re: General security camera discussion (was "Unifi Protect security cameras")

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Are you using the same coding for both cameras during these tests? (h264,265, +)

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H264 on both.

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Also, the key frame rates on the reolinks I have (RLC-520) are really low, like .25 for the substream and .5 for the main stream, so motion detection could be slow and imprecise. Did you compare motion sensing of the reolink vs unifi cameras?

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I didn't use any on-cam motion detection. I just consumed RTSP streams via zoneminder and triggered it to record both cameras at the same times.

OH! I almost forgot to mention one critically important feature. The cams themselves can only be in either Protect mode OR RTSP mode, not both at once. However, when in Protect mode and monitored by a Protect controller, you can enable RTSP on a per-cam basis within Protect. It gives you a unique RTSP URL for each camera, or even a unique URL for each of the 3 different quality streams from each camera, which you can of course consume with any 3rd party recorder or software which supports RTSP.

So while there isn't an official backup solution from Ubiquiti yet for Protect, and these systems don't officially interoperate with other systems, you can use it as a user-friendly frontend and behind it use another system to back up your footage and also run any other sort of processing or automation you want to do. There is ZERO time lag and seemingly zero impact on the CK+ cpu usage. I have ZoneMinder consuming the 1080p rtsp stream coming from the CK+, and live view in ZM next to the live view in Protect the timestamps are basically in sync. The stream ZM sees might even be a half tick ahead of Protect.


So this feature eases most of my fear/hesitation about using UniFi Protect. I get local video storage with a mostly seamless "cloud" experience, apps that are top-notch as far as ease of use, AND I can still run RTSP passthrough to a secondary NVR for backup storage or even do a second pass of motion/object/person detection with a different system.

Damn it, now I want a UDM Pro

Running Protect at 5 locations - 3 on Cloud keys and 2 on UNVRs.

The Protect on the cloud keys have gotten much better within the last 6 months from software updates. But absolute max cameras I'd run on one is 10, after that they're slow to the point of feeling buggy sometimes. Also I had a hard drive fail in 1 in less than a year. They are great as controller, but feel like a consumer product when running Protect.

The UNVRs on the other hand have been great so far. Running 4x10TB in 1 and 4x12TB in the other. Have 20 cameras running on 1 and performance has been great. Adding ~10 more cameras soon. The software was more like beta until about 2-3 months ago, but it has been very stable the last 2 months. Compared to the cloud key at $199, the UNVR runs more like it should cost $499+ without drives.

Also if you have one of the old Unifi Video NVRs, you can get $150 discount on the UNVR - Unifi Protect Promo

As far as cameras, I won't buy any more G3 bullets. Happy with the ones we already have, but now I'd go G3 Flex as budget option and G4 Bullet for the value/quality sweet spot.

I imagine you're using spinning HDD in the CK+, eh? I imagine an SSD would be less frustrating, but not sure if it's worth the extra cost.

Oh, and did you get a notification when the drive failed, or even when it started detecting errors? Or are you just left to discover no data when you need it?

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5 pack of UDM-Pros

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Ramrod and I are 2/5 the way there...

I know they added person detection for G4 cams a couple months ago, but it looks like they have recently added vehicle and possibly animal detection. Maybe that's just in the beta releases at the moment, though.

Anyway, I really like where Protect is headed, and it looks like it will be enough to make me overlook the relatively locked down ecosystem. Also I like that the G4 cameras have the horsepower for object recognition at minimum, and maybe more. That makes the cost of the cameras easier to swallow because it allows the NVR(s) to be cheaper and less powerful.

Back with another head-to-head, this time the UniFi G3 Flex (1080p/2MP, $79) vs. the Amcrest IP5M-T1179EW (5MP, $50). Subject is a picnic table with a DeWalt impact driver on top, ~30' from the cameras. Very minimal lighting, night mode on both cameras.


Amcrest


UniFi



First note that even though the Amcrest has 150% more total pixels, due to the aspect ratio it only has 35% more pixels horizontally. Combined with the slightly different FOV, the result is that the front edge of the bench measures 250 pixels across on the Amcrest and 200 pixels on the UniFi. Also, the UniFi is sending 6mbps vs 8mbps on the Amcrest. Even so, to my eye the UniFi image still looks better. Both cameras are shooting at 15fps. I realize the rotation of the camera may be playing a role given so few pixels here, but I did not want to do any processing aside from cropping so as not to distort the images. I will try to do some daytime testing tomorrow.



As to the cost of a minimal complete 4 camera system, here are a couple configurations for comparison:

UniFi Protect
G3 Flex 4 @ $79 = $316
CK+ (w/1TB) $199
8 port PoE switch $80
Total = $595

Amcrest
IP5M-T1179EW 4 @ $50 = $200
NV4108E-1TB NVR (w/1TB) $220
Total = $420


I went with the 1TB drive in the Amcrest NVR because that's what the CK+ comes with, and I went with the 8 channel Amcrest and a 3rd party 8 port PoE switch to pair with the UniFi to allow for expansion.

Obviously there are countless ways to configure a system, lots of different package deals etc., but I did this mostly for my own info as a starter kit price. So while you'll get more pixels with the Amcrest, I'm not so sure you'll get better videos. And given the UI/UX of Protect, I'd say the extra cost is worth it.

You can get a package with 4K Amcrest cameras for less than the 1080p UniFi setup above, so maybe that will be enough to push the cheaper cameras ahead. But given how little improvement I've seen going from 2MP to 5MP Amcrest, I don't really have high hopes for 8MP. If the optics and processing aren't there, the pixels are mostly wasted it seems (at night, at least).



All that said, I still like both Amcrest and Reolink. They seem to offer a lot of value at their price points, and if you want to hook up a few dozen cameras to Blue Iris or something, you could save a ton of money and gain a lot of flexibility. But if you want something that's super easy to use, captures pretty good video, and has some pretty unique features (the CK+ is an NVR barely larger than an external hard drive and powered via PoE), then think about spending a few more dollars and trying UniFi Protect. Worst case scenario, they hold value very well like all Ubiquiti products, and it'll be easy to sell.