Reolink: Deconstruction of a dangerous misleading youtube review "Finding the BEST 4K Security Camera NVR Package (Reolink vs Amcrest vs Swann)"
- Thread starter mat200
- Start date
There are hundreds of them on YouTube. All home automation tinkerers that think they know about everything.......
WOW - I shouldn't have given him the views lol, but looked at a few other videos. Here is a gem LOL:
"Secure your home with a 4K camera. Arlo Ultra’s 4K UHD footage makes it easier to see faces and license plates."
How many issues are there just in that one statement...
And of course the disclaimer LOL:
Disclaimer: Smart Home Solver received samples of Arlo Ultra, Arlo Pro 2, and Arlo Pro for an unbiased, non-sponsored review.
"Secure your home with a 4K camera. Arlo Ultra’s 4K UHD footage makes it easier to see faces and license plates."
How many issues are there just in that one statement...
And of course the disclaimer LOL:
Disclaimer: Smart Home Solver received samples of Arlo Ultra, Arlo Pro 2, and Arlo Pro for an unbiased, non-sponsored review.
EMPIRETECANDY
IPCT Vendor
The guy get paid and talk full of liars, lol.
If those cheap 4K can do LPR, so why still have hundreds USD ANPR cams right?
Exactly - my neighbor with his arlos telling me how great they are and I said ok - open up that arlo video of the camera above your garage door and let's see if we can get a plate off your moving car going down the driveway....as you can imagine it couldn't lol. Cause the burglar will park in your driveway so that you can get a clean capture of the plate right LOL.The guy get paid and talk full of liars, lol.
If those cheap 4K can do LPR, so why still have hundreds USD ANPR cams right?
mat200
IPCT Contributor
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FYI - on another forum I have invited more to post comparison videos ( for low light moving subjects ), and want to acknowledge that I would like to see this as a good place for honest reviews of those video. Please do be considerate of anyone new attempting to help out.
Another review based on @bp2008 - who for those that do not know is the creator of UI3 that so many of us use...
ipcamtalk.com
Reolink is a joke
A couple months ago one of my relatives bought a pair of Reolink turret cameras. Somehow he thought I had recommended them :eek:. I told him he should return them. He didn't. So now here I am with one of them to see if it will be useful. Hardware The entire mount is made of plastic. I...
KenAllen15
Getting the hang of it
Andy, did you send this guy a camera? He tested one of yours in his last video:The guy get paid and talk full of liars, lol.
If those cheap 4K can do LPR, so why still have hundreds USD ANPR cams right?
go to the 16:00 mark in that vid. He goes on a little speech about how unbiased he is in his reviews of cams, and that nobody is paying him. Interesting. Still doesn't mean he is giving good advice.
EDIT: at least he picked what was probably the most capable cam of the group, and I'm glad Andy made some money off it.
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user8963
Known around here
oh i posted this video earlier today.
I dont think that he is insolved in this, because this guy ordered on amazon regular.
It seems that andy sold many cams, because it was sold out (look in the comments). also andy thanks him in the comment section. seems that he made $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Because of a "review" of that man I have 3* Reolink 
And they work "great" if you only want to look a live video in daylight and nothing else...
Recently started to use Blue Iris and got my first real camera, thanks to this forum: 5442 from Andy and I am very happy!!! The sad thing is: that man is still saying in every video: I am not getting payed by a company....
And they work "great" if you only want to look a live video in daylight and nothing else...
Recently started to use Blue Iris and got my first real camera, thanks to this forum: 5442 from Andy and I am very happy!!! The sad thing is: that man is still saying in every video: I am not getting payed by a company....
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user8963
Known around here
@WimNLBecause of a "review" of that man I have 3* Reolink
And they work "great" if you only want to look a live video in daylight and nothing else...
Recently started to use Blue Iris and got my first real camera, thanks to this forum: 5442 from Andy and I am very happy!!! The sad thing is: that man is still saying in every video: Kan not getting payed by a company....
i think he is not getting paid directly... he get 20% affiliate of each buy through his link and reolink send him any camera for free, which he can keep after
somewhere in comments he said:
Comment: You are discussed at length on Ipcamtalk.com amongst people who inspect and dissect these systems,... They are not impressed with this review for numerous issues.
HE: Those guys are actual morons. I’m banned from their forum.
HE: If you think for a second those guys have more experience with different camera brands than I do you are mistaken. They push a single brand from a single vendor, I gather many brands, from many vendors, and show actual footage of my tests… who should you trust?
