Mac or Windows (Security Spy vs Blue Iris)

8urt0

8urt0

Getting the hang of it
Nov 2, 2019
50
28
Australia
So as the title suggests I am considering to stick with my fully mac apple house or run my network cameras from a windows machine. I have both options available so buying new hardware is not a problem. I just wonder..

Is there anybody who has used SecuritySpy for mac and converted to Blue Iris that can help convince me to do this?
Does Blue Iris have any advantage for Dahua cameras?

I watched some online youtube videos and it looks like Blue Iris has much more control however does it have AI for detecting Human vs Vehicles ? That is one advantage of Security Spy I can set the thresholds for this in the app for the motion recordings and the alerts via IOS.

I have done many different CCTV options over the years but this is my first time to really be getting into a proper NVR setup. Sorry if this is a stupid question or the wrong place to post guys.
 
8urt0 said:
Does Blue Iris have any advantage for Dahua cameras?
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IMO, Blue Iris treats most cameras equally, brand doesn't matter. It does have the ability (via PullPointSubscription) to use the IVS "advanced motion detection" feature of Dahua cameras, which includes Dahua's version of AI in recent models.

8urt0 said:
does it have AI for detecting Human vs Vehicles
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Not directly. Right now it just has the option of using a 3rd-party service (SmartSentry?) to analyze clips for humans/vehicles. I think I saw mentioned that BI was working towards its own AI, but I can't find a source for that right now.

Looking at SecuritySpy's webpage, one other difference I see is that Blue Iris doesn't have hardware acceleration for H.265 yet.
 
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Are you using SecuritySpy? Have you found it to be lacking? In my tests with Hikvision cameras, it was fast, stable and full-featured (which accomplishments on the Mac platform are obviously beyond the camera manufacturers). My only real objection is to the pricing model.
 
ipOsX said:
Are you using SecuritySpy? Have you found it to be lacking? In my tests with Hikvision cameras, it was fast, stable and full-featured (which accomplishments on the Mac platform are obviously beyond the camera manufacturers). My only real objection is to the pricing model.
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I had the previous version so paid for the discounted upgrade of SecuritySpy. It is ok for just a couple of cameras but when you start to get up to completely surrounding your house with cameras yes I fully agree the pricing structure is horrible. This was also one of the reasons I was starting to look at Blue Iris as an option after discovering it on this forum.

Honestly I like security spy and never had a problem with it and the AI detection levels in it are very good. From what aristobrat said above if Blue Iris incorporated this would be amazing.

See another positive I saw was using a small tower up next to my network switch would be easier for having larger storage space. Right now I am running SecuritySpy on my iMac but was contemplating buying a mac mini to dedicate to it. Then I would also need a add on external hard drive though. (thus the idea of using a PC tower i have doing nothing at the moment).

I think i am going to have to do some research into PullPointSubscription & SmartSentry then possibly just try out Blue Iris and see how I feel about it. :cool:
 
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We are an all Mac place as well and all of our TV's are driven by Apple TV so SecuritySpy and their TVOS app are quite appealing. Can you give me some idea of their pricing. We'll have 22 cameras so I'm concerned it could get expensive. As well, that they hide it on their website is concerning both for what it costs and for the integrity of the company that makes this product.

Thanks,
 
TundraCam said:
We are an all Mac place as well and all of our TV's are driven by Apple TV so SecuritySpy and their TVOS app are quite appealing. Can you give me some idea of their pricing. We'll have 22 cameras so I'm concerned it could get expensive. As well, that they hide it on their website is concerning both for what it costs and for the integrity of the company that makes this product.

Thanks,
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I love SS and have kept it over BI I did use my BI license still on a machine used purely to display feeds from some cameras in the lounge room. Below are the upgrade options for SS from the 4 camera license all in USD.

SecuritySpy v5 - 8 cameras$ 103.94
SecuritySpy v5 - 16 cameras$ 311.82
SecuritySpy v5 - 32 cameras$ 589.92
SecuritySpy v5 - unlimited cameras$ 798.50
 
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Thanks. I did find the pricing on their website after a bit more searching. Not sure why I didn't see it earlier.

SS is a bit of a tough sell from a cost standpoint when you consider the cost of a dedicate mac + SS license + POE Switch vs a much less expensive PC + much less expensive BI license + POE Switch vs a 32 channel Dahua NVR w/ built-in switch. It does seem to have a number of advantages though so possibly worth the cost?
 
TundraCam said:
Thanks. I did find the pricing on their website after a bit more searching. Not sure why I didn't see it earlier.

SS is a bit of a tough sell from a cost standpoint when you consider the cost of a dedicate mac + SS license + POE Switch vs a much less expensive PC + much less expensive BI license + POE Switch vs a 32 channel Dahua NVR w/ built-in switch. It does seem to have a number of advantages though so possibly worth the cost?
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For me yes as my whole home / family ecosystem is Apple so it has been handy for that purpose. I love the notifications I get the photo of motion on my watch instantly there is no delay. I find the quality of the software to be outstanding and development is quite strong not to mention Ben the creator provides absolutely the best support I have ever come across on his Forum. You ask a simple question and he gives you a detailed answer.

