Thank you for the brief synopsis in the beginning with no annoying intro music or telling us about your channel or begging for subscriptions before we've even watched the video. Excellent job. You are an example to how people SHOULD make videos as evidenced by your 99.4% like ratio. Good job!
I still don't like that I can't run Protect on my own hardware, but this is at least a product that more closely meets my bare minimum requirements for recommending to clients. The idea of only a single HDD on an NVR was just stupid IMO. Although, short of running Protect on my own hardware, I'd like to see an NVR with more configurable RAID levels, no cloud sync requirement, and a power button before I'd really want to recommend this. Hopefully future hardware and software revisions will address these items. It looks like whenever UBNT decides to kill off UniFi Video for good, I might actually have something to recommend.
Would be nice if the HDD in the UDM Pro could be utilized in some smart way together with the UNVR, say to save video for longer storage or to increase redundancy in the raid config
...you mean extending a RAID array over ethernet? I don't think you would really want that =D However the archiving idea is not that bad. I would definitely appreciate having the HDDs in the devices handle-able in a more flexible way, so if there is no protect running just being able to create an SMB share on it or such.
To me (!) pricing and reliability is appropriate. No fee's, no downtime by now. Some more colours would be nice, but that's done quickly (if u are a bit handy). Sure, u can have "cheaper" cameras out there, but think if they're worth it (configuration, integrating, power supply fails etc.) I'm perfectly fine with Unifi. And i (sadly) don't get paid by Unifi for saying that :D tc
This video be hitting different just 2 weeks later! Edit: Just thought of this - You should try: cat /proc/mdstat During a drive rebuild. It should show you the rebuild progress.
Hi Tom, newest firmware allows "Redundant Level" and "Hot Spare" configuration. You can choose one disk, or half of disks redundancy and enable one disk as a hot spare. Firmware v. 1.4.9
Thanks, looks very interesting. I've been warming up to the UniFi products after watching a bunch of your videos on it. Currently thinking about getting a Dream Machine Pro, this recorder, two cameras and an access point.
With only two cameras the DMP on its own is fine unless you need more capacity/redundancy. If I were doing it all over again I'd probably just get this unit and run the controller on a VM and use pfsense for the gateway. ;) I am testing a DMP board rev. 8 with 12 cameras recording continuously (10 G3 bullet, 1 G3 Flex, 1G3 micro), and using a Samsung 2bit MLC enterprise 4TB SSD for recordings. I had a 10TB skyhawk that started developing bad sectors and causing the protect service to respring every few hours. Scrubbing through the timeline is definitely faster with the SSD as to be expected. But not as slow as a CK2+ with 5TB SMR drive that we shucked either! ;)
Just note the UDMP doesn't have POE. The cameras and APs have injectors but I went with a POE switch. Also UDMP handles 8 cameras no problem but I got the NVR too just cuz 🤣
You will be very happy with your choice of hardware. I suggest adding a poe switch. Also, you may not stop at two cameras. I too started with two cameras and I now have 14. It may help to "jokingly" say to your wife that that you will want more cameras in the future. That way when she laughs at you and says "no" the idea will be bouncing around in her head and when you order an additional camera or two she wont be quite so mad at you. (Theoretically)
The cameras are ridiculously priced. There are tons of 4K and higher cameras out there, that are around $100 bucks. The system looks intriguing though. Good video, it is good for the right environment and when cost isn't a concern.
The reality is you don’t need 4K...... 1080 works just fine. If you need specific areas that might require higher resolution then you adjust for that area. 4K is just a gimmick to get you to think you need it. The reality is you don’t.
This guy is a reviewer God....I only wish more reviewers touched on major points right out of the gate. I don't often comment but kudos to you Lawrence Systems :) AND $300 is not a good deal, it's an amazing deal....compare this to BOSCH DIVAR IP all-in one 5000 at $3+grand OR $1000 for HIK's DS-9616NI-I8
I urge everyone who is considering the UNVR to go to Ubiquiti's forums, find the threads on Protect, and read through for about 5 minutes. I wouldn't deploy this thing for any mission critical situation. If you find troubleshooting endless software issues fun and rewarding, you won't find a better way to spend $300.
I finally pick one up in the recent sale using the EU store however. Will migrate from the CK2+. Probably an overkill for me but I have 3 external cameras to install, a doorbell and 3 internal G3 instants which started me on the protect path when they were nice and cheap
Thanks for the heads up at the beginning, stopped watching, I would have been interested but I’m not swapping 8 good security cameras to use this. Cheers
How many UVC‑G4‑PRO at max 4K settings does the system become too sluggish? I recall you mentioned in an earlier video that SSD is recommended for the G4 Pro when scrubbing footage.
1080p is just fine people are on this 4K band wagon for security cameras is a bit extreme. 1080p will give you nice clear shot of the system was set up correctly. Higher resolution is for those situations where you may need to read plates etc again the system should have been set up for that area to begin with.
4 роки тому+1
Great review. Conclusion: It's a great unit for the price
hm... I think I would have wanted a 2U NVR... It would allow for power button and a pair of extra drives. What I miss here is the ability to do raid6... Especially if I deployed these to provide surveillance of high value storage. Sure, two drives failing is not exactly common, but expensive enough stuff in storage could make such precaution a neceseary. Or better yet, can you run two of these in high avaliability setup? Basically doing raid51 artifficially?
It should have an option to run the controller though. And RAID options. Like RAID0. Four 16TB drives would provide nice retention. And before you say there is no redundancy there is no redundancy on all single disk NVRs too. ;) RAID5 with 16TB drives is scary too. Just be sure to use CMR drives!
They should have put 2x10G, 2x1G (for those without SFP capability) - this should then support LACP on these ports for true redundancy. It's a major oversight really, what's the point of a redundant power connection if the network is not "properly" redundant.
