Spec me a CCTV System

Hi,

Are many people using Blue Iris instead of an NVR?

My current set up consists of 6 "proper" CCTV cameras and 3 garden wildlife IP cameras...

  • 4 x Hikvision DS-2CD2335 - 2048*1536, 25FPS, H265, Highest Quality, Up to 3072Kbps - Full Time Recording
  • 2 x Hikvision DS-2CD2555 - 3072*2048, 20FPS, H265, Highest Quality, Up to 3072Kbps - Full Time Recording
  • 3 x Generic Wildlife Cam - 1920*1080, 25FPS, H265 - Record on Motion Only

All of these are set to record direct to disk in Blue Iris and I don't think I have any hardware acceleration in use.

Blue Iris is on my main PC with the following specs...

Code: 
i7 3770 quad core @ 3.4ghz (Ivy Bridge / 3rd Gen)
12GB DDR3 800Mhz
2TB Seagate Barracuda Sata 3
AMD HD 7800 1GB
Win 10 Pro
1000w


This is the PC that I use for most other things so its not dedicated and I never really intended to keep BI on here for the long term as its also quite power hungry for 24/7 use. I've been given the following for free....

Code: 
i3 4130 dual core @3.4ghz (Haswell / 4th Gen)
8GB DDR3 800Mhz
500GB Seagate Barracuda Sata 3
Intel HD Built In Graphics
Win 10 Pro
240w


This is quite a nice small form factor PC so I can hide it away somewhere and it should have lower power consumption. It does only have one drive bay though so I'd probably put in a 4 - 6 TB WD purple drive.

Any thoughts on moving to this machine? Will the 4th gen i3 be too under powered?

The Blue Iris website indicates that a 3rd gen i5 with 6gb is the suggested minimum for a small (6 camera) system and a 4th gen i5 or i7 with 8gb is recommended.

So I think that the CPU is the weak point here, rest of the spec seems okay and the one drive bay is slightly limiting but of course the machine was free. The alternative will probably be to leave it where it is for now rather than spend out on another machine.

Thanks for reading.

TLDR: i3 4130 haswell for 9 direct to disk steams in blue iris - Y/N?
 
SexyGreyFox said:
This is the low quality video on the Blink XT2, I'm made up with it and let's face it, out of the 1000s of 'Can You Identify This Person' CCTV footage that comes up on Facebook or Newspaper sites that quality is way better than what you usually see - www.dmpoole.co.uk/mp3/blink1.mp4

I also like how all the video goes straight to the cloud where my mate has paid a lot of money and all his go on an SD card.
Click to expand...

It looks ok when you look at it like that, but in truth the quality is actually very poor.

This is what people struggle with when it comes to CCTV, its not the static image quality that matters, its the recorded and ZOOMED quality.

I generally find the following is a good rule of thumb for what you need quality wise, and some general proper CCTV advice:

1080p/2MP - Decent area viewing for this car came in and moved here etc, don't need any specific detail. Maybe I just want to have an overview of the outside of the property.
3/4MP - Residential security or where you can place the camera close to the subject without risk of damage. You will get decent detail when zoomed in but will probably struggle with Reg or defined facial detail.
6MP to 4K - This is the footage that CPS wants, you can zoom into the image without needing PTZ (from recorded image and usually from your phone via hikconnect or DNS) and you will get the little details that matter to the investigation.

You also need to consider that to get decent detail you can place a 6/8MP camera further away from a subject, hence out of damage range, where if you do this with a 2-3MP you will lose a lot of detail.

As for FPS, 12 is more than enough for anyone unless your using tracking or facial ID software where the camera is moving the image constantly (or if you are in a shop and you need to get selection of items to detain shoplifters etc).

Also don't bother with Varifocal as most applications need 2.8 especially in a domestic. If you are watching a specific door or gate and want a specific shot, or you may look at retasking a static camera every now and again, VF is great. Also Hikvision VF gives you remote zoom via the app with the IZS models which is a nice bonus.

If you are mounting outside or in harsh conditions, or also where you are likely to get poor glare, also avoid the conventional domes and look for something like the DS2cd2ch range.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
Say what you want but I'm in Benidorm and can clearly zoom in and see people's faces. At 3pm a Joiner turned up for 3 hours so I turned everything off until he went.
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At the end of the day, if I was to compare your cams with a Dahua or Hikvision setup, yours wouldn’t come close. For starters, it would be useless at night which is always a priority. The point is, yes you can zoom in a see people’s faces clearly, but there are better cams available that can make you see the image even more clearer.

Also, MP isn’t everything. 2MP Dahua Starlights have easily beaten 4K cams for image quality in numerous reviews. The sensor size is key.
 
Scream said:
Also, MP isn’t everything. 2MP Dahua Starlights have easily beaten 4K cams for image quality in numerous reviews. The sensor size is key.
Click to expand...

Indeed. I compared 2 (possibly 3) megapixel Hikvision cameras to Avigilon 5 megapixel units back in 2014, and hikvisions were noticeably better. The clarity just wasn't there on the Avigilons, no matter how much you messed with the supposedly auto focus. The Hik were razor sharp. Love Avigilon software, not a fan of the cameras, other than the PTZs where you can just drag a rectangle on the screen and it will turn and zoom to that selection. That never gets old.
 
Scream said:
At the end of the day, if I was to compare your cams with a Dahua or Hikvision setup, yours wouldn’t come close.
.
Click to expand...

