

In my opinion, it is a real alternative to a dedicated NVR system. The Surveillance Station software on my QNAP NAS is quite powerful. Most entry-level NAS units come with 2 IP camera licenses free that you can use with the Surveillance software on the NAS. This essentially makes it a 2-channel NVR. Additional licenses need to be purchased directly from QNAP. QNAP NAS Surveillance Stationīoth Synology and QNAP call their surveillance software ‘Surveillance Station’. One of the most popular NVRs among my readers here at VueVille is the Hikvision DS-7608NI-E2/8P, so it makes sense to choose this 8-channel NVR for the dedicated NVR side of the comparison. This model is quite powerful with a quad-core Intel Celeron processor with 2 GB of RAM. So I have chosen the QNAP TS-251+ on the NAS side of the comparison. For an apples to apple comparison, we need to choose a NAS with an HDMI port. This isn’t very surprising as it is a budget NAS. The TS-231+ is missing an HDMI port though. I have need of just 2 IP cameras, so the 2 free IP camera licences that came with the TS-231+ have sufficed so far. My DIY NVR system is based on a NAS, the QNAP TS-231+ and I have been running this CCTV setup for more than a year. To make this a fair fight, we need to pit an affordable NAS against an affordable NVR.

Analysis – Its not that straightforward.