I need this thing to take the load of my CK2+. I swapped the drive out in that for a larger one (Chris from CrossTalk's video) but it just doesn't cut it. Separating out the camera traffic would be much better. There are still several problems here though - 1. No option to lock the drives - I am thinking a small hole + screw from the bottom or top could do the job, but that's the warranty gone 2. Concern about 'power cable removal', worse still with the power backup system they put together. It is very worrying that power needs to be pulled to bring a device back up again, that's just plain bad design. 3. Concern about 'power fail causing instant crash'. The CK2+ has a battery backup to provide controlled shutdown. In a case of 4 spinning rust RAID5 drives, surely if you have a hard power cut (UPS runs out of battery), bad stuff will happen. 4. WOL should work. Not only that, it should work from the Unifi dashboard. I know, I can just power cycle my UPS instead, but if I do end up with this plus the USP-RPS, which would need its own UPS, you have to power cycle both. That's ridiculous, as I would have to either create downtime to start up the device, or I would have to get a Unifi power plug to power cycle it, but that would need one for each circuit after the UPS. That seems a very poor idea. Worse still, I cannot do this remotely if the power fails for an extended period. The CK2+ powers back up automatically too, but that is automatic due to it being connected to my POE switch. Speed looks great, way, way better than the CK2+ with a few cameras on it. Does the SFP(+) port also support 1G? Camera traffic is typically routing at about 30 Mbit/second for the cameras I have, but then, the cameras have been tuned down to keep up. If I get this thing, they will all be set to their max FPS and resolution, plus 'always record'. The CK2+ can't hack that load without the SDN becoming highly unstable. Thanks for the video + for showing the insides, it looks like a nice compact and cleanly laid out device, and those fans could be switched out for some Noctua ones no doubt if noise becomes a concern.
I had issues after factory defaulting that the NVR would not recognize my hard drives. After clearing all partitions and re-adding, the drives were then recognized and I was able to proceed. Hopefully this saves someone a couple hours of head scratching.
If you get this, what happens to the hard drive in the dream machine pro? Does it become part of the storage pool for the NVR? What about processing for the Protect software? Does that move from the dream machine pro to the UNVR?
Lawrence Systems / PC Pickup That’s good to know. Thanks for the quick response. It’s too bad that the drive in the Dream Machine Pro is rendered useless though. Maybe they can find another use for it in the future
The lack of a power button seems like a real big miss. Even if the assumption is that the user either has a UPS or the RPS or both and would never really need to have to "power it back on" it still seems silly that you need to unplug rack mounted equipment just to power something on. I don' remember from your RPS video, but can you disable RPS for a device from within the GUI saving yourself the trouble of unplugging that connector (which honestly probably isn't meant to be unplugged and replugged over and over) I was really hoping this would support ONVIF cameras. I get why they want to keep it a closed system but they alienate a large potential buyer group who don't want to reinvest in cameras that are significantly more expensive than the most popular brands.
I purchased a bunch of UniFi stuff, UDM-Pro, 16 PoE Switch, NVR... I assume if I connect the NVR to the UDM-Pro (since the UDM-Pro also runs the protect app) do I need to manually go into the NVR's IP address and run Protect from there and adopt the devices from there, or can I launch the Protect app from the UDM-Pro and it will just kinda know the NVR is there and use that? Also, can I install drives into the NVR while it is on or should I shut it down first? I figure if I plug it in with no drives installed yet that won't be an issue?
Old video (haven't watched yet) but came up with my search, my question : can I use my udm-p/se as the protect "controller" and have it store the data/video on my unraid or truenas nas? Or do you HAVE to use their multidrive nvr devices?
Great review. I've read some things about UI using a USB flash drive inside the unit (that's glued) and their failures. Does anyone know if they have changed the design to get rid of those generic flash drives instead of using SSD's?
1 year later after Unifi RPS, Unifi launched Unifi: Network redundancy. They will sell you many UPS (Redundant Power System Pro), basic switch with ups (mission critical) , power cycle device (smart power control)… Would be nice if they announced a solar panel controlled by their software to charge the batteries 🔋 😅
How does the UNVR work with the UDM-Pro? When you adopt the UNVR does the UDM-Pro just use the UNVR instead for the DVR? With Protect if you want a TV/Monitor to continuously display a feed from one or a group of cameras how would you accomplish that?
Have you installed many of these and, if so, are you having issues? I have installed six of them and have had to factory reset some of them, they work for a while and then go offline on the mobile app, sometimes can't log into the web UI, not any one but all six have these issues.
I'm considering using the WD 8TB WD Purple Surveillance Internal Hard Drives for this system. Is that something you would recommend? We presently have about 30 cameras spread over 3 Gen2+ Cloud keys and would like to consolidate to one recorder. Also if we switch from our present CK's to this recorder to you perceive any adoption issues or other tricks that might be helpful in bringing over the cameras to this system?
Great review... as always. It's a great product, especially now it seems to have more oomph to support more camera's. Can I ask how you connected this to your system, 1 Gig Ethernet or 10 Gig SPF+? Also how easy is it to swap from the CK to this product and can you transfer camera and zone settings? On one final note, my current system supports PIR as well as plain Motion Detection, I needed this due to living on a bust main road opposite an Industrial park. In winter on rainy days the truck headlight reflections on the wet roads would trigger false alarms, I wonder if there is any scope for this tech here?
Thanks for this review. It wasn't clear to me if the unit would restart itself after a normal power failure (assume no UPS). If a storm kills power for a few minutes, will the NVR start back up and be recording again when power returns, or does the user need to go manually do something?
What does everyone use for their home security? (for a homelab type person) I'd be looking for something that is more open and could be used with any PoE camera. Ideally I'd like to use something that can be pointed at FreeNAS storage or even run on a FreeNAS server. Thanks.
I have run BlueIris software for a couple of years now. It supports pretty much any camera hardware. But you do need a pc to run it. I run it in vmware, it is rock solid and very powerful for motion detection tweaking.
Just got my NVRPro and 7 16TB Segate AI drives today. Currently using a NVR with 4 of the same drives. Have you tried moving from a NVR to NVRPro? Wondering if I can restore the pro with a backup file, use the original 4 drives with 3 new ones and keep my video history. Currently running 32 g3 cameras always recording with motion detection and smart detection on. I’m getting about 60 days of storage now and need at least 90 along with adding a few cameras soon.
