UniFi Protect ViewPort
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ย. 2024
- Let's take a look at the UniFi Protect ViewPort! This device is powered by PoE and allows you to view your Protect camera views on an HDMI screen at up to 4K quality.
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Feature for ViewPort Gen-2:
Most monitors or TVs aren't touchscreen. So how about plugging a USB mouse into the ViewPort to navigate on screen? Or a Bluetooth mouse connection?
Or maybe just a touchpad on one side, or adding a similar tiny touchscreen to the other rackmount hardware (although I'm sure that might exceed PoE consumption).
or a network control app... like a smartphone?
or just HDMI-CEC so you could use your TV remote
your videos are SO informative sir, I really appreciate the time you take and the effort you put into these.. just wanted to say Thank You..
The transition bug you talked about at 7:40 is now fixed. I actually didn't know about this feature (or watch your video carefully) before setting up my viewports. I accidentally dragged a second camera onto an existing camera location when playing with the Views, and the cameras started cycling
Another great review Chris. Would be nice if Ubiquiti added an HDMI port to both the CK Gen 2+ and UDM pro, easy connection for those who run their network and home theater from the same rack.
Thank you Chris! I setup a network and protect system for my small business and your helpful videos we instrumental in my using the system. I just happened to check for this product and here you are! You are the best. Thanks! Now if I can figure out VOIP.
oh man i can go for more of that, screen wiping action.
Next time I'll do it in 120fps slow-mo.
I worked on a project with Protect and we used two of these to drive to large 4K monitors. People love it.
Been waiting for this. I can't tell you how much time I've wasted trying to get a stable viewer solution for 10 camera feeds. Raspberry Pi and mini PCs couldn't handle it. RTSP viewers suck. To be honest it's disappointing that 1.) it wasn't available sooner when Protect came out, and 2.) that we even need something like this. The Protect Live View is designed for it, but trying to leave it running 24/7, Chrome crashes on me 1-2 times a day.
I totally agree on the point that it would be nice to be able to interact with each screen either through touch or say some wirelessly connected device - both for nerdy home users and businesses.
That's a really polished device for such a niche application, Ubiquiti keeps upping their game.
A wireless option would be nice. Having a monitor you can put within range of your wifi without the need of ethernet would be nice. I am running the Raspberry Pi 3B+ wifii with three Unifi camera streams using a tiny 15 inch monitor. Using the lowest streams but it works well. The fourth screen I used Magic mirror to push a calendar / time / weather in it. The setup has been very reliable. I agree the learning curve to get that tuned and working was not easy. The idea of just buying something and just plugging it in and it works makes sense as an off the shelf product.
Unifi Viewports have been out of stock for a long time. is there an alternative that you have found. can you do a video???
I just checked the price here in Denmark and its a staggering $370 retail........wowser......not something you would buy multiple of for your home setup (TV, monitor on desk etc).
In Ubiquiti EU store it's currently €179,00 VAT excl.
$460 Australian HFS! Ummm I’ll stick to Apple TV’s lol they are less than $300 AU!
It would be great if it had some kind of remote. Like a Roku remote. Basic functions only. Keep admin in the protect service.
The Unifi stuff is really becoming the Apple of the network world.
No learning curve but you have to pay big bucks.
Couple things they should consider. Your touch interface idea is great but even a simple mouse integration would work wonders. Think of a security office this might be deployed in, large format display might be up on a wall or ceiling mounted, simple cordless mouse would be awesome. Also, if they are ever considering making any type of PTZ camera, a mouse or interface of some kind would definitely be required. Even the AppleTV app has more capabilities right now. This device should be $100 for its very limited capabilities when you think about it.
Agreed! Why buying a $199 Viewport when I can get a AppleTV 4k that runs app UniFi protect and basicaly can show the same images PLUS everything else that a TVbox can do? That accessory is way way overpriced considered the hardware embeded. Only advantage is the easy PoE connection, but, again, if you are running a security office with like 2-3 big screens, you obviously have enough outlets, given the TVs themselves are now PoE-powered.
