NVR Software Reviews

[buellwinkle 0]

Looking to start reviews of popular NVR software on my blog to help people with their choices. I'm happy with ACTi NVR at home, but some people want a mix of camera brands.

 

I started with ExacqVision Start but it flat out doesn't work for me and frankly, I don't see how it can. It asks for camera IP, username, login but in some cases, like a simple Panny BL-C230A it doesnt even let me enter a port number, I guess assuming port 80, but even if I make it port 80, it connects to the camera and can't get video. I tried about a half dozen cameras I have lying around and nada, zilch.

 

I hate to write it off as poo if it's me that's using it wrong. Has anyone tried this software and got it to work? I sent a request to their support, we'll see how long it takes to get back and how quickly they can add a camera not on their list, something that people would want to know.

 

Also, if you come across any software that you are happy with that's not camera vendor specific, let me know and I'll see if I can get a decent demo version from the company, provide screen shots and how it works with various cams.

 

My minimum expectations is that it allows

- browser access for viewing live feeds as well as recorded events

- works with popular browsers (Chrome, Safari, IE, Firefox)

- has a smartphone interface, at least IOS and Android

- has a long list of supported cameras

- has to be reasonably priced which I know is subjective

- is able to keep up with vendor's new cameras as they come out

- is CPU friendly, meaning it has to take motion events from the camera and not force the use of it's own video detection that sucks up resources.

 

If anyone thinks of selection criteria that's important to them, let me know. Maybe I can start a grid of what feature are important to people and rate it on a scale of 1-10 or something like that.

[ak357 0]

Looking to start reviews of popular NVR software on my blog to help people with their choices. I'm happy with ACTi NVR at home, but some people want a mix of camera brands.

 

I started with ExacqVision Start but it flat out doesn't work for me and frankly, I don't see how it can. It asks for camera IP, username, login but in some cases, like a simple Panny BL-C230A it doesnt even let me enter a port number, I guess assuming port 80, but even if I make it port 80, it connects to the camera and can't get video. I tried about a half dozen cameras I have lying around and nada, zilch.

 

I hate to write it off as poo if it's me that's using it wrong. Has anyone tried this software and got it to work? I sent a request to their support, we'll see how long it takes to get back and how quickly they can add a camera not on their list, something that people would want to know.

 

 

Hmm, are u sure u capable to write review ?

anybody in business can install and configure Exacq in about 5 min

Exacq is being used by hundred of thousands around the world

strange

[tomcctv 190]

Also, if you come across any software that you are happy with that's not camera vendor specific, let me know and I'll see if I can get a decent demo version from the company, provide screen shots and how it works with various cams.

 

 

 

hi. there is no way you can test software from demos from a company. if your not hands on with the equipment then you dont know how it proforms.

 

 

I started with ExacqVision Start but it flat out doesn't work for me and frankly, I don't see how it can. It asks for camera IP, username, login but in some cases, like a simple Panny BL-C230A it doesnt even let me enter a port number, I guess assuming port 80

 

 

that will be down to you having no Experience either with the software or how to add patch.

 

 

 

Looking to start reviews of popular NVR software on my blog to help people with their choices.

 

 

The best place for people to come is a forum. ask people who have used software and get real demos and footage samples.

 

not only that but installers have been on Courses (which take you past what is found in manuals)

 

 

and can i just point out. 100s of people on the forum give advice and help total free to members. it is a bit insulting when YOU keep directing members from the forum to YOUR website.

 

taking free info from here from members to build your website up is just Defeating the Object

[shockwave199 0]

 

It's....a blog. And I looked at it last tonight and rather like it.

 

The reason why a good blog like that can be nicer than a forum is because you don't have to weed through all the petty bull****t of a forum. Forums are great. Members giving of their time to help other people is a good thing. Members bashing other members trying to do the same thing is a bad thing. It's a drag to get information wrapped up in that drama. His blog is just another place for people to go for info to read- you know, someone giving of their time for free to help other people.

 

Keep up the good work on the blog. It'll surely be a nice resource.

[tomcctv 190]

His blog is just another place for people to go for info to read- you know, someone giving of their time for free to help other people.

 

 

 

get it right the forum members info for free .......... is it not the same thing.

 

we have sponsors advertisers that keeps the forum going ..... you can call it a blog or what ever you want But its not a forum blog

 

 

if it stayed on the forum then ok but to direct visitors away to another website is not.

[thewireguys 3]

I agree if your having trouble with Exacq this isn't going to be good.

 

I would like to know what experience this guy has. You don't want the blind leading the blind.

 

Also how do we know he is not sponsored by manufactures he is reviewing and pay him to write reviews on their products

 

If you want good info I recommend you skip the very basic blog and have a look at this site. It is a paid site but John does not except money from manufactures.

 

http://ipvm.com/

[Soundy 1]

Wowowowowow.... what's everyone so afraid of here?? If dude wants to spend his own time trying a bunch of different NVRs and writing about his experiences, so what? Maybe NOT having extensive experience with a bunch of different ones is an advantage - someone new to installing and configuring one may find it more useful to see a review from someone in the same situation, than from someone who already knows all the tricks and tweaks.

