New Member Needing BI/NVR help!

[nickjohn35]

Hello all! After 5 years of ownership, our Arlos stopped working. After trying Eufy and not liking them, I decided I wanted to go the POE route. I’ve been testing out Reolink NVR and not impressed. After lots of reading etc, I’m between BI or Empiretech NVR. I already have a used PC lined up if I go the BI route. The one area I’m slightly concerned about is the mobile app and notifications. I’m a firefighter and gone for 24 hour shifts. The mobile app comes in great use for my wife when I’m not home, especially since we have 2 small kids. She liked getting motion alerts on the Arlo and also seeing the events in chronological order in the Arlo app. Does the BI app do those things? What about the UI3? Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

 

[wittaj]

Yeah, once you see what the Empiretech cameras can do (Dahua OEM), you will wonder why you stayed so long with Arlo LOL.

And Reolink, hopefully you are still within the return period on those.

Yes the BI app can send alerts. UI3 does not do alerts, but is a better viewing platform on a mobile device than the BI app.

But most of us use the Pushover app ($5 instead of $10 for the BI app) and find it a much better option.

blue iris vs nvr ip cam site:ipcamtalk.com - Google Search

 

[nickjohn35]

Yeah, once you see what the Empiretech cameras can do (Dahua OEM), you will wonder why you stayed so long with Arlo LOL.

And Reolink, hopefully you are still within the return period on those.

Yes the BI app can send alerts. UI3 does not do alerts, but is a better viewing platform on a mobile device than the BI app.

But most of us use the Pushover app ($5 instead of $10 for the BI app) and find it a much better option.

blue iris vs nvr ip cam site:ipcamtalk.com - Google Search

Lol yeah I bet.

Luckily I am. I’ll probably keep the POE doorbell since I was hell bent determined to run Cat6 wire to my doorbell and succeeded. Plus not too many options for POE doorbells.

Awesome. So the Pushover app you can watch live feeds of the cameras? It has push notifications and puts all events in chronological order?

 

[wittaj]

Yeah the doorbell is the only good thing Reolink makes, there just are not many good POE options out there.

The Pushover app is only still alert shots. All it does is push out alert notifications. You then have to open up UI3 if you need to see live feeds.

It sounds cumbersome, but I paid for the BI app and never use it. UI3 is that much better.

Plus the alert images from the BI app only work if you are at home or port forward (not recommended) or keep a VPN going while away.

 

[Sybertiger]

I have the BI app. It's terrible compared to using the UI3 interface (which is free). I do use the BI app for one thing only and it's rare. If I want to do 2-way audio communication for the one cam that supports it I must use BI app since UI3 doesn't support 2-way audio. And, it's more like using a walkie-talkie. Not great, primitive but works.

 

[nickjohn35]

So essentially:

BI app: Not polished at all. Will send push notifications, show triggered/motion events in chronological order, show live feed.

UI3: No notifications. Great viewing platform.

Pushover app: Alerts only.

Gotta get this straight before I make another large purchase. Wife getting a little annoyed with all the spending! Even though everything has been returned!

 

[wittaj]

Yep that sounds about right.

You already have the computer, and BI has a 14 day trial and pushover has a 30 day trial, so you can give them a go and see how you like them.

This would be a good camera in any system, so get one of these and play and test it at the different locations.

EmpireTech IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3 1/1.8" CMOS 4MP IR Starlight 2.7mm–12mm Var

The EmpireTech IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3 offers advanced features such as a 4MP 1/1.8" CMOS image sensor, 40 m max. illumination distance with integrated IR LED, deep learning algorithms for face and object recognition, 512GB Micro SD card slot, built-in microphone, IP67 rating, and SMD 3.0 support.

empiretech01.com

Now if you are serious about cameras and want them to actually be useful, then see this thread for the commonly recommended cameras (along with Amazon links) based on distance to IDENTIFY that represent the overall best value in terms of price and performance day and night. As you will see, the common 2.8mm camera in box-kits like your arlo don't cut it for IDENTIFY past 10-15 feet and motion with little light was probably crap.

