simplest solution for recording/viewing from Dahua camera?

Hey all,

I'm looking for the best solution to get motion recordings to my server (home grown) so that I can view past recordings on my iPhone as well as view live streams.

I've successfully setup FTP and motion settings in the camera web UI itself so that it pushes the DAV files to my server. But to my knowledge there is no iOS app that can view them.

Also, I can connect to the RTSP stream with VLC, but that isn't optimal.

I'd ideally like one app that can do all this.

So when I say a 'simple' solution I don't necessarily mean simple on the backend. Just has to be easy access from iOS.

I run both Linux and Windows 7.

I'm not opposed to a software NVR/PSS/VMS if that is really the best option, however I tend to prefer a solution that lets me take advantage of the processing on the camera to minimize server resources.

Any ideas on what my best options are?

People seem to prefer exacq, milestone, blue iris, genius vision to name a few I've read about.

Aside from Blue Iris (which is cpu intensive), the others seem to be almost prohibitively expensive for simple home use with just a few cameras ($50/camera isn't terrible but I just don't know that's it's necessary for home use).

I've been able to connect to my camera directly with iDMSS and that's fine for viewing the live stream, but I haven't yet figured out how to view the recordings I've FTP'd. If I could, that would be the ideal solution.

Again, I don't need a fancy UI or very advanced controls on the server.

Thoughts here?

Thanks,

Justin