Introduction:
Dahua and Hikvision can be likened to Holden and Ford. You have installers on both teams, and they will defend their team at all costs. We at Connect and Protect like to rigorously test as many products as we can in the market to decide what we think will best suit the end users. It’s always a balance between price, usability, reliability, functionality and vendor support.
For many years we have installed and recommended Hikvision, previously the build quality was better, app was cleaner, image quality was better, and the overall system was just superior to Dahua and every other brand. In the last two years Dahua has really upped their game. When advised about TiOC I was sceptical but hopeful, more reliable motion alerts is what CCTV really needed and we knew it was just a matter of time before one of the manufactures cracked the code.
After rigorously testing the new product, we were blown away! To put things in perspective motion technology in the past has worked on a pixel by pixel change so as you can imagine anytime there was rain, or a bush moved, headlights, bugs or a shadow from a cloud you’d receive an alert. Not anymore!
SMD – Smart Motion Detection vs Acusense:
In testing between these two products, we found that the Hikvision products unfortunately still had false alerts by headlights, bugs and various other environmental factors.
Dahua all but eliminates these factors and we can filter out small animals by size. Larger animals can still be problematic, but this is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.
Active Deterrent vs Live Guard:
Again, in testing we hand many firmware issues with Hikvision, the manufacturer doesn’t make the firmware readily available on the website like Dahua does and there were a few different firmware’s given to us by different wholesalers which each had their own quirks. One thing that was consistent was that there was no scheduling the Live Guard feature overnight. Dahua’s product on the other hand just worked, no messing about with firmware.
Another winning factor for Dahua is that there are red and blue strobe lights over the Hikvision’s single white led which is less intimidating.
Full-colour vs ColourVu:
Colour at night may sounds like an amazing feature and it is! However, to achieve colour at night means having an LED light which is visible to the human eye on all night. This is not suitable for most people’s homes, the last thing people want is their home lit up like a Christmas tree having a light come in through their bedroom windows.
A key difference between Dahua and Hikvision is that Dahua’s TiOC cameras come with LED and IR. The LED comes on when a human is detected giving a colour image only when required and having IR as the default mode means you can still see at night. Hikvision does not have both in the one camera, they also have only recently combined their ColourVu with Acusense and Live Guard.
Why choose one when you can have both? TiOC cameras can also be changed easily in the app to have the light on all the times at night if the user wants as well.
Record 24/7 And Playback Via Events:
Being able to record 24/7 and playback via events would seem like a standard option, unfortunately Hikvision scheduling only allows for one. As reliable as events are we still believe 24/7 recording is the safest especially when setting up boundaries out the front, you may want to record the entire street 24/7 but not get events from every passer-by.
Dahua allows for multiple schedules and playing back via events is very easy via the app, no need to search through hours’ worth of footage, this is fundamentally a very important key difference between the two systems.
DMSS App vs Hik-Connect App:
We have also found the Dahua cloud service to be much more resilient when people have internet issues at their homes. The Dahua system tried to reconnect immediately when internet is restored, Hikvision can however need a reboot.
Although poor internet (thanks NBN) isn’t the manufacturers fault it’s very handy to have a system that will easily reconnect without a reboot due.
We have also had several incidents over the years with the Hikvision app on various updates and we get radio silence from Hikvision.
With Dahua we have access to local support here in Australia and technical support is easy to collaborate with. Just another reason we switched to Dahua over Hikvision.
Summary:
Dahua is the best CCTV security camera system on the market right now because of AI powered alerts, active deterrent, colour at night and IR in one camera, event playback, app reliability and overall product quality.
We pride ourselves on rigorously testing products and ensuring our customers are getting the best product we can possibly provide them. We don’t go selling just any brands or install DIY kits, we are solution providers. We are also not brand loyalists, if Hikvision or another competing brand comes out with a better product, we will, after extensive testing, recommend the product that provides the best solution.
For more information on our Dahua camera packages please visit our Dahua CCTV Systems page and for any other questions please feel free to get in touch with us on our Connect With Us page.
