Blue Iris is extremely powerful and customizable. It will let you capture motion recordings, snapshots, and you can even send Deepstack Blue Iris images to Telegram to keep a history of all objected-detected events in place.

This is a very thorough guide, but I’m going to break it down in a step-by-step for beginners. Even if you’ve never use Blue Iris, Deepstack, or any other local NVR security camera software, you can get this up and running quickly and easily.

Let’s get started!

Prerequisites:

Before you get started, you will need the following items:

• A Windows 10 or Server 2019 computer, preferably an Intel Core i7 with QuickSync (I’m using an AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 2700)
• A couple security cameras setup on your network (I’m using an indoor Amcrest IPM2 and an outdoor Amcrest IP5M turret)
• A copy of the Blue Iris software (lifetime $69.00 cost)

Once you have those 3 items setup and ready to go, you can begin the Blue Iris installation process below.

Step 1: Download and Install Blue Iris

The first step is to purchase a copy of Blue Iris. Once purchased, you can download the full version.

Double-click the blueiris.exe to start the installation.

It will prompt to install any missing prerequisites. Click Next.

Agree to the ToS to install the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable.

Once complete, it’ll bring you back to the Welcome screen. Click Next again and accept the Blue Iris terms and conditions.

Install Blue Iris in the default folder. Then click Install.

Installation only takes a few seconds. Check the Launch Blue Iris 5 box and then click Finish.

A product activation box will popup. If you are using the 15-day free trial, you can just click Demo. Otherwise, enter a product activation code you received after purchasing by clicking Next.

Note: If you don’t want to setup Deepstack for object detection (which is free and open source), you can skip Step 2 and go directly to Step 3. If you do want to install Deepstack, follow Step 2.

Step 2: Install Deepstack

Navigate to this URL: https://docs.deepstack.cc/windows/

Click the Download CPU Link for Windows. There is also a Download link for Nvidea GPU’s, if you’d like to offload the AI detection on your graphics card instead.

Once downloaded, double-click the .exe to run it.

Install Deepstack with all defaults. Click Finish once complete. To launch Deepstack, open Powershell from the Window Start menu.

deepstack --VISION-DETECTION True --PORT 80

Step 3: Launch Blue Iris

Search your computer or server for Blue Iris from the Windows Start button. You can launch either Blue Iris Admin or Blue Iris.

On the top left corner, click the gear to enter the Global settings screen.

For the rest of step 3, I’m going to refer to each section as “tabs”.

About Tab

In the About tab, give your system a name (i.e. – Blue Iris)

In the Software Support and Updates section, it should default to “no automatic updates” by default. If not, you’ll want to turn automatic updates off.

Clips and Archiving tab

For this section, we’ll need to create a few Windows folders where we want the Blue Iris clips and recording footage to be stored. Ideally you’ll want to choose a harddrive with a decent amount of storage.

I’m using my S:\ drive as the target, which is a 690gb SSD array.

Create a new parent folder on your target drive called “BlueIris” (i.e. S:\BlueIris).

Click into your BlueIris folder and create 4 new folders:

• db
• New
• Stored
• Alerts

Next, we need to map the 4 new folders to the “Folders” section in Blue Iris.

“New” Folder

Click the New folder in Blue Iris. Change the path to the path of your “New” Windows folder. Set a limit, uncheck limit clip age, and set to delete. This is basically going to continually record and store footage until your 300gb is reached and then delete the oldest clips. If you have a large NAS or external drive, you could also click the Move to Folder option and archive them there instead of deleting.

Note: The more cameras you have and the higher resolution they are, the more storage space you’ll need.

“Stored” Folder

Since I have my clips set to delete once it hits the 300gb limit, I’m not really going to be using the Stored folder, so I’m setting it to 20gb, unchecking Limit Clip Age, and setting it to Delete. Down the road I may use this folder for exported clips.

“Alerts” Folder

The “Alerts” folder is where all pictures will be stored (including the Deepstack analyzed snapshots).

