Building my own NVR – where could I look for a few alpha testers?

I

ino23

n3wb
Apr 14, 2026
2
0
earth
Hi all,


Long-time reader. I started with iVMS-4200, moved to Blue Iris, and kept running into things no NVR I tried could do. So I started building my own, called CrossEye. It’s at the point where I need people with other cameras and setups than mine. Before posting anything about it, I’d like to ask:


  • Is there a section here where looking for a few alpha testers is okay, or would the mods rather I didn’t?
  • What would make you willing to try a new NVR alongside your current one?

What it focuses on:


  • Composites: combining cameras into one view, e.g. a thermal camera fused with its visible channel, or several cameras as a panorama. Thermal cameras also show their temperature readouts.
  • Fixed camera → PTZ linkage: mark areas in a fixed camera’s picture, and a click in one sends the PTZ to the matching position.
  • Alarms with real conditional logic, written as small scripts. This part is still very early.

The basics: native Windows, everything in one folder. Each stream records in its own process, so a crash elsewhere never stops recording. RTSP H.264/H.265, ONVIF, GPU decoding, freely editable layouts. My main machine runs 23 streams on it.


It’s early alpha and free to use. It doesn’t phone home: the only network request is a signed update check.


Happy to take this elsewhere if it doesn’t belong here. Thanks!
 
Closed source, free to use.

There’s no feature lock and no trial. Everything works the same whether you pay or not. The only difference is a line of text at the top of the window.
By default it shows something silly from me, and that may change between versions. For about $5 per machine you can buy an unlock code that replaces that line with your own text, or removes it.

There’s no account and no registration. The code is tied to your machine, and I don’t keep any data about you or your purchase.
The flip side is that I can’t replace a lost code, so keep it somewhere safe.

It’s a lot of work, and I’d like something back. Either you put up with my silly text, or you spend about a coffee’s worth on it. Your choice.
That’s also the worst case. I might open-source it at some point, but I will never restrict it more than what I’ve described here.

Since closed source means you can’t check the code: CrossEye only talks to what you set up yourself, meaning your cameras and, later, any integrations you add.
The only request to the outside is the update check. It’s on by default and can be turned off in the settings. When it’s on, it downloads the version list and compares it on your machine.
Updates are signed.

For this alpha: everyone who contributes something meaningful, such as bug reports, logs, or feedback on their cameras, gets a free unlock code.
 
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