HE: Here is some light reading for you regarding ipcamtalk: ........link ......... (i am not posting that link , scared to get banned from here... its the reddit thread on @fenderman)
Comment: @The Hook Up Its okay to review many vendors, but most of them are complete garbage. Most on amazon is chinese crap... Making fake reviews to get affiliate money is not a good thing. You can review them, no prob at all. But then tell the TRUE and point out ALL important negative , not only "dayview on reolink is so great, great system, great manufactur, buy here with my affilliate link". STOP! !!!!
HE: Chinese crap? You realize 90% of security cameras are manufactured in China right? Even Axis which are assembled in Germany contain mostly Chinese made parts. Is Reolink the best in every category? No way. But for a large quantity of people who want to keep an eye on their property without breaking the bank they are a great deal. The great part about affiliate sales is every brand offers them and give or take a few tenths of a percent they are all the same. If an Amcrest performs the best I’ll recommend it and make the exact same amount in affiliate sales that I would from Reolink, Lorex, or EmpireTech. By the way, this is the last time I’m responding to your ignorant troll comments (I see you deleted the last one after you realized you were wrong on every point). If you continue to spew your lies and garbage I’ll hide your comments on my channel.
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Flintstone61
Known around here
Isn't everyone an expert on YouTube LOL...just remember many of those videos are by people being paid promotional dollars by a vendor and/or receiving revenue by YouTube based on number of hits they get and/or some affiliate discount. In the past few months we have seen many people come here after being burned by hookup...
Plus, when someone has 200,000+ subscribers, inevitably they will start to push consumer grade stuff that is "plug-n-play" because they do not want to take thousands of posts asking what does this setting do and what does that setting do...
I would suggest finding the reviews for the cameras here. You will find much better examples here than out on YouTube or Amazon. The members here put them through their paces. Most of the YouTube videos just use auto settings and many do not show motion, so the images look great. It is motion at night that we are interested in, and every review of cameras here have folks providing video clips of their camera in action at multiple settings and shutter speeds, etc. Auto settings results in blur and ghosts during motion at night and is useless. Most Amazon reviews if they include images are static images of no motion.
Regardless of the item, I have found most Amazon reviews to be useless LOL. Even more so when I know something about a product and see great reviews on it.
Plus the YouTube videos tend to be full productions for the likes and thus YouTube revenue, where the folks here post videos for the sole sake of letting others know how well or not the cameras perform. Now some here do an excellent job of post-production of the reviews of cameras with text narrative and overlays of the settings, etc., but most of us just put out raw video for you to see for yourself.
A great camera can be placed at the wrong spot, which then leads to bad reviews on an otherwise great camera. Likewise, a novice surveillance camera user goes by static images and boasts about how great a camera is when it really isn't very good with motion. So if someone calls it a security camera, then maybe do not put much stock in what they say
This forum allows others to actually see videos of these cameras at locations and can then make a determination on if that is similar to their situation (lighting, distance, etc.) and would that camera be the right or wrong selection for what they are trying to achieve.
Sure many here talk about Andy's or Nelly's cameras, but lets face it, those cameras are OEMs of Dahua or Hikvision, so talking about them also covers Amcrest, Lorex, Annke, etc.
And occasionally someone does post here some video showing some great quality from a cheaper no name camera.
But we have posts dedicated to Reolinks and others and we openly invite folks that come here and say how great those cams are to post examples of their excellent video quality. Have we seen that excellent video quality at night with motion....nope.
Just scroll through this thread where people that say their reo's provide great video and they provide an example and it is ghost/blur city at night.
Until someone can post a great night image or video of motion from the Rings, Reolinks, Nest, etc. of the world, you won't find many here to recommend them.
Here was an example @samplenhold had of an actual incident in his neighborhood with a comparison of his Andy cam versus his neighbor's Ring camera - which one is better...
ipcamtalk.com
Plus, when someone has 200,000+ subscribers, inevitably they will start to push consumer grade stuff that is "plug-n-play" because they do not want to take thousands of posts asking what does this setting do and what does that setting do...
I would suggest finding the reviews for the cameras here. You will find much better examples here than out on YouTube or Amazon. The members here put them through their paces. Most of the YouTube videos just use auto settings and many do not show motion, so the images look great. It is motion at night that we are interested in, and every review of cameras here have folks providing video clips of their camera in action at multiple settings and shutter speeds, etc. Auto settings results in blur and ghosts during motion at night and is useless. Most Amazon reviews if they include images are static images of no motion.
Regardless of the item, I have found most Amazon reviews to be useless LOL. Even more so when I know something about a product and see great reviews on it.
Plus the YouTube videos tend to be full productions for the likes and thus YouTube revenue, where the folks here post videos for the sole sake of letting others know how well or not the cameras perform. Now some here do an excellent job of post-production of the reviews of cameras with text narrative and overlays of the settings, etc., but most of us just put out raw video for you to see for yourself.
