Dahua vs Hikvision

[dart73 0]

Hello,

 

I'd like you opinion on a NVR. Building a house and choosing the surveillance system.

 

Think will go on IP/POE so I've found Hikvison and Dahua NVRs. Will have aprox. 6˜8 cameras and would like all of them @ 5mb. I would like motion detection, alarm output, audio i/o and web interface. Maybe some interaction with Aduino home automation in future.

 

Ok, want all of this and a not so expensive NVR. I'll be traveling next month to US so I can buy it on Amazon/Ebay or buy it on Aliexpress and send it directly to my country.

 

Please give me your advise. Which one should I have less brand camera interoperability problems.

 

 

Br,

Fernando

[Don Stephens 0]

I always lean a little more towards Dahua. They have a lot of subtle things that I like better or just don't see with Hikvision. Either one is a good choice though.

 

I don't know what to tell you about 5MP cameras. I really haven't been impressed with either company's 5MP models for their price. I'm sure someone else can chime in.

 

Are you planning on using a dedicated PoE switch, or are you looking at NVRs that have the switch built in?

[dart73 0]

If I buy an 16 port POE switch to share with my home needs can I use it with the survilance and the home?

 

Do I still need a 8 channel nvr if I have the Poe switch!?

[Don Stephens 0]

If you get a 16 port switch, that would take care of everything.

 

You don't need the NVR to view your cameras but I imagine you still want something to record to. That either means a standalone NVR or a PC based NVR, unless you want your cameras recording to SD cards internally.

 

It depends on what your end game is.

[buellwinkle 0]

I too would prefer a Dahua NVR because it can record Hikvision or Dahua cameras based on motion detection where the other way around, not so much. Dahua also has some cool cameras that are priced well. With that said, I do like some of the Hikvision cameras too.

 

I'm personally a fan of a single switch for everything wired in your home. I'm using a 24 port Netgear gigabit smart switch, 12 ports are PoE. The problem with using the internal PoE switch in an NVR is it creates a private network just for the cameras, so you can't get easily get to them via the NVR.

 

But I'm not a fan of NVR's myself because they are limiting and proprietary, at least the cheap ones under $1,000. So I prefer a PC running software and that can be free software included by the camera manufacturer, low priced software like BlueIris or mid-priced software like Milestone XProtect Essential which is what I use.

[MaxIcon 0]

If you're buying cams cheap, like aliexpress, you'll get much better self-support with Hik. Dahua's support outside of official vendors is pretty much non-existent, while Hik lets anyone download the firmware and such. You'd need the CBX region fix for Hiks if you want to update the firmware on aliexpress cams.

 

The brands are pretty close to equivalent for cams, with Hiks being somewhat cheaper, and I like the Hik images better, but some of the differences may be more important to you than others. I have both, and prefer Hiks over Dahua, but some people prefer it the other way around.

[dart73 0]

Ok,

 

if I decide to go POE switch + PC NVR do I have to have a high end PC to monitor 8 5MB cameras?

Any good reading about the pros x cons of dedicater nvr vs pc nvr?

 

 

 

Br,

Fernando

[MaxIcon 0]

It depends on the software you run. Recording only doesn't usually require a lot of horsepower, but if you're going to view on the same PC, that usually needs more.

 

Blue Iris is inexpensive but requires a lot of CPU power, depending on resolution and frame rate. Xprotect costs more if you want more capabilities than the free version offers, but doesn't need so much CPU if you use the client on another PC, so there's a trade-off there. Others can chip in on their favorite software.

 

Dedicated NVRs are stable and robust, require little maintenance, and are usually pretty light on power usage. They don't have much flexibility; you're out of luck if any features or cameras you want are not supported, or if the company drops support for them.

 

PCs are much more flexible, with lots of different software packages you can try, storage options, etc, but require more fiddling, updates, etc.

 

If you're comfortable with technical support of PCs, they can be the best bet overall. For non-technical people, dedicated NVRs are often a better bet.

 

I used to run dedicated DVRs that would stay up for years at a time in an industrial environment. For my home systems, it's all PCs.

[cctvikidis 0]

I agree with most of the other guys here about dahua. But there is a drawback with the mobile application. Dahua's mobile applications sucks, hikvision's new ivms mobile applications are top of the tops. Especially if you have a windows phone 8 device, hikvision is your only option here.

[tomcctv 190]

I agree with most of the other guys here about dahua. But there is a drawback with the mobile application. Dahua's mobile applications sucks, hikvision's new ivms mobile applications are top of the tops. Especially if you have a windows phone 8 device, hikvision is your only option here.

 

 

There is 11 apps for dahua .... If you used the basic then your not going to see that dahua apps will do more..

 

 

But which ever way you go ..... Never pic your system on how good the remote viewing is.

 

Buy system on quality of nvr and cameras ... At the end of the day your buying a security system not a phone app

[fixingstill 0]

Am I right that with the latest firmware, most of the HikVision and Dahua cameras can do motion detect and record to a NAS (via NFS or SMB/CIFS). And should you need to look up any recordings, just run iVMS for HikVision or Smart PSS for Dahua. The cameras will tell the software where the recording is on the LAN and allow you to search to playback.

 

For live viewing, I just use IP Cam Viewer. You would need to change the default port to a unique one for each each so that you can find each cameras from outside world via your router port forwarding, set the DDNS, and make sure your router supports NAT Loopback so that you can also do the live viewing when you are inside the lan.

 

Am I right? Or is that any better way?

[vodoca 0]

I had quite a bad experience with video playback on Hikvision DVR/NVR.

If you want playback records remotely on a slower network, it is not good. Hikvision does not support speed-up 2x,4x - 32x well, but Dahua does this well (skips the frames on the server side and not on the client only) and it is much better playback experience.