Different port types are confusing

[SaeedKY]

I am setting up a bunch of Reolink and AmCrest cameras with my Blue Iris.
I've set unique static IPs for the cameras. However, all these port numbers confuse me.
In Blue Iris, I see two mentions of ports when setting up the camera (under the "video" tab): 1) Media/Video/RTSP port, and 2) Discovery/ONVIF port.
In my Reolink Client, however, inside each camera's settings, I can see different types of ports such as media, onvif, and RTSP ports, and each with a different value.

Now, my general question is 1) what do all these ports mean and which ones I should care about when setting up cameras?
Specifically,
2) Given that my Reolinks Client is showing different values for Media and RTSP ports but Blue Iris bundles them together under Media/Video/RTSP port, which value I should use in Blue Iris? That of the RTSP or Media?
3) Should the port values (especially ONVIF and Media) be unique for each camera just like IPs should be? I noticed that for all my Reolinks, Media and RTSP are 9000 and 8000, respectively.

Thank you

 

[wittaj]

First, in Blue Iris, you simply put in the IP address and username and password and hit the find/inspect key and Blue Iris will take care of the rest of finding ports, etc.

Second, Reolinks do not work well with Blue Iris..if you can return them, do so!

Blue Iris and Reolinks do not work well together, but the same principles applies for almost any low end consumer grade camera. It is just Reolinks is one of the more consumer end cameras people buy and come to this site as to why it is pointed out often about. I have a cheapo camera for overview purposes so it doesn't matter, but it exhibits this same behavior even though in the settings I can set an iframe...

This was a screenshot of a member here where they had set these cameras to 15FPS within the cameras and was missing motion (I suspect you are missing motion that you do not know you are missing....):

Now look at they key - that is the iframes. Blue Iris works best when the FPS and the iframes match. Now this is a ratio, so it should be a 1 if it matches the FPS. The iframes not matching (that you cannot fix or change with a reolink) is why they miss motion in Blue Iris and why people have problems. This is mainly why people are having issues with these cameras and there are many threads showing the issues people have with this manufacturer and Blue Iris. It is these same games that make the camera look great as a still image or video but turn to crap once motion is introduced.

The Blue Iris developer has indicated that for best reliability, sub stream frame rate should be equal to the main stream frame rate and these cameras cannot do that and there is nothing you can do about that with these cameras... The iframe rates (something these cameras do not allow you to set) should equal the FPS, but at worse case be no more than double. This example shows the cameras going down to a keyrate of 0.25 means that the iframe rates are over 4 times the FPS and that is why motion detection is a disaster with these cameras and Blue Iris...A value of 0.5 or less is considered insufficient to trust for motion triggers reliably...try to do DeepStack and it will be useless...

Compounding the matter even worse...motion detection is based on the substream and look at the substream FPS - they dropped down to below 6 FPS with an iframe/key rate of 0.25 - you will miss motion most of the time with that issue...

Blue Iris is great and works with probably more camera brands than most VMS programs, but there are brands that don't work well or not at all - Rings, Arlos, Nest, Some Zmodo cams use proprietary systems and cannot be used with Blue Iris, and for a lot of people Reolink doesn't work well either.

Now compare above to mine and cameras that follow industry standards that allow you to actually set parameters and they don't manipulate them. You will see that my FPS match what I set in the camera, and the 1.00 key means the iframe matches:

We won't even talk about their poor nighttime performance, but you can read about it and see examples in this thread:

Reolink: Deconstruction of a dangerous misleading youtube review "Finding the BEST 4K Security Camera NVR Package (Reolink vs Amcrest vs Swann)"

Executive Summary: DO NOT be a sheep. Ask what a reviewer can be missing, ask if a reviewer is using hype words to sell the cheapest product. Test your cameras and kits right away. Just do a bench test. Test real world conditions. Test moving suspects. Test at night, test at day. Use a test rig...

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