Day 4 of BI: Time to convert my dad! lol Does hikvision connect to BI?
So my dad has some cheap chinese dvr he hates. Wants to upgrade. I keep seeing hikvision over and over.
Does it connect to BI?
Should he just get a capture card and a pc instead?
One thing to remember... the cameras don't "connect to BI" rather BI connects to the cameras. The cameras sit out there on your network waiting for some authorized user/request to connect to it so it can send it's video stream. Each camera will have 1,2 or 3 (maybe more) "streams" available to send. As the camera is doing it's job it's making it's video available to be sent out to the requestor (BI in this case) via one of it's available streams. Each stream will likely have different parameters, ie higher resolution, a certain frame per second rate, or other settings applied to the chosen stream.
It can get complicated so the first best step is to 1) get your camera(s) working so you can connect to them with their factory app or webpage (some cameras allow you to connect to them using a browser as if they were a website and will provide various functions/features via their built in website). 2) Once you have the cameras working then you can go to BI and "add" the camera by pointing BI to the cameras IP address on your network and letting it do it's discovery magic (where it will talk to the camera and ask it what type it is, what features it supports and other things.) If all goes well it will get a proper match and the camera is now linked.
Now as you learn about using security cameras and how to use the wide range of features in BI you can customize it to work the way you want it to with each camera. There's a ton to do and lot's of information here on the forums to do so.
Good luck!