Sweet! LTS is releasing an ONVIF compatible doorbell with SD card slot and 940nm IR

TechBill

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I discussed the MD and Dahua DVR issue with tech support where I purchased my Dahua re-brand from. What they told me is that the DVR support for MD would depend on what part(s) of the ONVIF protocol the doorbell supported. @TechBill - to clarify, in addition to not being able to do MD in the DVR, at least on mine you can't do ANYTHING but view it/record it. You can't make any image adjustments (brightness, contrast, etc.) or exposure adjustments (BLC, WDR, etc.).

It's unfortunate that we don't really know what has to happen for HikVision to think a doorbell is offline. Is it a polling timeout, or the result of status being reported by the DB1, or ???

Here's where my opinion may get contentious. I gave up on the live feed from the DB1. What I found in my initial playing around with it is that if I wanted the DB1 to work reliably as a video doorbell with MD and ring notifications going to a phone, we were best off not using the live feed. In my case, enabling the live feed would predictably lead to the DB1 being declared as offline or, more mysteriously, the DB1 configuration being changed such that motion detection was disabled. Maybe not right away, but it was just a matter of time before something would go belly up.

In my opinion, the DB1 can't adequately deal with the continuous feed. Sure, having perfect WiFi will help minimize retransmissions and stuff, but I think the issues may be more complex than that. I question whether the processor in the DB1 can really keep up with all the MD & live feed processing that's going on, leading to it occasionally going belly up. Or, maybe there are thermal issues that are exagerated by the heavy processing and the near-continuous WiFi transmission involved with live feed. Somewhere, I remember reading someone was disabling their IR LEDs to minimize thermal problems they thought they were having. Interestingly, I did informally think most of my issues were occurring either overnight (when the IR LEDs would be on), or in the morning when direct sun was hitting the DB1. It could realistically be some combination...

All I can say is that our DB1 functions flawlessly as a video doorbell as long as I'm not doing the live feed from it.
Thank you for taking a moment pointing this out. So best way to use this doorbell is not to do any live streaming and MD to memory card only then I shouldn't have any problem with it. I do have a live stream Dahua camera above the door and only reason I wanted to connect the doorbell to the NVR so it would be in sync with the camera above the door on recording timeline. I might get it anyway and just look at the time MD triggered to compare it to the time on the live stream if I ever needed to investigate something.

Thank you again!

Any good dealer to purchase this from?
 

klunkerbus

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Any good dealer to purchase this from?
I got mine from Nelly's Security - their part number for it is NSC-DB1. There's a thread on it in the Nelly's Security category in the vendor area here. If nothing else, their "quick start" guide for it is more detailed than I've seen anywhere else, and they have a downloads page where you can get several versions of the firmware from.

I should of course said YMMV regarding the live feed issues. I know others seem to have better luck with theirs.
 

Bitslizer

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Thank you for taking a moment pointing this out. So best way to use this doorbell is not to do any live streaming and MD to memory card only then I shouldn't have any problem with it. I do have a live stream Dahua camera above the door and only reason I wanted to connect the doorbell to the NVR so it would be in sync with the camera above the door on recording timeline. I might get it anyway and just look at the time MD triggered to compare it to the time on the live stream if I ever needed to investigate something.

Thank you again!

Any good dealer to purchase this from?

That maybe case by case, I have no problem 24/7 steams and motion detection with the new firmware
 

klunkerbus

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That maybe case by case, I have no problem 24/7 steams and motion detection with the new firmware
Well, but you've been having the offline issue and had to reset the doorbell, right? Those are exactly the problems I'm saying I avoid by not streaming.

EDIT: That wasn't a very clear response. I really have OTHER issues, but I think they all relate to the DB1 being declared offline or at least the root cause that ends up in that happening. Examples of the real issues that come to mind are being unable to connect to the DB1 when opening an app, the streaming feed to the DVR stopping and the DB1 being reported as offline, doorbell presses not ringing to the phone app, motion detection somehow being set to disabled, motion detection not working (even when shown as being enabled), and random chime "dings" typically in the middle of the night. None of those issues have occurred since I stopped live streaming to the DVR. We also now make sure only one phone has the RCA Security app logged in at a time.
 
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giomania

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Is this still the best IP doorbell cam to date?

I have an all Dahua camera and NVR set up and Dahua do have a doorbell cam but from the review that it is a poorly designed doorbell cam so I am looking into this one and anyone know if this doorbell cam will work with Dahua NVR and will NVR recognize the motion detect trigger from it?

I am aware Dahua and Hikvision make a better doorbell cam with keypads and built intercom but my family are Deaf so we have no need for keypads or fancy talkie box . We just want a simple looking doorbell cam.

Thank you
Bill, there was one report of a newer version coming out, and I think it was a web site listing posted in this thread, with a vague launch timeframe, as I recall.

Mark


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Bitslizer

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Well, but you've been having the offline issue and had to reset the doorbell, right? Those are exactly the problems I'm saying I avoid by not streaming.
yes, first time in a while though, and a periodic reboot is not big deal for me.
 

Bitslizer

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klunkerbus

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yes, first time in a while though, and a periodic reboot is not big deal for me.
Understood. I think the main concern I had was not knowing when we could be "trusting" the doorbell. For a while, I actually kept logging into the hikvision user authentication site a couple of times a day to check the online/offline status as an indicator. Then, whenever the wife took our small dog out for a walk, I'd press away on the doorbell to test it. Couldn't do that with the dog in the house. The bottom line "direction" from the wife was to "make the damned thing work or return it".

