One app to view differnet brand cameras

[mikefamig]

I have a mixture of Hikvision and Dahua cameras (PTZ) as well as a cheap $40 SV3C (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01G1U4MVA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1).  The Hikvision/Dahua cameras seem to be reliable -- I've used them for about 3 years outdoors without any issues.  The SV3C has been used for about half a year without any issues so far except that the image quality is noticeably worth than that of Dahua's and Hik's.
 
I tried to use BlueIris as a recorder, but I had issues with the small dedicated PC running at about 90% CPU and losing frames.  Then, I stumbled over Xprotect Essential (https://www.milestonesys.com/solutions/platform/video-management-software/xprotect-essential/) that has a free version for up to 8 cameras.  Xprotect running on the same box records video streams from the same cameras and uses about 10-15% CPU only.  Another advantage is that there's an iPhone app that connects to the Xprotect software which streams optimized (for a lower badwidth WAN) data to your mobile device.  The mobile app can do the Live as well as Playback modes. My only minor regret is that there's no Xprotect Linux version.
 
Xprotect has drivers for both Hikvision and Dahua.  The SV3C is accommodated through ONVIF.  Not sure about Foscam.
 
Interestingly, IVMS recognizes both the Hiks (natch) and the SV3C, but not the Dahua. 
 
If you want, you can access cameras simultaneously from IVMS directly and via Xprotect, but I noticed that Xprotect playback/live is much better in using bandwidth which is important for remote access.
 
Remotely, I connect through VPN, so there's no difference whether I access the cameras remotely or locally.
 
P.S. Forgot to mention that the mobile app is free.

 
Xprotect looks very interesting and I see that the company has a free download of Xprotect Essentials. Do you know if that is a trial version?

 

[mikefamig]

Another Hikvision question -
 
I set up my cam with a static LAN IP for wired 192.168.254.9.
Then I set up IVMS-4500 to log in to that wired IP address.
 
Then I set up the camera for static IP WIFI address 192.168.254.64 and unplugged the ethernet cable.
Then I started IVMS-4500 and it could still view the camera using the wired address 192.168.254.9  even though the cable was not connected.
 
What's up with that? is the camera transposing the wired address to to the wireless address?
 
Mike.

 

[vc1234]

Xprotect looks very interesting and I see that the company has a free download of Xprotect Essentials. Do you know if that is a trial version?

No, up to 8 cameras, it's free without a trial time limit.  They used to require re-registering every year, but no more it seems.  That's what I am using.

 

[vc1234]

Another Hikvision question -
 
I set up my cam with a static LAN IP for wired 192.168.254.9.
Then I set up IVMS-4500 to log in to that wired IP address.
 
Then I set up the camera for static IP WIFI address 192.168.254.64 and unplugged the ethernet cable.
Then I started IVMS-4500 and it could still view the camera using the wired address 192.168.254.9  even though the cable was not connected.
 
What's up with that? is the camera transposing the wired address to to the wireless address?
 
Mike.

My Hiks are all ethernet only -- did not want to consume wifi bandwidth unnecessarily plus I use PoE to power the cameras anyway.  You may want to wireshark the cameras connection to see what address is actually used.  IVMS as I recall can autodiscover cameras by scanning the subnet.  Perhaps, that's what it's doing.

 

[IVB]

I have AZ Screen Recorder, if you want it would be trivial to grab a 60 second capture of me starting up the app, connecting, clicking around. 

 
okay, here's the video. I put in an intro and put on my channel as others have randomly asked me similar questions. Still a very light overview, nothing in depth.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvnCzcFQ7fA

 

[cobra]

I also have a problem with Cam Viewer Pro app. I have a very weak cell signal at my house. This makes it necessary to have two entries in CVP for each camera, one with the local LAN IP address and one with the WAN gateway address and forwarded port. CVP has no fail-over function so I treat each cam as if it was two different cameras, one local and one remote

 
I think we had this discussion before, but I forget why you had trouble with WAN/LAN transition...  Is there a reason you don't just use the WAN address when home?  Does your phone connect to wifi when you are in the home?  The WAN address should be accessible then as well, but use the faster wifi, rather than your cell data access.
 
Or is your external WAN access a cellular data only connection for the home?

 

[mikefamig]

okay, here's the video. I put in an intro and put on my channel as others have randomly asked me similar questions. Still a very light overview, nothing in depth.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvnCzcFQ7fA

 
Thanks for that, it looks likek the access is fast and easy. What sort of machine/precessor is BI running on to respond so quickly? I wold like a small quiet machine is possible.

 

[IVB]

I use a VM, that particular one also runs PlayOn. It has 4 vCores (hyperthreading enabled so equivalent of a dual core). 7GB of RAM, but only uses 4.5GB.  Not sure how much is PlayOn vs BlueIris.
 