I went looking for this video the other day from you. Now you post it. Get out of my thoughts lol.
Anyone else see that G4 doorbell at 3:34 👀
The number one thing for me rather than buying one of those doodads is to have a UniFi app on a streaming device like Android TV or Apple TV. Just as I wrote this I searched and on Nvidia Shield they have UniFi Protect app listed... 👍😎
It would be nice to be able to view cameras on a remote network. For example: If you have cameras at two different locations, across town from each other, it would be nice to be able to view both locations on the Viewport.
VPN them togesther
Love it - works way better than the web view of Protect especially if you are live viewing for very long. Def worth the $$.
Would be cool if it worked in Unifi Video!!
Add an ATSC modulator and inject it into your CATV and have it on every tv in the house. I have a Thor H-HDMI-RF-PETIT that I was gonna hook up to a Pi and reuse the Ch3 tuner on all my TVs.
A giant box of unifi gear is currently en route to my first house with electrician coming next week to wire it all in. Including a bunch of Unifi Protect gear. It’s all your fault, Chris. And I couldn’t be any happier. Thank you!
Cheers - good luck!
What I would like to see is the ability to view cameras at different sites on 1 screen. So for example, I have customers with 3 locations, each with a cloudkey. In the HQ they like to show the cameras of the other locations so they all feel like 1 big team. To be able to show other locations would be great. Along the same idea, if I am a business owner, would be great to have a tv or screen at home that is using this device to show me whats happening at the office or my retail store front.
It’s a nice product but for the price it seems like it would be more cost effective to buy an Apple TV 4K and download the UniFi Protect app for tvOS. I can see the ViewPort being a great appliance for a permanent video monitoring solution but the Apple TV gives you lots of versatility. I can see a business owner switching between streaming TV and their camera system. The other benefit to Apple TV is that if your Ubiquiti login with UniFi Protect has multiple camera NVRs you can access multiple camera systems like Work & Home from the same app. Almost seems like a missed opportunity that Ubiquiti didn’t include a Bluetooth remote with basic functionality to switch between different NVRs or camera views.
This is what I'm wondering, I've had no problems at all using my Apple TV 4K as a viewport equivalent and its cheaper
Hi Chris, thanks for the video on the UFP Viewport.
I just wanted to drop a quick comment to share that I had the exact same experience as you with the Viewport.
With my setup (Viewport, UNVR, and G4 Pro Bullet):
- the Viewport welcome screen indicates that you can use the App to set it up; but that doesn't work (cannot see the Viewport at all in the App ... I am using iOS)
- connecting to my local Protect instance and then doing an Add Devices, it found the Viewport right away (probably need to be sure your Viewport is on the same network as your Protect is, I imagine ... the welcome screen was a little ambiguous about "your controller" in its instructions)
- once I invoked the Add Device in the desktop app, it added right away and then the Viewport self-updated without any prompting from me (in fact, I have automatic firmware updates turned off in my UNVR settings, not sure if that setting is ultimately intended to have any bearing on the Viewport's self-updating or not)
- even after getting it added, I wasn't able to see any indication of the Viewport device in the mobile App
I agree with you that the touch interaction you described at the end of the video would be cool, but seems pretty far-fetched (at least without some very tight restrictions on which touch devices were supported).
What I would think would be much more feasible for Ubiquiti to easily do would be to expose the Viewport in the mobile Protect App ... and then let you quickly switch which Live View the Viewport is configured with from within the mobile App. In that way, you could have it so that a single Viewport could be not quite so static (i.e., not require you to go back to the desktop App to change the view you are seeing through the HDMI display). You could change it with your phone from the comfort of your couch.
Hopefully that will be coming in a future update! I think it would make for a great feature.
Thanks again for the video!
I received mine a couple of weeks ago and it’s great. I did see a way to have the cameras rotate views depending on time or motion.
