UNIFI—The Best Option...?

M

MacFun

Getting the hang of it
Aug 1, 2017
385
73
Houston, TX
Hear me out... drop the pitch-fork! :)

For people like me that don't have the time to fiddle with things and need them to work for years on end and with remote management and remote firmware updates that work out of the box... it seems like UNIFI protect is the way to go. Yes, my Dahua Turret (Dahua-5231ZE) has a handsome look and I like the large glass on the front and this looks better to me than the UNIFI cams, I hate the G6 Turret (Eye Ball Look). But I like the software end ecosystem and that they are rapidly improving. I bought a Dahua NVR and was not impressed with anything about it. It was seemingly like something out the early 90s... The hardware was super basic and rudimentary and the software was worse, there was nothing polished or impressive about it.

So, my use-case is that I have a rental home that is 350 miles from me and I want something that works and that would be rock-solid and that could be remotely administered and that would be feature rich.

Issues with other systems:
-Most people here are afraid to update the firmware on their Dahua cams... they can be bricked.
-Windows based NVR is less reliable than an purpose built appliance
-Dahua based systems at our level are not innovating. As an example, we are encouraged to not update our firmware.... Why is this accepted, because almost certainly, there is no new feature for you to enjoy anyway... no progress.
-You have to be more technical and enjoy tinkering to have a reliable system.
-The cams we want are not sold and supported in the US.... most of us are dependent on one guy....
-We have to go through one guy to get firmware so that we will not brick our cams and even then we are encouraged not to do so unless you really have to.
-We are shopping on Ebay for the right computer.... I'm not a a Windoze guy...

I do like the picture quality and the look of the hardware for Dahua 5231 and newer cams... but the price was not cheap.more than

EmpireTech 4K 8MP 1/1.8" Turret Smart AI IP Camera, IPC-T58IR-ZE S3 sells for $240 on Amazon.
UNIFI 4K 8MPa 1/1.8" Turret Smart AI (Multi-TOPS AI Engine) Camera, UVC-G6-Turret-W sells for $199
store.ui.com

Camera G6 Turret - Ubiquiti Store

All-weather, tamper-resistant 4K PoE camera with a 1/1.8" 8MP image sensor, Multi-TOPS AI Engine, and 3-axis manual adjustment for flexible installation.
store.ui.com store.ui.com

So the G6 camera is $41 cheaper and has: Face Recognition, License Plate Recognition, Smart Detections (People, Vehicles, Animals). Has Quad-core Arm® Cortex®-A53 based chip that does the AI on the camera. And, the software (UNIFI Protect) seems much more powerful and polished and user-friendly and where the product line is constantly improving.

Am I missing something? It seems like UNIFI is on fire right now and the value is undeniable even with a technical user like myself with a career in software development. Sometimes you want things to just work.

I invite your replay and welcome any insight you have. I'm about to go hog-wild in to the UNIFI Protect world, I already have extensive experience with their routers, switches and access points.

Thanks,

Rob
 
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I don't know if you're overall right or not, but you do have a good list of arguments. Pitchforks not needed for valid questions and discussions. The obvious thing that will be pointed out is for the sensor size, a 4MP sensor is probably a better choice.
 
Something you have to ask yourself.. Why don't they say what F/Stop that camera is using? My guess is a f/2.0 and with as stated before the sensor is great for 4mp and sure I have some 4k cameras with that sensor and worse even but with better f/stop and so low light is ok not great.. Then one has to wonder why would that camera with same options and features as the Ai Turret be 1/2 the cost? I mean a speaker and white LED and ugly blue ring don't make a camera cost 200 more? Something don't add up.

Have some Dahua cameras that are 4k and that sensor. F/1.0 but as stated before my 4mp same sensor and lens has better low light and less noise at night..
 
Would love to see comparison between a 5442 and Unifi's newer G6 cameras, and even their more expensive 4k cameras. Surprised no one has done it already, would make people realize Unifi cameras, despite getting better on paper, are still not great - practically giving up image quality for nice software which isn't a good trade when it comes to the category of security.

Now the Protect software, I do admit, is pretty nice. Blue Iris still beats it with having every feature imaginable but I don't use many of those features and with what Protect offers, I wouldn't mind switching (if they supported the full Onvif profile which they do not and probabily will never do). I have been playing around with it since I purchased a UDM Pro and the UI is very nice and modern, scrubbing through video feels much better and smoother, exporting clips is much easier and straightforward than it is on BI. They also have a nice app (even one for Android TV). So the functionality and integrations are there, but the only downside is that 3rd party cameras are not treated as a first class citizen, which makes sense from a business standpoint because that would prevent people purchasing their cameras. Go watch their update videos on Protect, their half baked support for 3rd party cameras is for the purpose of "slowly switching over" to their cameras so you don't have to buy theirs all at once. And if you want their AI detections, since people for whatever reason want to have the freedom to use their own cameras, you have to spend $200 on a device to get them, and that only support 1-2 cameras depending on resolution (this is a result of not supporting the full onvif profile, many cameras recommended on here can send their own alerts but that's not good for business). So 3rd party camera support wasn't meant to go anywhere, you either have to upgrade everything at once or buy lots of middleman devices to achieve basic functionality. I've seen people publicly say they would be happy to purchase some sort of license to get Protect working with all cameras and I would do so too.
 
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kolt_ said:
practically giving up image quality for nice software which isn't a good trade when it comes to the category of security.
Click to expand...
I want both the image quality and the nice software, dang it!
 
I looked at Unifi in detail before I went with Dahua and Blue Iris. It has been 5 years ago and things change but at the time I found the cons outweighed any pros.

No pitchforks here. I will take a second look as redundancy from a second system is not a bad idea.
 
Combine the hardware from Dahua with the UI from Ubiquiti. :headbang:
First signs of Ubiquiti opening their ecosystem for other camera's was hopefull because that would do just that; Dahua camera's with a Ubiquiti NVR (and thus their UI).
But seems like Ubiquiti isn't going to implement it like we would like to.

Personally I'm fine with Dahua but would I recommend it to family members who aren't as tech savvy as I am? Probably not; it's just not consumer friendly.
Something like Ubiquiti Protect is (at least after initial install anyway) and most resembles the uber consumer friendly cloud camera's, while not using the cloud.
 
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