I set the limit size to 1gb, checked the box to limit the age to 7 days, and set it to Delete.

“db” folder

You will also need to set the path for the Blue Iris database(db).

IMPORTANT: Your “New” and “db” folders should be on a fast, local storage drive (like an internal SSD), but the Stored folder can be on anything you want. The warning in the above screenshot reminds you of that as well.

Users tab

The Blue Iris users tab is is where you can create and limit access. For example, you can non-admin users, limit access to camera groups, set access times, restrict logins on your local network or configure login schedules.

I recommend leaving these as default for now. You can always come back and adjust these later. For now, just create a new user with a secure password, grant it Administrator access, and restrict access to LAN only (since I’m only ever going to access my cameras on my local network or across my WireGuard VPN). If you do plan on accessing your cameras from a remote network, you’ll need to open a firewall port and uncheck the LAN Only box.

After your new admin user has been created, disable the local_console user.

Web Server tab

To access Blue Iris, you can either open it from the desktop app or from a web browser. I primarily use the Blue Iris Admin desktop app to manage or adjust Blue Iris settings and the web server to view my cameras.

Blue Iris will autofill your server’s network information, including IP address and port. This will allow you to log into Blue Iris from an IP address like 192.168.68.137:81 from any browser on your network. Super handy for accessing from your phone. (I recommend going to this URL on your phone, then click your browser settings > Send to Home Screen. This will give you a shortcut on your phone for quick access)

You can leave everything as default here and just delete the remote access URL and uncheck “refresh external IP. Remote Access can configured later on and would be used for sending snapshots as phone push notifications, but I won’t be going over that in this guide.

Startup tab

The only thing you need to change in this tab is checking the box for “Run As A Windows Service”. This will allow Blue Iris to automatically start up after your computer starts and should reduce system resources.

After checking the box, a popup will prompt you for your username and password:

Cameras tab

Ideally, a 6th generation Intel processor or better is recommend. This allows you to use the QuickSync feature to decode footage more efficiently than raw processing. My AMD CPU is more than powerful enough for my two cameras but I still set this option anyways.

For most users, you’ll want to choose Intel + VPP.

AI tab

Check the Use Deepstack server on IP/port option. If you installed Deepstack, then make sure to check the box Auto start/stop with Blue Iris also.

If you didn’t start Deepstack earlier with the Powershell command, click Start Now (Mine shows Stop Now because it’s already running).

I leave everything else with their default settings.

Other Tabs

You’ll probably notice a bunch of other tabs in Blue Iris as well. Those are a little more advanced than I want to go over in this basic installation guide, but in future I will be setting up the Digital IO and IoT tab to configure with my MQTT broker in Home Assistant. That will be a separate guide and I’ll edit this post once I have that setup.

Adding Cameras to Blue Iris

Now comes the fun part: Adding your cameras to Blue Iris local NVR!

As I said earlier, I’m using two Amcrest cameras.

Launch the Blue Iris Admin desktop app if it’s not already open. Right-click the large black box to add a new camera. I’m using the name “drivewaycam” for both the full name and short name.

For the type, choose Network IP.

For the Options, choose Enable Motion Detector and Direct to disc recording. If you’d like your footage to capture audio, you can check the Enable Audio box if you’d like.

After clicking OK, you’ll be brought to a camera configuration screen. This setup will vary slightly depending on your camera manufacturer.

The easiest way to setup the initial configuration is by entering your cameras’ IP address, user, and password in the http:// field.

Then click Find/Inspect. This will autofill the stream profiles for you. (Note: For Reolink and Hikvision cameras, you have to log into the camera and enable the ONVIF option. See The Hook Up’s video for more info on it.)

Under the Advanced section, the only thing I changed is checking the box for Decoder Compatibility Mode.

If you are using an Amcrest like I am, then Amcrest has also put together a handy wiki page I referenced here. Once you click OK, you’ll be brought to the camera customization page, where you can configure things like triggers and alerts.

Video Tab

Here are my settings for the Video tab.