In Protect yes - you can set up your views to rotate based on time or motion...it's just that the ViewPort doesn't seem to pick that up when displaying on the TV.
Hey Julio, how are you getting on with yours? Does it freeze up? Is the image real time as what the camera are seeing? Or lag?
Thanks.
@@Spacemanwho1 Very minimal delay for me. Less than half a second but still slightly noticable. Much better than the delay from a Chromecast.
Apple TV 4K is cheaper and with UniFi Protect app you can do more
True, but here you don't have to lock anything down so users don't even have the option play games or watch videos instead.
See my other reply regarding AppleTV - what scubthebub said is also something I didn't think of. For home use - sure...go with the AppleTV...but that isn't really a viable solution if you're selling Protect solutions to businesses.
Crosstalk Solutions
I guess you right 😅
I honestly can’t justify $200. Maybe for a customer deployment. If it came down to $129 or so I would probably go with this. I found your raspberry pi video and since I’m already well versed in RPi/Linux/config/etc I think I’ll just do that to attach my 17” monitor to the protect cameras when I get those up and going.
Exactly this! Even if you are not too skilled in Raspian, IT, etc, you just need to follow a 10-20 min step by step tutorial, including the one from Chris. Only for the price of a raspberry PI and a little bit of your time, you can save well over $150. For this product to be worth, I would probably want to see it at no more then £70.
While I agree generally, $200 is a steal for any customer deployments as Chris said. Not sure I would buy one personally but absolutely would for my work or any other deployments.
I generally agree too. In my location a raspberry pi with POE hat is like $150ish, this is like $280 by USD to CAD conversion. Even if I can pass ethernet thru to the TV or hometheater or whatever, For me its a no brainer heck I already have a PI for viewing my cams. If I was setting this up for someone else... like my folks, I might think about it.
@@Bosneanu I hear you, but I’m $150 an hour - so it’s cheeper for me to buy this and know it will work then to spend my time setting up a RAS system. Not for everyone, but for me it’s a good fit. And the users experience for my client is much better if something goes off.
Leap motion integration would be a good way to add input.
I like the way you think!
Thanks for this review! I was waiting to pull the trigger on a few of these for my home to allow easy viewing from any tv. Yes it is expensive but for ease of use and saving a ton of time with setup it's hard to complain.
Ive been waiting for this since version 1...
Is that a Raze the World T-Shirt? Throwback.
Nice looking product. Also, your wish-list items are great suggestions and would be fantastic features to have. I have a use case for this device in a deployment so this video release was timed perfectly! Thanks Chris, great video as always!
It would very cool for them to add audio in some manner. We normally have a view showing on an old tablet with the sound turned on. When we hear something, then we look. Otherwise, you have to be watching it all the time which is just not going to happen.
Love the box cutter
Sure test this HDMI to display port adapter to the monitor since the display port and HDMI is a digital signal vs a VGA connection.
There are no bugs; only undocumented features.
You'd need to have a USB connection between the device and the monitor to make the touch screen idea work. Maybe they will build a monitor with the device integrated.
This is awesome for an office install to splash on a large TV.
Hi, the new Chromecast Google TV supports the Unifi PROTECT app. And only costs $ 80 Canadian.
Great video! I'm struggling to see this as anything other than a money making device though. Why didn't they add a HDMI port to the CloudKey Gen2+ or software patch to utalize the USB-C for display? At home I use the new Protect app on my Android TV.
Touch screen probably will not happen... but the question is does it support HDMI-CEC then you could do that with a remote. Which in my mind makes more sense as I expect this would be mounted on a wall in a corner out of the way...
Also I am assuming this does not work with the legacy Unifi Video?
Great video, Chris. PS: Did I see the G4 Doorbell listed on your mobile device!? (3:35)
I saw it too.. but I dont think i saw it on his web browser when he logged in unless its named differently.
