Hi,

Is there anyone using Amcrest IP4M-1041B with Home Assistant? I’ve a few questions about software and integration.

  1. From what I hear, this camera can be setup 100% offline, connected via cable to any computer and by using a built in WebUI the camera has, is this true?

  2. It offers pan, tilt or zoom. Does it work really good with HA? Can it be operated without any Amcrest software / internet connection?

  3. The features above allow you to set preset locations, can that be done on HA / WebUI / without the Amcrest app as well?

  4. Does it really operate all features offline and is it reliable? Eg. motion detection works as expected / doesn’t miss events?

  5. What’s your overall experience with the camera? Does it compare to let’s say a TP-Link tapo?

Thank you.

  • brownmustardminion@lemmy.mlEnglish
    4·
    6 months ago

    I use a bunch of Amcrest PoE cameras. None with PTZ though. I run them to a dedicated box running frigatenvr. From there I allow access from Homeassistant with the frigate integration.

    IP cameras allow you to access the device via web gui where you can view and configure the camera for your needs. Once I’ve set them up I only ever access them again through frigate.

    • Passerby6497@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      More or less the same setup, only I used the frigate HA integration to access the feeds. Was very nice up until the machine running frigate cooked the nvme.

    • TCB13@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      IP cameras allow you to access the device via web gui where you can view and configure the camera for your needs. Once I’ve set them up I only ever access them again through frigate.

      Thanks for the answer. What kind of management do they provide on their WebUI? Can the camera be 100% operated using the WebUI, standalone without anything else? I’m just trying to understand how dependent on external software (be it their apps, cloud or HA) the cameras are.

      • brownmustardminion@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        You can probably find a visual walkthrough of the GUI by searching youtube.

        There’s a login page. After you authenticate, there’s a live view page, a review/recordings page if you are recording to SD card in camera, and a few settings pages.

        I’d say you could absolutely access the camera standalone, but at least the cameras I have don’t do any detection or notifications. That’s where the NVR comes in. I know reolink has cameras that do all of the above including AI detection.

        • TCB13@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          2·
          6 months ago

          Following your advice I found a video for another model and it seems complete, even motion detection was available on the WebUI. I’m assuming you’re on the exact model I was looking at and it doesn’t have that feature am I right?

  • dmtalon@infosec.pubEnglish
    1·
    6 months ago

    All of the Amcrest “management” I do is within blue iris. I have a ptz IP4M-1041B but do not do any ptz stuff via HA. I use blue iris to send stream/alerts to HA via MQTT. This allows me to do notifications on motion. I would assume if you have location presets setup in BI you could call them from HA but that’s a guess.

    I messed around with presets (camera location) in blue iris a bit bit didn’t have a real use case for it so I am not sure how robust it is.

    I block internet access to all Amcrest cameras directly but can still access their local IP. I have access to my cameras again via blue iris which runs on a dedicated windows machine.

    • TCB13@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      Thanks for the answer.

      I block internet access to all Amcrest cameras directly but can still access their local IP.

      Yes, and what kind of management do they provide on their WebUI? Can the camera be 100% operated using the WebUI without blue iris or any other software?

      • dmtalon@infosec.pubEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        I’m not sure if I’ve tried doing any PTZ stuff, but all the other settings for sure. The cameras I have all have SD cards so you could manage everything right from the UI and just have it record locally.

        They want to connect to the mothership and destroy log files trying to get there.

        • TCB13@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          1·
          6 months ago

          Thanks for the clarification, my ideia was to run the cameras on an isolated VLAN so, no issues with calling home. I just wanted to make sure they can be operated fully locally.