I like that the software the cameras are in different windows I can manipulate them across the monitor window how I want without having to set to pre defined layouts.

The built in people and car detection in the software works great. I like that I can offload this to the software and give the camera just the job of recording a quality image.

The IOS app is easy to use as well neat and minimalistic.

And best of all its just so easy to setup and use, very user friendly.

For me personally after trying both (true I was using SS well before giving BI a shot) I have stuck with SS. I do have the BI install for my camera feeds being displayed in the lounge room but this is just temporary until I settle on a mac mini to replace it with.
 
Thanks. Overall for our use it looks pretty good. The cost may be a killer though. We're still trying to decide but if all looks good I think we'll at least do a trial.
 
Hi Tundra and 8urt0
I am pondering the same issue: Do i transition from SS (which I think is great) to BI (which I have never used). I am licensed up to 8 cameras on SS.

I am a mac household (WIN for work machine) supporting 5 cameras on a standalone Mac using SecuritySpy. I am ready to upgrade my standalone mac and am deciding on whether to stay with Mac / Security Spy or transition to Window / BlueIris.

From a UI and performance standpoint, I have been incredibly happy with SecuritySpy as well as the iOS app. My driving factor is that I want a small, standalone machine that I can store out of the way. A really powerful MacMini can easily be $1000. I could probably build a NUC for the same purpose for less (but I would have to transition to BlueIris).

I am also considering whether there is value in the Dahua NVR over SS or BI?
 
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John Mac said:
Hi Tundra and 8urt0
I am pondering the same issue: Do i transition from SS (which I think is great) to BI (which I have never used). I am licensed up to 8 cameras on SS.

I am a mac household (WIN for work machine) supporting 5 cameras on a standalone Mac using SecuritySpy. I am ready to upgrade my standalone mac and am deciding on whether to stay with Mac / Security Spy or transition to Window / BlueIris.

From a UI and performance standpoint, I have been incredibly happy with SecuritySpy as well as the iOS app. My driving factor is that I want a small, standalone machine that I can store out of the way. A really powerful MacMini can easily be $1000. I could probably build a NUC for the same purpose for less (but I would have to transition to BlueIris).

I am also considering whether there is value in the Dahua NVR over SS or BI?
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Just out of curiosity, where do you store all of your camera storage? Do you have an external HDD dedicated for your cameras? Reason I ask, is my parents have an iMac they want to use for camera system but I don’t think their hard drive will be enough. I personally use blue iris on a dedicated pc with two HDD’s, so I’m not too familiar with mac systems. Any advice on how to set theirs up?
 
sdl0311 said:
Just out of curiosity, where do you store all of your camera storage? Do you have an external HDD dedicated for your cameras? Reason I ask, is my parents have an iMac they want to use for camera system but I don’t think their hard drive will be enough. I personally use blue iris on a dedicated pc with two HDD’s, so I’m not too familiar with mac systems. Any advice on how to set theirs up?
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Personally I am using a 10TB WD PR2100 NAS drive for my recordings. Overkill for most probably but I recommend using a NAS so if somebody does break in they take / break the iMac thinking that’s the DVR when actually your camera storage is elsewhere safe and sound. I have the iMac located in the lounge room so it doubles as a display for my front cameras as well.
 
We've a Synology RS3618xs NAS connected via 10gb ethernet. When considering the storage space we needed for a number of things and the performance we needed this made sense. Performance is considerably better than any USB/Thunderbolt option would be able to achieve. I'd not have done this just for SS but it's worked out great given all of our needs.

For your parents... We have a couple of dozen different thunderbolt attached drives, mostly WD, that all work quite well. What iMac do your parents have and will it be dedicated to SS or sharing other duties?

And FWIW, we're quite happy w/ SS so far. Currently 23 cameras with 9 more planned. Much better option for us than BI.
 
I use a MacMini and added a Seagate BarraCuda 2TB Internal Hard Drive and housed it in a USB-C Hub with Hard Drive Enclosure, Hagibis Type-C Docking Station & Stand for Mac Mini M1. It has been really solid thus far.
 
John Mac said:
I use a MacMini and added a Seagate BarraCuda 2TB Internal Hard Drive and housed it in a USB-C Hub with Hard Drive Enclosure, Hagibis Type-C Docking Station & Stand for Mac Mini M1. It has been really solid thus far.
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You're running SS on a M1 now? Did you upgrade from an Intel? Thoughts on the M1?
 
Sorry, I upgraded my 2011-ish MacMini to the 2018 MacMini. I am seriously considering an upgrade to the M1.
 
I have Security Spy running on a dedicated M1 24" iMac with 23 cameras (mostly axis brand). I have six, four drive, Thunderbolt three enclosures from MacSales (OWC) with 16 TB drives in every slot. Enclosures are daisy chained in threes and I use both Thunderbolt ports on the back of the iMac. No issues. Low CP usage. The M1 is a beast.

Things I wish SS did better, audio.
 
Blue Iris now integrates, nicely and easily, with DeepStack AI. It does work best when used in the GPU version with an NVidia Quadro, or better, card. The CPU version will work acceptably on new generation i5 or i7 processors, but still not as fast or efficiently as a CUDA based GPU.
 
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