Best third-party camera software?

[BarkityBark]

What is the best third-party software for managing my home's outdoor security camera system please? I would like to record to my home server/PC just like a NVR and also back up alert image/clip captures to my online storage account (Google Drive or Dropbox, etc). Do any of the software packages mentioned in this article find this group's approval?..

Best video surveillance software for Windows 10

 

[alastairstevenson]

What is the best third-party software for managing my home's outdoor security camera system please?

Check out the largest section of this forum.

 

[BarkityBark]

Which one?

 

[alastairstevenson]

Click 'Forums' and scroll down past General Talk and Hardware.

 

[BarkityBark]

You personal favorite please?

 

[randytsuch]

I use Blue Iris, which is very popular here. Not free, but pretty cheap.
Milestone Essentials is free for a small number of cameras.
There are other programs, but I'm happy with BI.
BTW, you really need a dedicated PC for recording, don't try to multitask on a PC that has other purposes.

 

[Mike]

Blue Iris

 

[lgRich]

I use Blue Iris and Milestone XProtect Essential until many years…
. BI it’s a good software if you use-it as a standalone on just one computer.
. XProtect for me it’s the best one especially in a remote viewing.

Why I prefer XProtect versus Blue Iris :

Remote viewing on PC :
. Blue Iris have not a real client, you need to access-it via the web interface and it’s a very limited interface.
. When you viewing 4 cameras at the same time the resolution is very poor and for me it’s not acceptable.
. XProtect came with a real client with all the setting you need, in live view you can see all your cameras at their full resolution, the PTZ function is very intuitive and precise.
. The playback view is the best one and the more convivial I never seen on any other software.

Installation, configuration and maintenance :
Blue Iris is easy an rapid to install but the configuration it’s not very intuitive and the motion sensor is the worse one I never seen. This software is frequently upgraded and every time you upgrade you are at risk.
XProtect, the server side is longer to install but the configuration is straight forward. You need to registered-it once a year but in the mean time you simply forget-it. The installation of the client side is straight forward but you need more time to customize for your need.

Resource :
. Blue Iris require a powerful PC for the server side, in my case with 4 X 1080p cameras running at 30fp the CPU usage is BI 45% versus XProtect 3% .
. XProtect require a powerful PC for the client side all my camera at the same time in live view the CPU usage is 60% and for one camera is 20%. In playback view the CPU vary around 15% to 30%.

Conclusion :
A few year ago with my 4 UBNT camera at 720p Blue Iris was acceptable, but when I upgraded all my 4 cameras for a good quality 1080p this became another story… I have suggested many time on the unfortunately dead forum (Cam It!) to improve the web interface and I have also send many request by email to the developer but without result… So, why spend a few thousands $ in good quality cameras if you can’t benefit it at their full potential !!!

lgRich

 

[bp2008]

Interesting perspective on the two softwares. Would you say that XProtect's client is more power hungry than a Blue Iris server? That is how it seems based on your resource usage examples, but that might be different PCs or different camera loads.

. Blue Iris have not a real client, you need to access-it via the web interface and it’s a very limited interface.
. When you viewing 4 cameras at the same time the resolution is very poor and for me it’s not acceptable.

For quite a while now Blue Iris has had the option to increase the resolution of the group camera views to any resolution you like. I know, it should not be necessary to configure this, but at least you can do it now.



Sooner or later, Blue Iris will ship with a better web interface. I've been working on it but Ken the BI developer has not been very responsive so I have not yet been able to finish. In the meantime the UI2 page linked in my signature is a very good alternative.

 

[fenderman]

I use Blue Iris and Milestone XProtect Essential until many years…
. BI it’s a good software if you use-it as a standalone on just one computer.
. XProtect for me it’s the best one especially in a remote viewing.

Why I prefer XProtect versus Blue Iris :

Remote viewing on PC :
. Blue Iris have not a real client, you need to access-it via the web interface and it’s a very limited interface.
. When you viewing 4 cameras at the same time the resolution is very poor and for me it’s not acceptable.
. XProtect came with a real client with all the setting you need, in live view you can see all your cameras at their full resolution, the PTZ function is very intuitive and precise.
. The playback view is the best one and the more convivial I never seen on any other software.

Installation, configuration and maintenance :
Blue Iris is easy an rapid to install but the configuration it’s not very intuitive and the motion sensor is the worse one I never seen. This software is frequently upgraded and every time you upgrade you are at risk.
XProtect, the server side is longer to install but the configuration is straight forward. You need to registered-it once a year but in the mean time you simply forget-it. The installation of the client side is straight forward but you need more time to customize for your need.

Resource :
. Blue Iris require a powerful PC for the server side, in my case with 4 X 1080p cameras running at 30fp the CPU usage is BI 45% versus XProtect 3% .
. XProtect require a powerful PC for the client side all my camera at the same time in live view the CPU usage is 60% and for one camera is 20%. In playback view the CPU vary around 15% to 30%.

Conclusion :
A few year ago with my 4 UBNT camera at 720p Blue Iris was acceptable, but when I upgraded all my 4 cameras for a good quality 1080p this became another story… I have suggested many time on the unfortunately dead forum (Cam It!) to improve the web interface and I have also send many request by email to the developer but without result… So, why spend a few thousands $ in good quality cameras if you can’t benefit it at their full potential !!!

lgRich

I never understand why people complain about frequent feature updates...all you need to do is disable auto update, keep backup update files and only update when you need a new feature..the alternative, which is getting an update once or twice a year is ridiculous...
As BP2008 pointed out, you can view the cameras at full resolution...this is been discussed many times on the forum..
As far as motion detection, blue iris has made significant improvements including multiple zones, zone crossing etc...you need to read the help file and set it up properly.
If you are using 45% cpu with only 4 1080p cameras you are either using a very week cpu or not recording direct to disc with hardware acceleration...you need to record direct to disk to compare apples to apples.