Advice on modern NVR for residential use

[Jesus]

Hi

I have four Reolink RLC-420 ONVIF compliant POE cameras and I am looking for a compact, low power consumption, 'modern' NVR solution.

I love the look of the milesight mini 1009, which I understand can be used with third party cameras, but my only concern is that it is probably a bit overkill for my current camera setup.

Can anyone suggest any similarly priced (or ideally cheaper) alternatives please? I don't necessarily need a display port, and I don't like the ones that you need to plug in a mouse and keyboard for the initial setup. I'd prefer it to be fully Web interface based (which I am assuming the milesight is). I don't need POE ports as I have a separate switch already.

I've seen the Hikvision Hiwatch NVR but cannot find too much information about it. Then again, I cannot find any first hand experiences of the milesight NVR either..

Background -
I tried Reolink's own NVR but it was big, noisy and had an interface like something from the 1980s. I've played with Kerberos.io and motion, both of which are good but do not support 24/7 recording. Lastly I tried ivideon on an old laptop which was great but remote playback was too slow and I don't want to buy a new machine for it. Synology is tempting but the camera licensing puts me off.


Many thanks
Mike

 

[Phil]

Hi There,

You might like to consider Synology:
Surveillance Station | Synology Inc.

Full model range here:
Product List | Synology Inc.
[Tip: the last 2 digits of the product code represent the launch year e.g. 16, 17, 18]

Pricing here:
Synology NAS ¦ use-IP Ltd

Every new box includes 2x camera licences.
You will need to purchase additional licences for additional cameras.

Their camera compatibility checker is here:
Surveillance Station IP Camera Support List | Synology Inc.
(they currently show 10x Reolink models)
Untested models can normally be added via ONVIF.

More info in this Forum on Synology and setup:
Synology

 

[Jesus]

Hi Phil

Thanks for your advise.

I've been looking at Synology for a while and quite like the look of the DS118, however I find it hard to justify an extra ~£100 just for licenses. I also don't want to face the dilemma in the future if I decide to add another one or two cameras at £50 a go...

After further research I came to the conclusion that if you need more than 3-4 cameras you may as well build your own server (e.g running Blue Iris etc) for the same cost? I also read that the Surveillance Station software is quite limited compared to other more advanced NVRs? I don't really want to run a power hungry server 24/7 though and so eventually I came across the Milesight Mini NVR.

I'd be interested if anyone has any first hand experience of using both Surveillance Station and Milesight and could give their opinions of each.

Thanks

 

[Phil]

There are reviews from a couple of customers who bought and use the 1009 on the product page here:
Milesight UI-1009-PA 4K 9 Channel Mini PoE Network Video Recorder ¦ use-IP Ltd
They seem quite content.

There's a lot to like about it; value, size, quietness, style, etc.
Milesight's product range and strategy is sensible i.e. they develop sensible products, they use good quality components, they remain focused on just the area of good quality IP CCTV, they support their products, and they improve them.
They have just released new NVR and camera firmware:
http://www.milesight.com/support/download.asp#firm_jump

They are responding to a list of issues and improvements that we raised with them:
Milesight Feature Wish List
We're expecting a significant firmware improvement to be released within the month.

By all means take one on a 'Buy & Try' and test it for yourself.

 

[Mal]

Hi, I would like to encourage you to try the fanless Milesight Mini NVR. I have installed two and I like them more than 7604 series Hikvision NVRs. As I wrote in my review there has been some minor issues but those have been communicated to the developers. The good thing is that these products are in active development phase and active user's feedback is heard. Milesight NVR is able to record e.g. Hikvision and Foscam cameras. The NVR user interface with directly connected display is very responsive and easy to browse through recorded video.

 

[Jesus]

Thank you Phil & Mal

I do really like the look of the Milesight mini, and I think I'll pull the trigger on it

Phil, do you expect to get any gold non-POE versions back in stock? (UI-1009-NA)

Thanks
Mike

 

[Mal]

NVR deserves also at least one camera of the same brand for you to see more functionality than just ONVIF recording of other camera brands.

