Looking to install one here at the house. Any recommendations? I’d prefer to not have to get a subscription but I’m not exactly sure how it all works. Thanks.
Doorbell Camera
- Thread starter ChiefWB
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It depends on what you want to achieve really? for non-subscription then Eufy is likely your best choice. personally i would choose a battery operated doorbell cam but still hard wire it. that way you still get the benefit of video recording if the power goes out. The motion detection and activity monitoring are decent from Eufy but vendors that send the recordings to the cloud tend to have a leg up in that regard. Since the video records to local storage you can setup continuous recording.
Ring is obviously the most recognizable name in video doorbells but comes with its caveats. They sell battery operated and wired models. They require a subscription to use in any meaningful way but it's not ridiculous at $3 month or $30 per year. The video is recorded as clips and sent to the cloud upon motion / activity detection only. No 24-hour recording available. The motion detection and activity monitoring is probably second only to Google's Nest doorbell cam and works great when it works... Unfortunately, like Nest, you can rest assured that Amazon will turn your private info stored on their servers over to authorities in the blink of an eye if requested. One thing that can get annoying with Ring is that access to the app to see who is at the door can be frustratingly slow at times. I want that relatively instantly, not a 7-10 second wait that is all too often the instance.
Nest cam will record 24/7 but by subscription only. Its facial recognition detection is eerily good and you can scroll the entire recording timeline. Motion and activity events are marked for access. Since the recording is 24/7 and sent to the google mothership it will burn data at a healthy rate. If you have lousy data caps from your ISP then look elsewhere. The doorbell cam is wired only, no battery backup. Like Amazon, if it's stored on their cloud, your info is their info so kiss any privacy concerns you might have goodbye.
There are others like Skybell and Arlo for example but unless you already use some of their underlying devices like the alarm.com home monitoring in the case of skybell or other arlo cams and their base station in the case of arlo, then they don't provide any benefit that sets them apart from those listed above.
If you want to see some decent reviews of the various models then it's worth watching the "lifehackster" youtube channel.
You could install full on security cameras all over the exterior of your house for less than you might think. I think to get an 8 channel HD DVR and a bunch of cameras installed you'd be around 2-4k with most local CCTV companies and that's the ultimate peace of mind knowing you can just check your security feed at any time on your phone or dedicated monitors on your wall. No monthly fees at all.
Awesome. Thank you. I will follow up on that YouTube channel and see what I can figure out. Thanks.
I have Eufy...works perfect and no fee. Also, super easy to install. Good luck!
Yep this is an option too. Heck for a few hundred dollars you can DIY it and roll your own with very accessible equipment. You can put together a heck of a system just using Blue Iris software, a Raspberry Pi 4B 4gb, a 1TB portable drive, a network switch with power over ethernet (PoE), outdoor cams (Amcrest brand for example) that use PoE, and cat 6 cables to connect the cams and the raspberry pi to the network switch.
An 8-camera system using the items noted above would cost about $650. Deduct about $50 per camera for a lesser number of cameras.
I easily mounted two wireless Arlo cameras at my house. The motion detector starts recording and sends me an alert and I can also speak live through the cameras. A library is stored and I don't pay a subscription for anything. I can also set off an alarm inside my home through my phone, if needed.
My doorbell is on a side wall that would not give me a good view of someone at my door. It's worked for me for a couple of years now.
My doorbell is on a side wall that would not give me a good view of someone at my door. It's worked for me for a couple of years now.
I've had mine a for a few years now and it came with free "storage"...sadly I think the new systems you have to pay for storage.
This is a great review by GBRNole. Before I purchased my Nest Doorbell camera about a year ago, I read a ton of reviews and watched a ton of YouTube videos reviews. Each doorbell camera has their pros & their cons. It all depends on what you want and what is important to you. Besides the actually quality of the camera hardware itself, the most important thing to me was the ease of use and quality of the phone application. You'd be hard pressed to find a better app than the Nest app. Google's facial recognition is scary uncanny and I get notified instantly when someone is at my door or a vehicle pulls up in my driveway. Some of the other cameras motion detection delays weren't acceptable to me and provided only a snippet of video after the motion occurred. For only $60 a year I get 30 days of 24/7 video & audio recording stored in the cloud. This also includes up to 2 additional cameras for the same annual price I believe. If the privacy issues of Google having that much of your data in their cloud is a concern to you, this might not be the camera for you. I also have a Nest thermostat and a Nest smoke alarm and it is all integrated under one app. I did hire an electrician to come out and rewire my doorbell to be placed on the opposite side where the doorbell was originally located to get a better camera view. However if I didn't have to do that, it would have been a very simple installation. Also the Nest doorbell camera and all of the others mentioned in this thread go on sale all the time. Costco, Bestbuy, Home Depot, Lowes etc are always having sales. Don't pay full price for one of these.
Surprised you guys don’t live in gated communities. Let G4S Wackenhut deal with any riff-raff that wants to visit my estate. 😀
My stepson gave us one for Christmas. Not sure the brand, but it works great. You can set times for motion detect even. Otherwise it alerts your phone when there is a doorbell ring and you can talk to the person from your phone if you want. We saw a sketchy character walking in our neighborhood a while back, so I activated motion detect from 5 pm to midnight.
By a significant majority, the crime that DOES take place in gated communities is committed by someone's delightful teenager, whose Mother will swear the child is perfect, and whose Father will drop the name of an expensive criminal attorney.
Gotta get the kids a quality Nanny right out of the blocks. If you don't, bourgeois stuff like this ^^^ can happen.
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