I have an older 4 channel reolink setup. 1tb drive.  
a few of the camera's started having issues.
I know it is the recommended system when you spend around 400 bucks.

I don't just want to spend money to spend money, but if there is a better system if I spend around 2k, what would it be? if not how far up do I have to go?
the camera's have to be wireless.
I like the reolink feature where I can access the camera's via app on my phone.

main complaint I think is that the app and even the pc app is slow loading the camera's.
even at home, I hear the door bell and by the time the app loads the image, the person is already walking away.
Second complain is the night vision capability.
had a group of people walk down the alley at dusk trying car doors. the camera had already switched to night mode and could barely make out faces, and couldn't read the plate. but that was more camera angle than resolution. but higher res would be better.

I am fairly computer savvy, and could build my own machine if I had to, but the time wasted on learning their setup and troubleshooting it isn't worth it right now. would rather just replace my camera's with the new system and go.
of course if I can add the working reolink camera's all the better.

I started off with one of those 4K systems from Costco. It did well enough if there was no or little motion and a lot of light. Basically, if anything happened at night, you'd be able to see that something happened, but not well enough to identify anyone.  That's also why most people in the know don't/won't recommend Reolink for night or high motion areas.  Here is an example from Reolink's marketing videos - do you see a person in this picture?  The person is in between the two columns.

Attached File


I ended up dumping that and setting up Blue Iris. It's a software that works with pretty much any camera on a windows machine. You can tailor it and the cameras to your specific needs. There's a lot of things that go into the cameras besides just megapixls. The general 2.8mm lens is going to give you a wider field but the 6mm lens will give you a clearer picture on the same camera. A larger lens will capture more light and be better at night.

I'm using mostly cameras that have color at night. A newer technology is a blend of color and IR. It mixes the detail of IR with the clarity of color. Here's a picture of my driveway last night at 3 in the morning. You can see some of the red in the left tail light of my Yukon but on the right side, it's just black and white from the IR. BTW, it is pitch black out with only a fairly dim street light.

Attached File


Here's a picture from my phone with what it actually looks like.

Attached File


I'm also running dedicated license plate readers for any traffic that passes along the main road in front of the house. Obviously, the vehicle is recorded as it drives by but the cameras have dedicated AI that will record the plate. It works pretty well, though sometimes it'll be off. For instance, it appears that the one plate listed says "CANNON" but it recorded it as C44VON.

Attached File


My house is on an acre in the suburbs and every inch is covered. I think I have 24 cameras in total divided up into different zones. A few focus on the front porch and front door. If anyone swipes an amazon package, I'll have about 6 different angles of them. Back and side yards are covered. And, I have a couple that are mounted high up for overview. I can see when the school bus is coming for the kids when it's two blocks away.

Blue Iris does take some tweaking to get right, but once it's there, you're set. I'm happy with it and I'll never use anything else.  I'm not sure what I have in my setup...probably a few thousand with the 10GbE POE switch and the dual function cameras and license plate readers.  You can start out pretty cheap though with a used ebay windows machine and a couple quality Hikvision or Dahua cameras.  (There are other cameras that are decent but those are the most bang for the buck quality).  Overall, you could put together a decent 4 or 6 camera system for only a few hundred bucks and it perform better than any packaged NVR.  Again though, it'll take some tinkering and trial and error.

thanks. I see both the camera companies offer systems too.
just not very good?
camera's seem reasonable.
could upgrade my pvr and use the old one for this. but that is likely to cost more than the 2k or could go cheap workstation and upgrade ram to run it.

how bad is the tweaking and how hard is it to use any camera on the system?
also how is the remote viewing? it is nice to be able to check on the house when on vacation.

I've never used one of their systems, but I haven't seen any specs in any affordable NVR that compares to a low grade Intel i7 system.  Another thing, I don't want any of this facing the internet.  I don't know the specifics of what is needed to set up one of their systems, but with Blue Iris, I can control what goes out and in.  No chinese systems phoning home.  


Not bad at all, though I've found that it takes time.  You may not want ever camera in auto.  For me, there's more light and motion at the front of the house than my back yard.  I don't want the system alerting me of motion in my back yard when everyone is out by the pool.  


There's both an android and iOS app that are both pretty good.  I use a VPN to tunnel into my router for my and my wife's phone, so I don't have an open port on the system.  That's the most secure way to do it.  Depending on your router, that may be a pain (or impossible) to set up.

Thanks for the answers. says they offer a trial period, might give that a shot with my existing cameras and see how good or bad it is.

If you haven’t already been there IPCamTalk is kind of the arfcom of security cams.

They are serious blue iris fanboys with tons of videos on setup and tech. BI sure looks like the way to go.

that is the place to go. I just have some of Empire Tech Andy's cameras and an NVR. It works really well. I need to look at it again, as it recently stopped emailing me screen shots.

Buy a wired reolink system and spend the reminder of the money having someone wire it. I think your problem is the wireless part not reolink.

sort of, a couple of the reolink camera's have issues now. one doesn't have IR anymore, and another says the power supply is bad, and no signal, but I swapped out ps.

but I did the 15 day trial on the blue iris and found it kept losing signal on several camera's well within the wifi area in the house.
So i will get some quotes on new drops and see how bad that might be.