A great camera can be placed at the wrong spot, which then leads to bad reviews on an otherwise great camera. Likewise, a novice surveillance camera user goes by static images and boasts about how great a camera is when it really isn't very good with motion. So if someone calls it a security camera, then maybe do not put much stock in what they say
This forum allows others to actually see videos of these cameras at locations and can then make a determination on if that is similar to their situation (lighting, distance, etc.) and would that camera be the right or wrong selection for what they are trying to achieve.
Sure many here talk about Andy's or Nelly's cameras, but lets face it, those cameras are OEMs of Dahua or Hikvision, so talking about them also covers Amcrest, Lorex, Annke, etc.
And occasionally someone does post here some video showing some great quality from a cheaper no name camera.
But we have posts dedicated to Reolinks and others and we openly invite folks that come here and say how great those cams are to post examples of their excellent video quality. Have we seen that excellent video quality at night with motion....nope.
Just scroll through this thread where people that say their reo's provide great video and they provide an example and it is ghost/blur city at night.
Until someone can post a great night image or video of motion from the Rings, Reolinks, Nest, etc. of the world, you won't find many here to recommend them.
Here was an example @samplenhold had of an actual incident in his neighborhood with a comparison of his Andy cam versus his neighbor's Ring camera - which one is better...
Looking for Learned Input
Afternoon folks - I have been extensively researching this forum and wanted to TRULY thank you all for your Gravitation, Predisposition and well frankly Addiction to Cam Security... ))) Just looking for some insight on beginning my own journey. SHEWHOMUSTBEOBEYED thinks she wants battery...
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Flintstone61
Known around here
Thanks Wittaj. You may be approaching the character limit for a post! Wow!
I am new to this forum (actually my first post), but it is interesting to see the dynamics on Reolink subject
I did watch this guy and did buy a couple of Reolink cameras 822A (still can return them). I also came across this forum and got Amcrest 4K camera as well for comparison.
I am using BI and connected all cameras to BI and all of them work fine.
If you look at pure specs, they have very similar sensor size and MP, meaning that they should have similar light sensitivity. However, not every CMOS sensor is the same
I got Reolink for $75, 2.8-12mm (compare to ~$189 for 5442).
I do see why Reolink maybe not a bad solution for many - it is VERY convenient and easy to install and use.
You do not need to open any ports at your router (my amcrest requires this for access). Reolink cloud proxies the connection.
Opening ports is a bad habit, even if you put all your cameras in separate VLAN (and you should). So you need VPN to work around this.
Amcrest mobile app is less polished than Reolink. By far.
And being almost 3 times cheaper - it makes sense for many, who want basic monitoring in place.
I still need to do testing, and I guess I will go for 4MP 1/1.8" sensor camera for low light, but I do see value in Reolink to monitor things
that is not for night security.
Just my 0.02c
I did watch this guy and did buy a couple of Reolink cameras 822A (still can return them). I also came across this forum and got Amcrest 4K camera as well for comparison.
I am using BI and connected all cameras to BI and all of them work fine.
If you look at pure specs, they have very similar sensor size and MP, meaning that they should have similar light sensitivity. However, not every CMOS sensor is the same
I got Reolink for $75, 2.8-12mm (compare to ~$189 for 5442).
I do see why Reolink maybe not a bad solution for many - it is VERY convenient and easy to install and use.
You do not need to open any ports at your router (my amcrest requires this for access). Reolink cloud proxies the connection.
Opening ports is a bad habit, even if you put all your cameras in separate VLAN (and you should). So you need VPN to work around this.
Amcrest mobile app is less polished than Reolink. By far.
And being almost 3 times cheaper - it makes sense for many, who want basic monitoring in place.
I still need to do testing, and I guess I will go for 4MP 1/1.8" sensor camera for low light, but I do see value in Reolink to monitor things
that is not for night security.
Just my 0.02c
Flintstone61
Known around here
user8963
Known around here
I did watch this guy and did buy a couple of Reolink cameras 822A (still can return them). I also came across this forum and got Amcrest 4K camera as well for comparison.
I am using BI and connected all cameras to BI and all of them work fine.
If you look at pure specs, they have very similar sensor size and MP, meaning that they should have similar light sensitivity. However, not every CMOS sensor is the same
I got Reolink for $75, 2.8-12mm (compare to ~$189 for 5442).
I do see why Reolink maybe not a bad solution for many - it is VERY convenient and easy to install and use.
You do not need to open any ports at your router (my amcrest requires this for access). Reolink cloud proxies the connection.
Opening ports is a bad habit, even if you put all your cameras in separate VLAN (and you should). So you need VPN to work around this.