Set your framerate equal to the FPS in your camera (You can view the current FPS logging into your camera using it’s IP address in a web browser).

Then, uncheck Display overlays live and set your Hardware Decode to default.

Audio Tab

If you enabled Audio in the previous step, just make sure to check the box in this tab to enable it. If not, disable it.

Trigger tab

On the main page of the Trigger tab, set yours to match mine.

Click Configure next to Motion Sensor checkbox. Set your options just I like did. Since we are using Deepstack for object detection, you can uncheck object detection on this screen.

Under the When Triggered section, click Artificial Intelligence. For this part, I’m just telling Deepstack to look for “person” with a confidence level of 60%. Deepstack will be analyzing 3 images to determine whether or not it’s a person. There’s a ton of objects you could detect, such as car, truck, boat, bicycle, dog, etc. A full list of detectable objects can be found here. If detecting multiple objects, separate them with a comma and no spaces.

Make sure the Fire “On Alert” box is checked as well as the “Auto-flag confirmed alerts“. I also turned off Burn Label.

Record tab

We are going to configure this tab to use Continuous Recording + Alerts, splitting video into 1 hour files. I am also using a Pre-trigger buffer to record 5 seconds prior to motion being detected. This means Blue Iris will continually record footage until the “New” folder reaches it’s limit (configured to 300gb in the “New” tab section above)

Alerts tab

The only thing you need to change in this tab (for now) is setting the Fire when: to This camera is triggered. You can leave everything else as default.

Remaining tabs

The Webcast, Schedule, PTZ/Control, Watchdog, and Post tabs can be left alone for now.

Your camera is now setup!

Click OK. You should now see the Live Feed of your first camera in Blue Iris.

Testing Object Detection

Now, it’s time to test your Blue Iris + Deepstack NVR. To test, simply walk in front of your camera for a few seconds.

On the left tab, click the dropdown for “Alerts”. I have 5 alerts displayed so far which correspond to the 5 times I walked in front of my camera and Deepstack has detected that I am a “person”.

Basic Blue Iris Usage

Like I said earlier, Blue Iris is now recording 24/7. Once your limit has been reached, it will start to overwrite the old footage. If you’d like to see all recorded footage, change the dropdown to New. Then, double-click a segment to view it. They will be broken up into 1-hour segments as specified in camera settings > Record tab.

At the bottom, you’ll see a flag at the point in time when “person” object was detected:

However, since we are using Deepstack, we’ve configured these events to go into the Alerts folder so we don’t have to manually search through hours of video. So, you can also just switch to the Alerts dropdown, double-click a recording, and view just that clip.

I think it’s also important to explain how Deepstack works in the Alerts folder. If you sit and watch the “Alerts” dropdown, you’ll see it occasionally add an image and then delete it. This is because Deepstack has determined that the image processed isn’t a person. You will still see all images in your S:\BlueIris\Alerts folder. If you want to view just the images Deepstack has detected as a person, you’ll have to view those from within Blue Iris, not your Windows “Alerts” folder.

Remember: We set a 1gb limit on the Alerts folder, so once it hits 1gb, it’ll start deleting the older images.

Motion Rectangles

If you would would like to see motion rectangles around your motion detections and jpeg’s, here’s what you’d change:

Right click a camera > Camera Settings > Trigger tab. Check motion sensor and click Configure. Under Advanced, check Object detection and make sure to highlight “Show object rectangles”.

To see live motion squares on playback, double-click a recorded clip. Right click > Overlays > Add Motion Overlays.

Troubleshooting Deepstack/Blue Iris Detections

During initial setup, Deepstack might not detect the object correctly.

You might get false positives (i.e. – snapshots taken of things other than person, or nothing at all), or it may not trigger person detection. I recommend editing your AI confidence level by clicking the gear on your camera > Trigger tab > Artificial Intelligence:

Then, edit your confidence level here:

Adding Additional Cameras to Blue Iris

At this point, you may be dreading adding extra cameras. However, this is actually super easy. You can basically “copy” the existing settings from your first camera and apply it to any new ones! Really the only things you’ll need to change is the IP address of the extra cameras.

