Blue Iris vs NVR

[DevinH]

I got my first security camera installed on the front porch and I'm planning on installing 3 more around the house. I've been debating myself on whether to go with a dedicated hardware NVR or a PC + Blue Iris setup.

My first camera was a Foscam (and I'll probably go with Foscam for the others), so if I go with a NVR, I'm looking at http://foscam.us/network-video-recor...m-fn3104h.html. I've played around with the software for it, and it's very basic but does all the essentials.

I've also been playing with the Blue Iris trial and it's fantastic!

The reason I can't decide is because the NVR solution is less than $100, probably more reliable than a dedicated windows machine, and probably consumes less power for an always on machine.

Blue Iris claims to want a pretty decent machine to run well (i5/i7) depending on number of cameras, resolution, etc. It's probably something that neither my Homeseer machine (Celeron) or my home server (Pentium) can handle in addition to their other duties, so I'd probably have to spend at least $500 on another windows PC, and then $60 on the BI software. That and the reliability issues that go along with setting up another dedicated windows pc.

I really like all the features that come with BI, but since I don't have experience with security cameras in the past I'm not sure if any of those features are really a must-have or just a nice-to-have.

Anyone else try out both ways? Which way did you go with and why?

[kriz83]

Hi,

You could try the trial on one of your PC's with 3 cameras to see if it can handle the load. Make sure you enabled 'direct-to-disk recording' (for each camera !)as this will highly offload your server !

I am running BI on a ESXI server which has a virtual machines for:
- HomeSeer
- Download
- FileServer
- Cloud backup
- Blue Iris

Having 4 disks, it is running at 50W and no problems with BlueIris whatsoever.

[thymer]

I have used both, a dedicated DVR for several years and now Blue Iris on a dedicated Wintel box. The DVR was OK but it lacked the features of BI. I also found it to be less reliable, would crash sometimes, etc. My pick is BI, the feature set is amazing, integration to HomeSeer is awesome (using camera motion to trigger events is one example) and it's so easy to access and use from multiple platforms. I have 5 HD cameras going and am adding a sixth one.

[DevinH]

I have used both, a dedicated DVR for several years and now Blue Iris on a dedicated Wintel box. The DVR was OK but it lacked the features of BI. I also found it to be less reliable, would crash sometimes, etc. My pick is BI, the feature set is amazing, integration to HomeSeer is awesome (using camera motion to trigger events is one example) and it's so easy to access and use from multiple platforms. I have 5 HD cameras going and am adding a sixth one.

Oh, I didn't even think about Homeseer integration stuff. I would like to trigger some lights from camera motion detection.

What kind of hardware do you have? My front porch camera is 640x480. I think I'll do 720p for the other three. Do you think an i5 would be sufficient? I'm looking at buying an Intel NUC machine to run it. Intel NUC

[mwaite]

I am running BI on an ESXI server also, with 8 HD cameras. Only once did I have a BI problem, one of their updates caused BI to crash often, long since fixed. Another thing you can do with BI you can't with an NVR, HS dialogs on the cameras! (using BI Tools)

• Front camera shows daily hi/lo and current temperatures, as well as wind.
• Saltwater fishtank shows temperature vs. house temperature
• Backyard shows pond and hot tub (currently off) temperatures
• All cameras show the last spoken phrase from HS.
  ... etc

[thymer]

Oh, I didn't even think about Homeseer integration stuff. I would like to trigger some lights from camera motion detection.

What kind of hardware do you have? My front porch camera is 640x480. I think I'll do 720p for the other three. Do you think an i5 would be sufficient? I'm looking at buying an Intel NUC machine to run it. Intel NUC

old i5 HP desktop with maybe 4gb RAM. Cams are mostly HuaCam's @1080.

[ajgyomber]

I am running BI on an ESXI server also, with 8 HD cameras. Only once did I have a BI problem, one of their updates caused BI to crash often, long since fixed. Another thing you can do with BI you can't with an NVR, HS dialogs on the cameras! (using BI Tools)

What hardware resources do you have dedicated to the VM running Blue Iris?

[Pete]

With BI or any multiple HD software NVR you will need much CPU and memory especially with many HD streams. If not using a VM it is better to dedicate a box to using Blue Iris and not combine it with Homeseer 3 or...

You can try to see how it runs though on an Intel iSeries 7 with 8/16 Gb of memory.

I have run in to that issue with moving from SD to HD on my Zoneminder box.

I still have SD analogue cams up.

Originally had them on an 8 port capture card and have moved them to Axis 2400's. I am though only using Grandstream and Grandstream OS cams. Here though also purchased a Grand steam encoder / decoder and a Grandstream NVR (which is still in the box). BTW all of my new Grandstream or Grandstream OS cams are 3-5Mp (1080 plus) cams these days.

[DevinH]

I ended up ordering this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._detailpages00.

It's just an i5, so hopefully that'll be good enough to run 4 cameras up to 720p or 960p. I ordered just 4GB of ram, but in just a single module so I can add another if need be. I won't be running anything other than BI on the box.