Thanks for the video Tom, just left this message on Chris at the crosstalk sol video. I can't give it a static IP, to run it through a separate VLAN. Won't allow me to change from the UI? I run it through a 10G link to an agg. switch. All Unifi agg., UDMP 28poe gen 2 and 48 gen 2...? Any ideas?
As far as video file retrievals, what if you attached a HD to an external USB docking station? Will you see the HD with all the video files (.mp4) or some proprietary file system that only UNVR can read.
So, we have a 48 port pro switch about 20 cameras, 2 AP's and a cloud key gen 2+. How can we make this work and still be able to manage all devices via could on our phones computers and etc. Can we still keep the cloud key and use this at the same time? If you remove the cloud key, can protect still be accessed on your phone remotely? Is there a limit for HD size that can be used? for example, can we use 4-8TB HDs? Thanks
I would like to know this too since I'm currently using the Cloud Key Gen2+ Protect with Harddisk. Can the UNVR coexist with this? Or what is the migration step needed to get Protect to stop using the Cloud Key Gen2+'s Harddisk for the UNVR's harddisks?
There is some info about this here: community.ui.com/questions/UNVR-Integration-with-the-UDM-Pro/e8b4d586-7a98-438d-8ab7-fb972e462edc Looks like you can export/download the backup from Protect and then import it on UNVR. Then you need to stop the Protect service in your CKG2+ controller settings. I think it may be possible to have both the CKG2+ and UNVR working but I'm guessing they will show up as 2 different instances. I suppose you can choose to leave some cameras on the CKG2+ and have other cameras using UNVR. I plan to completely migrate over to UNVR once it arrives.
Hi Lawrence. Thank you for the video. I'm looking to build a 130 camera system using unifi. Is it possible to link three of the UNVR video together using protect
Something that I've been unable to find out is this: Is THIS device (along w/cameras) all you need in order to use the software and cameras (including the hard drives)? Do you simply plug an ethernet cable into the back of the NVR and the other end of the cable into a switch and you're all set to start connecting cameras?
SO then NVR will some point transcoding stream for any extra UFP-VIEWPORT(some like plex server). Somebody have any idea how much extra CPU/GPU is consuming for one, two or four UFP-VIEWPORT? Do LTS UNVR will handle 9 FULLHD cams and 4 UFP-VIEWPORT in 25/30fs?
Cool video! If I start using the system with 2 drives (It automatically sets up Raid 1) and then add additional drives later, does it include the new drive/s and configure to RAID 5 automatically?
What is the fan noise like with this unit? I know they are different from the first generation switches which were really loud and was recommended to switch out with the Noctua NF-A4x20. I did this on both of my switches and they run cool and silent. I am just wondering if these will be as quiet with stock or they need the upgrade as well. Any input is greatly appreciated!
Does it cycle over once the disks reach capacity (combined capacity after RAID)? After all, we only want to keep the latest time window of say 30 days.
Can you replace existing drives with larger drives and preserve recorded history? Replace a drive at a time like a Drobo?? OR Do you have to Start a fresh RAID?
Hi, thank you for your helpful videos. I have a UNVR that I did a physical hard reset and now it is stuck. The status light stays solid white. No hard drive light activity. Green Ethernet lights blinking but I can’t locate it on the network. Have used numerous discovery tools and nothing. Holding the reset button now does nothing. The fans in the back are running. Any help at all is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
How is the difference between running protect on unvr vs udm pro ? I know obviosuly the 4 bay vs 1 bay, but other than the storage and raid, is one faster than the other ?
I'm looking to use this system to protect my home since I have poor internet speeds in my area. DSL 5Mbps down and less than 1 up. I know you say this requires internet to work but will it still work with my speeds?
Hi guys, I'm not a network guy so I don't know much about networking. I'm buying a house and want to use a cameras without online subscriptions and have considered the ubiquiti cameras and UNVR. For hooking this up to my home, would I just plug an ethernet from my router into the rear of the unvr to get it to work?
I have a Cloud key gen 2 and want to install UNVR UniFi Protect NVR on my network. Will the system expand to use this storage atomically. Does it mean I have to take the cloud key gen 2 off my system. I am going to have 8 cameras and thinking of adding this rather than upgrading my cloud key gen 2 hard drive. Thank you for your time.
Kinda disappointed that this doesn't support raid6. It's not super important, but nice to have on a security system, and something I would expect at this price point.
I have been thinking about upgrading my network at home with the Unibiquiti Pro dream machine. I like the DVR option (1 drive only thought) on that device. Would it be better to get the ubiquit dream machine and this UNVR as an overall system? Thx in Advance
It comes down to money. dmpro is a great all in one device. But as you say no redundancy if a drive fails. Which it will. UNVR chassis is cheap. The drives soon add up, that's where the cost is.
@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS Thank you, Now this made my future home network that much harder to configure! seems like almost a waste of money to get the UDMP if I don't use the Protect built into it. But 1 HHD isn't enough for the recording of 5-6 cameras.
@@craigkautz431 I currently have the CK2+, will get the NVR once it is more available (i.e. when I get to the US and buy it for normal pricing). I am waiting for the standalone firewall which will be like the UDMP but with a separate controller option allowed. Then, the CK2+ will probably be set up and shipped for use at my parent's place instead to replace their very old CK generation 1. I may throw a couple of cameras on it for them there, but you can probably find a good use for it. The UDMP has the benefit of having the all-in-one other than POE switch. That said, that is also the disadvantage. 1 HDD is plenty for 5-6 cameras. The CK2+ I have currently runs 9 cameras, be it FHD not 4k. It is a bit sluggish when scrubbing and I had to drop the rate a little, but a 3.5" 7200rpm non-shingle drive should be just fine, or an SSD. I'm sure the SSD would massively boost performance, but you may need to replace the drive a bit more often. One thing that you can do that might save you some $$ - when you get the NVR, buy the same drive model (assuming not shingle) and add those to the NVR, removing the original from the UDMP. That way, you don't have as much of a loss and you can use the UDMP for the rest.
