From Blue Iris to UniFi Protect - the Move Is On!
- Thread starter Arjun
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I think the biggest advantage of BI is ability to handle ONVIF camera events. And I don't think Protect will ever implement that.
ONVIF camera events cannot be implemented - however, the AI-Port was invented by Ubiquiti so that it can mate with ONVIF non-Ubiquiti cameras to provide camera events which is surprisingly is very accurate when you configure line-crossing / tripwire / motion detection / zone detection events = very similar to IVS
Then, there is also Alarm Manager in UniFi Protect which is very similar to how events are triggered in Blue Iris and Home Assistant
That is the part which continues to concern me by all of the reviewers on YouTube - nobody tweaks the settings on their cameras; they only test night-time performance out of the box.
There is a lot of potential in their newer cameras though like the G5 Turret Ultra, G6 Turret, G6 Turret Pro, G6 PTZ, and AI-LPR cameras. From a 1/1.8" CMOS Sensor as well as a newer 1/1.2" CMOS Sensor - so far I have only been able to experiment with their G5 Turret Ultra and I will say that the image is sharp, little to no artifacts, and the IR at night has a equal dispersion, but it is not quite there compared to Starlight (a feature on high-end Sony sensors in IP Cameras and Dashcams) - I notice that if I did not have my Dahua cameras within range of my G5 Turret Ultra, the G5 Turret Ultra's nighttime performance may suffer a slight bit, but not entirely. There is progress to be noted on Ubiquiti's part - however, most Ubiquiti users still continue to think that more megapixels equate to better performance. I have a G6 Turret to install next.
Dahua's Starlight performance on their flagship and midrange models continue to carry its throne - IR dispersion is very well lit and be well appreciated
You can see how the light in the IR struggles to be noted on the sensors in Ubiquiti's cameras because there just not enough light entering per pixel
For the less picky, the only positive I can say good about UniFi Protect is that most damn things work great out of the box for the average user - this is great for people that manage their own businesses and install cameras for their clients. Blue Iris IS NOT for the average user, I say that with confidence - especially if someone is mixing and matching cameras from multiple brands
The UniFi Protect app "just works" - the "just works" mentality at times outweighs most of the complaints and negative remarks people make about Ubiquiti's cameras and ecosystem
The UniFi Protect app "just works" - the "just works" mentality at times outweighs most of the complaints and negative remarks people make about Ubiquiti's cameras and ecosystem
Couple of comments:
1. It "just works" until it doesn't. When I'm testing G6 Pro vs S3 I can see how many events Ubiquiti is missing. If you don't have anything to compare with, it all looks really nice and cool, because you just don't know how it should work
2. BI is not for average user, but Protect also is not for everyone. You need to understand networking, POE, have ethernet connections, etc.
3. I hope Ubiquiti eventually going to invest in their cameras real performance and not just in megapixels and nice UI.
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This is a what causes me to not even think about Unifi. I'm not changing out my entire camera infrastructure and get vendor locked just so I can get the same ONVIF events I already get with Dahua/BI. No thanks!
My two cents...
I already had a Unifi Dream Machine Pro, so the only thing I needed to "add" to get Protect to work was a HDD. I happened to have a 12TB surveillance disk laying around, so I installed it. Yes, the interface is slick, and I was able to add all my Dahua and Axis cameras, but without triggers, it's of limited usefulness. I salvaged one G3 Dome camera from someone who was abandoning it, so I added that for fun. The detection seems to work pretty well.
The problem I have is that I'm not going to replace all my cameras at this point (not sure I'd go that direction anyway, if all cameras needed replacement), and I just don't see the sense in getting 10 AI-Port devices.
Regardless, since I had it, I now have a second backup of all my cameras in case BI craps out.
I already had a Unifi Dream Machine Pro, so the only thing I needed to "add" to get Protect to work was a HDD. I happened to have a 12TB surveillance disk laying around, so I installed it. Yes, the interface is slick, and I was able to add all my Dahua and Axis cameras, but without triggers, it's of limited usefulness. I salvaged one G3 Dome camera from someone who was abandoning it, so I added that for fun. The detection seems to work pretty well.
The problem I have is that I'm not going to replace all my cameras at this point (not sure I'd go that direction anyway, if all cameras needed replacement), and I just don't see the sense in getting 10 AI-Port devices.
Regardless, since I had it, I now have a second backup of all my cameras in case BI craps out.
Lets all just agree that BI is still go-to setup apart from traditional NVRs
I’ve been too invested in Ubiquiti’s networking equipment in the past several years - but even I know that Blue Iris and Dahua cameras and still leaps and bounds ahead
I just can’t afford the time to explain the myriad of camera choices and what software to use to everyone I know
I’ve been too invested in Ubiquiti’s networking equipment in the past several years - but even I know that Blue Iris and Dahua cameras and still leaps and bounds ahead
I just can’t afford the time to explain the myriad of camera choices and what software to use to everyone I know
I agree that it just works but my experience is that it is awfully clunky. The user experience for me was frustrating compared to Blue Iris. Here's my issues copied from another thread from last fall.
I have only had a couple days worth of using the UNVR Pro and the protect software. I am honestly very disappointed with their 3rd party camera support. I knew going into it that it supported recording and nothing else. First off here's my experience viewing on my PC connected to protect with a browser. I have a total of 13 cams I bought from Andy. Some 4K T's, IPC-T54IR-ZEB-S3's, a couple PTZ cams etc. Protect found the cams right away and I was able to easily adopt them. That's as far as the ease of operation went for me. Right out of the gate the camera thumbnails in protect are distorted. The IPC-T54IR-ZEB-S3's are displayed correctly but the 4K T's are all slightly squished. My T180 cam is comical the way the thumbnail is displayed, although it does display correctly when expanded. In comparison, in UI3 all the thumbnails look exactly like the exploded view of each camera except smaller. So this may seem trivial to some but it really bugs me. When I click on a camera thumbnail to expand it, then click back to the thumbnails, some of them quickly reload, change shape slightly and then stabalize. The whole user experience is super clunky. I'd bet money that it would be pretty smooth though using their own cameras.
