Review: Blue Iris vs Zoneminder comparision

In this post, we will review Blue Iris vs Zoneminder to see the difference of each CCTV DVR software.

Blue Iris  Review

Blue Iris is a professional security monitoring software which lets the users keep an eye on the events in the important locations, such as: home, company, workplace, store, office… Additionally, Blue Iris can also integrate with many popular kinds of camera on the current market, such as: Webcams, Network IP cams, Camcorder…

With using Blue Iris, the users can observe the happenings of multiple positions on the same screen and at the same time. Moreover, the other function of the software is to be able periodically to take screenshots and save them into a folder on your computer where the user created in advance. The video files will be saved in AVI format and the images will be stored in JPEG format.

Not only that, Blue Iris also lets the users configure the software so that it constantly send the videos or images via email, messages, by phone or even upload to their online data storage. Thus, you can observe your important place anywhere and anytime.

 

There are many available useful features of the Blue Iris software for the users as following:

  • Filming supervision: You can keep monitoring on your home, place of business, cars, and valuables. Especially, the software is very useful for watching your pets or your kids or monitoring your babysitter, employees. If you want to watch your door for packages, mail or visitors, Blue Iris is the best.
  • Support for multiple kinds of camera, such as Network ID cams, Camcorder, Webcams… One of outstanding features of Blue Iris is overlaying text and graphics. The videos can be used the built-in web server, posted to online or even pushed to a Flash and Windows media server.
  • Keep track of many key location on the same screen and at the same time.
  • Take screenshots after every certain period.
  • Save video under the AVI format and images as the JPEG format.
  • Automatically send reports via email, by phone or upload to the website.

ZoneMinder Review

ZoneMinder is a famous suite of application over the world in the field of security camera video. With Zoneminder, the users can be fully assured of theft prevention and family member monitoring.

 

The main feature of Zoneminder is to support the users to capture, watch, analyze, record and keep track of video data which is coming from one or more video or network cameras accompany with a system of Linux.

As a commercial product, ZoneMinder is made by a variety of independent components that are only featured when necessary, thus this software is minimizing wasted resources and maximizing your device’s efficiency. A quite old Pentium II PC will be able to keep track 1 camera for each device at up to 25 frames/second with this dropping by half nearly for each extra camera on the same device. The extra cameras on other devices do not coordinate so Zoneminder can help to maintain this impressive frame rate. Even if the user monitors many cameras at the same time, this should still not overload his CPU because the manufacturer designed so well that the frame processing is synchronized with capture but not constrain it.

Zoneminder owns the user-friendly web interface which is very gentle and is able to view on both PC and mobile. It also allows the user to view, make storage, review and delete images and videos got by the cameras. Moreover, the user can easily configure the analysis system of images, enable to keep memory of specified events while minimize errors occurred as much as possible.

The core feature of this useful software is to support the user to connect both directly and via network of cameras. Zoneminder is a digital solution which is designed around the definition of a set of unique ‘zones’ of diversifying sensitivity and functionality for each specific camera. This allows the discard of regions which should be ignored or the definition of areas which will alarm if changing thresholds are overstepped in combination with other zones. With the “All-in-one” motto, the user can take advantage of all management, control and every functions by using the Web interface.

In fact, there are many users on the world using Zoneminder for 4 key purposes: home security, theft prevention, industrial and commercial security, household use.

Blue Iris vs Zoneminder Comparision

In overall, both Blue Iris and Zoneminder is the good suite of application for security purpose. Both has large reputation over the world.

The advantage of Blue Iris is ability to remotely connect from anywhere in the world, from any web enabled device. Moreover, it releases the updates regularly, so that the manufacturer can fix any errors or faulty occurred in operation of the users. Every users can configure the software to automatically check for updates, so they will always be up-to-date. The professional support team is also another reason to convince the customers to choose using Blue Iris. Anyone who discovers a bug or has any request about the software can send email to s[email protected] or use a contact form available on their main website. However, the users have to purchase Blue Iris at a price of at least 29.95$ per year for the LE version. With this version, the users are only able to use a single camera. If they want to be supported more, they must purchase the full version at a 59.95$ cost, which supports up to 64 cameras.

By contrast, the advantage of Zoneminder is free and open source. It’s very simple to install. Everyone can easily find out from the package to source. Moreover, is has ability to work with multiple cameras at the same time on a same CPC but still make the processing rate slow. Its APIs allow for the integration from the third-party. So if you are a personal or small business, Zoneminder may be suitable for you than Zoneminder. But if you need a professional service or want to be supported more, choose Blue Iris for your purpose.