Hey all! I have a white box gray market “HikVision” DS-7604NI-K1/4P NVR I picked up on Amazon a few years back (common story I’m sure). It’s been working tolerably well in my small setup, but I need an extra channel or two now, as this one is maxed out at 4 channels.
Since I’ve had a relatively ok experience with this NVR, should I just look at another HikVision model, and go 8 channels this time? Or would a Dahua be better? (Or one of the rebadged Uniview models sold in the store here, for instance?) I seem to see those two brands recommended the most around here.
I have a mishmash of cameras:
1) A HikVision DS-2CD2563G0-IS covers my porch (and has been predictably rock-solid with this NVR)
2) Amcrest IP8M-T2599EW covering the front yard … replacing a vaguely similar Reolink RLC520 that was not playing well with some Home Assistant stuff
3) Reolink RLC410 covering one side of the house
4) Reolink RLC410 covering the other side of the house
The side house Reolinks seem to drop off the NVR on occasion, but refreshing usually brings them back up. (And yet they have no problem in their native mobile app, grrr) I’m hoping the Amcrest is more reliable, but these aren’t mission-critical. The one Hik cam on the front porch is the one I care most about. I plan to upgrade the Reos at some point but I’m not in a huge hurry... Dahua is on the list of possibilities for those upgrades.
I have a few Ubiquiti cameras, too, but that’s obviously a completely separate system and not involved here.
Easiest move, I assume, would be to just go with another HikVision model… there’s another white box Hik on Amazon, a DS-7608NI-I2/8P that could work. I assume theres a comparable Dahua model. Even a rebadged one sold in the shop here that seems pretty comparable.
Any benefit to switching to Dahua over the white box Hik, or should I just stick with what seems to work?
Side note (or maybe I should start a separate thread for this): My NVR is in my bedroom, for easy viewing on the TV. (Else I usually view the cameras on mobile via IVMS-4500) Naturally none of my camera runs terminate in there, so everything comes over the one LAN connection to my main switch, elsewhere in the house. Nothing is plugged directly into the NVR’s camera ports. So how many cameras can reasonably feed over the one gigabit connection between the switch in my bedroom and the main switch, before I start impacting the Wi-Fi and streaming traffic that shares the line? (I only have one cat6 gig line linking the bedroom and main switch, due to wiring hassles between the locations) Going to a 10g trunk (over that copper line) between the two areas is on my long term to-do list, but it’s not a cheap jump, so it’s not happening soon.
Since I’ve had a relatively ok experience with this NVR, should I just look at another HikVision model, and go 8 channels this time? Or would a Dahua be better? (Or one of the rebadged Uniview models sold in the store here, for instance?) I seem to see those two brands recommended the most around here.
I have a mishmash of cameras:
1) A HikVision DS-2CD2563G0-IS covers my porch (and has been predictably rock-solid with this NVR)
2) Amcrest IP8M-T2599EW covering the front yard … replacing a vaguely similar Reolink RLC520 that was not playing well with some Home Assistant stuff
3) Reolink RLC410 covering one side of the house
4) Reolink RLC410 covering the other side of the house
The side house Reolinks seem to drop off the NVR on occasion, but refreshing usually brings them back up. (And yet they have no problem in their native mobile app, grrr) I’m hoping the Amcrest is more reliable, but these aren’t mission-critical. The one Hik cam on the front porch is the one I care most about. I plan to upgrade the Reos at some point but I’m not in a huge hurry... Dahua is on the list of possibilities for those upgrades.
I have a few Ubiquiti cameras, too, but that’s obviously a completely separate system and not involved here.
Easiest move, I assume, would be to just go with another HikVision model… there’s another white box Hik on Amazon, a DS-7608NI-I2/8P that could work. I assume theres a comparable Dahua model. Even a rebadged one sold in the shop here that seems pretty comparable.
Any benefit to switching to Dahua over the white box Hik, or should I just stick with what seems to work?
Side note (or maybe I should start a separate thread for this): My NVR is in my bedroom, for easy viewing on the TV. (Else I usually view the cameras on mobile via IVMS-4500) Naturally none of my camera runs terminate in there, so everything comes over the one LAN connection to my main switch, elsewhere in the house. Nothing is plugged directly into the NVR’s camera ports. So how many cameras can reasonably feed over the one gigabit connection between the switch in my bedroom and the main switch, before I start impacting the Wi-Fi and streaming traffic that shares the line? (I only have one cat6 gig line linking the bedroom and main switch, due to wiring hassles between the locations) Going to a 10g trunk (over that copper line) between the two areas is on my long term to-do list, but it’s not a cheap jump, so it’s not happening soon.