@@omarserpas5323 when you go to add elements , it basically shows all devices that support the unifi protect ... i dont think it really means that he has it. you can check on your unifi app by clicking "add elements"
Still in EA, he can't talk about it. Shhhhhhhhhhhh
You can easily apply for the beta app channel within the Play Store page for it.
Finally something that allows to connect via HDMI
Chris like ur idea about the touchscreen but a WiFi remote with mouse action would make more sense that way people can use what ever screens they have an 85” in the den or 19” in the bathroom
Can you mention when you are reviewing items that are early access? I run to the website with credit card in hand......and not available. Can't be teasing me like that.
Is this any cheaper than an AppleTV running the UniFi Protect App?
The convenience of PoE, remote administration through UniFi Protect and Single-Use Appliance form factor would be selling points in a Corporate environment, or for UniFi enthusiasts, but compared to an AppleTV, ChromeCast or FireStick, is it commercially competitive?
Soooooo, did anyone else notice the ‘G4 Doorbell’ advertised on the splash screen when it booted up?
Yea, it's been in the Beta store for a while but sells out instantly. There is info in the beta forums and reddit. The TLDR is it works really well.
@@scubthebub just a shame it's only Wi-Fi and not PoE! Hopefully they'll bring a "Pro" version out with PoE if this version shows the demand.
@@lewisjsuk1 Yeah, I want a cabled connection with POE, then I'll buy one.
@@bloodcarver913 I can't get a network cable to by door due to the house design so this will work well.
Either add hdmi CEC and pass the TV remote button pressed to it or a small Bluetooth remote (like the firestick)
Also, like others said, it's too high a price really for what it does.
Also, no wireless on it ?
I would love to have a monitor/tv with this hooked up and be able to say "Alexa/Google/Siri, show me the back yard" and it turns on that monitor and shows that camera feed. Surely they are working on some kind of smart integration.
I'd be curious to know what the bandwidth use is when running an 8 camera view.
A normal camera like the Flex pushes about 4mbps on the network. The Viewport not necessarily does the same but can’t be a lot different than 8 times 4.
@@tuanbe It is a lot different. Any camera pushes 3 stream variants: one HQ for recs, one MQ for dynamic bitrate, and one LQ (low quality). ViewPort uses one of those from each cam. It does not ingest all 4mbps from a flex. Also, is definitely not 4mbps total per camera. I can bet a leg. Check the numbers better :)
it will eat anywhere from 8x750kbps on static scenery up to 8xmaxBitrate, where maxBitrate is the bitrate you just set on the UI for those cameras.
For the cost I’ll stick with your Raspberry Pi plugged into my TV.
I tried that for a client, was way too buggy. But I'm glad they came out with this solution.
I did this for years and never had a good experience. All best practices fewer than six cameras and static IP on UPS battery. Endless issues.
Got mine a few weeks ago, but only just started to play with it. The main use-case is to show motion, so have a 2x2 grid, each with a camera pair toggling between motion events. Not seeing anything on the forums that indicates they're fixing this, have you heard anything?
Damn that looks good . Did an install at my old foiks home and had to use an a NUC for a permanent display . This looks so much easier .
Will be interesting to hear how it deals with lag/heat over an extended period of use.
I was hoping to get one of these for my new cameras I just setup but all out of stock, so I had an old Nvidia Shield, installed Unify App on it from google play and made a new user in protect with limited privliges. Hooked up hdmi to TV from Shield, plugged in ethernet from Shield to switch, in business live streaming protect on big extra TV I had. If I get tried of having cameras up just flip over to HBO or Netflix and then switch back. If looking for multi use a shield with unify app on it is the way to go.
I should add I was also able to use logitech MX keyboard and mouse both bluetooth on Shield and easily control the Unify app.
I've been looking for this solution!
Does it allow remote display onto an Amazon Echo Show or Google Hub device wirelessly? Or are we still stuck with RTSP and Monocole?
I have a ViewPort too... maybe a bit of a con to add to the list but there is no audio, that would have been a nice feature.