Right-click the black space next to your existing camera. Then click Add New Camera.

Give it a name and choose Copy from Another Camera:

Backup and Export Blue Iris Configuration

Now that you’ve got things setup and working, I highly recommend exporting your Blue Iris configuration. Just on the offchance your computer crashes or you need to reinstall Blue Iris at some point, it would be very useful to not have to setup this up from scratch again.

I recommend backing up to a different drive than where you installed Blue Iris or your recordings, such as a flash drive up uploading to Google Drive.

Click the gear at the very top of Blue Iris Admin. On the General tab, click Export.

Wrapping Up

Hopefully this tutorial helps you setup Blue Iris 5 and Deepstack quickly and easily! I wanted to give a shoutout to The Hook Up’s Youtube video which is where I got a lot of my inspiration and insight on how to set this up properly, so definitely check out his video as well.

I was hoping to setup a local NVR solution using Frigate in Home Assistant, but unfortunately every time I add cameras to my Home Assistant configuration.yaml, my zwave and zigbee networks stop responding correctly. I’m still not sure why. I even setup a 2nd HA instance, connected it to a different switch port, and didn’t use a zwave/zigbee dongle on the 2nd instance.

I’m not even upset that Frigate didn’t end up working for me, as Blue Iris is extremely customizable and works perfectly in my environment.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below and I’d be happy to help you out if I can!

Following is a handpicked list of Top Security Camera Software, with their popular features and website links. The list contains both open source (free) and commercial (paid) CCTV software.

#1) Security Eye

Security Eye is a video surveillance software that uses webcams and IP cameras to perform monitoring. This application can protect you from a company or home from intruders. It provides alerts via SMS and Email.

Features:

• The software enables you to setup a special date and period of the day.
• Security Eye tool record video in high quality.
• This NVR (Network Video Recorder) system supports 1200+ models of IP cameras.
• It has easy to use integrated video player.

#2) ManyCam

ManyCam is a live streaming software that enables you to deliver professional video, streams, online classes with ease. The tool allows you to remove, replace, or blur background during a web conference.

Pros:

• It does not have a watermark in the free version.
• You can stream up to 4K resolution.
• It has real time drag and drops effects.

Cons:

• There is no light enhancement feature.
• Most features need manual control.

Supported file formats: H.264 IP, MP4, MJPEG, MPEG, AVI, MOV.

Features:

• Available for Facebook and YouTube Live.
• It supports streaming and broadcasting.
• This tool is capable of recording videos in WMV and AVI.
• It can be synced with Skype and Yahoo messenger.
• The supported platform: Windows 10, 8, 7 PC
• Guru99 users get 35% off Premium plans with coupon 21BSCHOOL35

#3) Xeoma

Xeoma is one of the best free IP camera software for Windows that helps you to record video with sound. It gives you instant reactions and notifications. It allows you to capture screens from multiple monitors simultaneously.

Features:

• Provides adjustable sound volume.
• It allows you to navigate and control cameras with the device list.
• Supports for PTZ (Pan Tilt Zoom) control.
• It can detect sound.
• This security camera for Macintosh offers to face recognition-based access.
• Keep your video secure with a password.

#4) YouCam

YouCam is a free webcam software that can be integrated seamlessly into video call services like Zoom, Skype, Facebook, etc. It allows users to easily apply makeup and skin enhancement.

Pros:

• It has face beautification tools.
• Wide range of animated emojis.
• Customizable images and titles for live streaming.

Cons:

• Limited options in the free version.

Supported file formats: AVI, WMV, and MP4.

Features:

• It offers more than 200 effects.
• This app provides customized titles and images.
• YouCam includes animated emojis.
• It has a face login and face-out facility.
• You can add frames and scenes to images.
• This tool allows you to adjust lighting and sharpness in the video.
• Supported platform: Windows 10, 8, 7.