The Importance of Focal Length over MP in camera selection

At the urging of several folks here, I created a thread to show the importance of focal length and how focal length can be more important than megapixels (MP). I mentioned some of this in the post regarding The Hookup’s latest video demonstrating different cameras, including one sold from a...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[nickjohn35]

Yep that sounds about right.

You already have the computer, and BI has a 14 day trial and pushover has a 30 day trial, so you can give them a go and see how you like them.

This would be a good camera in any system, so get one of these and play and test it at the different locations.

EmpireTech IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3 1/1.8" CMOS 4MP IR Starlight 2.7mm–12mm Var

The EmpireTech IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3 offers advanced features such as a 4MP 1/1.8" CMOS image sensor, 40 m max. illumination distance with integrated IR LED, deep learning algorithms for face and object recognition, 512GB Micro SD card slot, built-in microphone, IP67 rating, and SMD 3.0 support.

empiretech01.com

Now if you are serious about cameras and want them to actually be useful, then see this thread for the commonly recommended cameras (along with Amazon links) based on distance to IDENTIFY that represent the overall best value in terms of price and performance day and night. As you will see, the common 2.8mm camera in box-kits like your arlo don't cut it for IDENTIFY past 10-15 feet and motion with little light was probably crap.

The Importance of Focal Length over MP in camera selection

At the urging of several folks here, I created a thread to show the importance of focal length and how focal length can be more important than megapixels (MP). I mentioned some of this in the post regarding The Hookup’s latest video demonstrating different cameras, including one sold from a...

ipcamtalk.com

Ok cool. I don’t have the computer yet. Going back and forth between two. I plan to purchase some Empiretech cameras. I could try blue iris out. If I don’t like it, I’ll just turn the computer I get for BI into our home one since we need a new one anyways.

 

[looney2ns]

These have proven to be great BI machines.

elitedesk i5-8500 sff in PC Desktops & All-In-Ones for sale | eBay

www.ebay.com

 

[nickjohn35]

These have proven to be great BI machines.

elitedesk i5-8500 sff in PC Desktops & All-In-Ones for sale | eBay

www.ebay.com

These are the two I have been looking at:

Dell Optiplex 5060 Desktop i5-8500 CPU, 16GB Ram, Windows 10, 500 GB HDD | eBay

This Dell Optiplex 5060 desktop comes with an Intel Core i5 8th Gen processor and integrated/on-board graphics, making it ideal for casual computing. It has 16GB of RAM and a 500GB SSD for storage. This tower desktop also features an optical drive and SD card slot. With a maximum RAM capacity...

www.ebay.com

HP EliteDesk 800 G4 Desktop Computer i5-8500 16GB 256GB SSD Windows 10 (IL/R... 192545438360 | eBay

(The HP EliteDesk G4 SFF can easily adapt to offices of any size. - HP EliteDesk 800 G4 SFF. - OEM HP Keyboard and Mouse. Sporting Goods. Guam, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, etc.). - Power Cord. What is included?.

www.ebay.com

 

[Sybertiger]

So essentially:

BI app: Not polished at all. Will send push notifications, show triggered/motion events in chronological order, show live feed.

UI3: No notifications. Great viewing platform.

Pushover app: Alerts only.

Gotta get this straight before I make another large purchase. Wife getting a little annoyed with all the spending! Even though everything has been returned!

• UI3: Can open up the BI GUI from a smart device (computer, tablet, phone, TV browser, etc).
• UI3: Can open it at home or away from home - Use VPN like OpenVPN from your smart device when not at home to securely access your BI system.
• PushOver: Receive push notifications of your alerts on your smart device at home or away
• PushOver: In the push notification you can include a message, snapshot of the alert, or a link you can click that will automatically open UI3 and play the video alert clip on your smart device.