 

[Jesus]

Hmmm. That could be a deal breaker. I wouldn't want to buy this NVR and not be able to use it to its full potential.

What functionality would I be missing if using standard ONVIF recording?

I can't quite justify replacing my current cameras just for monitoring outside the house!

Thanks

 

[Mal]

Centralized handling of key camera parameter settings in NVR is one handy feature in using same brand cameras. Then the possibility to setup motion detection recording in NVR (advanced analytics features of the camera should be accessible in the future firmware)
I would recommend you to try with a simple fixed lens UI-2A73-PCV. It is very affordable compared to the performance. My test camera has been observing night sky for the whole winter and so far it has captured several fireballs reported to the observation database, e.g. Tulipallo yöllä, Venusta kirkkaampi, Kangasala In this observation the camera was recording night sky at 5fps and I edited the report by playing the observation from NVR frame-by-frame for an animated GIF video. I have also another observation setup using Hikvision equipment and can therefore compare results. During my experience of some six months Milesight has improved continuously and been active in responding to questions arising while using the equipment.

 

[Phil]

Phil, do you expect to get any gold non-POE versions back in stock? (UI-1009-NA)

We're waiting to approve a new version of the NVR firmware, and then anticipate that we will replenish our stocks of all existing (and new) Milesight products in June (stocks may not arrive until July).

The International Fire and SECurity show (IFSEC) is next month - around 20th June.
It's a key date in the annual schedule for manufacturers.
Milesight will be showcasing several new camera products.
Meet Milesight Style at IFSEC International 2018

 

[Jesus]

Centralized handling of key camera parameter settings in NVR is one handy feature in using same brand cameras. Then the possibility to setup motion detection recording in NVR (advanced analytics features of the camera should be accessible in the future firmware)
I would recommend you to try with a simple fixed lens UI-2A73-PCV. It is very affordable compared to the performance. My test camera has been observing night sky for the whole winter and so far it has captured several fireballs reported to the observation database, e.g. Tulipallo yöllä, Venusta kirkkaampi, Kangasala In this observation the camera was recording night sky at 5fps and I edited the report by playing the observation from NVR frame-by-frame for an animated GIF video. I have also another observation setup using Hikvision equipment and can therefore compare results. During my experience of some six months Milesight has improved continuously and been active in responding to questions arising while using the equipment.

Hi Mal

Thanks for the info. Those are very cool videos. I primarily just want to monitor the outside of my house at the moment. I have motion alerts set for certain areas but want to record the rest.

I assume your Milesight NVR offloads the motion detection to the camera itself? If using a standard ONVIF camera, will it need to use motion detection on the NVR itself, or can it still use the camera's on board motion detection?

Other than the ability to configure the camera (and make use of the advanced analytics of the camera) through the NVR itself, it does not sound like I would be missing out on much functionality? I'd still be able to use the motion detection (albeit not as advanced), and review the footage with a timeline showing markers where any motion was detected?

Cheers

 

[Jesus]

We're waiting to approve a new version of the NVR firmware, and then anticipate that we will replenish our stocks of all existing (and new) Milesight products in June (stocks may not arrive until July).

The International Fire and SECurity show (IFSEC) is next month - around 20th June.
It's a key date in the annual schedule for manufacturers.
Milesight will be showcasing several new camera products.
Meet Milesight Style at IFSEC International 2018

Hi Phil

Thanks - I heard about that. i would have liked to have gone but cannot make it.

Do you expect a new 'mini NVR' model? Would you also think there would be any price drop of existing models in July? Or is it hard to say?

Cheers

 

[Phil]

No new NVRs planned at the moment, just new camera models.
We've not been made aware of any price changes.

 

[Mal]

I am sorry for the delay in my response. At least NVRs at this level do not have their own video analysis - they need to use the functionality of the camera. So far I have not seen this happening over the ONVIF protocol.
You could perhaps consider also ZoneMinder - Home
However, it is good to remember that NVRs run reliably 24/7 - it may be difficult to achieve that with a dedicated server. Having thought that, this brings the idea also back to the starting point - running Zoneminder on Synology. At least the Synology DS216+ should have enough processing power ... ZoneMinder - Synology Forum