#5) Netcam Studio

Netcam Studio is a free IP security camera software that can be used for home surveillance, business, and family protection. This tool can receive or send commands to Dropbox, Slack, and Google Drive. It provides email and pushes notification that keeps you informed on unknown activity.

Features:

• It allows you to set rules to trigger external or internal actions.
• Offers a web browser client that can be accessed from any device.
• This application enables you to connect to 64+ cameras.
• You can review any event faster.
• It automatically detects speed and motion.
• This software provides more than 2000+ templates.

Link: https://www.netcamstudio.com/>

#6) Blue Iris

Blue Iris is a security and webcam security software that can capture JPEG screenshot or videos in AVI, MP4, and DVR formats. This application enables you to view recorded videos without any hassle. It can provide you alerts via instant message, voice phone call, etc.

Features:

• You can easily navigate cameras.
• It captures the image in MPEG and JPEG file format.
• The application uses audio and motion detection to trigger recording.
• Blue Iris can be connected remotely.
• You can view recorded cameras and live clips with ease.
• It provides a detailed log.
• Offers digital zoom and pan facility.

Link: https://blueirissoftware.com/

#7) Anycam

Anycam is one of the best WIFI security cameras that allows you to view and record live streams with minimal efforts. This application supports RTSP, RTMP, and MPEG-4 stream cameras.

• This WiFi camera software for PC enables you to view recorded videos individually.
• It requires only the input of the IP address or domain name to add a new camera.
• Anycam enables you to play recordings stored on your PC or network drive.
• You can play a video archive with ease.

Link: https://anycam.io/

#8) ZoneMinder

ZoneMinder is one of the best video surveillance software that helps you to monitor your office and home. This application works with a wide variety of cameras. This open source IP camera software for PC offers APIs that allows for third party integration.

Features:

• You can monitor from Android mobile and computer.
• Control your recorded data with permission.
• The free version of this software is compatible with Raspberry Pi and the latest hardware.
• You can install this IP camera program with no hassle.
• This webcam surveillance software helps you prevent theft.

Link: https://zoneminder.com/

#9) Perfect Surveillance

Perfect Surveillance is one of the best security camera software that enables you to view video from the IP address. This application supports more than 1200 models of cameras. It enables you to record snapshots and videos with ease.

Features:

• You can run instant or scheduled recordings.
• It triggers actions by detecting motion.
• This home security solution provides SMS and email alerts.
• The perfect Surveillance tool supports any browser.
• You can securely connect this software with a password.
• It has a built-in video player.
• Filter out video recording by time, date, and name of the camera.

Link: https://www.perfect-surveillance.com/

#10) iVideon

iVideon is a video surveillance software that can be used for business and home. This CCTV camera software for PC enables you to quickly create and delete users.

Features:

• You can integrate this software with corporate
• management systems.
• It is accessible from Android mobile and desktop applications.
• You can quickly view past recorded events.
• iVideon free CCTV software Windows allows you to map a surveillance location on a map for easy access.

Link: https://www.ivideon.com/

#11) Camcloud VMS

Camcloud VMS is one of the best CCTV software for PC that eliminates the need for hardware gateways. It allows you to choose from the largest number of cameras with plug and play setup.

Features:

• This VMS (Video Management Solution) application automatically detects cameras.
• You can manage cameras with ease.
• This free security camera software Windows 10 seamlessly integrates with NAS (Network Attached Storage) and SD card.
• It allows you to check the health of the camera.
• Provides services to control the camera through web and mobile apps.
• It offers a multi-camera timeline for ease of managing the cloud.

Link: https://www.camcloud.com/

#12) Genius Vision

Genius Vision is a security camera software that allows remote video monitoring and recording. It offers GUI with complete remote-control functions. This application enables you to pan, tilt, and zoom cameras.

Features:

• Supports multiple brands of IP cameras.
• This VMS (Video Management Solution) is easy to setup and configure.
• This best free IP camera software Windows 10 provides 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) mobile streaming.
• You can integrate this software with Google Map.
• This IP camera software enables you to schedule recording.