 

I would like to know what experience this guy has. You don't want the blind leading the blind.

hi. there is no way you can test software from demos from a company. if your not hands on with the equipment then you dont know how it proforms.

Hmm, are u sure u capable to write review ?

Yeah, like any of us are any more "qualified" to write down our own impressions of different NVR platforms? Go ahead and download some different VMSes you've never touched before and give it a shot.

 

anybody in business can install and configure Exacq in about 5 min

Yeah, took me about 5 minutes... and I never did actually get it to record my IQ511s. Does that mean I'm unqualified to review anything else as well?

 

The reason why a good blog like that can be nicer than a forum is because you don't have to weed through all the petty bull****t of a forum. Forums are great. Members giving of their time to help other people is a good thing. Members bashing other members trying to do the same thing is a bad thing. It's a drag to get information wrapped up in that drama.

Bingo. Heck, look what's happened to him here - asks for some input, and gets slagged by all the knowier-than-thous... who apparently haven't even taken the time to actually look at the blog in question:

Also how do we know he is not sponsored by manufactures he is reviewing and pay him to write reviews on their products

Well, you could actually go there, and take a look at it - I see a pretty wide variety of brand names and no banner ads, as well as a couple of purely informational articles. The blog goes back nearly two years, so it's not like it's something he just decided to start doing by jumping into the deep end.

 

Or you can just react and make all kinds of negative comments without ever looking at what you're reacting to.

 

Buellwinkle, maybe you should start off by reviewing Avigilon... you know, to show you're "legit".

[SEANHAWG 1]

Yeah I dont know whats up with all of the inflammatory douche-baggery lately.

[nDAlk90 0]

Yeah I dont know whats up with all of the inflammatory douche-baggery lately.

 

Neither do I. Some members here seem to like makeing waves.

 

Also how do we know he is not sponsored by manufactures he is reviewing and pay him to write reviews on their products

 

How do we know anybody else on the forum isn't? Some members here seem to push one brand with an intensity surpassing some company's sales reps... How do we know they are objective?

[voip-ninja 0]

One NVR worth looking at, which is geared towards the home or small business user is Blue Iris. It supports hundreds of model cameras and is pretty cheap. It works fairly well and has an easy to set up remote web interface that lets you access live feeds and recordings from anywhere.

[buellwinkle 0]

Some of you guys are funny. What's my background? Who cares, if regular Joe has trouble with it, what's the point. But heck, I'm not a regular Joe, been in the software business since 1976 (ouch, shows my age), Been an operating system software engineer developing device drivers, windows software engineer, system admin, database admin and ran major projects for very large companies, ie. Verizon Wireless, Union Bank with over 100 people as manager, tech lead and architect. Also worked for several high tech software startup companies, one bought by Microsoft. Me thinks I can handle installing an NVR GUI and commenting on it.

 

But you don't have to be an electronics engineer to operate a TV and comment on the pretty picture. So yes, maybe I am overqualified but I won't let that get in the way, promise.

 

Also, I've setup other forums that are in current use today for other topics and have moderated one of the largest MB forums for years. If I really wanted to compete against CCTVForum, I could have a duplicate of this site running in about 4 hours work. But that's not my intent, I do not compete with this or any other camera forum. I provide a site to go to get camera reviews just like CNET provides reviews on tech products. To me that complements the forums and I direct people to the forums so it's a two way street. If you never owned a forum, then you have no idea what's involved or had lawyers send you C&D letters because a forum member you have no control over says something they should not have said or a constant burrage of hackers trying to seed your forum with spam.

 

I also were a very high tech flame proof suit when I go on forums so I can take it

 

Actually have BlueIris and loved it. I stopped using it because as I added over 4 cameras with megapixel resolution, the CPU load got out of hand and couldn't add more. The problem is they rely on the PC to constantly monitor the streams for motion detection and that slows it down. Other software can take motion detection events from my cameras. When I only had VGA cameras it worked very well.

 

As for Exacq, finally got that working. They sent me a new key and that worked. Also, added several brands of camera from Panasonic, Axis, ACTi. It's not as easy as BlueIris for me to setup and use though, but we'll see.

[voip-ninja 0]

Does Blue Iris still have no ability to do on-camera motion capture? I only have 3 VGA cameras right now and so I still use it with a low end windows home server and the CPU is not crazy high, but yeah, if true that's a major disappointment.

 

I am now using Surveillance Station from Synology, which runs on my Synology NAS and does support the camera doing motion detection for most cameras that it supports (I am running this in conjunction with Blue Iris that runs on a different box). It's actually growing on me, but it requires ports to be opened on a remote firewall in order to view the cameras or recordings, which means that on a lot of remote networks (at my office, at hotels on their network, etc) it does not work. Luckily their iPhone app works pretty well and works over the AT&T 3G network so I am able to check events, etc, from that.

 

They don't seem interested in fixing that stuff either.

[buellwinkle 0]

BlueIris worked great for me when I had VGA cameras, but as I replaced them one by one with megapixel cameras CPU use skyrocketed.

