Acti vs. Dahua - reviewing video

[Agentchuckles 0]

For those of you familiar with both the dahua hardware nvr and acti nvr-software 3.0. Which would you say is easier to use in finding footage or just reviewing a days worth of footage, say fast forwarding through it all?

 

Which is better in terms of options? ease of use? speed? ability to save footage?

[thewireguys 3]

If you want to review video fast I would recommend Avigilon VMS and Acti cameras.

[buellwinkle 0]

Dahua NVR was sort of slow and trickier to find video. Entering data ranges and timelines were pretty crude. It's good for a home/small business that is not going to use it much. I did not try it, but some people say using the PSS software with their NVR makes it more usable.

 

I've been using ACTi NVR software for a while and most recently 3.0. It's really good and not just because it's free. I have 6 cameras, and finding video is very easy. I usually set it for 8x speed, and click on the timeline of when I want to start playing it and it shows the events as they happen on all the cameras at once or you can look at one at a time. I can't imagine that Avigilon software would be better but I have not tried it.

 

If you have all ACTi cameras, then absolutely use their NVR software. If you want a mix of cameras, then Avigilon software may be worth looking at, only if they had a free trial download.

 

If you go Dahua, I've used BlueIris with it, works pretty well, not on par with ACTI NVR 3.0, but not bad but a little resource heavy. Also, briefly tried NVR+ from Linovision, worked well with the limited resources I had but pretty effecient. Both have trial versions, both are cheap.

[thewireguys 3]

With all due respect Buel.... Avigilon smokes any other VMS including ACTi when it comes to reviewing video. If reviewing video is important to you then Avigilon VMS is the way to go. If you need a demo license please let me know.

[akelley 0]

With all due respect Buel.... Avigilon smokes any other VMS including ACTi when it comes to reviewing video. If reviewing video is important to you then Avigilon VMS is the way to go. If you need a demo license please let me know.

 

Sounds like buellwinkle could use that demo license so that he can review it on his blog. Buellwinkle, you have time to review it for your blog? I'm sure many others would get a lot of value out of an actual hands on review.

[Agentchuckles 0]

The video review feature is important to me as i will want to review video pretty much everyday on at least my driveway camera. I like the fact that the acti software also gives you the option of different sensitivities for 3 detection zones.

 

My wife works campus security at the local college here and she was telling me about the new system they just had installed. From the pictures she took it looks to be an Avigilon NVR with a bank of encoders to convert their existing analog cameras to ip. They're getting new cameras in the future. She loves how easy it is to review footage and save clips of footage-and she's not very computer savvy so it must be real user friendly haha.

 

It would be interesting to see a review of the Avigilon VMS. I'm curious as well.

[finalwish 0]

I am demoing Avigilon ACC right now and it is very nice software; however, when using Dahua's cameras, it does not do motion detection at this time. I have put a request in to add support for the camera, but not sure when it will happen. So, if you have Dahua's cameras, it is not fully useful at this time.

[thewireguys 3]

Acti camera's are fully supported..... Dahua cameras are supported though ONVIF. Right now motion detecting is supported with 2.2 (which Avigilon supports) Dahua does not support 2.2 yet. Don't hold your breath for direct Dahua support and I don't blame them for that.

[buellwinkle 0]

With all due respect Buel.... Avigilon smokes any other VMS including ACTi when it comes to reviewing video. If reviewing video is important to you then Avigilon VMS is the way to go. If you need a demo license please let me know.

 

I would be happy to test it and review it. I'm not saying ACTi NVR is better, but I can't imagine it being better because I haven't seen anything better. PM me where to download it and a trial key. I can test is with Dahua, Axis and ACTi at least.

[thewireguys 3]

If the end user would like a demo license please let me know...... Keep in mind Avigilon does NOT sell on the web and you MUST purchase though a dealer so I don't. Also pricing is forbidden form being posted on the web. Please contact me via PM or email if you have any questions.

[Agentchuckles 0]

Is the Avigilon software CPU intense similar to the way Blue Iris is when multiple cameras are involved? Does it analyze the stream or does it leave it up to the camera like the Acti cameras/software combo where the cameras analyze the stream and send the resulting footage to your computer? I'm looking at an 6-8 camera setup, 1.3-2MP.

[thewireguys 3]

Avigilon is the least CPU intensive VMS I have used... even less then Exacq. No server side motion detection all motion is done on camera.

[sil29nyc 0]

With all due respect Buel.... Avigilon smokes any other VMS including ACTi when it comes to reviewing video. If reviewing video is important to you then Avigilon VMS is the way to go. If you need a demo license please let me know.

 

 

from my research i can tell that the avigilon recorder can record 250Mbps to Hard Drive. Do you know what is the bandwidth available for playback? can i playback all cameras at the same time, while recording? or the available bandwidth for playback is lower than 250Mbps. what is the max BW for the recorder?

[thewireguys 3]

Yes you can play back up to 36 cameras per screen per client machine at the same time.