Link: https://geniusvision.net/community.html

#13) ContaCam

Contacam is one of the best home security camera systems that meets your security need. It is available in numerous languages, including English, French, Chinese, Italian, and more. This application has an integrated web server with password protection.

Features:

• It provides a summary video on a daily basis.
• This webcam survaillance software offers a motion recording facility.
• You will be able to perform manually records and snapshots.
• ContaCam IP cam viewer enables you to set up an unlimited parallel camera.
• Supports remote watching by using cloud clients.

Link: https://www.contaware.com/contacam.html

#14) Deskshare IP Camera Viewer

IP Camera Viewer is a security camera system that enables you to view live video from IP cameras or USB. It can be used for your home, office, or any other place where you need security. It supports more than 2000 different IP camera models.

Features:

• It automatically uploads recorded videos to a server.
• The tool is compatible with all models of IP cameras.
• You can control and view more than 4 camera videos.
• This free IP camera recording software provides preview from multiple cameras.
• This IP camera software enables you to make video clearer by adjusting camera video and image property.
• It allows you to configure the resolution and frame rate for video.

Link: https://www.deskshare.com/ip-camera-viewer.aspx

#15) Hanwha Wisenet WAVE VMS

Hanwha Wisenet WAVE VMS is a security camera solution that enables you to manage video with ease. It is one of the best webcam monitoring software which has a smart viewer that provides a simple user interface to monitor live feeds.

Features:

• You can monitor more than 72 videos from a connected camera.
• It allows you to search and play recorded data by the type of event.
• This application enables you to search by user, system, or record.
• Easy customize the IP Video Management platform
• A video can be exported with ease.

Link: https://www.hanwhasecurity.com/software/

#16) Luxriot Evo

Luxriot Evo is one of the best HD security camera software that can be used in the office or home. This tool interface is designed in a way that the user can quickly understand the configuration process.

Features:

• It has modules for video analytics along with face recognition.
• This IP camera viewer Windows 10 automates the video surveillance process with an alarm and action manager.
• You can perform continuous monitoring of all server status from the central server.
• It can stream video resolution upto 1080p.
• This WiFi camera software for PC allows you to archive streams.

Link: https://www.luxriot.com/product/ip-camera-software/luxriot-evo/

#17) C-MOR

C-MOR is an IP video surveillance system that enables you to keep watch on unwanted activity from the internet or network. This webcam security software allows you to view live or previous recordings without any hassle.

Features:

• It allows you to setup user rights and camera recording without installing software.
• This Mac security camera software offers an intuitive graphical user interface.
• You can search for tons of video recordings with ease.
• This IP camera client software provides secure access through password and encryption.
• The app supports all major IP video security cameras.

Link: https://www.c-mor.com/

#18) Agent DVR

Agent DVR is one of the best IP camera software that enables you to record video to MP4, RAW, GPU, etc. This application includes varieties of motion detectors. It sends email push notification and SMS to mobile devices.

Features:

• This IP camera software for Mac is fully integrated with home assistance.
• It can be used without installation.
• You can easily access this software from any device.
• This free NVR software supports unlimited cameras.
• This IP camera viewer online helps you to recognize people, pet, and face with no hassle.

Link: https://www.ispyconnect.com/

#19) Freedom VMS

Freedom VMS is one of the best wireless security camera systems that use all the latest CCTV technologies. It enables you to create a group of camera selection. You can also use this CCTV camera app to play multiple videos.

Features:

• It automatically synchronizes playback footage.
• This NVR software offers drag and drop functionality from the device list.
• You can search for a specific event with ease.
• This CCTV software for PC offers a sub-stream record playback facility.
• Export recording to CD, DVD, USB stick, SD card, etc.

Link: https://www.freedomvms.com/index.html

FAQ:

What are Security Camera Software?

Which are the best IP Camera Software for Windows 10?

What is IP camera?

How Do You Pick the Best Security Camera Software?

What are the common features of Security Camera Software?

Is it legal to use video surveillance?

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