I hear what you're saying and I know you know what you're talking about but the pictures are every bit as good as 99% of cctv pictures shown on Crimewatch.
 
Bigpops said:
Indeed. I compared 2 (possibly 3) megapixel Hikvision cameras to Avigilon 5 megapixel units back in 2014, and hikvisions were noticeably better. The clarity just wasn't there on the Avigilons, no matter how much you messed with the supposedly auto focus. The Hik were razor sharp. Love Avigilon software, not a fan of the cameras, other than the PTZs where you can just drag a rectangle on the screen and it will turn and zoom to that selection. That never gets old.
Click to expand...

Enhance!
 
SexyGreyFox said:
I hear what you're saying and I know you know what you're talking about but the pictures are every bit as good as 99% of cctv pictures shown on Crimewatch.
Click to expand...

Lol crime watch uses garbage videos

I have a nest hello doorbell and 4 dahua starlights. Total cost of everything installed probably £1k I got screwed on the labour install of the dahua gear as the guys were clueless. They ended up spending 3-5 additional hours due to their own incompetence but I had to pay for their time.

It's not cheap for decent gear but they should literally never need upgrading so if they last 10 years it's only £100 per year or £2 per week.
 
Thebug said:
Has anyone tried the v4 firmware on a hikvision k series nvr yet? its showing in in the portal now for K2 K4 and K8

http://www.hikvisioneurope.com/uk/portal/?dir=portal/Product Firmware/Back Ends/NVR/[76 77 86 NI-K]/[76 77 86 NI-K2 K4 K8]
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i've been told unless you really need to. avoid updating firmware as much as possible. much more chance of something going wrong. if it works fine just leave it be.

these things aren't as well supported as pc components are and the amount of time and money spent on support will likely be minimal as well.
 
Those with a ColorVu DS-2CD2347G1-LU, I have a question on the supplement lighting. I see in the settings page for the light it can be set as 'Auto'. Does this mean it will function like a PIR light or does it mean it will turn on at dusk (or as defined in the sensitivity setting)?
 
Kaka said:
Those with a ColorVu DS-2CD2347G1-LU, I have a question on the supplement lighting. I see in the settings page for the light it can be set as 'Auto'. Does this mean it will function like a PIR light or does it mean it will turn on at dusk (or as defined in the sensitivity setting)?
Click to expand...

it means it auto adjusts the light brightness to optimal brightness, i have mine on manual around 15 and is plenty bright enough

the one underneath where it says led on is either timing or based on light levels

if you want it off untick the box at the top where it says enable suppliment lighting
 
Thebug said:
it means it auto adjusts the light brightness to optimal brightness, i have mine on manual around 15 and is plenty bright enough

the one underneath where it says led on is either timing or based on light levels

if you want it off untick the box at the top where it says enable suppliment lighting
Click to expand...

I see, thanks. The ideal scenario would be to light up on motion so I may need a separate PIR light. Would you know the lumen levels of the camera light at full brightness?
 
My Dahua cameras from china keep showing as 8 hours ahead. I'm guessing china time. Even though I have the NVR set to GMT and showing the correct time.

How do I get the cameras to show the correct time?
 
Dahua cameras have always had time issues. A lot of it down to the firmware. Depending who in China you got the cameras of, you could be stuck on a firmware that isn’t upgradeable to the latest Version.

You can set the NTP server address to the IP of your router or use your NVR server ip. Your cameras should not have direct access to the internet.
 
Hi.
First apologies for not doing my own leg work and reading through the thread, but I do't know what type of system I am looking for.
I would like a cctv system for my house for security and to keep an eye on the dog in the back garden every now and again, however I would like it to not just be a recording system.
Instead what I would prefer is to have it either be on all the time and warn me via app notification, or only turn on when it detects movement and then notify me.

Is this common in cctv systems like a ring door bell or are they simply cameras to a ssd?
Is a £250 budget unrealistic for a 4 camera system?
 
ChroniC said:
Hi.
First apologies for not doing my own leg work and reading through the thread, but I do't know what type of system I am looking for.
I would like a cctv system for my house for security and to keep an eye on the dog in the back garden every now and again, however I would like it to not just be a recording system.
Instead what I would prefer is to have it either be on all the time and warn me via app notification, or only turn on when it detects movement and then notify me.

Is this common in cctv systems like a ring door bell or are they simply cameras to a ssd?
Is a £250 budget unrealistic for a 4 camera system?
Click to expand...

budget is completely unrealistic. i got charged more than that in labour for my install of 4 cameras. i know the guys were incompetent which added additional hours to the install but even then it's still too small a budget. they couldn't terminate the cat cable properly which meant they had to re-do wires several times. and it took ages for them to troubleshoot simple issues.

i would have been better off installing myself but i didn't have the time.

i'd also say don't bother ordering from china. buy from the UK from an authorised dealer / retailer. it's worth paying the little amount extra to do so. won't have all the issues i'm having re time being wrong and the setup taking ages.
 
I will be installing it myself. I just mean for the standalone system
Something like this seems to do push notifications based on Motion Detection, or is this cheap Chionese junk?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SANNCE-Wireless-Surveillance-Auto-Pair-Intelligent/dp/B0716YV6PD/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=cctv+cameras&qid=1573051790&refinements=p_72:419153031,p_36:118669031&rnid=118657031&s=diy&sr=1-4

House is a small bungalow so no problem getting into the roof to cable, and not a problem for wifi signal either.
 
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