Example of a PushOver notification from today on my parents' BI system who are 500 miles away from me:

• The PTZ cam with 84% certainty using AI determined a person is on the front porch so BI sent a push notification out
• A low res snapshot is in the push notification
• Clicking on the image then a high resolution will show on the phone that you can pinch zoom in and out
• The blue link can be clicked on to play the video captured by the PTZ cam that follows the person and zooms in on them (I'm 500 miles away so I turn OpenVPN first on to view the video with the UI3 GUI)
• Push notification was sent to dad's phone and mine. He can look at it at home or away from home (OpenVPN) just as I did.

This person triggered 3 cameras at approximately the same time and individual push notifications from each cam were sent.

 

[nickjohn35]

• UI3: Can open up the BI GUI from a smart device (computer, tablet, phone, TV browser, etc).
• UI3: Can open it at home or away from home - Use VPN like OpenVPN from your smart device when not at home to securely access your BI system.
• PushOver: Receive push notifications of your alerts on your smart device at home or away
• PushOver: In the push notification you can include a message, snapshot of the alert, or a link you can click that will automatically open UI3 and play the video alert clip on your smart device.

Example of a PushOver notification from today on my parents' BI system who are 500 miles away from me:

• The PTZ cam with 84% certainty using AI determined a person is on the front porch so BI sent a push notification out
• A low res snapshot is in the push notification
• Clicking on the image then a high resolution will show on the phone that you can pinch zoom in and out
• The blue link can be clicked on to play the video captured by the PTZ cam that follows the person and zooms in on them (I'm 500 miles away so I turn OpenVPN first on to view the video with the UI3 GUI)
• Push notification was sent to dad's phone and mine. He can look at it at home or away from home (OpenVPN) just as I did.

View attachment 179938

This person triggered 3 cameras at approximately the same time and individual push notifications from each cam were sent.

View attachment 179940

Damn, that’s slick!

 

[Sybertiger]

This is what the UI3 GUI looks like on my laptop. You would also see the same exact thing if you opened the UI3 GUI on a web browser on your smart TV or Firestick, etc. Some people like to dedicate an HDTV as a viewer and hang it on the wall like a picture.

Here's the overhead camera showing this person leaving something at the front door with a note. I can see that the AI did not identify this as as person (nothing found). Most likely because it's a direct top down shot. Sometimes it will but there are 3 or four other cams that would have flagged her as a person before she even got up to the door. You can see all the alerts on the right side to include what was flagged by AI and what triggered but AI didn't know how to ID it.

 

[nickjohn35]

This is what the UI3 GUI looks like on my laptop. You would also see the same exact thing if you opened the UI3 GUI on a web browser on your smart TV or Firestick, etc. Some people like to dedicate an HDTV as a viewer and hang it on the wall like a picture.

Here's the overhead camera showing this person leaving something at the front door with a note. I can see that the AI did not identify this as as person (nothing found). Most likely because it's a direct top down shot. Sometimes it will but there are 3 or four other cams that would have flagged her as a person before she even got up to the door. You can see all the alerts on the right side to include what was flagged by AI and what triggered but AI didn't know how to ID it.

View attachment 179942

I’m really liking that. So that link will take you to the entire motion triggered event?

Seeing this makes me happy. I think I’m ready to try BI. These are the two PCs I’m looking at… to me they look pretty similar…..

Dell Optiplex 5060 Desktop i5-8500 CPU, 16GB Ram, Windows 10, 500 GB HDD | eBay

This Dell Optiplex 5060 desktop comes with an Intel Core i5 8th Gen processor and integrated/on-board graphics, making it ideal for casual computing. It has 16GB of RAM and a 500GB SSD for storage. This tower desktop also features an optical drive and SD card slot. With a maximum RAM capacity...

www.ebay.com

HP EliteDesk 800 G4 Desktop Computer i5-8500 16GB 256GB SSD Windows 10 (IL/R... 192545438360 | eBay

(The HP EliteDesk G4 SFF can easily adapt to offices of any size. - HP EliteDesk 800 G4 SFF. - OEM HP Keyboard and Mouse. Sporting Goods. Guam, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, etc.). - Power Cord. What is included?.

www.ebay.com

 

[Sybertiger]

The way I have my push notifications set up is that when I click the blue link it automatically launches the UI3 GUI in a Chrome browser window and plays the video segment that caused the alert. All automatic with just one click. You can customized your push notifications to customize them however you want. Some people have more bells and whistles set up.