 

In contrast, the ExacqVision I just started testing picked up immediately on the camera settings for motion detection, allows me to change them from within their software without having to go back into the camera's web interface, so that's cool. The CPU use is minimal on my PC considering I'm running photoshop, IE, Outlook and Windows Mail along with the Exacq server and web server with 4 cameras (megapixel), it's in the 10-15% CPU range. I have not been able to get the web interface to work, won't take my password so I've asked support for help. I've installed the Android software and will test that soon too. Will also test their IOS software (I have both Android and iPhone so I can test both). Once I can connect to the web software, I can test on Mac and PC.

 

Also, the software is not as cheap as BlueIris as they charge per camera but it's not crazy expensive. I'm going to try and get pricing as this is their low end "Start" version. I think it's $50/camera.

[MaxIcon 0]

I'm definitely interested in reviews, especially of small-user software at reasonable prices. Lots of us just can't swing the $2k NVR setups that the pros like.

 

This forum's an excellent resource, but not so big on formal reviews - more seat-of-the-pants writing and experiences. Sure, there are a few here and there, but it's really not the focus of the forum. It's not like there are so many high quality CCTV resources out there that one dilutes the other.

 

Data that would be good to include in the reviews would be per-cam license fees, whether licenses need to be renewed, whether the software reports data rates and frame rates for cams, and how flexible they are for adding unsupported cams via generic RTSP/MPEG/MJPEG type streams.

[rockcrawl 0]

I'm in the same position, I used Blue Iris for a long time with 4 VGA cams, then upgraded to 2MP cams and the CPU is overloaded. I've been trying several different free/demo VMS/NVR software. I think it would be nice to have a list of available software and their capabilities. It would save a lot of time searching, installing and uninstalling. I've installed software and uninstalled within minutes just because it's missing an important feature that I need.

Here are a few more that I've come across.

Axxon Smart - They have a free version that looks promising, I haven't tested it extensively.

March Networks Command - Doesn't support my cameras.

Genius Vision - Difficult to set up and use, but seems to work well, I'm using it now.

Luxriot - No email or SMS alerts with free version, but camera and software MD works.

 

Some of the features that are important to me:

Email alert with snapshot upon motion detect.

Easy/remote/mobile/proximity arming and disarming of alerts.

[akelley 0]

I'm all in favor of your continued reviews, buellwinkle. I've enjoyed reading your camera reviews, and would encourage you to expand to NVR (both software and hardware) reviews as well.

 

One feature that I would like to see is NVR software that can access local recordings on camera. I realize that most people's first reaction is, "why are you using NVR software in the first place if you're recording on the camera?" Well, simple, for installations that have a mix of cameras that do and do not support on camera or edge recording, a single interface to access all is desirable. Also, you're not using network bandwidth to record to the NVR. And in rare cases, such as Mobotix, allowing the camera to record using its native format (in Mobotix's case, MxPEG) you leverage the native file format's reduced file size. So I would like to see reviews that take this into consideration. Can the NVR access on camera recordings? Can the NVR access recordings on a NAS (I know many of the higher end systems can)?

[cctvpro69 0]

 

Hmm, are u sure u capable to write review ?

anybody in business can install and configure Exacq in about 5 min

Exacq is being used by hundred of thousands around the world

strange

 

Any dummy can write a review and any dummy can use software written by someone else.

I see you on all these posts belittling everyone.

What software have you written?

Or are you just another dumb CCTV software user.

[thewireguys 3]

 

Hmm, are u sure u capable to write review ?

anybody in business can install and configure Exacq in about 5 min

Exacq is being used by hundred of thousands around the world

strange

 

Any dummy can write a review and any dummy can use software written by someone else.

I see you on all these posts belittling everyone.

What software have you written?

Or are you just another dumb CCTV software user.

 

Welcome back Rory...... we missed you

[fa chris 0]

You might review ZoneMinder since it's free, open source, and works on linux. Those three things are pretty unique these days.

[ctbaker 0]

I see OP has posted in this thread elsewhere about IP Camera software, looks like a long list of varied software packages to consider.

 

http://www.networkcamerareviews.com/forums/about850-0-asc-60.html

[buellwinkle 0]

I'm working on the various reviews based on people's comments. Just finished Zoneminder which comes up often and offers the best price, free. I also installed another freebie, Milestone XProtect Go so that's running now. I reviewed Exacqvison which is not free, but a lower cost version of commercial software adapted for home/small business use. Also I already own BlueIris and a deal for $50, so I'll probaby do a review on that too since I've used it for over a year.

[SEANHAWG 1]

Axxon would be one I would like to see reviewed. It also has a free version.

[buellwinkle 0]

I sent Axxon an email to get more information and I'll give it a shot. I didn't see Dahua on their list of supported camera brands, does it work with your camera?

[thewireguys 3]

Don't have the original Dahua either.... http://www.dahuasecurity.com/English/product_info.aspx?type=339&&css=0&&id=8

[SEANHAWG 1]

I did a quick download and was able to connect with it via the Onvif driver. That is as far as I went with it though. I didnt dive into the program in depth.