I'm working on getting rid of my Nest cameras around the house and trying to figure out my best option for an NVR. I really only have need/want for 2 cameras right now. One is the doorbell, and another is just a camera pointed at my back door/garage doors. I've already replaced the doorbell with a Reolink, and the other one is on the list for replacement soon.
As far as hardware I currently have the following possible landing places for Frigate(or other software):
- Lenovo ThinkCentre M910q with an i5-7500T
- This currently has a Proxmox with:
- Linux Mint VM (running Jellyfin inside here)
- Several other LXCs (adguard, docker, tailscale etc)
- This currently has a Proxmox with:
- Lincplus Lincstation N2 NAS running Truenas
- This currently has Immich running as an app
I don't really need a ton of long term storage or video or anything. A few days would be more than enough, especially if I am able to get some smart alerts through Home Assistant as well.
I have thought about buying another mini pc of some form and dedicating it to Frigate because I understand it can be a bit resource hungry, but I don't really know for sure if that is necessary. Another option along those lines would be to just buy a Reolink NVR.
I have also thought about moving Jellyfin to an LXC and passing the intel igpu to Jellyfin there. And then I could run Frigate inside of Docker? Do I understand that I could then share the igpu between Jellyfin and Docker/Frigate?
I know this is all kinda scattered. I feel like I almost have too many possible options and I don't know which one is best these days.
I have a LaView LV-N9808C8E. It is quite a bit outdated, so I would not recommend that model, as the web interface requires Silverlight and the iOS app doesn't work on the latest iOS.
BUT, it is basically an offline NVR with 1TB harddrive that records continuously from my 6 ip cameras (all wired with PoE directly to the NVR). I think this model supports up to 8 cameras.
Then, on my home server I run frigate with a Coral USB to pull the rtsp streams and do object detection. When objects are detected, the screenshots are sent to Home Assistant for alerts.
This gives me good real time notifications and nothing is exposed to the internet or any 3rd parties.
If I want to watch real time camera feeds, and I can use my wireguard vpn + vlc to watch an individual camera via rtsp (I used to be able to use the iOS LaView app when on my vpn, but it no longer works). If I need to go back and look at recordings, since the LaView NVR is continuously recording, I can go back and pull video directly from the device for the last few days.