Secondly, is my issues with the device list in protect. Half my cameras don't display the thumbnail view of the camera.......just a spinning wheel like it's trying to find the camera view. So unless you name the camera you don't know which one it is. Another annoying quirk. When I go to play back of a camera and scroll through the timeline, the camera image slightly shrinks down then expands back to normal when the scrolling stops. This doesn't happen with my IPC-T54IR-ZEB-S3's. It just feels like everything is half baked at this point in the software for 3rd party cams. When I go from the device list back to the dashboard, the camera list repopulates instead of just being there already. It just seems like normal navigating is slightly sluggish throughout.
Ok, the Android phone app. Right out of the gate my T-180 cam isn't displayed correctly and I have found no way to fix that. When scrolling through timelines with my 4K T cams the thumbnail drops down slightly then bounces back up after the scrolling stops. Again, my IPC-T54IR-ZEB-S3's work fine. The phone app has pretty much the same quirks as viewing on my PC monitor. Thumbnails repopulating as you scroll through them etc.
This is all I have found so far. Before trying out protect I was feeling like my Blue Iris setup was kind of a cobbled together NVR. The fact is my Blue Iris setup works excellent in comparison and is smooth as butter to use. UI3 is snappy and instant with every mouse click. I can hear a car driving by and can have UI3 up on my desktop with one of my cameras on screen fast enough to see the car drive by. Scrolling through camera footage on Blue Iris is smooth and the camera view just holds still and doesn't do quirky stuff. UI3 on my Android phone is exactly the same......perfect really. I agree with others that Blue Iris has alot of settings and setup can be a pain, but once it is set up it's rock solid. Or at least mine is. In my opinion, Blue Iris may have way too many options and settings, but protect doesn't have enough. Protect needs more customization. It's like you are held captive and forced to just settle for what they give you.
These are just my opinions and I'm sure some of these things wouldn't bother other people like they do me. I know that this 3rd party camera support is in it's infancy so maybe things will get ironed out. I'm not sure if Unifi will ever give us full 3rd party camera support with motion, AI etc. It seems like it would be a bad idea for them to do so since they sell their own cameras. They actually say that 3rd party camera support is so you can slowly migrate over to using their cameras. I like the fact that Blue Iris doesn't care what camera you use. Andy always has new cool cameras that get better every year and I like knowing I have full support of those cameras with BI.
I was actually ready to abandon Blue Iris but I now have a new appreciation for how well it works once it's set up. I may revisit protect again down the road.
I have to admit, I have a couple cameras on my dream machine pro. All of my good stuff is still on my BlueIris, and will stay there. I have all of my notifications set up
to my phones, mainly from NVIS triggers. The Ubiquity cameras have a ways to go with Dahua still on top.
Ubiquity has came a long ways with their networking and are finally almost up to the quality of their access points, but security has a long ways to go.
to my phones, mainly from NVIS triggers. The Ubiquity cameras have a ways to go with Dahua still on top.
Ubiquity has came a long ways with their networking and are finally almost up to the quality of their access points, but security has a long ways to go.
I only use UniFi Protect as a test rig, lol - I am still hesitant to give the G6 Pro Turret a try due to its steep and unnecessary price point
I am still holding onto Blue Iris as my primary - UniFi Protect adds full ONVIF support once you purchase $199 AI Port (supports only 3 ONVIF cameras at a time though) $159 during Black Friday
Nope, it's not full ONVIF support. It only uses ONVIF to get RTSP stream, and that's it. And it only supports 1 "normal" 4MP camera.
Wasn’t there a new update that enabled 1 AI Port to support 3 ONVIF cameras as long as fps was set to less than 30fps?
It's... complicated
Notice "up to" everywhere
But, basically, it only supports one 5442 4MP stream.
I have one, tested, and can confirm.
EDIT - I actually watched the video posted above and it goes into the functionality of the AI port. The AI port certainly adds some pretty cool AI functionality that arguably is unique to the Unify system (at least at this point in time). It's probably worth the cost if this is important to you. But that being said, I still believe it is a "corking" fee to use non-Unify cameras because this is all a software based solution. There is nothing preventing Unity from doing all those AI functions for non-Unify cameras without the AI port, but I bet they realize that no one would buy their cameras if all the great AI functionality was available on non-Unify cameras out of the box. Feel free to correct me if I misunderstand how this works however.
Original Message:
I'm not really familiar with the Unify system. Why does Unify even need the optional "AI ports". I feel like it is nothing but a "corking fee" that they are charging people that want to use non-Unify cameras. Aren't they simply limiting the actual capabilities of these cameras unless you pay them to "unlock" the functionality through the use of an "AI port"? Are there any unique functions that the AI port brings to the Unify system that aren't available if someone used the those cameras with a different solution like BI with their AI models?
Original Message:
I'm not really familiar with the Unify system. Why does Unify even need the optional "AI ports". I feel like it is nothing but a "corking fee" that they are charging people that want to use non-Unify cameras. Aren't they simply limiting the actual capabilities of these cameras unless you pay them to "unlock" the functionality through the use of an "AI port"? Are there any unique functions that the AI port brings to the Unify system that aren't available if someone used the those cameras with a different solution like BI with their AI models?
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My understanding is that there is fear that it might zap computing power from the aging ARM cpu onboard the UNVR/UDM Pro