This is awesome but this is still useless for most of my customers because they don't allow unifi protect on a normal server.
Do you know when the door access system is going to be available?
they ever get around to fixing those pesky bugs Chris?
This sounds great then i just need these connected than having staff log into a website all the time. less is better. will need to order a few of these - thanks for the review
Will this display the unifi doorbell camera as live view?
@crosstalk solutions Did Unifi update the feature for rotating camera views? Is there any lag/buffer issue. The web version / chrome cast version buffers and freezes
Interesting to see if a HDMI matrix or splitter could be used, perhaps some HDbaseT transmitter and receiver setups.. for viewing throughout your home\shop on many panels.
Great Video. I would like to see it tested withe the UniFi Protect G4 Doorbell?
There is also a free alternative to the UniFi ViewPort. It gives you and idea on how it works before you purchase.
What is this alternative?
Do you think someone could use two of these simultaneously to show two different views on two different monitors?
I got a couple of these in last week. iOS protect app wouldn’t work for me either.
My client Loves it though! Just what he needed for a small display near their front door. Set it and forget it! No windows updates, screen savers, etc. to interfere with the camera view.
forget the remote, the mouse, or the touch screen. Just make it 'smart'. Show the defined view and then let it auto expand the camera view with the most recent motion. Second request - allow this functionality in a Roku app ;) Thanks for the video.
I would definitely NOT want it to automatically expand any camera view with motion. Too many inconsequential motion events. I would want control over what I chose to expand.
Now, if only Unifi had stock on the majority of their products. Haven't been able to get any required hardware for months. Great review otherwise. Have this on my list of to-get items.
FINALLY!!!! I've been waiting for this feature. Almost left Unifi because of their lack of this feature for surveillance. I hope it runs better than their AppleTV app.
They make it run crap on purpose, so that you will buy this.
Always excellent reviews. Thankyou
Looks like Ubiquiti is on a roll coming out with neat products. Patiently waiting on the RPS video review
I just started filming the RPS video yesterday!
Crosstalk Solutions thanks I’ll be keeping my eye out for this.
Unfortunately standalone touchscreens work over USB, and since this device does not have USB they won't be able to implement such feature. But great idea nonetheless!
That's really nifty! Have any recent updates fixed the auto-camera swap thing, for views where cameras are supposed to swap every x seconds?
Great video! What if you have 42 cameras across 2 UNVR Pros? Do I need 3 View ports, to display 16 cameras per view port?
Huge issue with the wifi unifi cameras. If you eliminate your 5GHZ network and then reboot any camera, it will go into default mode and lose connectivity. People that want them to go far usually use 2.4 ghz network. Issue is when power goes out, they default to original settings.
Lol, Watching this a year after you made it and they literally released the connect touchscreens - Chris = Ubiquity Soothsayer
Chris thanks for all your hard work. keep it up. Question I have a dream machine (non pro) and was wondering how to add protect to it
I would like it to do full screen on motion if you have several selected That would be hands free and if you had two it would do 1/2 screen for both with motion. That would do what you said without the need for a touch screen.
I wonder how much is the lag between a live event happening in-front of the camera and the feed updating on this?
About a second and a half for mine. Running 9 cameras on a UNVR.
@@dogwiz That's really not bad. Some software packages will throw in 4 or 5 seconds of lag. when live viewing.
Can't wait to get my unifi system setup. Is there no mouse connection on the view port? You would think that would be a simple way to communicate with it to open the camera large as you suggested
seems cool but its very expensive and is really only for a particular audience. Hopefully future firmware can give it much more basic controls.
Oh yeah, that's cool. Could never be bothered doing the Raspberry pi setup.
Needs some sort of ptz / zoom controls
Did they ever fix the issue you talk about at 7:00, in version 1.15.0 released a couple of days ago? the change log lists in the improvements: Viewport: Support Cycle view (Motion & Time)
Just to answer my own question.... I tested it and Yes, it does work in protect 1.15! However it add a spinning wheel animation while it transitions between screens which is more annoying than useful.