You've mentioned that you keep getting motion detection & ring notifications when the doorbell goes offline. I'd say my observations were that sometimes I would, and sometimes I wouldn't. It's plausible that both of these observations make sense. Hik-vision maintains the user authentication for these things, and we know a user can't get into a doorbell that is deemed offline. Once a connection to an online doorbell is authorized, however, it seems plausible that the established connection will keep working until something breaks it - like logging out to switch to another app, the app crashes, you restart your phone, etc. I also observed that the feed to the DVR would keep working longer, but I'd eventually end up with a timeout error in the DVR log and the camera would just show offline status after that. Same thing likely applies - as long as the connection to the DVR doesn't get interrupted for whatever reason, the data keeps flowing.
 

Morgon

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New RCA HSDB2A 3MP Doorbell IP Camera

Sadly there's no ONVIF on this one at all. Seems like it handles the RTSP streaming well enough (from my personal tests), but without ONVIF, I can't personally make good enough use of it (since I use an Amcrest NVR rather than Blue Iris). Will end up returning it if there's no hope of an applicable firmware upgrade.
 
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Bitslizer

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New RCA HSDB2A 3MP Doorbell IP Camera

Sadly there's no ONVIF on this one at all. Seems like it handles the RTSP streaming well enough (from my personal tests), but without ONVIF, I can't personally make good enough use of it (since I use an Amcrest NVR rather than Blue Iris). Will end up returning it if there's no hope of an applicable firmware upgrade.
You can try the dahua one, but that doorbell is pretty rough as well
 

Springer

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I too am in this boat - I have one and I am trying to find a device in the UK that will detect when the bell is dropped via the voltage drop - some sort of relay thats normally open (or closed) that my smart alarm can monitor when the state changes! Still looking...
I was looking through older posts in this thread and did not really see a good answer to this so I thought I'd chime in here.

This is what I am using and it works very well. I use this connected to a spare wired zone on my DSC panel and programmed the zone as a 24H Non-alarm zone (for home automation). ELK-930.
ELK-930 Doorbell and Telephone Ring Detector
 

concord

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nce I use an Amcrest NVR rather than Blue Iris ). Will end up returning it if there's no hope of an applicable firmware upgrade.
Did you mount it and try it at night, without lights on? The old one had issues at night. If you have night-time snapshots, would post images? Thx.
 

Morgon

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Did you mount it and try it at night, without lights on? The old one had issues at night. If you have night-time snapshots, would post images? Thx.
I had tested it before mounting. Also, I have a streetlight directly outside, so I don't know that I could give you images you're interested in. I did live-view shots of my living room at night, which looked just fine for the 8 feet view it had. If I remember, I'll try to point it outside later this evening (expect side-shots since I'll just lay it on the brick).
 

concord

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I had tested it before mounting. Also, I have a streetlight directly outside, so I don't know that I could give you images you're interested in. I did live-view shots of my living room at night, which looked just fine for the 8 feet view it had. If I remember, I'll try to point it outside later this evening (expect side-shots since I'll just lay it on the brick).

Thanks, here is a post where I placed an image on, when installing it. The night time image has gotten worse over time, need to take it apart and clean it. I assume there is moisture getting into it, even though it's under a roof.

Sweet! LTS is releasing an ONVIF compatible doorbell with SD card slot and 940nm IR
 

klunkerbus

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...All I can say is that our DB1 functions flawlessly as a video doorbell as long as I'm not doing the live feed from it.
Bah. Well, I went 15 days anyway. HikVision reported our DB1 as offline today, for no known reason. Even with no streaming to the DVR and only one phone with RCA Security logged into it. Reboot through the web gui brought it back online.
 

Morgon

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Did you mount it and try it at night, without lights on? The old one had issues at night. If you have night-time snapshots, would post images? Thx.
Late, but as promised, here's a night-time image of the RCA DB2A camera.

Notes to keep in mind:
- I have a streetlight in front of my house (on the right side, just out of frame). But the IR picture is pretty decent.
- The slight blur is 100% because I hadn't mounted it, and thus holding it with my hand while taking a screenshot. It's otherwise acceptably sharp. Sorry about that.
- The black dot on the sidewalk is accidental markup with the iOS screenshot tool; it's not a pixel issue with the camera.

I'm crushed that this has no ONVIF, as I'd otherwise be very okay adding this to my surveillance setup. It's been powered (inside the house) for several days now with no connectivity issues.
 

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concord

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Late, but as promised, here's a night-time image of the RCA DB2A camera.

Notes to keep in mind:
- I have a streetlight in front of my house (on the right side, just out of frame). But the IR picture is pretty decent.
- The slight blur is 100% because I hadn't mounted it, and thus holding it with my hand while taking a screenshot. It's otherwise acceptably sharp. Sorry about that.
- The black dot on the sidewalk is accidental markup with the iOS screenshot tool; it's not a pixel issue with the camera.

I'm crushed that this has no ONVIF, as I'd otherwise be very okay adding this to my surveillance setup. It's been powered (inside the house) for several days now with no connectivity issues.
Thanks, looks like they resolved the IR reflection issue. I'm using Blue Iris, so having RTSP is good enough.
 

EricLEE

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Dumb question here... is the DRAW AREA a masking feature.. or Motion detect area? usually you block out the areas with the boxes, so is it the same on this doorbell or the opposite. Do I draw the area I want to detect or do I mask out the areas I don't?

:facepalm:
 

Shyam

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Dumb question here... is the DRAW AREA a masking feature.. or Motion detect area? usually you block out the areas with the boxes, so is it the same on this doorbell or the opposite. Do I draw the area I want to detect or do I mask out the areas I don't?

:facepalm:
It's the area you want to detect.
 

Getzy24

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Quick question here. I have 2 DB1 cameras. I can get each camera to work good on Blue Iris but when I try to add both cameras, the video freezes up and drops out on Blue Iris. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
 
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