If you use the NVR with the UDM-Pro, will the interface to access Protect be through the usual UDM side or would you go straight to the NVR? Have a client with a 1st gen CK and USG-Pro I’m looking at possible upgrades. They need a few cameras now but might need more in the future.
Question: Does it really matter if you install this horizontal or vertical? It is more a question of the hard drives, spinning hard drives? I have a small space and was planning to install this vertically, eventually with the UXG when it comes out. Sorry if this is a dumb question.
Lots of new stuff from Ubiquiti. I was looking to get a Cloud Key 2, but then the Dream Machine Pro was released. Now this NVR. So, my question is, not counting RAID, at what point would I want to get the NVR over running Protect on the Dream Machine Pro? I suppose this is why they didn't use that extra space on the Dream Machine Pro for a second hard drive. It would hurt NVR sales.
Redundancy / High Availability is a big driver to go UNVR. Or of 14TB isn't enough for the camera setup you need more storage. Yeah I wish they had done RAID1 in the DMP.
Hey, have you seen all the latest issues with unifi protect and the lack of interest for ubiquit to fix it? Forms are filled with issues, won't even tell us how to roll back. Cctv systems are critical and ubiquit don't seem to care at all
@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS it's a debian system, apt install rysnc, bobs ur uncle.. but yeah... official ways are a tad shite... i guess that's why they're enterprise equipment... so we can do sysadmin stuff if needed :D.
Here is what I don’t understand. I have this device and one of the Unifi gen2 phones; however, I can’t use the phone because Unifi talk is not available on the UNVR. (WTF), but it’s available is I purchased a cloud key gen 2 with a silly single 2.5 drive or a Dream machine pro. The UNVR cost more than the CK gen2, takes bigger drives doubled the quantity and Ubiquity thinks this doesn’t qualify for Unifi talk. Wow! Also, my Gen 2 phone doesn’t allow and or have PBX capability.
Looks like a great system but the price on the cameras are ridiculous compared to other brands that are just much better in many ways and cost about half the price
No, this is an entirely seperate system. dunno if importing the ck2+ data is made easy onto this device, but i beleve there is no way. So it would be from scratch. AFAIK
Jean-Pierre White Does this need to be adopted in the main UniFi controller? I have a second CK2+ on a separate VLAN just running protect (no controller). I would like to keep this configuration and am hoping this will work similar and just replace the CK2+. I don’t want to route the camera traffic through my USG.
I'd like to know more about the expandability and if they're going to allow you to use it as a Nas if you already have protect on a udm pro for example
@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS right, but a) in the description on the website it seems to infer that you'll be able to buy multiples of these and they'll act as one, and b) if that is the case, then one of these should just act as a NAS for another protect install elsewhere, be it another NVR4 or a udm pro
I installed 4 6TB drives and thought I could configure 2x raid-1 configuration (12 TB raid-1) and instead it configured all 4 drives as raid-5. Any idea as how to enable the raid-1 configuration settings?
That intro with all those important points early is such an honest and honestly different approach. Kinda the reason stay and watch.
Makes me want to stay
Thank you for the brief synopsis in the beginning with no annoying intro music or telling us about your channel or begging for subscriptions before we've even watched the video. Excellent job. You are an example to how people SHOULD make videos as evidenced by your 99.4% like ratio. Good job!
Thanks
I still don't like that I can't run Protect on my own hardware, but this is at least a product that more closely meets my bare minimum requirements for recommending to clients. The idea of only a single HDD on an NVR was just stupid IMO. Although, short of running Protect on my own hardware, I'd like to see an NVR with more configurable RAID levels, no cloud sync requirement, and a power button before I'd really want to recommend this. Hopefully future hardware and software revisions will address these items.
It looks like whenever UBNT decides to kill off UniFi Video for good, I might actually have something to recommend.
Would be nice if the HDD in the UDM Pro could be utilized in some smart way together with the UNVR, say to save video for longer storage or to increase redundancy in the raid config
...you mean extending a RAID array over ethernet? I don't think you would really want that =D
However the archiving idea is not that bad. I would definitely appreciate having the HDDs in the devices handle-able in a more flexible way, so if there is no protect running just being able to create an SMB share on it or such.
always a pleasure listening to your reviews, unbiased and professional, thanks!
When their camera pricing is more reasonable and they have basic ML for motion detection Im all in!
What's your opinion on the G3 Flex? It's around $80
@@Equinox2021 For 1080p cameras, I like them very much, not expensive at all
To me (!) pricing and
reliability is appropriate. No fee's, no downtime by now. Some more colours would be nice, but that's done quickly (if u are a bit handy).
Sure, u can have "cheaper" cameras out there, but think if they're worth it (configuration, integrating, power supply fails etc.)
I'm perfectly fine with Unifi. And i (sadly) don't get paid by Unifi for saying that :D
tc
This video be hitting different just 2 weeks later!
Edit: Just thought of this -
You should try: cat /proc/mdstat
During a drive rebuild. It should show you the rebuild progress.
Hi Tom, newest firmware allows "Redundant Level" and "Hot Spare" configuration. You can choose one disk, or half of disks redundancy and enable one disk as a hot spare. Firmware v. 1.4.9
We just bought 4 Unifi cameras and ran the software on a Dell server (old R710) running Ubuntu 20.04. Works great!
Wait. What? You can install Protect on your own hardware just like Unifi?
@@jzawodn He is likely using Unifi Video
Ease of use has been a huge selling point for my clients, they all seem to love the UI and app.
Thanks, looks very interesting. I've been warming up to the UniFi products after watching a bunch of your videos on it. Currently thinking about getting a Dream Machine Pro, this recorder, two cameras and an access point.
