So, I replaced my made for NVR hard drive for the second time a while back and it's not getting recognized in my NVR (again)...but shows up when connected to my PC.
This is an area I really wish had advanced enough to have LOCAL face ID etc (can tell the difference between two people and identify (who it is)...I may end up going the Blue Iris/AI way...but REALLY would rather have a stand alone NVR that can do this.
My wants and goals... this doesn't mean anyone does all
Local face recognition (not just human detection)
No features I can't access without online account/charge
Works with many different camera types
Can support POE...wireless is now my biggest deployment and need that support
Easy to integrate with Hubitat and can trigger rules with Hubitat ...especially with/by WHO the camera sees.
You could use a Unifi Protect solution for this I believe and there are some pretty good integrations, that being said It does have some ruff edges. I am going to speak about it from that perspective.
There are a few ways to get Face Recognition. It can either be done by the camera itself, the NVR, or a appliance that works with the camera.
From a Unifi perspective it is either in the camera device, or a UnifI AI Key or AI Port. Unifi AI Cameras and there new G6 Line include Face and License Plate recognition. You can also just add a AI Port for small setups and get the same functions. I have a AI Port with a G4 Instant and G4 Doorbell and get face recognition on both. I should add that the AI Port currently only supports one camera device, but has Early release firmware that will enable multiple. I am running that currently.
Though you can sign up for Unifi account it is just for remote access. no features are locked behind a paywall
This is where a Unifi solution will struggle a little bit. They recently added the ability to use any camera that supports OVNIF, but using a 3rd party camera means some features of that camera may not work with Unifi Protect. With a AI Port though you can get AI Functions. The number of cameras a single AI Port will support is more limited though.
This is really more of a characteristic of the cameras then it is the NVR. Most of their cameras support POE in some fashion. You just need to get a Unifi Switch device that has PoE
As I said earlier there are a few integrations for Unifi Protect that are pretty robust. I use @snell's integration. I worked with him recently to add a method for you to send updates from the Unifi Protect alarm manager for notifications for face recognition among many other things. It uses Alarm manager functionality to call a webhook. The only downside is that it needs to be setup for each known face.
Blue Iris from what I understand has a huge following, so I have no doubt the integration is top notch if you go that route though.
You may also want to look at Camect as I understand it has a fairly good following and integration as well.
I truly appreciate the detail and the time you took to answer. This is a great start! I'm always a little leery of online descriptions of products on manufacturing sites. Since all I need from my indoor cameras is video, unlike outdoors ones, I'm guessing I can get by getting a couple of their AI cameras.
At a minimum I immediately need a new NVR and it's kind of the heart of the system and often determines some of the capabilities.
I've looked at Blue Iris a lot. I just don't want to deploy and maintain some old laptop to run it on. My main PC doubles as a studio recorder and that's a way too real time processor intensive app to want to risk running BI on.
If you are looking for a NVR first the options for running Unifi protect are:
UCG Max or UCG Fiber: Both have a single NVME slot that is used for Unifi Protect when installed on the device. These replace your router and act as a cloud controller for Unifi Apps and devices. The storage options range from 512GB to 2TB. Some folks have installed a 4TB drive though and it has worked fine
Unifi Cloud Key +: Acts as a Unifi controller but not a router. It has 2.5 Inch drive for storage. Either 1TB HDD or SSD
UDR 7: Comes with Pre-installed 64GB Micro SD Card
Then there is the UNVR and UNVR Pro: These are either a 4 or 7 drive solution. They support 3.5 inch disk drives, but i believe you can mount 2.5 inch in the sleeds as well. These are rack mount devices
There is also a UDM Pro series: These have 1 or 2 3.5 in sleds for storage to be added and are rack mounted.
I have the UCG-Max right now and it has worked well for my use. I think the big question for you when deciding is what kind of recording and retention do you want. If you are keeping the video for a longtime and want continuous video recording, you will likely need one of the solutions that allow more storage. Video takes up allot of space.
That really helps too! I don't need that much retention. A week of motion triggered recording at the most. I would get alerts fairly real time between the two systems. I've been fine with a 4TB drive in an Amcrest NVR.
It can do face recognition locally using CodeProjectAI, although I haven't tried that so can't speak to how well it works.
There are no features locked behind paywalls, and you don't have to pay the annual maintenance fee if you don't want updates. I consider the ongoing maintenance fee to be well worth it for the continuous improvements to the software.
Works with a huge variety of cameras. I've used Dahua, Foscam, Amcrest, and feed it still images from my Eufy doorbell.
See #3. Will support as many POE cameras as you have space for on your POE switches.
It can integrate to Hubitat via Maker API HTTP calls, and Hubitat can control Blue Iris via it's HTTP API. You could also use MQTT instead of HTTP if you wanted, but I find that HTTP is simpler since there is no intermediate MQTT broker needed.
It's not as clean as a single-vendor NVR solution, but it is vastly more flexible.
I do think BI may be the best solution overall. I just am trying to keep things as simple as possible. I even have a spare i7 laptop I could run it on. I guess in many ways...either way...I need a new box.
Things like Windows do need somewhat constant maintenance. If I remember right, SSD's are not the best video drives. I also have an old i7 tower which is a real monster...but not really wanting to run it 24x7x365. It's a space eating power hog.
I will give it more thought...Unifi has everything I want...doing that is kind of buying into 1 vendor...at least for guaranteed other camera vendor support.
Timing for when to buy into a tech is always challenging...and I do think the local face recognition will become cheaper, better, and commonly available from any vendor in the next 24 months.
My only concern with BI would be making sure it has the right hardware for the job. If memory serves me I seem to recall the requirements for the hardware can vary dramatically depending on certain things you want or do. This is kind of why I like Unifi protect on my UCG-MAX. It is very low power and much of the advanced features are handled on the camera or a network attached low power devices designed for that function specifically like the AI-Port.
There is no doubt BI is a fantastic platform, but can be a hog for a small use case. I also think MS Windows holds it back to some extent.
You are kind of hitting my point…BI is great but requires a platform that needs constant maintenance. The advantage of a physical NVR is its ‘kind of’ plug and play.
As with many technologies the problem is that most of what’s out there today is pretty limited still. There’s never a perfect time to buy hardware. It does seem like in the next 24 months that the things I want are going to be pretty standard..the problem is my nvr hd died again.
I’m considering bridging the gap with BI and my i7 8 gig Wndows laptop. I actually have a blue qb
