Comparison Hikvision Vs Dahua?

[Sheffield123]

Hi, I'm wondering if I could ask for some help with this comparison for a basic 2-5 camera domestic installation.

The primary requirement is colour night vision with 8mp cams.

These are the two I'm comparing if anyone can offer assistance in the finer detail. They look very similar to me;

Dahua 8MP 4K WizSense Full-Colour 2.8mm IP Turret Camera IPC-HDW3849H-AS-PV

IPC-HDW3249HP-AS-PV Dahua 8MP 4K WizSense Full-Colour 2.8mm IP Turret Camera IPC-HDW3849H-AS-PV

www.ndc.co.uk

DS-2CD2387G2-L(U)

Hikvision DS-2CD2387G2-L(U) 8 MP ColorVu Fixed Turret Network Camera

www.hikvision.com

Many thanks, Tim

 

[Phil]

The OP very sensibly posted this in the forum category labelled "IP camera selection help".
I have moved it to the Hikvision category to get more eyes on it, and hopefully to get some responses for them.

We, at use-IP Ltd, have not been hands-on with Dahua for about 5yrs.
At that time their user interfaces etc. were crude in comparison to Hikvision's.
But, that old info is now virtually worthless.

FWIW:
We are repeatedly approached by Hikvision's competitors to promote and sell their ranges.
Both Dahua and Uniview reached out to us again in January.
But, it is not easy to represent a brand well; to know and understand a full range of products; to be able to offer good advice and support.
So, until there IS a distinct reason / benefit to promote a new and additional manufacturer, we decline their approaches.

 

[Sheffield123]

Thanks Phil

That all makes sense and probably explains the price difference. The specs appear to be similar from what I can make out, the difference being that the Dahua come in almost 75% of the cost per camera. So I will likely be taking a gamble at this point.... I'm also worried about the NVR not being able to handle 4k for more than one camera and with nobody to really ask. A Hikvision seller was telling me that their basic 4k wouldn't be sufficient as it can only handle one camera running @ 4k. I won't be viewing all at once probably.... But I will want the function to review each one to it's potential. Any thoughts on the NVR?

 

[Dan]

Hi @Sheffield123

The "1 @ 4K" information you have been given is in relation to the NVR's decoding ability, decoding only relates to NVRs ability to simultaneously live view/playback multiple cameras. So an NVR that says "1 @ 4K" can only view one stream in 4K at a time, but it should still be able to record all the cameras at 8MP resolution.

One complication is that with the G2 AcuSense and ColorVu cameras we and other users have seen very high bitrates (up to 20-25Mbps) which are causing problems because of the bandwidth limit of the NVRs. The 7608NI-I2 NVR you are looking at has a 80Mbps incoming bandwidth limit and so it will only support 3-4 cameras (depending on settings), if you want up to 5 cameras and potentially more in the future you would need to look at the DS7616NI-I2/16P 16-Channel NVR which has an incoming bandwidth limit of 160Mbps.

 

[IP Man]

The OP very sensibly posted this in the forum category labelled "IP camera selection help".
I have moved it to the Hikvision category to get more eyes on it, and hopefully to get some responses for them.

We, at use-IP Ltd, have not been hands-on with Dahua for about 5yrs.
At that time their user interfaces etc. were crude in comparison to Hikvision's.
But, that old info is now virtually worthless.

FWIW:
We are repeatedly approached by Hikvision's competitors to promote and sell their ranges.
Both Dahua and Uniview reached out to us again in January.
But, it is not easy to represent a brand well; to know and understand a full range of products; to be able to offer good advice and support.
So, until there IS a distinct reason / benefit to promote a new and additional manufacturer, we decline their approaches.

As someone who is new to IP cams, but well versed in web UI and UX this is very interesting, because my limited recent experience with Hikvision browser cam settings is that it's very poor compared to other modern admin interfaces. I hate to think what Dahua was like a few years ago if it was considerably worse.

Why on earth are we still being advised to edit settings in internet explorer for instance, is there a technical reason they can't create a UI that just works in modern browsers? Seems bonkers to me that this is being advised for products that have been recently released, there's definitely still a whole lot of room for improvement with HikVision's interfaces.

 

[Phil]

Agreed.
Hardware that is leading-edge and provides fantastic price performance.
Software, UX & UI that has never really been finessed.
It's a multi-year lag behind Europe / USA.
In Hik's case, something above 9,000 employees; thousands in R&D; presumably very few working on this aspect of their products

 

[Sheffield123]

Perfectly explained, even I understand that. Thanks Dan you came along just in time as I was about to press go on the 8ch Hikvision... eBay special!

Ipman, you also make a good point. I've been looking at a few online reviews recently and the interface looks similar to my 15yr old DVR which was incredibly basic, Linux based.