This article is meant to educate you about the existence of limitations with ONVIF compatibility that if overlooked can lead to a costly mistake. The intent here is not to intimidate you as the buyer to buy only from us. Do not expect to purchase an ONVIF camera and have it work with a security camera system unless it has been verified to do so by the company you are purchasing it from and vice versa. It is foolish to buy an ONVIF camera and expect it to work with your NVR without doing the proper research first. It is also a good idea to contact the company you purchased your recorder from to see if they support the cameras you are interested in. How do I know what cameras I can use with my system?Ī good rule of thumb is to use caution when purchasing from different companies. Different firmware versions on camera and recorders provide varying degree of compatibility thus making it impossible for either camera or recorder manufacturer to answer that question unless the exact camera and recorder models have been tested to work together. The only way to know is to test your ONVIF camera with the standalone DVR or NVR you intend to use. Any company that you purchase from can claim their equipment is ONVIF compliant, however this is misleading and untrue. Motion detection, audio, remote viewing, camera settings, and PTZ control are features that will not work, even with an IP camera that is labeled “ONVIF compliant”.
In most cases you will get a video stream from the ONVIF camera but no other features. My camera is ONVIF compliant, will it work? Configure, request, and control recording.Below is a table of commonly used ONVIF profiles for IP cameras and NVR recorders. ONVIF created several profiles that are loosely followed by IP camera chipset manufacturers. Is my camera ONVIF compliant?īecause there are so many manufacturers out there it is impossible to say if your ONVIF camera is truly compliant. This can make finding the right security camera that will work with your system a learning milestone in your path to becoming a security camera prosumer. You can find several companies online selling through Newegg, Amazon, or Ali Express which sell the same inexpensive IP camera solution. Such manufacturers should rightfully be called assemblers as they have zero investments in their own product development. Small manufacturers that have little or no research and development investments package inexpensive chipset solutions in to camera shells and claim their products are ONVIF compatible and should work with any ONVIF NVR recorder. Often times this has mislead customers to believe the hype that any device with the “ONVIF” label will work with anything on the market that claims to be ONVIF compatible. They have created several categories for compliance to make it easier for companies to create products that are compatible with other manufacturers.
ONVIF (Open Network Video Interface Forum) is a global and open corporate forum that was founded to standardize the IP-based surveillance camera industry. What is ONVIF? or What is an ONVIF camera?
This article will explain and demystify common misconceptions surrounding the acronym. The acronym has a lot of mystery behind it and can be difficult to completely understand. Anyone who is interested in IP security cameras will come across the acronym “ONVIF” at some point.