Video Doorbells

[pxr5]

Anyone use these things and what do you think? I'm looking at the Ring 2, but any recording requires a monthly account which is putting me off and it can't do local storage. Cheaper, but with local recording (via a sync module) is the Blink, but that gets some poor reviews with speeds being an issue despite being Alexa integrated,

I already have a pro-installed Hikvision CCTV system with cameras at the front and rear of my house. Unfortunately there is no simple way of adding a doorbell camera to this, but the cameras do have motion/line crossing alerts and it works well. I also uses 2 Synology NAS which can run Surveillance Station, but I can't seem to find a doorbell camera that works with it.

Thing is I'm not really sure of the usefulness of these doorbell cameras, but my wife keeps going on about them. I'm really wondering about how they work day to day.

[Slim]

By chance a thread about this popped up an another forum I visit occasionally, hope it's useful

Best Video Door Bell?

Never used one myself. A friend of mine had a Ring. You could see who's at your door from a smartphone miles away from home if necessary. Personally I wouldn't pay for a subscription, though.

[The Picnic Wasp]

I would just buy a single Blink Outdoor camera. Instant alerts to anyone nearby and although they offer paid storage there's no need as anything you need to keep can be transferred to phone video storage gratis in one click.

[pxr5]

I would just buy a single Blink Outdoor camera. Instant alerts to anyone nearby and although they offer paid storage there's no need as anything you need to keep can be transferred to phone video storage gratis in one click.

Thanks for the tip, but as I said I already have a CCTV system on my house - a Hikvision set up that I had installed last year. It has tons of storage which is why I wanted a video doorbell to work with it - which seems impossible after a lot of research.

I have just ordered the Blink Doorbell camera, with a Sync module 2 for storage. I might try to add it to my Hikvision system as after all these doorbell cameras are just IP devices.

[pxr5]

Well, that was quick, we received the Blink doorbell camera last night and I installed today. Really easy to do as well. All hooked up to Alexa with a cheapo USB stick plonked in the Sync 2 Module for storage. I'm still fiddling with the set up but nothing too complicated. I'm quite impressed actually and not slow as some reviews have said. A tip though for anyone thinking of one of these, rename the device immediately because when it's set up with Alexa, it reads out the whole serial number of the camera (its default name) for each event. Even changing the name afterwards makes no difference; you have to disable the Blink skill and remove the Blink devices (camera and Sync module) and redo the whole Alexa linking thing again.

[Fishy]

Ended up buying an Aosu from Amazon.....absolute doddle to setup. configure and mount it outside.... the app for it looks nice n clean with lots of config options and storage is local via an sd card..also can setup with Alexa which I haven't tried yet.. all in all a good purchase I think

[Nick]

Bought my father a Ring one, he lives on his own and I think it helps keep the scammers away. Also connected it to a series of echo dots through the house which also announce there is someone at the door which helps him hear the bell wherever he is in the house.

[Red Lenses]

Tech always catches someone out....

https://www.the-sun.com/tech/5915257/amazon-ring-doorbell-mother-in-law-argument-reddit/

[David L]

https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-ftc-sues-amazoncoms-ring-2023-05-31/

Now there's a suprise! 

[Slim]

https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-ftc-sues-amazoncoms-ring-2023-05-31/

Now there's a suprise! 

The headline's a bit misleading - what seems to have happened is that someone  at Ring, before it was bought by Amazon, logged into customer video data.

Why you'd leave one on in a bedroom or bathroom all the time, I have no idea.