Hassio and external NVR with cameras

Configuration
1

Hi all,
I’m planning to buy a NVR surveillance system with its own cameras.
But my question is…which things should I see in this NVR to check whether it’s compatible or not?

For example, I would like to buy one of these…What do you think?


2

This is more complicated than a yes or now (and I have no idea of those specific devices). For example, many NVR’s (or VMS’s) will provide an outbound feed (generally re-encoded)in some other format, so HA could request stills or video by a query to the NVR. Alternatively, the cameras that come with them might (or might not) themselves provide access (ONVIF/RTSP/etc) where you can pick up video from the camera ignoring the NVR. Some cameras have even more specific integration with HA (doubtfully these).

Then there is motion – you might want the NVR to detect motion and have it pass that to HA. That’s more likely to require specific integration with that NVR, specifcally (whereas the above is more generic for the video/stills).

Audio is pretty hopeless by the way, never seen any indication HA deals with it.

Another option you have is to pick a VMS (vs NVR, i.e. a software-only system to which you add cameras of your choosing – maybe even these). Software like Blue Iris then might be already integrated with HA and will make passing events like motion more easy.

To your specific question I would try searching for the brand and model by name with “Home Assistance” and see if someone has done it. If not, you will be breaking new ground, and you can do some homework on the proposed system to see if it supports output streams via some standard protocol (RTSP or ONVIR usually, possibly raw HTTP). If you see no indication it has been integrated and it doesn’t discuss any kind of queryable output formats, it is doubtful it will work.

3

Thanks Linwood, that’s the reason I’m asking.
I would like to avoid a headache, trying to get this working. So, I’m open minded to any solution I could find.

People, what kind of solutions you have?

4

Personally I built my own - old PC, and bought cameras a la carte. They tend to be more expensive that way, though often better cameras (e.g. I used 4K versions since with super wide angle lenses almost all have, you need decent resolution to make out faces). And you’ll need a POE switch. I’ve used a variety of software with them, starting with zoneminder, then milestone, then luxriot, now blue iris. Zone minder and Blue Iris integrate with Home Assistant (I’ve only read about the former, I was not using HA when I used Zoneminder).

It’s definitely likely to be more expensive this way, though you can get more flexibility, e.g. changing out the software any time you want.

5

Hello all,

@charlie663 How have you at the end of the day?

@Linwood I wanted to use MotionEye with my RSTP camera but as soon as I want higher quality feed, my swap explodes. Of course, because I use a raspberry Pi 4. So I guess, I should change my system so it would be powerful enough to handle 4 high quality RSTP cameras?

6

hi guys, first poster here, not i i.t. man but learning bit and bob’s, but service cctv so a bit more knowledge there,
for me anything i cannot get a clear manual of tech support from i dont touch for work,
if you need to integrate, i find hikvison is useful ,most have the option built in that you may need, that said my budget hi-look nvr for home, was missing onvir tick box, so could not integrate with ha,
i just fixed an error which took me a day to find, ha
onvif config said you need operators level log in, would not connect to ha to camera, found a website with onvir setup requirement page which show needs admin level, now camera connects,
maybe someone could correct this on the ha document, no clue who edits these things?
i have pasted under this text, i hope this may help . :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: good luck

A camera must be correctly configured for authentication via the ONVIF protocol to work.

Enable ONVIF

Make sure that ONVIF is enabled in the camera settings. The precise procedure for how this is done depends on the make and model of the camera.

Configure the Date and Time

The canmera’s configured date & time must not differ by more than +/- 5 seconds from the machine you’re connecting the camera to. Follow these steps to ensure that the camera date & time are configured correctly:

  1. Set the camera Time Zone to the local time zone. (e.g. GMT-8 if you’re in Seattle)
  2. Disable daylight savings time (DST) adjustments. The Network Time Protocol (NTP) will take care of this automatically.
  3. Set the NTP server to time.google.com and port 123.
  4. Synchronize the camera time to the time on your computer. The web interface usually has a button that allows you to do this.
  5. Enable the NTP service.

The end result should be that the camera’s date and time are up-to-date and that the NTP service is enabled to keep it up-to-date.

Some camera web UIs will show an incorrect/strange/nonsensical time after you’ve set the time zone to your local time zone. Do not change the time zone away from your local time zone! It must be set to the local time zone for ONVIF authentication to work.

Configure the Camera’s ONVIF User

Many cameras maintain two sets of users: one set of web users and a second (and independent) set of ONVIF users. These cameras with 2 sets of users do not automatically create an ONVIF user even when a new web user is created.

Be sure that your camera has at least one ONVIF user with administration privileges. If there aren’t any ONVIF with administration privileges, ONVIF authentication will not work.