I know in many instances BlueIris sucks up CPU, but I think that's when you have the fancier recording (ie on motion) enabled. Not sure, can pull up LogMeIn tonight to see. Since I run the VM stack I don't care if the CPU is pegged, since it's unable to access the full physical CPU.

 

[mikefamig]

First thanks all for your help.
 
I think that I can sum up my problems to a lack of knowledge and hardware that is not easy to get working together. When I try to view the new cam in Windows the browsers have problems with plug-ins that are out-dated. I can access the camera menus but not view an image.
 
When I try to use the camera from IOS devices I can view the Hikvision using IVMS but it will not view the Foscams. I got cam viewer pro to view both hikvision and foscam but only within the LAN. When I tried to forward port 554 for rtsp my router gives me a pinhole conflict error.
 
I think that I will have to set up a different rtsp port for each cam in order to get through the firewall and that's ok but cam viewer pro requires that you set up each device individually so it will take forever to configure three or four IOS devices. And any change that you make later will have to be made individually to each device (no export-import)
 
I am getting pieces of the puzzle to work but haven't come up with a plan where everything works together. I've also gone in a circle once or twice.
 
Now it's time to walk away from it for a little and come back with a clear head.
 
Mike.

 

[mikefamig]

Is it possible that the Hikvision is not compatible with my Frontier Vantage Arris router? I just set the camera to static IP address 192.168.254.9. I rebooted the cam and am able to log into it from Firefox using that same address. I can not view the camera but I can access all of the menus.
 
The mysterious part is that my router shows the mac of the camera as not having an IP address. It shows it as "pending" even though I am accessing the camera at 192.168.254.9:80 This address is nowhere to be found in the router as a static or DHCP address. The router simply does not agree with the camera. I am addressing a camera that the router claims does not exist and yes I have refreshed my router screens.
 
Mike.

 

[batwater]

Also using Blue Iris here for over 7 years with 13 cameras 4 of which are IP the remainder are analog. I have been quite pleased with the result, author is actively developing and there is a robust forum community. The mobile app works quite well. You can define by user what cameras they have access to. On the server side for bandwidth/speed concerns you can define the resolution quality that is sent out over the WAN connection.

 

[mikefamig]

Are you guys running AT class pc's as nvr's or smaller mini processors like the atom?

 

[mikefamig]

Also is it acceptable to use a unique RTSP port number for each camera and is there a range that is considered as the standard for that?
 
Mike.

 

[batwater]

I'm running a dedicated custom built PC with a Skylake i5-6500. My CPU with the 4 1080P IP cameras with motion detection and the 9 analog (motion detection handled on board the video capture card so zero CPU impact) cameras and all of the associated disk I/O runs around 25-27% at any given time and that is with the remote session connected through the Android BI client so that I can the CPU load.  CPU was selected for hardware acceleration / encoding support.
 
Each camera has it's own setting for the RTSP port, typically they are pretty standard.  What problem are you trying to solve / concern do you have?  
 
For remote access you can also set a unique port but it is for the entirety of the Blue Iris instance, it is not unique to each camera.   
 
You can assign cameras and privilege levels to user IDs to control what can be seen by whom and what control they have over each of the assigned cameras.  
 
This is just scratching the surface of BI capability.  They just added some level of MQTT integration though I have not had time to experiment with this.
 
I'm running Win 10 Pro, and have multiple hard drives that I have just extended into one big HD, right now it's 10GB, will probably add another 8TB or larger drive at some point in the near future.  Planning on adding a 5mp exterior camera to look out from the front of my house into the street as we've had a high # of car and garage break in events in our neighborhood.
 
-Ben

 

[mikefamig]

I'm running a dedicated custom built PC with a Skylake i5-6500. My CPU with the 4 1080P IP cameras with motion detection and the 9 analog (motion detection handled on board the video capture card so zero CPU impact) cameras and all of the associated disk I/O runs around 25-27% at any given time and that is with the remote session connected through the Android BI client so that I can the CPU load.  CPU was selected for hardware acceleration / encoding support.

I'm hoping that I can use a little mini machine for smaller size, less electricity use and less fan noise. I have an I7 machine with Win7 Pro that I can use but it is pretty noisy when the fan revs up and it is in a TV room.
 

Each camera has it's own setting for the RTSP port, typically they are pretty standard.  What problem are you trying to solve / concern do you have

My problem is that when I try to forward the standard RTSP port 554 thru the firewall I get a pinhole conflict error. I do not have that port forwarded, at least not manually. I think that it may have to do with the UPNP on the router. My solution is to use a different rtsp port but I don't know if there is a standard for such a thing. What range of numbers are used for rtsp? Is there a standard or just any old number I like? And I'll need to get a list of free port numbers so that I don't run into anything else.