Hey guys Ive learned a lot from these forums but I’m still pretty novice to home automation.
Im running veralite and have managed to add a dsc alarm panel lots of dimmer switches a lock two garage doors and three nest thermostats. Now I’m ready to add some cameras so i ran cat 6 cable from a POE switch and bought (3) hikvision DS-2CD2132F-IS cameras and (1) hikvision DS-2CD2032-I cameras.
My question is should i just run the cameras and monitor straight off vera and hikvisions app or is there a reason to get blue iris? I do have a windows computer i could use but am wondering if i NEED a program like this? what are the pros and cons of each way?
Thanks
Vera should only be used to have a look at the current image coming from the camera. It is not meant to be a NVR/DVR. If you want to record and have more control over the cameras you need a dedicated NVR or use software like blueiris or the free software that you can use with the Hikvision cameras. Many like blueiris as well as I.
ok so blue iris just basically records a loop in other words as it records new it over writes the oldest files? also did i understand correctly that if i use blue iris i can just download the blue iris pug in and then i can use the cameras as motion detectors also? if you do it this way am i correct in thinking you don’t have to pair the cameras in vera they will just automatically be found through the blue iris app?
Recording in bi is highly configurable. You can set how much you record, when, different profiles, moving of data, etc. Yes with the plugin and bi trigger you can set it to trigger a motion device. Adding cameras is much more plug and play than in Vera. It’s well worth the outlay imho.
I am confused about this about as well. I have 15 cameras in my house connected to synology surveillance station. I know it is possible to give my Vera access to to images/streams from those cameras directly. Why would I want to do this? What are some way I can integrate the cameras in to my surveillance system? Is it just to view on Homewave?
Adding them through Vera for me has allowed me to access my cameras all in one place, rather than having to interact with each directly through the web interface, or through another app. Vera also takes snapshots for me when certain events happen, and allow me to send pre-programmed commands to the cameras given the current state of things. e.g., when night mode comes on, I have a camera that stops looking at the ceiling and starts looking at the room downstairs. Then, if one of the doors in the room is opened, the camera will move to look at it.
You can do the movement and API command things without having the camera setup in Vera, but for my needs, it works well enough.
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