Video Doorbells, advice for an idiot
Discussion
As per, assume I know the square root of f
k all about these, am an utter Luddite and we should be fine (I’m not a complete Luddite, but avoiding tech jargon would be helpful). Idiot proof installation/set up/app would be ideal.
I’m after a NON MAINS powered video doorbell thing. Ideally, I’d like to not have yet another subscription for something, but would like remote access if at all possible, ideally with the two way chat thing when someone’s there and I’m not.
I’m not fussed about motion sensing particularly, unless I can somehow geofence it to when someone is right there. My front door is a very un-PH 3 metres or so away from the single lane, one way street, which then goes onto the railway line and I don’t want alerts every time someone just walks past or a train goes by.
Being able to save clips would be a bonus, but not necessarily a deal breaker. I’ve no CCTV and don’t intend getting any. If it makes any difference, I’m still an Appleist, I’ve got HomePod I use as a hub.
Thoughts, advice and suggestions (apart from the frequent “move somewhere nicer”) appreciated.
k all about these, am an utter Luddite and we should be fine (I’m not a complete Luddite, but avoiding tech jargon would be helpful). Idiot proof installation/set up/app would be ideal. I’m after a NON MAINS powered video doorbell thing. Ideally, I’d like to not have yet another subscription for something, but would like remote access if at all possible, ideally with the two way chat thing when someone’s there and I’m not.
I’m not fussed about motion sensing particularly, unless I can somehow geofence it to when someone is right there. My front door is a very un-PH 3 metres or so away from the single lane, one way street, which then goes onto the railway line and I don’t want alerts every time someone just walks past or a train goes by.
Being able to save clips would be a bonus, but not necessarily a deal breaker. I’ve no CCTV and don’t intend getting any. If it makes any difference, I’m still an Appleist, I’ve got HomePod I use as a hub.
Thoughts, advice and suggestions (apart from the frequent “move somewhere nicer”) appreciated.
Blink door bell is battery powered and in my experience last ages, upto 2 years they reckon and I can believe it.
Buy it with a sync module with a usb stick and you don't need a subscription.
You can set motion area as small as you like,within reason.
That's the good points.
The bad,well the delay on notifications is a right pain and don't even bother trying to have a conversation.
Mine is currently on the kitchen table in pieces as it's lost focus.
Buy it with a sync module with a usb stick and you don't need a subscription.
You can set motion area as small as you like,within reason.
That's the good points.
The bad,well the delay on notifications is a right pain and don't even bother trying to have a conversation.
Mine is currently on the kitchen table in pieces as it's lost focus.
My home office is in an outbuilding so I wanted a video doorbell for years as I had no reliable way of knowing if somebody was at the door. I wasn't happy with any of the options.
Battery powered options are very limited for cameras and especially doorbells, and I suspect it'd drive you absolutely nuts keeping it charged. There are solar charging options for cameras that might help but I don't recall seeing the same for doorbells.
If you can find a way to run a cable then the Reolink doorbell is great. I feel like I looked at them all and that was the first one that ticked all the boxes for me. Good video quality, remote access via the app, requires no subscription and can do the smart detection. You can get a Power over Ethernet one so it only needs one cable for network and power, or a wifi on (but both require a cable).
The smart detection is critical if you're facing a road. One of our CCTV cameras can't do this and despite masking out the road, it still gets triggered by headlights and things going past that are reflecting against our cars. Even the shadows of clouds sets it off so it's hard to go back through the footage and find things that are actually worth watching.
Until the Reolink doorbell came out, I had cobbled together my own solution. I got a Philips hue outdoor motion sensor covering the doorway area, and hooked it up to a smart home hub and set it up so when motion was triggered, it'd send notifications to the family's phones, get Alexa to announce somebody at the door and make the lights blink. It was crude and there's no video, but as a smart doorbell it worked rather well for a good year or so.
Battery powered options are very limited for cameras and especially doorbells, and I suspect it'd drive you absolutely nuts keeping it charged. There are solar charging options for cameras that might help but I don't recall seeing the same for doorbells.
