Dedicated NVR or BI?

IAmATeaf

IAmATeaf

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Jan 13, 2019
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Is there some sort of requirements threshold that flips you from one to the other?

I'm a newbie here and looking at getting a CCTV system installed in my home and have always looked at dedicated units but looking at these forums I've now started reading into BI.

Had never considered a PC as an NVR but I do have a spare Dell i5 box with 8Mb of RAM that I could use but adding disks to it would be an issue due to limited space inside as it's a small form factor unit.

I'm also one who wouldn't 'play' around with the system once it has been installed, well that's what I'm saying right now. In terms of requirements, I'm after a system with support for around 8 cameras, a doorbell, being able to view the live output on iOS/Android phones and for all the cameras to be on their own subnet, so access to them would be via the NVR.

Sorry for all the open ended statements and questions, I have been doing a lot of reading but the more I read the more I flip between one and/or the other :)
 
There’s differences in feature sets which may or may not meet your needs, most folks here prefer the power and configurability of BI. Once setup BI can be hassle free but I think initial configuration would be more time consuming. For easy Of deployment, and low hassle of ongoing operation an appliance most likely wins, assuming it meets your needs. Anything with windows will need occasional attention in my experience (security patches etc).
 
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JRNAn30 said:
There’s differences in feature sets which may or may not meet your needs, most folks here prefer the power and configurability of BI. Once setup BI can be hassle free but I think initial configuration would be more time consuming. For easy Of deployment, and low hassle of ongoing operation an appliance most likely wins, assuming it meets your needs. Anything with windows will need occasional attention in my experience (security patches etc).
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That is simply incorrect... An NVR is not plug and play and requires set up as well. With respect to security patches if you have the devices exposed to the internet they both need patches except that with an NVR they come late and the manufacturers sit on bugs for months...if you don't expose them to the internet and use a VPN updates are not required.
 
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IAmATeaf said:
I'm after a system with support for around 8 cameras, a doorbell, being able to view the live output on iOS/Android phones and for all the cameras to be on their own subnet, so access to them would be via the NVR.
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To me, BI's iOS app is 100x easier for quickly being able to connect and see alert clips than Dahua's iOS app for their NVR is.

Blue Iris itself can be set to do all sorts of motion detection (from simple to complex) on the PC. NVRs can't usually do that. They usually have minimal processing power, so they rely on the cameras to detect motion. Not that it's always needed, but if you do need advanced motion detection on a particular scene, with a NVR, you're limited to what the camera can do.
 
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So would an i5 2400 or i5 2500 be sufficient to run BI? It's a small form factor desktop with low profile card slots so I'd need to add a network card to get a 2nd NIC which would leave the other slot free to add a vid card if one would be required.
 
@Silas, thanks for the link, had found it already and have also looked the chart and there are quite a few people running the i5-2400/i5-2500 so am going to give it a go. I also have an 256Gb SSD drive onto which to install the OS and for the time being I'll put in a pair of 1Tb drives (again which I have), just to start off with and take things from there.
 
IAmATeaf said:
So would an i5 2400 or i5 2500 be sufficient to run BI? It's a small form factor desktop with low profile card slots so I'd need to add a network card to get a 2nd NIC which would leave the other slot free to add a vid card if one would be required.
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I can't get to this website from work, but it should have a database of Blue Iris systems running all sorts of different processors. You can filter by processor information and take a look at what kind of CPU performance other folks are getting from it.

Blue Iris Update Helper
 
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The problem with NVR’s, as I see it, is you only get what you pay for. If you buy a cheap one, I can assure you, you won’t like it. As they go up in price they get better and better with more functions.
 
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Well, we all have our opinions. Does Blue Iris have a feature like my NVR has? Like Automatic License Plate Capture The NVR automatically captures and stores vehicle license plate images from a dedicated license plate capture camera connected to the NVR. During playback, an operator can perform a license plate search by Time and Date to view thumbnail images of all plates captured during the specified time period. License plate capture technology offers effective entrance/exit management, traffic surveillance, and parking lot monitoring? If so I will load my Blue Iris and try it again!
 
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