With only two cameras the DMP on its own is fine unless you need more capacity/redundancy. If I were doing it all over again I'd probably just get this unit and run the controller on a VM and use pfsense for the gateway. ;)
I am testing a DMP board rev. 8 with 12 cameras recording continuously (10 G3 bullet, 1 G3 Flex, 1G3 micro), and using a Samsung 2bit MLC enterprise 4TB SSD for recordings. I had a 10TB skyhawk that started developing bad sectors and causing the protect service to respring every few hours. Scrubbing through the timeline is definitely faster with the SSD as to be expected. But not as slow as a CK2+ with 5TB SMR drive that we shucked either! ;)
Just note the UDMP doesn't have POE. The cameras and APs have injectors but I went with a POE switch. Also UDMP handles 8 cameras no problem but I got the NVR too just cuz 🤣
You will be very happy with your choice of hardware. I suggest adding a poe switch. Also, you may not stop at two cameras. I too started with two cameras and I now have 14. It may help to "jokingly" say to your wife that that you will want more cameras in the future. That way when she laughs at you and says "no" the idea will be bouncing around in her head and when you order an additional camera or two she wont be quite so mad at you. (Theoretically)
The cameras are ridiculously priced. There are tons of 4K and higher cameras out there, that are around $100 bucks. The system looks intriguing though. Good video, it is good for the right environment and when cost isn't a concern.
The reality is you don’t need 4K...... 1080 works just fine. If you need specific areas that might require higher resolution then you adjust for that area. 4K is just a gimmick to get you to think you need it. The reality is you don’t.
Tom, could you explain/do a video on how to migrate from the cloudkey gen2 plus to this new NVR?
This right here!
Great product review! complete, in-depth, some testing, what more can we ask for? Great video!
This guy is a reviewer God....I only wish more reviewers touched on major points right out of the gate. I don't often comment but kudos to you Lawrence Systems :) AND $300 is not a good deal, it's an amazing deal....compare this to BOSCH DIVAR IP all-in one 5000 at $3+grand OR $1000 for HIK's DS-9616NI-I8
I urge everyone who is considering the UNVR to go to Ubiquiti's forums, find the threads on Protect, and read through for about 5 minutes. I wouldn't deploy this thing for any mission critical situation. If you find troubleshooting endless software issues fun and rewarding, you won't find a better way to spend $300.
I finally pick one up in the recent sale using the EU store however. Will migrate from the CK2+. Probably an overkill for me but I have 3 external cameras to install, a doorbell and 3 internal G3 instants which started me on the protect path when they were nice and cheap
You can check the Raid rebuild status by connecting through SSH to the UNVR and running the command "cat/ proc/ mdstat"
Thanks for the heads up at the beginning, stopped watching, I would have been interested but I’m not swapping 8 good security cameras to use this. Cheers
Informative Video Tom... I ordered mine last night.... Thanks
You can apt install unifi access, led etc and it will add to the apps screen.
I'm loving mine so far!
Same here @GrassDaddy
How many UVC‑G4‑PRO at max 4K settings does the system become too sluggish? I recall you mentioned in an earlier video that SSD is recommended for the G4 Pro when scrubbing footage.
I believe Ubiquiti states 10 of the 4K G4 Pro’s for this UNVR system.
Site says up to 15 4K cameras
1080p is just fine people are on this 4K band wagon for security cameras is a bit extreme. 1080p will give you nice clear shot of the system was set up correctly. Higher resolution is for those situations where you may need to read plates etc again the system should have been set up for that area to begin with.
Great review. Conclusion: It's a great unit for the price
hm... I think I would have wanted a 2U NVR... It would allow for power button and a pair of extra drives. What I miss here is the ability to do raid6... Especially if I deployed these to provide surveillance of high value storage. Sure, two drives failing is not exactly common, but expensive enough stuff in storage could make such precaution a neceseary. Or better yet, can you run two of these in high avaliability setup? Basically doing raid51 artifficially?
It should have an option to run the controller though. And RAID options. Like RAID0. Four 16TB drives would provide nice retention. And before you say there is no redundancy there is no redundancy on all single disk NVRs too. ;) RAID5 with 16TB drives is scary too. Just be sure to use CMR drives!
They should have put 2x10G, 2x1G (for those without SFP capability) - this should then support LACP on these ports for true redundancy.
It's a major oversight really, what's the point of a redundant power connection if the network is not "properly" redundant.
I need this thing to take the load of my CK2+. I swapped the drive out in that for a larger one (Chris from CrossTalk's video) but it just doesn't cut it. Separating out the camera traffic would be much better.
There are still several problems here though -
1. No option to lock the drives - I am thinking a small hole + screw from the bottom or top could do the job, but that's the warranty gone
2. Concern about 'power cable removal', worse still with the power backup system they put together. It is very worrying that power needs to be pulled to bring a device back up again, that's just plain bad design.
3. Concern about 'power fail causing instant crash'. The CK2+ has a battery backup to provide controlled shutdown. In a case of 4 spinning rust RAID5 drives, surely if you have a hard power cut (UPS runs out of battery), bad stuff will happen.
4. WOL should work. Not only that, it should work from the Unifi dashboard. I know, I can just power cycle my UPS instead, but if I do end up with this plus the USP-RPS, which would need its own UPS, you have to power cycle both. That's ridiculous, as I would have to either create downtime to start up the device, or I would have to get a Unifi power plug to power cycle it, but that would need one for each circuit after the UPS. That seems a very poor idea. Worse still, I cannot do this remotely if the power fails for an extended period. The CK2+ powers back up automatically too, but that is automatic due to it being connected to my POE switch.
Speed looks great, way, way better than the CK2+ with a few cameras on it.
Does the SFP(+) port also support 1G? Camera traffic is typically routing at about 30 Mbit/second for the cameras I have, but then, the cameras have been tuned down to keep up. If I get this thing, they will all be set to their max FPS and resolution, plus 'always record'. The CK2+ can't hack that load without the SDN becoming highly unstable.
Thanks for the video + for showing the insides, it looks like a nice compact and cleanly laid out device, and those fans could be switched out for some Noctua ones no doubt if noise becomes a concern.
