Dahua NVR recommendation - private use

Sasse

n3wb
Oct 8, 2025
3
0
Germany
Hi everyone,

I'd like to have some advice regarding a suitable NVR for my needs and cameras.

My cameras
  • Front door: DH-SD1A404DB-GNY
  • Porch / Garden / backside: SDH-SD2A500NB-GNY-A-PV
Both connected with PoE to a PoE switch.
I might add a few Wifi cameras in the future to cover some blind spots.
Currently only storing on integrated SD-Cards accessed via Dahua mobile app.

My intended use
  • Door camera, to check who is there before opening the door
  • Documentation purpose e.g.: Was the parcel guy really there? What did he do with the parcel? etc...
  • Some "basic" surveillance in case of burglary although I know that professional burglars won't be stopped or identified via these cameras.
Problems
  • Accessing the feed and recordings / snapshots via app and SD-Card is too slow for "door camera usage".
  • Especially DH-SD1A404DB-GNY is responding slow and laggy, even when connected via webinterface, although it's the higher priced and performing model. Don't know if the processor is at it's limit or if the ethernet connection has some issues.
Expectations and requirements for the NVR
  • Hopefully faster access to snapshots and recordings, as the files should already be stored on the NVR until the app is opened.
  • Redundant storage, don't want to rely on SD-Card only
  • Should be capable to integrate the WiFi Cameras as well (not PoE only), network NVR should be fine as well, I guess?
  • NVR should match the capabilities and requirement of the cameras (but not unnecessarily outmatch them), AI features like face detection would be nice to have, but not mandatory (if they can be used to create rules like "ignore family members, etc..")
  • No discontinued model
  • In general: best bang for a fair buck
As I don't have any experience with NVRs and what they can and can't do and since Dahua's product lineup is not very easy to understand, I hope you can give me some hints.

Thanks a lot!
 
Can’t speak to the wifi cams, unless they’re Dahua or Amcrest. Those should be fine, but they’ll kill your network

The go to NVR is probably the 2AI or 2XI.
Same but the latter can do a bit more AI and has more incoming bandwidth (which you’re not going to come close to using )

Top 4 on this page. EmpireTech is the forums fav distributor. Dahua equipment different sticker

 
If I will add Wifi-Cams, they will be Dahua. I want to stick with one brand to make everything compatible.
Why will they kill the network? Bandwidth shouldn't be the problem?

You are suggesting to use PoE NVRs, is this recommended vs. Network NVRs? The cameras are already connected to the network via PoE switch.
I could change that, but only if it's beneficial. PoE NRVs are also more expensive.

Unfortunately I can't buy at Empiretech as I'm located in Germany. In my shop I can only find the XI models, not the AI. Do you know a different name for them? Or are they the same as EI models? For example "Dahua NVR5216-16P-EI WizSense"
 
Empiretech sells all over the world. DM him and see if he can work his magic. I am pretty sure we have members here from Germany that buy from him.


Wifi and cameras do not go together.

There are always ways if you don't want to run an ethernet cable.

You need power anyway, so go with a powerline adapter to run the date over your electric lines or use a nano-station.

Maybe you are fine now one day with wifi cams, but one day something will happen. A new device, neighbors microwave, etc.

Cameras connected to Wifi routers (whether wifi or not) are problematic for surveillance cameras because they are always streaming and passing data. And the data demands go up with motion and then you lose signal. A lost packet and it has to resend. It can bring the whole network down if trying to send cameras through a wifi router. At the very least it can slow down your entire system.

Unlike Netflix and other streaming services that buffer a movie, these cameras do not buffer up part of the video, so drop outs are frequent, especially once you start adding distance. You would be amazed how much streaming services buffer - don't believe me, start watching something and unplug your router and watch how much longer you can watch NetFlix before it freezes - mine goes 45 seconds. Now do the same with a camera connected to a router and it is fairly instantaneous (within the latency of the stream itself)...

The same issue applies even with the hard-wired cameras trying to send all this non-buffer video stream through a router. Most consumer grade wifi routers are not designed to pass the constant video stream data of cameras, and since they do not buffer, you get these issues. The consumer routers are just not designed for this kind of traffic, even a GB speed router.

So the more cameras you add, the bigger the potential for issues.

