Ubiquiti UniFi Protect Network Video Recorder

Was on Unifi Video for a long time and like everyone else, had to make the jump to Unifi Protect when Ubiquiti decommissioned Unifi Video. I needed the HDD redundancy which the Cloud Key Gen 2 Plus didn’t have as I was running Unifi Video off a NAS. It’s well worth it as compared to upgrading the HDD on a CKG2. Very stable but it does get a little noisy with the fans going especially with 4 x HDDs loaded. It’s been running for over a week with no issues. Fully recommend it if you need the extra storage which allows for a longer period to retain your recordings.

Cloud access required

I would give the system 5 stars if I could access the system via VPN on an iPad without using Ubiquiti's cloud login feature; it is a clean system and reasonably priced.Unfortunately there are also a number of things you just cannot do with it, so it ends up only on-par with the competition.

Easy to set up

When Ubiquiti discontinued their unifi-video product, I had a few different options. Ultimately, I chose to move to unifi protect because I still wanted to be able to view my cameras from my phone, and didn't want to replace all my cameras. To do that, it was either a cloud key, or this NVR. I have about 7 cameras, so the cloud key might be pushing it. The setup was easy, and I had the option to migrate from my previous unifi-video VM as part of the setup process, which was nice. I still wish I could self-host, but oh well.

Great Video Recorder

The UNVR is surprisingly fast at loading up videos, scrolling through video, etc. Even with 8 G4 cameras (5 G4 Pros, 3 G4 Bullets). Setup was a breeze.The thing I don't like about this is the Protect mobile app can't discover it if it's on its own VLAN. I don't think a camera network -- particularly exterior cameras -- should be on a native network. I have it set so that only certain MAC addresses are authenticated on my camera VLAN (the cameras, UNVR, some Android tablets that I use as mobile camera viewers, and my Viewports). Our iPhones/iPads have to connect remotely since you can't specify an IP address (it relies 100% on discovery). Since UI doesn't implement mDNS reflection on all VLAN's correctly, it won't be discoverable. I'm thinking of using the RJ45 ... MoreThe UNVR is surprisingly fast at loading up videos, scrolling through video, etc. Even with 8 G4 cameras (5 G4 Pros, 3 G4 Bullets). Setup was a breeze.The thing I don't like about this is the Protect mobile app can't discover it if it's on its own VLAN. I don't think a camera network -- particularly exterior cameras -- should be on a native network. I have it set so that only certain MAC addresses are authenticated on my camera VLAN (the cameras, UNVR, some Android tablets that I use as mobile camera viewers, and my Viewports). Our iPhones/iPads have to connect remotely since you can't specify an IP address (it relies 100% on discovery). Since UI doesn't implement mDNS reflection on all VLAN's correctly, it won't be discoverable. I'm thinking of using the RJ45 connection to my main LAN while the SFP+ is on my camera VLAN.There has been some discussion about failures due to a generic USB flash drive that was utilized for OS storage. The UNVR-Pro has eMMC flash memory instead of a USB flash drive. I can confirm that with newer versions (board revision 38 for me), the generic USB flash drive is gone. I'm guessing it's an eMMC memory module that's in its place.

KNOWN ISSUE WITH USB, no support

After being forced to switch to Unifi Protect from Unifi Video I thought this was a slick NVR. How wrong I was! After 14 months (which is 2 months out of warranty if you buy from B&H, buy direct from Unifi store and it is 24 months) the device failed, flashing white light and wouldn't connect. One google search later i realized that it was not rare and I was in good company. Search UNVR Fail USB and you'll see what I mean. Bottom line is that every single one of these units is going to fail, most conveniently just out of warranty. The issue seems to stem from a USB mounted on the motherboard that fails with to many read write operations. You can replace it simply, but who wants to do this every year? No faith in Unifi, they screwed me on the AP - EDU's as well.

Perfect

Picked this up after some back and fourth between this and the Cloud key. For the extra $100 You get more drives and raid support which made it worth it. Quiet and you don't hear it running. Room for expansion without the performance hit. Currently its setup with a 2x 2TB drives in Raid 1 and its been great.

Requires Ubiquiti Account to use App

While storage might be local, Ubiquiti has complete control over the unit. If you want to use the iPhone/iPad apps you are stuck allowing remote access. Had it not been for Ubiquiti's major breach of systems back in January this might not be that bad... but many of us want to make sure surveilance equipment is in a dedicated VLAN with tightly controlled (eg VPN) access to the outside world. For that, this is a complete failure.

So far, so good

Bought this to replace a UAS-XG. I paired it with four, 12 TB Seagate Skyhawk AI drives and 21 UniFi G3 bullet cameras. I was a bit skeptical on how it would perform with this many cameras, but CPU and memory usage haven't gone above 50% with 24x7 recording, 6 Mbps bitrate and 30fps. Migration from UniFI video was easy (just had to export a backup config from the UAS-XG, shut it down, then import it into Protect).

Solid and reliable for medium to large installs

With a 50 camera limit and add a couple of large HDD's in RAID 5, you have a robust, but proprietary surveillance system. There is a catch though. You have to use Unifi Protect camera's (which are expensive for what they are) and you are completely reliant on Unifi maintaining this system.Do your research and look around as Ubiquiti are known to stop supporting some products.As it is though, solid, reliable, works well if you are all into the Unifi eco-system and can be managed via Unifi Network software.

Working good, more setup required than other Unifi gear

After plugging in the UNVR, I tried to follow the instructions which said to go to the IP address via a web browser. But there wasn't even an http server running. I had to ssh into the box and then manually update the firmware and reboot multiple times to get the website configuration complete. I wish I could have just plugged it in and followed the instruction. They should make this like all their other gear and have you adopt the device, but it seems separate from everything else.