I'm with u buddy
I had issues after factory defaulting that the NVR would not recognize my hard drives. After clearing all partitions and re-adding, the drives were then recognized and I was able to proceed. Hopefully this saves someone a couple hours of head scratching.
Good pro tip. Thx.
Man, i would love a UniFi NAS and have it work in a bit of the same manner!
If you get this, what happens to the hard drive in the dream machine pro? Does it become part of the storage pool for the NVR? What about processing for the Protect software? Does that move from the dream machine pro to the UNVR?
you use either one, not both.
Lawrence Systems / PC Pickup That’s good to know. Thanks for the quick response. It’s too bad that the drive in the Dream Machine Pro is rendered useless though. Maybe they can find another use for it in the future
30 seconds in and every question I had been searching for was answered. Darn Amcrest NVR sucks, need a replacement.
When i put a hard drive into my UDM-Pro, it says their was issues booting lol. But i formatted the drive to ntfs and it worked.
Great, been waiting for this review!
Great Video! Could you dive some into details of user management please?
The lack of a power button seems like a real big miss. Even if the assumption is that the user either has a UPS or the RPS or both and would never really need to have to "power it back on" it still seems silly that you need to unplug rack mounted equipment just to power something on. I don' remember from your RPS video, but can you disable RPS for a device from within the GUI saving yourself the trouble of unplugging that connector (which honestly probably isn't meant to be unplugged and replugged over and over)
I was really hoping this would support ONVIF cameras. I get why they want to keep it a closed system but they alienate a large potential buyer group who don't want to reinvest in cameras that are significantly more expensive than the most popular brands.
7:25 sounds like you need to buy the USP-PDU-Pro 😄
I purchased a bunch of UniFi stuff, UDM-Pro, 16 PoE Switch, NVR... I assume if I connect the NVR to the UDM-Pro (since the UDM-Pro also runs the protect app) do I need to manually go into the NVR's IP address and run Protect from there and adopt the devices from there, or can I launch the Protect app from the UDM-Pro and it will just kinda know the NVR is there and use that?
Also, can I install drives into the NVR while it is on or should I shut it down first? I figure if I plug it in with no drives installed yet that won't be an issue?
Old video (haven't watched yet) but came up with my search, my question : can I use my udm-p/se as the protect "controller" and have it store the data/video on my unraid or truenas nas? Or do you HAVE to use their multidrive nvr devices?
How does this work with a CloudKey Gen 2 Plus? Is this a plug and play NVR?
Great review. I've read some things about UI using a USB flash drive inside the unit (that's glued) and their failures. Does anyone know if they have changed the design to get rid of those generic flash drives instead of using SSD's?
1 year later after Unifi RPS, Unifi launched Unifi: Network redundancy.
They will sell you many UPS (Redundant
Power System Pro), basic switch with ups (mission critical) , power cycle device (smart power control)…
Would be nice if they announced a solar panel controlled by their software to charge the batteries 🔋 😅
How does the UNVR work with the UDM-Pro? When you adopt the UNVR does the UDM-Pro just use the UNVR instead for the DVR?
With Protect if you want a TV/Monitor to continuously display a feed from one or a group of cameras how would you accomplish that?
Wonder if you cam use the SPF+ as uplink and out to switch on the RJ45
The way the main board in this device is setup, it can not physically do this. So no.
Have you installed many of these and, if so, are you having issues? I have installed six of them and have had to factory reset some of them, they work for a while and then go offline on the mobile app, sometimes can't log into the web UI, not any one but all six have these issues.
I'm considering using the WD 8TB WD Purple Surveillance Internal Hard Drives for this system. Is that something you would recommend? We presently have about 30 cameras spread over 3 Gen2+ Cloud keys and would like to consolidate to one recorder. Also if we switch from our present CK's to this recorder to you perceive any adoption issues or other tricks that might be helpful in bringing over the cameras to this system?
Great review... as always. It's a great product, especially now it seems to have more oomph to support more camera's.
Can I ask how you connected this to your system, 1 Gig Ethernet or 10 Gig SPF+? Also how easy is it to swap from the CK to this product and can you transfer camera and zone settings?
On one final note, my current system supports PIR as well as plain Motion Detection, I needed this due to living on a bust main road opposite an Industrial park. In winter on rainy days the truck headlight reflections on the wet roads would trigger false alarms, I wonder if there is any scope for this tech here?
Thanks for this review. It wasn't clear to me if the unit would restart itself after a normal power failure (assume no UPS). If a storm kills power for a few minutes, will the NVR start back up and be recording again when power returns, or does the user need to go manually do something?
What does everyone use for their home security? (for a homelab type person)
I'd be looking for something that is more open and could be used with any PoE camera. Ideally I'd like to use something that can be pointed at FreeNAS storage or even run on a FreeNAS server.
Thanks.
I have run BlueIris software for a couple of years now. It supports pretty much any camera hardware. But you do need a pc to run it. I run it in vmware, it is rock solid and very powerful for motion detection tweaking.
Just got my NVRPro and 7 16TB Segate AI drives today. Currently using a NVR with 4 of the same drives. Have you tried moving from a NVR to NVRPro? Wondering if I can restore the pro with a backup file, use the original 4 drives with 3 new ones and keep my video history. Currently running 32 g3 cameras always recording with motion detection and smart detection on. I’m getting about 60 days of storage now and need at least 90 along with adding a few cameras soon.
Thanks for the video Tom, just left this message on Chris at the crosstalk sol video. I can't give it a static IP, to run it through a separate VLAN. Won't allow me to change from the UI? I run it through a 10G link to an agg. switch. All Unifi agg., UDMP 28poe gen 2 and 48 gen 2...? Any ideas?
As far as video file retrievals, what if you attached a HD to an external USB docking station? Will you see the HD with all the video files (.mp4) or some proprietary file system that only UNVR can read.