If you can find a way to run a cable then the Reolink doorbell is great. I feel like I looked at them all and that was the first one that ticked all the boxes for me. Good video quality, remote access via the app, requires no subscription and can do the smart detection. You can get a Power over Ethernet one so it only needs one cable for network and power, or a wifi on (but both require a cable).
The smart detection is critical if you're facing a road. One of our CCTV cameras can't do this and despite masking out the road, it still gets triggered by headlights and things going past that are reflecting against our cars. Even the shadows of clouds sets it off so it's hard to go back through the footage and find things that are actually worth watching.
Until the Reolink doorbell came out, I had cobbled together my own solution. I got a Philips hue outdoor motion sensor covering the doorway area, and hooked it up to a smart home hub and set it up so when motion was triggered, it'd send notifications to the family's phones, get Alexa to announce somebody at the door and make the lights blink. It was crude and there's no video, but as a smart doorbell it worked rather well for a good year or so.
Turn7 said:
I’ve got an Arlo, battery powered, but it does need a battery swap about every 5/6 days here.
It works, but don’t expect to actually speak to the amazon delivery driver, as he will be 5 drops down the road the time it’s connected….
Works as camera well enough
I had an Arlo doorbell and cameras and they all went back after about 3 weeks. Hopeless delay on the doorbell making it next to useless, motion sensing iffy at best and ALWAYS stopped recording before the motion had ended, same for the cameras.It works, but don’t expect to actually speak to the amazon delivery driver, as he will be 5 drops down the road the time it’s connected….
Works as camera well enough
I now have a simple wireless doorbell (no camera) and it is actually useful and works. I rapidly decided I had no interest in talking to someone at the door if I wasn't there.
stemll said:
I now have a simple wireless doorbell (no camera) and it is actually useful and works. I rapidly decided I had no interest in talking to someone at the door if I wasn't there.
Thanks for this and all the other replies. It seems that a simple/non mains/plug and play/no subscription aren’t that commonI’ve had a couple of Amazon wireless bells and they seem to give up the ghost pretty quickly. To be honest I’ve not much interest to speaking to people if I am home, it’d just be handy to keep an eye on my car at the front/see who’s there.
Ezviz do a number of doorbell cameras, some of which are battery powered.
I haven't used any of the doorbells, but have set up and used several of their cameras and they work well through a phone app. No subscription needed if you just want to do live view and recall clips kept on the onboard storage card. There is also subscription based cloud storage if there is a risk of someone running off the the camera itself.
Some of the wired cameras actually have a speaker option on them so you can in theory have a conversation that way - not sure if the battery powered cameras have that function.
I haven't used any of the doorbells, but have set up and used several of their cameras and they work well through a phone app. No subscription needed if you just want to do live view and recall clips kept on the onboard storage card. There is also subscription based cloud storage if there is a risk of someone running off the the camera itself.
Some of the wired cameras actually have a speaker option on them so you can in theory have a conversation that way - not sure if the battery powered cameras have that function.
Evanivitch said:
Eufy have a battery powered doorbell and options for CCTV cameras. No subscription. Small "home" storage station so you're not using cloud storage but you are using an app.
I have one of these. The doorbell runs for months on a charge and the local storage does what you want. I have a couple of Google Nest battery doorbells. They're rechargeable and last months on a charge. The picture is OK and the person detection etc. works well. I pay for storage but you don't have to. The playback is simple and for what they are I'm happy with it.
You can integrate them into the Amazon ecosystem as well as Google, so you have choice of smart displays as well as the app on your phone. I think they will also integrate with Homekit (and therefore presumably Apple TV) but I haven't tried.
You can integrate them into the Amazon ecosystem as well as Google, so you have choice of smart displays as well as the app on your phone. I think they will also integrate with Homekit (and therefore presumably Apple TV) but I haven't tried.
s2kjock said:
Ezviz do a number of doorbell cameras, some of which are battery powered.
I haven't used any of the doorbells, but have set up and used several of their cameras and they work well through a phone app. No subscription needed if you just want to do live view and recall clips kept on the onboard storage card. There is also subscription based cloud storage if there is a risk of someone running off the the camera itself.
