unifi-video rant

[rebelwireless]

seriously f*cking sick of ubiquiti. to catch you up, their upcoming 3.2 unifi-video release will not work with gen1 aircams. This means I'll be getting no further updates for a buggy system with LOTs of aircams running on Unifi 3.1.x. Dozens of customers, hundreds of devices. If I go to them and say "we can't install new cameras without adding a second NVR, replacing your old cameras, or buying the last generation of gear that isn't manufactured anymore" I'm going to look like a serious a-hole. I'll not be replacing 100's of cameras with Unifi video cams, I'll be moving to another product.

[NickOlsen]

One would argue that many software/hardware manufacturers depreciate support for old hardware all the time. But I feel your pain.

We stopped using them when the new firmware stopped supporting RTSP directly to the camera. They were decent cameras. Hated the software. But we could use any other software that supported RTSP. The firmware update put the nail final nail in that coffin.

[lligetfa]

I started buying airCams back when airVision was version 1 and no way was I going to use AV1, so I set them up on Milestone. I got involved in alpha and beta testing airVision 2 and never could get acceptance even after AV2 came out of beta so they just stayed on Milestone. Of course, Milestone more than doubles the cost but then at least it doesn't lock me in to the three pony circus of cams that Ubiquiti has. You can only do so much with them.

I've continued alpha and beta testing UFV at home but so far have not considered it to be a product that I would sell and support, especially since they no longer support RTSP directly. They don't get it about RTSP and think retranslating from the NVR is the answer. If you cannot trust the NVR to record, you also cannot trust it to provide the streams to another VMS.

I had hopes that 3.1 would fix the reliability but it's still the SOSDD. I had to reboot everything once already and DrDiesel today reported issues where cams stop recording.

[rebelwireless]

One would argue that many software/hardware manufacturers depreciate support for old hardware all the time. But I feel your pain.

We stopped using them when the new firmware stopped supporting RTSP directly to the camera. They were decent cameras. Hated the software. But we could use any other software that supported RTSP. The firmware update put the nail final nail in that coffin.

Nick, I'm not so sure that you can argue that point. The untold number of analog systems out there don't depreciate 320line cameras, and the first axis IP camera released still works today and that's been 20 years. Security cameras are a long-term investment and they need to be supported at least minimally for a long time, a couple years.

I've completely stopped deploying new unifi-video installs, just maintaining and expanding existing ones. Can't trust ubiquiti not to screw me.

lligetfa, I haven't seen any stability issues on 3.1.1 on 3 sites that I updated, but I did lose mobile access on android which is really the straw the set me off on the rant. I can't use my phone or tablet to check out my home or office or my beta testing client because none of the video functionality works on android right now.

[rkelly1]

We quit buying UBNT cameras as soon as RTSP was no longer avail. Luckily we didn't have too many of them.

Put all of our customers on Blue Iris with a lot of Hickvision cameras - I'm not super familiar with other solutions - and have only had happy customers. We can add any type of camera that our heart, or the customer desires! Big lost opportunity for UBNT, they must not really understand the market. Or maybe they are trying to create a new niche, which seems to be failing.