So, we have a 48 port pro switch about 20 cameras, 2 AP's and a cloud key gen 2+. How can we make this work and still be able to manage all devices via could on our phones computers and etc. Can we still keep the cloud key and use this at the same time? If you remove the cloud key, can protect still be accessed on your phone remotely? Is there a limit for HD size that can be used? for example, can we use 4-8TB HDs?
Thanks
I would like to know this too since I'm currently using the Cloud Key Gen2+ Protect with Harddisk. Can the UNVR coexist with this? Or what is the migration step needed to get Protect to stop using the Cloud Key Gen2+'s Harddisk for the UNVR's harddisks?
There is some info about this here: community.ui.com/questions/UNVR-Integration-with-the-UDM-Pro/e8b4d586-7a98-438d-8ab7-fb972e462edc
Looks like you can export/download the backup from Protect and then import it on UNVR. Then you need to stop the Protect service in your CKG2+ controller settings.
I think it may be possible to have both the CKG2+ and UNVR working but I'm guessing they will show up as 2 different instances. I suppose you can choose to leave some cameras on the CKG2+ and have other cameras using UNVR. I plan to completely migrate over to UNVR once it arrives.
Hi Lawrence. Thank you for the video. I'm looking to build a 130 camera system using unifi. Is it possible to link three of the UNVR video together using protect
Did you check that maybe you can power it up via Wake-On-Lan after you powered it down?
Something that I've been unable to find out is this: Is THIS device (along w/cameras) all you need in order to use the software and cameras (including the hard drives)? Do you simply plug an ethernet cable into the back of the NVR and the other end of the cable into a switch and you're all set to start connecting cameras?
What needs to be done to migrate it from the old style NVR or do we need to reset/reconfigure each camera?
Can you setup Ubiquiti UFP-VIEWPORT to stream "video" from this software/device LTS UNVR?
Yes. Watch Toms video on the “Magic Video Tube” aka the UFP-VIEWPORT. It links up in UniFi and pulls camera streams from the protect NVR.
SO then NVR will some point transcoding stream for any extra UFP-VIEWPORT(some like plex server). Somebody have any idea how much extra CPU/GPU is consuming for one, two or four UFP-VIEWPORT? Do LTS UNVR will handle 9 FULLHD cams and 4 UFP-VIEWPORT in 25/30fs?
abbaaabcc abbaaabcc maybe you should contact lts.
This aged well given we now have OVif support. Appreciate the review though.
This video is about 5 years old. I would say that is a long time for something in tech to stay relevant.
Cool video! If I start using the system with 2 drives (It automatically sets up Raid 1) and then add additional drives later, does it include the new drive/s and configure to RAID 5 automatically?
What is the fan noise like with this unit? I know they are different from the first generation switches which were really loud and was recommended to switch out with the Noctua NF-A4x20. I did this on both of my switches and they run cool and silent. I am just wondering if these will be as quiet with stock or they need the upgrade as well. Any input is greatly appreciated!
Does it cycle over once the disks reach capacity (combined capacity after RAID)? After all, we only want to keep the latest time window of say 30 days.
Can you replace existing drives with larger drives and preserve recorded history? Replace a drive at a time like a Drobo?? OR Do you have to Start a fresh RAID?
They should have put a screw on the inside to lock the sled in place to secure the drives a bit more if needed.
Yeah you could easily bump into one of the sled doors and have it pop open.
Hi, thank you for your helpful videos. I have a UNVR that I did a physical hard reset and now it is stuck. The status light stays solid white. No hard drive light activity. Green Ethernet lights blinking but I can’t locate it on the network. Have used numerous discovery tools and nothing. Holding the reset button now does nothing. The fans in the back are running. Any help at all is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
How is the difference between running protect on unvr vs udm pro ? I know obviosuly the 4 bay vs 1 bay, but other than the storage and raid, is one faster than the other ?
Does anyone know if you can use a UniFi Cloud Key Gen 1 to manage this and the cameras and remote connect to both?
No. Protect software is separate to Unifi.
I'm looking to use this system to protect my home since I have poor internet speeds in my area. DSL 5Mbps down and less than 1 up. I know you say this requires internet to work but will it still work with my speeds?
Hi guys, I'm not a network guy so I don't know much about networking. I'm buying a house and want to use a cameras without online subscriptions and have considered the ubiquiti cameras and UNVR.
For hooking this up to my home, would I just plug an ethernet from my router into the rear of the unvr to get it to work?
I have a Cloud key gen 2 and want to install UNVR UniFi Protect NVR on my network. Will the system expand to use this storage atomically. Does it mean I have to take the cloud key gen 2 off my system. I am going to have 8 cameras and thinking of adding this rather than upgrading my cloud key gen 2 hard drive. Thank you for your time.
What extension are you using to make your URL/search bar change colors?
Kinda disappointed that this doesn't support raid6. It's not super important, but nice to have on a security system, and something I would expect at this price point.
I have been thinking about upgrading my network at home with the Unibiquiti Pro dream machine. I like the DVR option (1 drive only thought) on that device. Would it be better to get the ubiquit dream machine and this UNVR as an overall system? Thx in Advance
It comes down to money.
dmpro is a great all in one device. But as you say no redundancy if a drive fails. Which it will.
UNVR chassis is cheap. The drives soon add up, that's where the cost is.
If you have a UDMP and this how does that work? That would be two protect systems running. Can you redirect udmp to only use nvr?
you use either one, not both.
@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS Thank you, Now this made my future home network that much harder to configure! seems like almost a waste of money to get the UDMP if I don't use the Protect built into it. But 1 HHD isn't enough for the recording of 5-6 cameras.
@@craigkautz431 I currently have the CK2+, will get the NVR once it is more available (i.e. when I get to the US and buy it for normal pricing). I am waiting for the standalone firewall which will be like the UDMP but with a separate controller option allowed. Then, the CK2+ will probably be set up and shipped for use at my parent's place instead to replace their very old CK generation 1. I may throw a couple of cameras on it for them there, but you can probably find a good use for it. The UDMP has the benefit of having the all-in-one other than POE switch. That said, that is also the disadvantage. 1 HDD is plenty for 5-6 cameras. The CK2+ I have currently runs 9 cameras, be it FHD not 4k. It is a bit sluggish when scrubbing and I had to drop the rate a little, but a 3.5" 7200rpm non-shingle drive should be just fine, or an SSD. I'm sure the SSD would massively boost performance, but you may need to replace the drive a bit more often.