Some of the wired cameras actually have a speaker option on them so you can in theory have a conversation that way - not sure if the battery powered cameras have that function.
I have the EZVIZ CCTV, for a budget camera, the quality is pretty good. I haven't used any of the doorbells, but have set up and used several of their cameras and they work well through a phone app. No subscription needed if you just want to do live view and recall clips kept on the onboard storage card. There is also subscription based cloud storage if there is a risk of someone running off the the camera itself.
Some of the wired cameras actually have a speaker option on them so you can in theory have a conversation that way - not sure if the battery powered cameras have that function.
Alex Z said:
Evanivitch said:
Eufy have a battery powered doorbell and options for CCTV cameras. No subscription. Small "home" storage station so you're not using cloud storage but you are using an app.
I have one of these. The doorbell runs for months on a charge and the local storage does what you want. The ring has the best app, and excellent battery life and excellent support. For work I have tried.17 different wifi doorbells, most of them are crap in that when their cloud server is busy the delay is so long the caller has wandered off. For me the ring doesnt have this problem.
If you only want to use it as a doorbell and not save the recordings you dont need to pay the subscription.
If you only want to use it as a doorbell and not save the recordings you dont need to pay the subscription.
OldGermanHeaps said:
The ring has the best app, and excellent battery life and excellent support. For work I have tried.17 different wifi doorbells, most of them are crap in that when their cloud server is busy the delay is so long the caller has wandered off. For me the ring doesnt have this problem.
If you only want to use it as a doorbell and not save the recordings you dont need to pay the subscription.
This is the kind of market research I need! If you only want to use it as a doorbell and not save the recordings you dont need to pay the subscription.
We have a wireless Arlo one in a property in Spain that lasts months, but it isn't set to record 24/7, it just does stuff when the button is pressed. It works well.
We have a wired (PoE) Unifi one in the UK that is 24/7 recording and is brilliant. Always connects perfectly and the data is all ours, unlike the majority. This replaced a wired DoorBird system that was pretty poor but arguably one of the first video doorbells out there so you'd expect that.
If you can run a network cable you will have a far, far, far better experience.
We have a wired (PoE) Unifi one in the UK that is 24/7 recording and is brilliant. Always connects perfectly and the data is all ours, unlike the majority. This replaced a wired DoorBird system that was pretty poor but arguably one of the first video doorbells out there so you'd expect that.
If you can run a network cable you will have a far, far, far better experience.
Dibble said:
Thanks for this and all the other replies. It seems that a simple/non mains/plug and play/no subscription aren’t that common
I’ve had a couple of Amazon wireless bells and they seem to give up the ghost pretty quickly. To be honest I’ve not much interest to speaking to people if I am home, it’d just be handy to keep an eye on my car at the front/see who’s there.
As already suggested, Blink doorbell will do exactly what you want. Pair it with the sync module and USB stick for subscription free recordings.I’ve had a couple of Amazon wireless bells and they seem to give up the ghost pretty quickly. To be honest I’ve not much interest to speaking to people if I am home, it’d just be handy to keep an eye on my car at the front/see who’s there.
Ham_and_Jam said:
As already suggested, Blink doorbell will do exactly what you want. Pair it with the sync module and USB stick for subscription free recordings.
Has the cloud platform improved any? I found I was missing callers despite having 900/120 fibre at home, an ap in the hall 3m away from the front door, and 400+ Mbps on my phone there was still a 45+ second delay of swirly wait icon goodness sometimes.I have an Amcrest one. The advantages for me were;
1) powered from the old doorbell wiring (12V ac from a transformer in consumer unit - I know OP said "not mains" but a lot of houses have doorbell power already present, and many don't realise it's there)
2) it has an RTSP stream so is streamed onto my CCTV server too
3) it can actuate an external bell, so I have kept my 1920s style bell that is in keeping with the house.
1) powered from the old doorbell wiring (12V ac from a transformer in consumer unit - I know OP said "not mains" but a lot of houses have doorbell power already present, and many don't realise it's there)
2) it has an RTSP stream so is streamed onto my CCTV server too
3) it can actuate an external bell, so I have kept my 1920s style bell that is in keeping with the house.
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