Should I have gone with an i7?

[thymer]

my i5 runs at ~65% with five HD cams, you'll be fine.

[Pete]

Should work. Here running 16 cams right now. With HD IP RTSP cams you can do multiple streaming. IE: low resolution and high resolution streaming. If you shut off the video analytics it will better.

While video analytics (motion) works OK for inside stuff it really doesn't work that well for outside motion stuff.

Here is where I am using analogue wired sensors for outside motion triggers.

You can sort of compare the CPU utilization to your tv digital VCR. Here I have 6 + 2 HD streams that I can record from and do multiple HD TV stream recording. Most work is doing multiple TV shows occurring at the same time stuff. Note though this is 1080 broadcast recording stuff.

Relating to Zoneminder it records 24/7. When an event is triggered you define how far back to save the video as the event. Linux box is running 64bits with a lot of memory. IE: you can also switch to black and white capturing which will still provide you some very good details and uses less memory.

The higher MP resolution of the camera then the more work the camera can do with multiple streaming. IE: Open up two RTSP 1080 streams from one camera on your PC. Watch the streaming from the camera. The cameras with more MP can handle more work and stream more streams better if that makes sense? Here I do multiple RTSP streams and constant JPG captures from the same camera. This pushes the camera such that a lower resolution camera doesn't handle the work load much.

Internet video streaming is a totally different thing as it depends on the size of your pipe out to the internet and what you phone uses for example. 3G is OK but 4G/5G is very fast. The pixel resolution for your video stream though on a phone is tiny such that it doesn't really use a lot of bandwidth. You can though tether your 4g/5g connection to a laptop to see how well your internet connection is at home. Well too if your work has a fast pipe to the internet but your upload speeds are slow then the bottleneck will be relating to your ISP at home connection. You can test the speeds by streaming live TV to your internet / work connection and seeing if it works.

Other streams here go to my Grandstream decoder / encoder which provides an analog video output to my Omnitouch legacy touchscreens.

IE: You cannot utilize a low end IP HD camera for this stuff.
1 - multiple RTSP cams = = > Grandstream decoder = = > analogue video output
2 - multiple RTSP cams = = > Zoneminder Primary box (testing two other ZM boxes - one running with an Intel CPU and other with an AMD CPU - both running Ubuntu 64 bit / much memory and fast CPUs).
3 - multiple RTSP cams = = > Grandstream NVR software
4 - multiple RTSP cams = = > pending Grandstream NVR recorder (still in box).
5 - JPG stills (from all CCTV cams) = = > Homeseer 2 and Homeseer 3 captures plus Homeseer 2 and Homeseer 3 Homeseer touchscreens.

IE: Relating to how I use ZM to record events or triggers - seconds to minutes of video.

1 - Event occurs at 10:03:00 seconds - triggered by analog sensors
2 - you define if you want to start saving event at 10:00:00 to 10:06:00 (rewind and time frame to save).

[thymer]

Should work. Here running 16 cams right now. With HD IP RTSP cams you can do multiple streaming. IE: low resolution and high resolution streaming. If you shut off the video analytics it will better. While it works OK for inside stuff it really doesn't work that well for outside motion stuff. Here is where I am using analog wired sensors for outside motion.

Relating to Zoneminder it records 24/7. When an event is triggered you define how far back to save the video as the event.

IE:

1 - Event occurs at 10:03:00 seconds - triggered by analog sensors
2 - you define if you want to start saving event at 10:00:00 to 10:06:00 (rewind and time frame to save).

That's weird, outdoor motion sensing works awesome for me. I use it to turn on front porch and driveway lights.

[Pete]

I am not saying that video analytics doesn't work.

I am saying here that analog outdoor motion sensors are levels above as a price to price comparision. Video analytics is getting better but it is nowhere near soup yet.

To get good video analytics you need a commercial security dedicated application which costs much more than BI.

Relating to doing video analytics on an IP camera you need something like a Mobotix/Axis/Optex high end camera. The stuffs built in on the < $500 cameras is junk because of the tiny CPUs on the cameras. It is getting better.

The above said though if it works for you and you are happy with it; then that is all that matters. I use it here narrowing a view to touching a doorknob or knocking on a door which does work as long as the environment never changes (which it does outside).

Blue Iris is levels above an el cheapo NVR that you can purchase today at any big box retailer.

That said the "el cheapo" Grandstream NVR for less than $200 has analog trigger inputs with published API Grandstream specifications for this or for that. I have not played with it yet. The newest Grandstream IP HD cameras (already with SIP) also includes video motion analytics (which work only OK).

Attached are some pictures of some new features included in the GS cams. I do not use these right now as most of the work is on the NVR software right now.
You can utilize both video analytics and analog sensors with the camera. (there are connections for this).

[mwaite]

What hardware resources do you have dedicated to the VM running Blue Iris?

8 Cores (2 CPU x 4) - 3.33GHz Xeon
8GB

It's a bit overkill, I wanted to make sure it was powerful enough for additional cameras as needed, plus it's also my FTP and Plex server.