I haven't used qnap, but have my doubts it would meet this threshold.

A good software VMS, IVS (and a recorder that's aware of it, other companies call this by other names), or actual motion sensors (wired to an NVR or other input device) would all be able to achieve this. A software VMS doesn't need some crazy high end computer, a small 4th gen or newer i5 or i7 is all you need. I could be wrong, but you strike me as someone who would appreciate the things blue iris can do.
 
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tangent said:
Something that produces reliable alerts and flags them in your recording timeline is necessary. I haven't used qnap, but have my doubts it would meet this threshold.

A good software VMS, IVS (and a recorder that's aware of it, other companies call this by other names), or actual motion sensors (wired to an NVR or other input device) would all be able to achieve this. A software VMS doesn't need some crazy high end computer, a small 4th gen or newer i5 or i7 is all you need. I could be wrong, but you strike me as someone who would appreciate the things blue iris can do.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I am sure willing to build a BI machine, I prob have a couple of unused PC's around that meet or exceed the minimum specs. I built and run a pfsense router at the house, hopefully installing and setting up BI is much simpler than that. Also, I have a Cisco SF300-24PP PoE+ Managed Switch (and it bigger brother that is 48 ports and 10/100/1000) so I don't need to worry about PoE or the like.

After reading the Cliff Notes I assume that setting up a VM on the QNAP and running BI is likely out of the question. Sounds like BI can be a resource hog and I don't want to crash my NAS or degrade its performance too much either.
 
rpscuba said:
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...
Click to expand...
The Dahua cameras I have support basic motion detection, and the more intelligent IVS motion detection.

My experience with basic motion detection is that it can’t be tuned to prevent false alarms without it also missing motion that you want it to trigger on. I quickly disabled basic motion detection and switched to IVS.

For IVS, I started with tripwires... drawing lines across the image, and if the lines were crossed, it would cause a trigger. The problem I ran into with that was that the camera sometimes takes a second or two to figure that an object is moving, and by that time, the object may already have crossed the tripwire, so .. the tripwire would not trigger.

I ended up switching to intrusion zones, which are shapes you draw on the screen. You have the option to trigger when an object crosses into/out of the shape, and/or if an object suddenly appears within the shape (which can happen if the camera doesn’t notice the motion before the object has crossed into the shape). This worked perfectly for me.

I’ve basically got motion detection in BI setup to act like IVS intrusion zones. The only issue I’m still working on is having it not trigger when a cloud rolling quickly overhead creates a shadow that moves through a zone). Dahua IVS would ignore that by default. BI, for me, has required some out of the box thinking to reduce that.
 
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aristobrat said:
For IVS, I started with tripwires... drawing lines across the image, and if the lines were crossed, it would cause a trigger. The problem I ran into with that was that the camera sometimes takes a second or two to figure that an object is moving, and by that time, the object may already have crossed the tripwire, so .. the tripwire would not trigger.

I ended up switching to intrusion zones, which are shapes you draw on the screen. You have the option to trigger when an object crosses into/out of the shape, and/or if an object suddenly appears within the shape (which can happen if the camera doesn’t notice the motion before the object has crossed into the shape). This worked perfectly for me
Click to expand...
I find it best not to draw the zones or lines all the way to edge of the frame. Video analytics are good enough for most people, but it's hard to beat the reliability of a properly selected and properly installed motion detector if you really want to bring false alerts to near zero.
 
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I found an old Dell Optiplex 755 with a Core 2 Duo processor running Windows XP. May be my weekend project...
 
Well, the Cliff Notes says this is all I need:


Pentium dual-core or equivalent 2GHz processor or better, but it must have Intel® Quick Sync

2GB or more system RAM

Microsoft Windows XP SP3 or newer, or a server OS

One or more USB or Network IP cameras, or an analog capture card with DirectShow drivers

Recommendations when using many and/or HD cameras:

Intel core i7 with QuickSync for hardware decoding

8GB or more RAM

Microsoft Windows 8.1 or 10, 64 bit

nVIDIA graphics adaptor for efficient screen display

7200+ RPM drives and/or SSD drive

I guess since I just have 1 camera I am concerned about at the moment (1mp Toshiba) I thought I might be ok??

Thanks!
 
rpscuba said:
Well, the Cliff Notes says this is all I need:


Pentium dual-core or equivalent 2GHz processor or better, but it must have Intel® Quick Sync

2GB or more system RAM

Microsoft Windows XP SP3 or newer, or a server OS

One or more USB or Network IP cameras, or an analog capture card with DirectShow drivers

Recommendations when using many and/or HD cameras:

Intel core i7 with QuickSync for hardware decoding

8GB or more RAM

Microsoft Windows 8.1 or 10, 64 bit

nVIDIA graphics adaptor for efficient screen display

7200+ RPM drives and/or SSD drive

I guess since I just have 1 camera I am concerned about at the moment (1mp Toshiba) I thought I might be ok??

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Ignore that...see the wiki...one 1mp camera will run on virtually any system
.
 
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Any thoughts on the Dell OptiPlex 7010?
  • Processor: Intel Core i5 Quad (i5-3470S) 2.90 GHz
  • Memory: 4GB
  • Hard Drive:
  • OS: 64-bit Windows 8 Pro
  • Chassis: Ultra Small Form Factor
 
rpscuba said:
Any thoughts on the Dell OptiPlex 7010?
  • Processor: Intel Core i5 Quad (i5-3470S) 2.90 GHz
  • Memory: 4GB
  • Hard Drive:
  • OS: 64-bit Windows 8 Pro
  • Chassis: Ultra Small Form Factor
Click to expand...
Too small... you need room for a 3.5 disk...see threads discussing systems...
 
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fenderman said:
Too small... you need room for a 3.5 disk...see threads discussing systems...
Click to expand...

