Thanks to @
montecrypto for this...
The NVR showed up today. Red/white box. It is region code "RR" - other unspecified. I noticed in the web interface menus there was a license plate detection option, but the United States does not show up as an available country for the format. Just an example. A little disappointed that it's not WR, but not a deal breaker so far.
The bigger question is
what will happen if I try to update the F/W on the NVR or cameras? I am half way tempted to try it before deploying the NVR just so that if I am forced to do it later, I will already know the outcome .... anyone for NVR Russian Roulette?
Blue Iris Pro's:
* Blue Iris is turning out to be a champ at MJPEG streams of which I have several, and I see no such support in the Hikky unit so far.
* Also the events/alerts for Blue Iris are pretty fantastic.
* The mobile app for Blue Iris is just as good if not better than the desktop in some categories. I installed it on all my mobile devices and computers. Have not tried the Hikvision apps or IVMS yet. In due time.
* No region code restrictions to worry about with other Hikky cameras.
* Paid support. You can't get support from Hikvision directly unless you're a
licensed distributor. Is anybody selling on the Internet
licensed by Hikvision to do so? I concluded maybe that's why there are companies like Swann that relabel Hikvision products and deal with end consumers.
Hikky Pro's:
* The Hikky has support for car counting, license plate reading, parked car event, crowd gathering, loitering, object removal detection etc, but it's on a camera by camera basis. I don't have any such camera in my 2 camera arsenal so far. So this isn't really a pro.
* Tuck it away in a closet some place with a small UPS and forget about it. It'll be working while the desktop PC is on break (applies since I use my desktop as a workstation and not a dedicated NVR).
* 160 MB incoming bandwidth is a generous amount of 4 MP cameras.
* Can rehost streams for Blue Iris (either full size / full framerate, or sub streams), but this is achievable by going to the cameras directly anyhow.
* Built in POE ports, which is never a bad thing when you have POE cameras in the mix.
* When used with Hikvision cameras, edge recording to SD when the network link is down, and camera based events/motion detection. Not sure if Blue Iris supports this.
* When used with Hikvision cameras, fisheye correction and digital PTZ (or so I read). Not sure if Blue Iris supports this.
I could live with Blue Iris alone, but a combination of the two is pretty good. Further review of the NVR in due time. Both are definitely a million times better than iSpy in any case.