One thing that you can do that might save you some $$ - when you get the NVR, buy the same drive model (assuming not shingle) and add those to the NVR, removing the original from the UDMP. That way, you don't have as much of a loss and you can use the UDMP for the rest.
If you use the NVR with the UDM-Pro, will the interface to access Protect be through the usual UDM side or would you go straight to the NVR? Have a client with a 1st gen CK and USG-Pro I’m looking at possible upgrades. They need a few cameras now but might need more in the future.
@@craigkautz431 DMP can take a 14TB Seagate drive. More than enough for 6 cameras.
Question: Does it really matter if you install this horizontal or vertical? It is more a question of the hard drives, spinning hard drives? I have a small space and was planning to install this vertically, eventually with the UXG when it comes out. Sorry if this is a dumb question.
As long as it is secure and won't move there should be no problem.
Unifi protect vs Synology NVR? Which you prefer?
Lots of new stuff from Ubiquiti. I was looking to get a Cloud Key 2, but then the Dream Machine Pro was released. Now this NVR. So, my question is, not counting RAID, at what point would I want to get the NVR over running Protect on the Dream Machine Pro? I suppose this is why they didn't use that extra space on the Dream Machine Pro for a second hard drive. It would hurt NVR sales.
Redundancy / High Availability is a big driver to go UNVR. Or of 14TB isn't enough for the camera setup you need more storage.
Yeah I wish they had done RAID1 in the DMP.
hi can you put in higher capacity drives
Also is it possible to have two NVR's combined in someway?
thanks
Hey, have you seen all the latest issues with unifi protect and the lack of interest for ubiquit to fix it?
Forms are filled with issues, won't even tell us how to roll back.
Cctv systems are critical and ubiquit don't seem to care at all
Unifi Protect just isn't there when compared to products like Hikvision, which are much cheaper but miles ahead in terms of cameras and features
Could you rsync off the videos over ssh as a way to easily export in bulk?
There is no official way to do that.
@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS it's a debian system, apt install rysnc, bobs ur uncle.. but yeah... official ways are a tad shite... i guess that's why they're enterprise equipment... so we can do sysadmin stuff if needed :D.
I wonder if you could use this in conjunction with the UniFi Smart Power Plug to help power the unit on and off.
I think you may need to go back and see the purpose of the smart plug
hello, do you need the cloud key to view it remotely on a cell phone through the protect app ? thank you
Does it correctly use SSD cache if I put in enterprise drives?
If you put in two drives, I wonder if the device sets them up in RAID 1, or does it only do RAID 5?
Here is what I don’t understand. I have this device and one of the Unifi gen2 phones; however, I can’t use the phone because Unifi talk is not available on the UNVR. (WTF), but it’s available is I purchased a cloud key gen 2 with a silly single 2.5 drive or a Dream machine pro. The UNVR cost more than the CK gen2, takes bigger drives doubled the quantity and Ubiquity thinks this doesn’t qualify for Unifi talk. Wow! Also, my Gen 2 phone doesn’t allow and or have PBX capability.
Is this product (UNVR) a requirement to use Unifi cameras? Is there no way to use the controller as usual and decide where all the data is saved?
Looks like a great system but the price on the cameras are ridiculous compared to other brands that are just much better in many ways and cost about half the price
It’s supported Dahua Ip camera ?
Can you use this with the udm pro
If I have a CKG2+ currently running protect so I am guessing then that I would turn off Protect on it and simply use it on this device?
You can certainly do that. You can also sell the CK2+ and host your controller on a VM, Amazon, et al. ;)
If you have the Cloud Key Gen 2 Plus can this be an add on accessories to obtain additional space?
No, this is an entirely seperate system. dunno if importing the ck2+ data is made easy onto this device, but i beleve there is no way. So it would be from scratch. AFAIK
What about power consumption? CloudKey Gen2 Plus can work with 7 W with included HDD...
ubiquiti unvr 4 vs unifi cloud key plus gen 2? Do you need the cloud key plus with the unvr?
No. Cloud key is for network management. You could have one but don't need one.
UNVR is a stand alone NVR system.
Jean-Pierre White Does this need to be adopted in the main UniFi controller? I have a second CK2+ on a separate VLAN just running protect (no controller). I would like to keep this configuration and am hoping this will work similar and just replace the CK2+. I don’t want to route the camera traffic through my USG.
@@jb73955 No Protect is stand alone. It is not adopted and managed by unifi.
Jean-Pierre White Thank you so much for the quick reply!
How did you get the live stream on to the tv? Building a new house with Control4. Would love to setup the TVs with the live camera feed. Thanks
Ubiquiti sells a new adaptor that has HDMI for monitor/TV viewing
Or you could use an Apple TV and the app lol
Tt Ss didn’t know that was an option. I wonder if someone has a video of what it looks like and what customizations are available
I'd like to know more about the expandability and if they're going to allow you to use it as a Nas if you already have protect on a udm pro for example
ISCSI LUN target support for DMP to NAS/SAN would be super!
Right now, it just runs protect.
@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS right, but a) in the description on the website it seems to infer that you'll be able to buy multiples of these and they'll act as one, and b) if that is the case, then one of these should just act as a NAS for another protect install elsewhere, be it another NVR4 or a udm pro
I installed 4 6TB drives and thought I could configure 2x raid-1 configuration (12 TB raid-1) and instead it configured all 4 drives as raid-5. Any idea as how to enable the raid-1 configuration settings?
Are you able to pair multiple NVRs together to increase the storage?
Not *yet*
Does it work in conjunction with udm pro or does it act as a standalone protect unit?
Stand alone
Can you import video from the UDM-P or gen2 key protect into the NVR protect?
I doubt it. Probably just the Protect config.