Many people unfortunately think wifi cameras are the answer and they are not. People will say what about Ring and Nest - well that is another whole host of issues that we will not discuss here LOL, but they are not streaming 24/7, only when you pull up the app. And then we see all the people come here after that system failed them because their wifi couldn't keep up when the perp came by. For streaming 24/7 to something like an NVR or Blue Iris, forget about it if you want reliability.


This was a great test that SouthernYankee tried and posted about it here:

I did a WIFI test a while back with multiple 2MP cameras each camera was set to VBR, 15 FPS, 15 Iframe, 3072kbs, h.264. Using a WIFI analyzer I selected the least busy channel (1,6,11) on the 2.4 GHZ band and set up a separate access point. With 3 cameras in direct line of sight of the AP about 25 feet away I was able to maintain a reasonable stable network with only intermittent signal drops from the cameras. Added a 4th camera and the network became totally unstable. Also add a lot of motion to the 3 cameras caused some more network instability. More data more instability.
The cameras are nearly continuously transmitting. So any lost packet causes a retry, which cause more traffic, which causes more lost packets.
WIFI does not have a flow control, or a token to transmit. So your devices transmit any time they want, more devices more collisions.
As a side note, it is very easy to jam a WIFI network. WIFI is fine for watching the bird feed but not for home surveillance and security.
The problem is like standing in a room, with multiple people talking to you at the same time about different subjects. You need to answer each person or they repeat the question.

Test do not guess.

For a 802.11G 2.4 GHZ WIFI network the Theoretical Speed is 54Mbps (6.7MBs) real word speed is nearer to 10-29Mbps (1.25-3.6 MBs) for a single channel


And TonyR recommends this (which is the preferred way IF you want to do wifi)

The only way I'd have wireless cams is the way I have them now: a dedicated 802.11n, 2.4GHz Access Point for 3 cams, nothing else uses that AP. Its assigned channel is at the max separation from another 2.4GHz channel in the house. There is no other house near me for about 300 yards and we're separated by dense foliage and trees.

Those 3 cams are indoor, non-critical pet cams (Amcrest IP2M-841's) streaming to Blue Iris and are adequately reliable for their jobs. They take their turns losing signal/reconnecting usually about every 12 hours or so for about 20 seconds which I would not tolerate for an outdoor surveillance cam pointed at my house and/or property.

But for me, this works in my situation: dedicated AP, non-critical application and periodic, short-term video loss.... if any one of those 3 conditions can't be achieved or tolerated, then I also do not recommend using wireless cams. :cool:
 
Thanks for the detailed explanation. Es the additional Wifi cams would be more like "secondary / optional", I was fine with less image quality and maybe some sporadic availability issues. So I thought. But if they will have a major impact on my wifi network in general, I will not go that route. Powerline would be an option, I already use it for some other stuff where I forgot the ethernet cable.

So let's take the Wifi compatibility out of the equation...

Since you also mentioned the "standard switches" as bottleneck for constant video streams, you would also recommend to skip the network NVR and go for a PoE NVR to eliminate this bottleneck?
Can these PoE NVRs also connect to network cameras? If I will add cameras via powerline, they might be connected to the normal network, not to the NVR camera input.

Additional question:
Do you access the Dahua NVR via the Dahua app? Is this responsive and faster than connecting to the camera itself? Or do you use another App to access the NVR from mobile devises?
 
If I will add Wifi-Cams, they will be Dahua. I want to stick with one brand to make everything compatible.
Why will they kill the network? Bandwidth shouldn't be the problem?

You are suggesting to use PoE NVRs, is this recommended vs. Network NVRs? The cameras are already connected to the network via PoE switch.
I could change that, but only if it's beneficial. PoE NRVs are also more expensive.

Unfortunately I can't buy at Empiretech as I'm located in Germany. In my shop I can only find the XI models, not the AI. Do you know a different name for them? Or are they the same as EI models? For example "Dahua NVR5216-16P-EI WizSense"

Built in POE ARE network NVRs. They have security advantages (built in vlan). But you don’t have to use them. Just run a cable from the NVR to the LAN/switch like you would a non-POE NVR. Gives you flexibility to do either or a combination of both. No downside
 
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EI = AI

Yes dahua app, called DMSS
Also a desktop app that’s nice SmartPSS for live view, playback, download across multiple NVRs, cameras, locations

And yes you can connect cameras direct or via the LAN