Cheapest Hardware for Milestone

Classsic

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Hi, I'm setting for 1st time milestone, what hardware do you recommend as a minimum?
I want h264 hw-accel, and if somebody have experience working with h265 hw-accel.
Thanks.
 

adamg

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Which Milestone XProtect license are you planning to buy?
 

rsoxhater

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You'll want a computer with an intel chip with the HD graphics for a low end. It will take advantage of the built in graphics processor to make things much more efficient than a regular CPU without graphics, or an AMD chip. Up to 8 cams, it depends on the resolution, FPS, and encoding. The mobile server can bog down a cpu as well, but it will take advantage of the built in intel hd graphics as well. Let us know more specs on what you plan on doing.
 
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Hi @Classsic

rsoxhater is correct if you are running an all in one machine you will need to take into consideration the resolution, frame rate and of course h.265 encoding. There are minimum specifications as per adamg's post but just be wary that is the bare minimum and that doesn't always suit every single solution. Make sure that you use 5th gen or newer Intel Chipset to take full advantage of the intel HD hardware acceleration or a cheap Nvidia card like a K200 will also provide you reasonable performance.
 

AveryFreeman

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I want to test the free version, up to 8 cam.
I run Milestone Xprotect Essential+ in an ESXi VM with 4 vCPU @ 2.0GHz and 8GB ram, H.264 w/ no HW acceleration. I get 10-15 FPS recording on all 5 cameras I own concurrently, including a 4K camera (was shocked). Other cameras are two 4MP and two 5MP. Try THAT with ZoneMinder! ;)

BTW Essential+ is pretty limited, there's no H.265 or hw acceleration, no intelligent motion detection, no access control device support. But it's rock solid and gets high frame rates on relatively inexpensive hardware.
 

rsoxhater

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I run Milestone Xprotect Essential+ in an ESXi VM with 4 vCPU @ 2.0GHz and 8GB ram, H.264 w/ no HW acceleration. I get 10-15 FPS recording on all 5 cameras I own concurrently, including a 4K camera (was shocked). Other cameras are two 4MP and two 5MP. Try THAT with ZoneMinder! ;)

BTW Essential+ is pretty limited, there's no H.265 or hw acceleration, no intelligent motion detection, no access control device support. But it's rock solid and gets high frame rates on relatively inexpensive hardware.
@AveryFreeman I have plenty of Essentials+ installs that are running H.265 and hardware acceleration. Your setup won't have any hardware acceleration available on the recording side likely since they are vCPU's. It definitely does support the Intel HD and Nvidia hardware acceleration for smart client and also on the server itself. The mobile client takes huge advantage of hardware acceleration as well.

The main limitations on Essentials+ is 8 cams, that is likely the only limit anyone looking to do a few cameras would hit. Most of the other features that are limited would be enterprise only.
 

Classsic

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I run Milestone Xprotect Essential+ in an ESXi VM with 4 vCPU @ 2.0GHz and 8GB ram, H.264 w/ no HW acceleration. I get 10-15 FPS recording on all 5 cameras I own concurrently, including a 4K camera (was shocked). Other cameras are two 4MP and two 5MP. Try THAT with ZoneMinder! ;)

BTW Essential+ is pretty limited, there's no H.265 or hw acceleration, no intelligent motion detection, no access control device support. But it's rock solid and gets high frame rates on relatively inexpensive hardware.
Yes, that´s true, the perfomance of milestone is awesome!
I´m developer, and try zoneminder,ispy,etc..and yes, the performance of milestone is very good. I don´t like the complex of installation, with all dependency, but is a good piece of software.
About hw acceleration, are you sure there is no hw accel for h264?
 
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Milestone supports both hardware acceleration for h.264 and H.265 on the recorder /mobile server and client side using as
@rsoxhater mentioned. Through it's entire range. Motion detection hardware acceleration on Essentials +, Express+ and Professional + only use Intel and not Nvidia. as for the client and mobile server they use both and for Expert and Corporate they two use both. In a VM environment this is also possible using Nvidia GPU's. If you look in their comparison chart tool both codecs are supported as per the following link on page 3
 

rsoxhater

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I would say the nvidia acceleration is much more important for the mobile server, and the smart client when viewing cameras, which it takes advantage of on all versions. I haven't seen motion detection cause much cpu usage even on recording servers with 30 cameras at 20 fps on each camera. But, trying to run the smart client to view that many cameras will crush a regular cpu, and even stress the lower end of the nvidia video cards milestone supports. Likewise for the mobile server trying to transcode that many streams for viewing in the app.
 
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mythosmc

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Milestone supports both hardware acceleration for h.264 and H.265 on the recorder /mobile server and client side using as
@rsoxhater mentioned. Through it's entire range. Motion detection hardware acceleration on Essentials +, Express+ and Professional + only use Intel and not Nvidia. as for the client and mobile server they use both and for Expert and Corporate they two use both. In a VM environment this is also possible using Nvidia GPU's. If you look in their comparison chart tool both codecs are supported as per the following link on page 3
Say it aint so!! :( my R710 CPU doesn't support QuickSync AND I can't use NVIDIA? :(

I was looking to boost the performance of my home NVR
 
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Say it aint so!! :( my R710 CPU doesn't support QuickSync AND I can't use NVIDIA? :(

I was looking to boost the performance of my home NVR
Yes that is correct, most server based CPU's do not support Quicksync and is only supported on i3,i5,i7and now i9 series chips.
 
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