Actually 2.5" Hard Drives are quite affordable. About $160 for a 4TB 2.5" Seagate Barracuda.

RodeoGeorge
 
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WA3PNT said:
Actually 2.5" Hard Drives are quite affordable. About $160 for a 4TB 2.5" Seagate Barracuda.

RodeoGeorge
Click to expand...
that is not the point...there was no mention on price
first you dont want a seagate Barracuda..second..
you want room for a 2.5 for the SSD and a 3.5 purple for storage..also note that many need larger than 4tb
the usff is a poor choice for a blue iris pc...
not to mention its running windows 8...
there are much better systems available for 100-125
 
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If you are planning to run Blue Iris you could also look up potential CPU/Memory/Camera configurations at the "Blue Iris Helper Database" (Blue Iris Update Helper ) to see what performance people are actually getting on real-world configurations. Seems like that website/program is also from the Blue Iris fella, @bp2008

I found these two interesting setups with just 1-camera:
Intel i3-2120 @ 3.3Ghz (2 cores/4 threads), 1 camera, 3% CPU usage by BI. (has Quicksync)
AMD Athlon II X2 2.8Ghz (2 cores/ 2 threads), 1 camera, 2% CPU by BI. (no QuickSync)

As fenderman said "pretty much anything" will run a single camera, but it seems once you have one camera you want 4, then more so think a little further into the journey. I started with two, then a 3rd now I wish I had about 10.

Look up the potential CPU on that website to see if anyone else is using it, and make sure it has QuickSync. You can use filters like >50 or <150 at that website as well to see what others are using with approximately the same needs.
 
rpscuba said:
Any thoughts on the Dell OptiPlex 7010?
  • Processor: Intel Core i5 Quad (i5-3470S) 2.90 GHz
  • Memory: 4GB
  • Hard Drive:
  • OS: 64-bit Windows 8 Pro
  • Chassis: Ultra Small Form Factor
Click to expand...

Just my opinion:
Ultra Small Form Factor = doubles as a space heater/internal component life accelerator (especially capacitors and hard drives)
64-bit Windows 8 Pro = please, no! It's like Vista with metro-tiles!
Hard Drive = since it's only 2.5" and no room for a 2nd drive, choices are limited: SSD (great!) but video storage on a NAS
 
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EMPIRETECANDY said:
daytime also very sharp, some guys said 8mp and 2mp same pic, but i think will have difference on 4K screen. the one N24BG52 is model IPC-HDW4231EM-ASE, 2mp fixed lens. Pic not as sharp as the HDW5231R-Z, but also works very good for its costs.
Click to expand...

So I am still building out my system. I have a mix of 2MP Starlights, and then 4/6/8MP Starvis WDR capable cameras (all are in the Eco-Savy line) and a 6MP Varifocal. Only 1 Starlight is up and it is inside covering my foyer/front door. My initial observations are that MP matters for details especially in daylight and if you have a 4K or even QHD (2560x1440) display. I hope to have the 2 exterior Starlights up in a few days, but some quick tinkering shows me that WDR being enabled really has a negative impact on clarity/sharpness. One 4MP and the internal Starlight have WDR enabled due to extreme lighting and the images look noticeably softer. As people have stated at night IR or not the MP advantage disappears quickly. At some point I will pull some snapshots and try to do some comparisons, but the 8MP at night still produces decent detail that would make objects identifiable are reasonable distance.

One annoyance is the IR pattern these camera throw, is way too narrow. At night the corners are dark and on the outdoor 8MP cameras virtually useless. I am considering mounting some outdoor IR lights to better light up some areas as the camera IR is a disappointment and attracks far too many bugs constantly tripping either MD or IVS events.

I have the NVR-5216-4KS2 is attached to a Sonay 55X900E and set to 4K 30fps so the PQ on the TV is impeccable and shows everything the NVR and cameras can or can't produce in PQ. When I access via the web browser I am using 27 inch QHD monitors that can really show some detail. At some point I may write up a review of the various components, but will say this forum has been a huge help and Any from Empire Tech. was great to deal with.
 
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keithl said:
So I am still building out my system. I have a mix of 2MP Starlights, and then 4/6/8MP Starvis WDR capable cameras (all are in the Eco-Savy line) and a 6MP Varifocal. Only 1 Starlight is up and it is inside covering my foyer/front door. My initial observations are that MP matters for details especially in daylight and if you have a 4K or even QHD (2560x1440) display. I hope to have the 2 exterior Starlights up in a few days, but some quick tinkering shows me that WDR being enabled really has a negative impact on clarity/sharpness. One 4MP and the internal Starlight have WDR enabled due to extreme lighting and the images look noticeably softer. As people have stated at night IR or not the MP advantage disappears quickly. At some point I will pull some snapshots and try to do some comparisons, but the 8MP at night still produces decent detail that would make objects identifiable are reasonable distance.

One annoyance is the IR pattern these camera throw, is way too narrow. At night the corners are dark and on the outdoor 8MP cameras virtually useless. I am considering mounting some outdoor IR lights to better light up some areas as the camera IR is a disappointment and attracks far too many bugs constantly tripping either MD or IVS events.

I have the NVR-5216-4KS2 is attached to a Sonay 55X900E and set to 4K 30fps so the PQ on the TV is impeccable and shows everything the NVR and cameras can or can't produce in PQ. When I access via the web browser I am using 27 inch QHD monitors that can really show some detail. At some point I may write up a review of the various components, but will say this forum has been a huge help and Any from Empire Tech. was great to deal with.
Click to expand...
I am up to 13 cameras, using BI. Nothing can beat the Dahua Starlights! Mine are mostly 2MP, but (as pointed out by Fenderman) 3MP are out and 4MP are coming out soon...
 
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