Pc-based Nvr vs Standalone Nvr

Hi i'm looking for some tips on choosing the right Nvr , pc-based or standalone, for my cctv system. I'll use 16 3 Mp Cams (Hikvision). This system will be installed in my second house so i'm looking for a system with at least 3 weeks of recording space and a streaming service for when i'm not there. I think I'll use this settings: 1080p with a decent frame rate (10 to 20 fps) on each cam. Most of the cam will be on continuous record, the others will be on motion recording. When i'm there i think that i'll use also live view. All cams will be powered by 2/3 POE switches.

If I buy an Hikvision nvr will it be able to record 16 cams or it will be useless for that amoun of Mp?

A pc based Nvr ,with an i7-4770 and BI will be sufficient for that many cams? Is there any other nvr software worth of trying?

http://www.hikvision.com/en/us/Products_show.asp?id=9267

no need for PoE switch

80mbps throughput should be enough for 2mp 15fps 16 camera.

if you are too lazy to walk to ADI store, can also concern another version of this online

http://www.supercircuits.com/network-video-recorders/16-channel-switchbox-nvr-ali-nvr5016p

PC NVR are more expensive, and not built to record 24/7

http://www.hikvision.com/en/us/Products_show.asp?id=9267

 

no need for PoE switch

80mbps throughput should be enough for 2mp 15fps 16 camera.

 

if you are too lazy to walk to ADI store, can also concern another version of this online

http://www.supercircuits.com/network-video-recorders/16-channel-switchbox-nvr-ali-nvr5016p

 

PC NVR are more expensive, and not built to record 24/7

Thanks for the reply !

I live in Italy and hikvision products are very expensive here. For 1 ds-2cd2032-i the reseller is asking 530$...I'll buy everything through aliexpress and others online sites.

I think i'll have to buy at least one poe switch because 8 cams will be installed from 60 to 100 m away from the nvr.

Using hikvision bandwidth calculator i get this results:

I don't know the differences between main stream live view and main stream playback.

I think i'll need a nvr with at least 100 Mbps of managable bandwidth

It's probably least expensive to buy a PC and run the free iVMS4200 PCNVR software.

http://www.hikvision.com/en/us/Products_show.asp?id=9267

 

no need for PoE switch

80mbps throughput should be enough for 2mp 15fps 16 camera.

 

if you are too lazy to walk to ADI store, can also concern another version of this online

http://www.supercircuits.com/network-video-recorders/16-channel-switchbox-nvr-ali-nvr5016p

 

PC NVR are more expensive, and not built to record 24/7

Thanks for the reply !

I live in Italy and hikvision products are very expensive here. For 1 ds-2cd2032-i the reseller is asking 530$...I'll buy everything through aliexpress and others online sites.

I think i'll have to buy at least one poe switch because 8 cams will be installed from 60 to 100 m away from the nvr.

Using hikvision bandwidth calculator i get this results:

 

I don't know the differences between main stream live view and main stream playback.

I think i'll need a nvr with at least 100 Mbps of managable bandwidth

A new firmware will be released for that NVR to upgrade it to 100mbps.

So you still will be fine.

There is another version with 200mbps DS-7732NI-SP.

Embedded NVR is just easy to use for small applications, plug and play, and most cheap PC are not built to last.

I built an NVR trialing BI. Its a 4770K. Unless you set BI to direct to disk I don't believe it will support more than 6 cams before hitting 100% utilization. I'm not sure how Hik SW does on utilization yet.

It's not so much that it hits 100%, it's mostly because it's trying to display that many. If you try to display say 10 cameras on an i7 even through the browser, all at 1080P, it will also use up a lot of CPU. The problem with BlueIris is the server and client are one program. You can just minimize it and it will drop the CPU usage by a lot.

Careful with direct to disc because it starts recording at the next iframe, so make sure you have a lower number for iframe (some like Hikvision default to almost 1 every 2 seconds, meaning you could lose as much as 2 seconds on you recording. You can make up for by increase the pre-event frames to record.

It's probably least expensive to buy a PC and run the free iVMS4200 PCNVR software.

Depends on local electricity costs. In some locations, the difference of power consumption between a NVR and a PC-based NVR will pay for the NVR in an year or so...

If I buy a 32ch nvr like this http://www.hikvision.com/UploadFile/image/2014021418371523126.pdf then should i be ok with 16 2MP cams? It has 160 Mbps of incoming Bandwidth.

The electricity costs is around 0.25€ x Kwh --->0.35 $.

Thw nvr has a consumption of 40W, probably without hard disk, and i think it needs a lot less power than a Pc with a 4770k ,4 hdds a no video card.

If I buy a pc i need to be sure that a 4770k is able to handle 16 cams with BI or IVMS 4200. I don't want to buy a 1000$ pc and then have to buy Milestone Xprotect for anoter 730$ for cam licenses and 100-200 $ for the software.

You can run the 16 cameras with an i3 PC that cost half that with Milestone. So maybe $1,200 for the PC and camera licenses. An 32ch NVR can cost that much with 1 hard drive. I run 10 cameras, full frame rate, 8 3MP, 2 1.3MP and I'm using under 20% of a first generation i3 and the new i3's are at least 50% faster. BTW, iVMS4200 PCNVR software is actually very efficient, no reason not to use that on an i3.

I'm currently using 2 Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I cameras with the iVMS-4200 PC-NVR software that is available for free.

I'm running this on a dual core Intel Atom, with 4 GB memory, an SSD for Windows 7 Home Premium, and a 4 TB Western Digital Green AV hard drive.

I have my cameras set to 10 FPS, at 1080p resolution. The PC-NVR is set to record on motion.

This works well for my setup, as long as I don't view live streams or review footage on the NVR itself, it seems to idle right around 5-10 percent. I use my desktop PC with the iVMS-4200 client and a Samsung Galaxy S3 running the iVMS-4500 mobile software. It seems that most of the video rendering is done on the client side, but I have not watched CPU utilization while I'm viewing/reviewing video from the client.

This setup seems to work well. According to the iVMS-4200 PC-NVR documentation this software will run on a Pentium 4. It will also record up to 64 cameras. It also states that more cameras will require a better/faster processor.

When I'm done, I'll have up to 12 cameras when I'm done, all setup in the same manner as my first 2. I figure that I'll keep adding cameras until this system bogs down and then upgrade.

I've had my setup running for about 8 months and aside from a hard drive failure (it was used when I installed it) I have not had any reliability problems. It also sips power, I figure the system sips about 30 watts of power when running.

I feel that a PC-Based NVR will be more flexible in the long run. There are multiple software packages to choose from with a range of costs. Hikvision's software is free, does not require a lot of processing power, but only works with their cameras. Blue Iris is around $50, requires high processing power, but will work with many cameras on the market. There are other software packages out there that range in price with different feature sets. The key is finding one that works for your needs, if you go down the PC-based NVR path.

With a hardware NVR the cost may be the same as a PC, but you are stuck with the platform you buy, there may be cameras that will work with it, but the compatibility may be limited, and it is unlikely that there will be any new development or enhancements.

Just my $0.02