Great review. Looks like a great product. Can't wait to add it to my system.
They could at the least provide the touch screen features that you want in the APP, if the APP ever starts to work as you stated. So, what you do visually in the app with touch configuration would mirror immediately on the screen. Somewhat of a rudimentary remote control. I got an office that needs this, because I had to go to great measures for automation with Windows 10 and a Chromium browser and macros to have something "somewhat" reliable. This looks like the perfect answer if they will fine tune it to customer preferences. This is a NEEDED and long-awaited product, but again, they need to accept lots of user input on this item. Also they should make a windows 10 "APP" for immediate changes as well.
Chris, wondering if you could try a test for me. How much time does it take between when the network cable is plugged in to the Protect ViewPort and when the camera feeds appear on the monitor? Basically, curious about it's boot time for "on-demand" use instead of having it on continuously. Or, alternatively, is the Protect ViewPort aware if the monitor is off and can sleep itself? Lot of interesting options in this area. The Protect ViewPort could turn the monitor on in response to an alarm condition of it's off. Thanks and thanks for your channel!
How is this thing an improvement over an Apple TV 4K with the Protect app? Apple TV is a bit cheaper and obviously does loads more. I’m guessing there are also even cheaper alternatives available - perhaps Fire TV, Android TV, Roku, Raspberry Pi, etc.
I think the cost justification is ease of use. Imagine that you're selling this solution to your customers as an MSP. Sure - you could get them a 'cheaper' AppleTV - but what happens when the power goes out? What if they want to move that TV somewhere else? Now you have to have someone trained up to know that they have to go open Protect on the AppleTV...and...hmmm...where did we put that tiny AppleTV remote control again?
Just an example of what you'll be dealing with - if you buy this, it's plug and play - even if the power goes out, even if you move it around, no remote to lose...it just works, and there is some value in that.
@@CrosstalkSolutions I'm all with you on getting the end user something simple and pain-free, but I can't follow the argument of “look, we got you so much less for more $$$, isn't that great?”. If it does less and costs more, it's a rip-off, no matter how you look at it. UBNT has been doubling down on stupid decisions for a while now and this is just another one like it. Why would you price yourself out of the market with accessories that make your product more accessible, hence helping with the purchase decision? Tim? Is that you? 😋
Crosstalk Solutions I completely understand the reasoning behind that... I’m a home user, so I didn’t come to the table considering how an installer would present this to a client, and also how unprofessional it would be to have a non dedicated appliance that didn’t default to it’s singular purpose on a reboot, etc... however, I still find it rather hard to justify a $199 price tag when you can get a Fire TV 4K stick that does infinitely more than this thing does and it only costs $49 - sometimes less. Hell, even an Apple TV 4K, that does just barely more than the Fire TV stick, still costs less at $179. The sticking point is the price here, not the feature set.
I guess the guts are basically a mini ARM pc with Linux and some unifi protect specific software. Webrtc or html5.
RPI iso for this would be great... lol
That is sweet. You find bugs, I learn you can rotate live view cams. 😂😂
I'm guessing if you had multiple camera views setup & it's assigned just an IP addy, one could run 2 of them for different offices?
Sure - you can have multiple different ViewPorts and set the view separately on each.
What a great device & video! I now use my Apple tv to see all of my cameras.
By the UniFi Protect app on the Apple TV!
Do you have to have the latest Apple TV or will the 3 work?
Great video! Any updates regarding the static view bug?
lol "...Are the scissors broken in your house Son"
Touch screen ability... yeah, that would be great... they could switch from HDMI to USB-C so it would still be a single cable to the monitor solution. Maybe USB-C was still too new... maybe the next version?
At a lower price this can potentially replace a hdbaset/hdmi setup.
Does unify protect allow you to rotate image so if the monitor is portrait you can have camera display as portrait?
I hope you leave this running and see if there are any freeze ups etc over that coming weeks.