The only other thing I do if I'm not connected to my local network via WiFi (I'm away from home connected on the cell network or connected to someone else's Wifi) is click a button for OpenVPN to open a secure VPN tunnel to my home network. I use the built-in OpenVPN capabilities of my Asus Wifi router which makes it easy.

 

[jrbeddow]

I’m really liking that. So that link will take you to the entire motion triggered event?

Seeing this makes me happy. I think I’m ready to try BI. These are the two PCs I’m looking at… to me they look pretty similar…..

Dell Optiplex 5060 Desktop i5-8500 CPU, 16GB Ram, Windows 10, 500 GB HDD | eBay

This Dell Optiplex 5060 desktop comes with an Intel Core i5 8th Gen processor and integrated/on-board graphics, making it ideal for casual computing. It has 16GB of RAM and a 500GB SSD for storage. This tower desktop also features an optical drive and SD card slot. With a maximum RAM capacity...

www.ebay.com

HP EliteDesk 800 G4 Desktop Computer i5-8500 16GB 256GB SSD Windows 10 (IL/R... 192545438360 | eBay

(The HP EliteDesk G4 SFF can easily adapt to offices of any size. - HP EliteDesk 800 G4 SFF. - OEM HP Keyboard and Mouse. Sporting Goods. Guam, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, etc.). - Power Cord. What is included?.

www.ebay.com

I would vote for the HP (Full Disclosure: it is exactly the model that I use): room for two spinning hard drives, low power draw, very stable overall. Don't forget to pick up second low profile Intel based NIC (see the pinned/wiki "Two NIC" Thread).

Edit: Yes, as Fenderman pointed out below, I forgot to mention that in addition to the room for two platter type (storage) hard drives, you generally pick these up with a built-in M.2 SSD as your "system" drive.

 

[fenderman]

I’m really liking that. So that link will take you to the entire motion triggered event?

Seeing this makes me happy. I think I’m ready to try BI. These are the two PCs I’m looking at… to me they look pretty similar…..

Dell Optiplex 5060 Desktop i5-8500 CPU, 16GB Ram, Windows 10, 500 GB HDD | eBay

This Dell Optiplex 5060 desktop comes with an Intel Core i5 8th Gen processor and integrated/on-board graphics, making it ideal for casual computing. It has 16GB of RAM and a 500GB SSD for storage. This tower desktop also features an optical drive and SD card slot. With a maximum RAM capacity...

www.ebay.com

HP EliteDesk 800 G4 Desktop Computer i5-8500 16GB 256GB SSD Windows 10 (IL/R... 192545438360 | eBay

(The HP EliteDesk G4 SFF can easily adapt to offices of any size. - HP EliteDesk 800 G4 SFF. - OEM HP Keyboard and Mouse. Sporting Goods. Guam, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, etc.). - Power Cord. What is included?.

www.ebay.com

The elite desk can hold two full size 3.5 hard drives plus an M2SSD.... The small form factor Dell can only hold a signal 3.5 drive and an M2SSD... You can squeeze another 2.5 drive in there by removing the DVD player and getting a bracket....

 

[fenderman]

Also look at the i5-10500 systems for a few more dollars its 2 years newer and more powerful...

 

[samplenhold]

You can install BlueIris free trial version on any PC you have at the moment to see how it works. You do not need to wait for that one you are buying to arrive. That is how I did it back in 2018.

 

[nickjohn35]

You can install BlueIris free trial version on any PC you have at the moment to see how it works. You do not need to wait for that one you are buying to arrive. That is how I did it back in 2018.

lol I would but my current computer is a 15 year old laptop on its last leg… going to replace it with a desktop soon.