Has anyone gotten these (or similar Reolink cameras like the E1 Pro) to work in Blue Iris? The stream shows initially, then disconnects and never comes back…there’s nothing wrong with the network connection, as the cameras show up fine in the Reolink local Windows app, in the web UI from the browser, etc.
I tried both Blue Iris 4 & 5 and I don’t understand what is happening. I would have posted on ipcamtalk, but it seems they have a personal vendetta there with Reolink.
It’s extremely frustrating, because they even work with the ONVIF integration in HA, but I need them to work in Blue Iris as no one seems to have figured out how to access PTZ presets via the ONVIF integration for these cameras.
I got other Reolink cameras working in Blue iris.
RLC 410 5MP both wireless and wired
But I am planning to put a E1 zoom inside my home so I might wait until you got it working
I couldn’t get them to work in Blue Iris, so I approached it from the ONVIF integration angle instead. I have been able to get movement & preset automations to work fine in the ONVIF integration, so I’ll post a Community Guide for it instead I wasn’t doing recording in Blue Iris anyway, so for recording I might just buy a Reolink NVR.
I’m active from time to time on ipcamtalk. It’s not a personal vendetta, it’s fair warning after many, many spam posts and outright lies by Reolink agents posting there. My first outdoor camera (quite some years ago now) was a Reolink, and their MJPEG compression algorithms were flakey to say the best. They often had ripping/tearing of the video, and their cameras did not allow setting the I-frame interval. All in all, a disappointing experience. Then they started spamming the forum (and it was bad). So, Reolink brought it all on themselves. At least that’s how I saw it at the time.
It’s just that a lot of the comments there seem to immediately tell people “it’s trash, the company sucks, throw it out” and I think that’s a bit much, given that you can say about a lot of technology that paying more gets you something better.
I feel that the IP camera space in general is not great, with a lot of half-implemented standards or cloud-only access or just really weird stuff (like the fact that EZViz doesn’t allow you to change their on-camera printed access credentials for the local RTSP stream).
The consensus over there seems to be “buy Hikvision or Dahua”, but even those brands have cloud-only models, for example. And even if one buys a local-only, good brand camera, I don’t think it’s 100% guaranteed that all its functions will work perfectly via HA’s official integrations. People also seem to recommend Amcrest, but I think that “Am” stands for: “Outside America? Tough shit” if you actually want to buy one.
I have Dahua cameras, because they’ve been extremely reliable and higher quality. So far, Dahua hasn’t forced any infinite boot loops on their customers (as has Hikvision). Amcrest has an interesting backstory. They were formerly Foscam USA from Houston, TX. When Foscam started selling directly in the US, the Houston company became Amcrest. They eventually got Dahua as an OEM to provide some rather high quality (much better than Foscam, IMHO) wi-fi cameras at a very good price. The hardware is Dahua, the firmware is Dahua, the API is Dahua, but the logos are silk-screened and GUI logos appear as Amcrest.
As for cloud-based devices, all vendors have them. I won’t touch them, for obvious reasons. Just don’t need IoT devices phoning home every few seconds. The exception? My Ez-Viz doorbell. It’s been pretty darned reliable.
I know this was months ago, but the only reilable way I could get Reolink E1 Zoom to work in Blue Iris was through Neolink (which I’m already using for some cheap Lumus I picked up).
ONVIF in HA works fine though. HACS has Reolink integration option which has a few more features, but otherwise seems similar in setup for PTZ controls.
I was only testing the E1 Zoom as a cheap upgrade to my old 1080p Amcrest. But I’m not happy with how poorly they integrate in Blue Iris or HA, so I’m most likely going to go with 4MP Amcrest (IP4M-1051) for indoor instead. I’ll keep the Lumus outside as they’re acceptable until I’m able to wire POE cameras in the future.
Edit: For the directly adding to BI, go to the Watchdog tab and check the box “Restart camera window after 5 timeouts”. That will help with the video dropping out. I use that with “Decoder compatibility mode” checked in config with the Lumus to keep the feed alive in BI.
Thanks a lot for the info! I have uninstalled BI for now, but when I consider recording I will definitely do this.
After a couple of months of usage, I can see why a setting like this would help, it seems like some timeouts happen (most noticeably in the Reolink Windows app), so it’s possible that BI just has a lower tolerance range for them than things like tinyCam or HA.
And yeah, wired is clearly the way to go, but I still don’t regret the purchase, going from from 720p to 5MP (+zoom and working PT in HA) for less than 200 bucks across 3 cameras is a decent deal and besides BI the cameras haven’t given me any grief since then.
I wasn’t doing recording in Blue Iris anyway, so for recording I might just buy a Reolink NVR.