WiLife Security Systems

[rkkeller]

You dont need to have the Command Center running with Blue Iris.  The only thing you need Command Center for is if you ever need to adjust some things with the cameras.

You must not have something setup correctly but my trial expired so I can't go in and tell you what my settings were.  Try the Blue Iris forum.

http://www.cam-it.org/cms/

[rkkeller]

I have my Blue Iris up and running so if you have any questions I can help or PM me.  I have everything working fine except for remote viewing but its only been about 15 minutes and I will keep working on that.  I like having the date and time recorded, FTP uploads to websites and many more things that Command Center doesnt offer.

Get the needed camera ip addresses to use from the Command Center software by running the diagnostics.

Works with Wilife cameras when you enter HTTP/web port of 8080 and RTSP/video port of 5802.

Also only setup one camera and change all the settings, enter your email account and set all other options to what you want.  Then export and save it.  For any other cameras just import the file and change the camera name and ip address.  Makes it a lot easier.

[rkkeller]

I have the remote viewing setup and that took a little work but I am not a big techie so someone that knows how to open a port could have done this in 2 minutes.

In a nutshell Blue Iris offer all the features for free you would have to pay yearly for with Platinum Command Center and a lot more options BUT seems to require more processing power than Command Center.  My system had a 2-3 second delay with Command Center but has a 3-7 second lag with BI.  Not a deal breaker but if you have a super slow underpowered computer to begin with, I can see longer lag times.  One of the main benefits though is it only depends on "your" equipment so it will never be down unless your system is down.  No going through others servers and things like that.

I really like how I can now get sounds when motion is detected.  I put my computer speakers all the way up and there is an alarm type tone when motion triggers.  You can also remotely view your recordings and there is a date and time stamp on them, which is really handy.

With BI there is also a free Android app, IP Cam Viewer Lite, that allows viewing of your cameras.  Set up your cameras with Blue Iris as the selection and its a nice app.  I can view all 4 of my cameras quad type on the same screen or one at a time in a larger view.

[rkkeller]

After fooling with Blue Iris a couple days now, I have changed some settings and the delay is about the same as CommandCenter on my setup.

It still uses 10-20% more resources than CommandCenter but my setup is standalone for the security cameras only, so this is no problem.  The extra resources I am "guessing" are due to all the extra features it offers but thats only a guess.

Motion sensing after some fooling is super and much better than CC and even with the sensativity at 50%, I might get 1-2 false alarms a day.  With CC I had to turn it down to 10-15 and still averaged 5-10+ false alarms a day.  I am positive I could get zero false alarms with BI but that might limit real things too.  It works much different than CC as with CC you selected areas you want to see motion.  With BlueIris, you block areas you do not want to see motion.  Kinda opposite with some other options to make it better.

If you have a semi decent standalone setup for your security cameras, it might be worth a shot to try the 15 day demo.  I have nothing to do with them, just like the software as it offers more customization and better features plus its still fully suported where CommandCenter is not.

[bjtheman1]

I DL'D Blue Iris and added my cameras but it shows No Signal. What all info do you have to add for each camera? I know the 8080 & 5802 but what else?

[rkkeller]

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bjtheman1 wrote:

I DL'D Blue Iris and added my cameras but it shows No Signal. What all info do you have to add for each camera? I know the 8080 & 5802 but what else?

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Did you get the "camera ip addresses" to use from the Command Center software by running the diagnostics?  They need to be entered in the BI camera setup screen too.  Run the CC diagnostics and look for the ip address for all your cameras.

[rkkeller]

I made a mistake above.  You DO need Command Center running the FIRST TIME you setup your cameras in Blue Iris or restart your Wilife cameras.

I didnt realize this as mine was running when I was copying the ip's.  I reset my cameras last night and they would not load in Blue Iris until I started Command Center.

[shadowfist]

i think it has to do with the ethernet over powerline usb adapter.  But i am not sure how to fix it.  i think the command center knows how to basically wake it up for a lack of a better phrase, but blue iris doesn't.

[CatLogitech]

This is not supported, but my other half does play with blue iris at home and we have two cameras for testing with.

Try going into the Alert forums and make sure all your settings are correct and double check the IP address for your cameras.

[rkkeller]

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shadowfist wrote:

i think it has to do with the ethernet over powerline usb adapter.  But i am not sure how to fix it.  i think the command center knows how to basically wake it up for a lack of a better phrase, but blue iris doesn't.

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If you start Command Center then start Blue Iris then close Command Center, it will work fine until the cameras need to be reset if they ever do.

One workaround is to do this:

Set the "watchdog" option in Blue Iris to send an alert when down,  then in the "alert" section of BI, set it to run an external program and select the Wilife program.

When the cameras ever need to be reset, it will send an alert and automatically start Command Center to fix it.

Or of course, you can just leave both programs running and turn off recording, online viewing and emails in Command Center.