NVR and IP Camera Recommendation

[Deac99]

This is slightly off topic for Loxone, but can anyone recommend a POE NVR and cameras (both indoor and outside) for surveillance system?  I have been reading and it seems a lot of them are buggy and occasionally freeze up needing a system reset.  I'd love to hear people's experiences and opinions on reliability.  I suppose I could power it via a Loxone controlled power so I can remotely reset it if needed.

As far as cameras go, I would like one camera outside that can read a license plate about 10M away and other indoor / outdoor as needed - looking for any advise on what a good system would look like.

Thanks!

[tkn]

Basically everyone recommends Hikvision or Dahua. If you want more pro, then Axis.

Amcrest (rebranded Dahua) and Reolink also get good reviews.

Loxone has primitive video handling so make sure your cameras can cast in motion jpeg at the same time as whatever the NVR is using so you can integrate if you want.

[tkn]

Let me amend that.

Dahua has recently disabled MJPEG support in their fi rmware. When I contacted them, their response was "who is using such outdated camera modes nowadays?" Hikvision, apparently, is considering doing the same soon.

So I am less sure. There is a long thread about Hikvision here in the forums. But they have also been found to be leaking info back to China (they are Chinese government owned). If you go with Hikvision, then you may want to put them on an isolated VLAN with very specific permissions to Loxone and the NVR. And then be very careful upgrading firmware to make sure you don't lose the MJPEG feature.

I don't expect Loxone to come out with H264 or 265+ support soon.

[Skarsol]

You could always put something between Loxone and the camera to reencode the stream if MJPEG is a requirement. Annoying, but not insurmountable.

[Deac99]

Thanks all - I was reading about the Chinese issue with the Hikvision but in the end I think I will go with them and be careful with setting up the network.

[Peter]

I’ve used Grandstream POE cameras with a Grandstream NVR. Due to my own ignorance took a little while to integrate with Loxone, but in reality was really simple.

[tkn]

The concurrent CCTV thread has more detail.

I will probably do Hikvision as well, to save server power on Blue Iris.

[Seb]

I use:

http://www.hikvision.co.uk/Products_accessries_212_i32196.html

With http://www.hikvision.co.uk/Products_accessries_760_i33765.html

See my other posts at https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/loxone-english/cd_n67zE91w for config ideas.

[DavidL]

Whats the fan noise like on the NVR Seb?

I went with a Synology HDD recorder, but I'm getting increasingly tired of it disconnecting some cameras randomly.

The original Hikvision NVR with PoE I thought to use a few years ago had tiny fans that were incredibly high pitched and loud.

David

[tkn]

I've been thinking about it, and I think I am going to go with Wisenet cameras (formely Samsung, now Hanhwa).

They can do triple broadcast H265/264/MJPEG. They are also a bit more expensive than Hikvision. But they also have an HTML5 web interface so you don't need to install weird plugins to view the camera feeds, and Hikvision just has too many backdoors for the Chinese government, etc, for me to feel comfortable having any interior cameras. I assume their NVRs are also similarly compromised, and, frankly probably their web-browser plugins. So unless you are careful to make sure you are viewing their cameras on a dedicated machine that is also on a private network or VLAN, it just isn't secure IMO.

I think a stronger move than an NVR will be to get a cheap Optiplex SFF PC to run Blue Iris and then have it record to a nearby NAS with a drive bay dedicated to a Purple drive.

Thus Loxone can pull images from the MJPEG and Blue Iris can record the H265 using direct to disc features (which vastly reduces the overhead needed for recording).

[Duncan]

i agree with the of blue iris on a pc as a nvr, it is not manufacturer specific and can rebroadcast mjpeg from any h265 camera to loxone - i used a reconditioned dell laptop at around £220 with a years warrant. As a laptop you have keyboard, screen and backup battery all in one and can normally run it with the lid down hidden away somewhere.

[Deac99]

I have read that the IP cameras freeze up on occasion and need the power to be cycled on them.  I am managing the property remotely for 6 months at a time and cannot recycle power etc.  One option would be to remotely cycle power to the NVR but I don't think that is a good idea.  Another option would be to use a smart or managed switch where I could cycle the POE power to individual cameras.  Of course if I were to go with that option, then the NAS drive with Blue Iris would make even more sense.

Does anyone have any comments on camera reliability & the need to cycle power to them?

[Skarsol]

If you're doing IP cameras and not doing POE, you're doing it wrong. :) That said, I've not ever had to power cycle my Dahua cameras.

[tkn]

Duncan, do you use the same laptop for blue iris and musicserver4lox?

[Duncan]

no, separate ones - as one is linux and the other windows

[Seb]

DavidL - the fans are not great and are a little noisey, but I have the unit in a cupboard. You can hear it as you walk past, but as it’s in the hall you only ever walk past it, and not loiter. In saying that, I am going to see how I can either sound proof the cupboard, or install quieter fans!

[tkn]

There are four main software solutions I've found:

Blue Iris - windows only
Milestone xProtect
Zoneminder - linux
Shinobi - multi platform

I'll probably be running Blue Iris under Windows. It has to be native and not a VM to get QuickSync Intel hardware acceleration. Have it record to a NAS.

Then I'd like to install Musicserver4lox under the Windows Ubuntu subsystem and maybe just use a raspberry pi emulator or VM for Loxberry. I need to explore how best to structure it all and whether it will all work togetherr