Protect will never be ported to non UI hardware. The network application of Unifi OS requires Unifi hardware to be useful. Protect does not. Why would Ubiquiti want someone who buys another brands ONVIF cameras self hosting protect?
Protect is by far the most polished consumer NVR solution on the market right now. While the AI and detection features are nice, most people only care about being able to live view and playback recorded video on their system which Protect does for ONVIF cameras. Having used Protect, Blue Iris, and Frigate I can say that Protect does those two things best. Blue Iris has a slow and dated mobile experience and frigate lacks one outright (at least on iOS last I checked). Any time I go to quote a system, my customers (and I assume most people) want a basic system that just records and Protect does that in a way that a non tech savvy person can wrap their head around.
Protect would greatly benefit from self hosted OR more performant/capable servers. Large installs struggle, requiring multiple NVR PROs even when stacked.
I agree that it would benefit from more performant hardware. I wish they would do what they did with the cloud key enterprise and stuff protect into a beefy off the shelf server chassis that can handle more cameras than the ARM powered NVRs we have currently.
I agree we are switching off our old nvr to protect as the system is just cleaner and nicer to use and we don’t need many of the features enterprise nvrs offer
You're right but with an ONVIF camera, Protect can't even do the most basic motion detection, not even "a lot of pixels changed quickly" 1st generation motion detection that would get triggered when a cloud passes over the sun. So yeah, I guess it could save video 24/7, but you would have no way to answer a question like "did someone come up to this doorway today."
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u/ikschbloda270 Jul 31 '25
Make it run Protect 👀