Amcrest mobile app is less polished than Reolink. By far.
And being almost 3 times cheaper - it makes sense for many, who want basic monitoring in place.
I still need to do testing, and I guess I will go for 4MP 1/1.8" sensor camera for low light, but I do see value in Reolink to monitor things
that is not for night security.
I installed two Reolink systems for observing indoor shooting ranges a few years ago. They are connected to a raspberry pi aka surveillance monitor. They were bought for the same reason as you mention... they are cheap as hell and no night view is needed....
I thought... what can go wrong... the plan was to run them on full auto... i tested a few things before install (which were not needed , but why not test if you have the hand on such a good system)
Here is a short summary:
1) on buying time, there was NO junction box for any model available .... to mount them i had to install a small box near to them ... i know that many do this even today (because many vendors/models dont have a junction box, they dont know that they exist or they want to save money) ... but it looks really awful ! Also you will save alot of time with a junction box.
2) you can not choose focal length... you have to go full reolink favour aka "4mm" (which looks more like 3mm)
3) on the model i had installed there was no H265 codec available. so you have to go for the old h264. this will may end in some problems...
- you can only install one harddrive with a maximum of 4TB in most of their 8 port NVR !
- if you record 8 cameras 24/7 on the nvr (2TB) you get only 3-4 days playback time (5MP models, on 8MP models you will may have only 1 DAY )
- its all on the reolink page if you can find it before you buy it and think about it ... How Long Can Reolink NVR Record for
- they preinstall the cheapest consumer grade harddrives in their nvrs.
4) recording... many hik/dahua nvrs can record md/smd (...) and 24/7 at the same time ... on the used model it was only possible to choose... not both. i know that they fixed this on some models with a firmware update and newer can record both
- the motion detection / AI features are a complete lie. they dont work and will record anything. even if you exclude some areas they will record because everything in their firmware is bad implemented. this is also in many amazon reviews... many thought they can use motion detection as an outdoor alarmsystem (reolink showed this feature in the describtion ... but i couldnt find them anymore, because it seems that they removed them all from amazon)
5) you can not connect a mouse to their NVRs ... only the "certified" reolink mouse works ! if you google for it, there are some hints which logitech model might work... i bought them all ! not working ... you can not even buy it , its always "not in stock" on their website... so if your included mouse fails, you can trash the whole system if you dont have warranty ............................ if you can buy it its around 20 USD + shipping ... for a crappy china mouse ! wow ! its not only a problem with wireless mouses, its also with many wired mouses i tried ! they work for 1-2s and then they stop working. you can not use any active usb extension, ... if you do even the included mouse does not work !
See: Reolink Mouse Statement
6) all reolink cams have an exposure bug ... any person who is near the camera is completely overexposed by IR light ! they will not fix it... never !
7) nightview ... its really bad... you may can get some improvement with settings, but they are limited! see screenshot... its only around 3 meter away ! with best conditions (IR FULL ON) ...
(SOURCE: REVIEW 8MP REOLINK
6) warranty... they claim that they have warranty... haha ! one cam was out of focus , so i ask reolink to send a replacement. they told me the china man classic... please send a video ... i did ... then they told me i have to send it back to china for replacement. from europe to china its around 50 USD shipping back to china ... lol ... i ask amazon for replacement ... they only could change the whole system ... what i did ... and it was listed on warehouse deals a few days after they received it .. wow !
7) compatibility ... reolink systems only works "good" with reolink everything beyond that is not supported, may not work and never will..
8) APP !! ( have forget about it, so i have to edit lol):
The app is complete shit and the p2p reolink cloud is even shittier ! Even with a good internet connection (100mbit upload) the APP will force you to use "fluent" aka substream quality. You can not use hd stream over mobile connection. everytime you change to HD stream it will tell you that there is a problem with your internet connection and switch to fluent automatic. NO review ever mention that, because they ALWAYS use wifi to show the app.
also you can only see recordings in 1 hour blocks .. you have to click on them, wind around ... its really stressfull to find something on these good reolink systems via mobile.
even with the cheapest rebranded hikvision system from annke you can use HD h265 stream over mobile internet with hikconnect.
DAHUA / HIKVISION have p2p ability. if you want, you can enable it or better use VPN
there is many more but i dont want to waste to much time on reolink topic
MY CONCLUSION:
AVOID reolink even if you dont care about nightview and want the cheapest... buy hikvision/dahua oem like annke or amcrest... it will be alot better than reolink. you can use your own mouse (lol) and will get much better setting options , better compatibility , ...... everything is better than any reolink !
Just think about it... if you buy good stuff like 1/1.8" you will pay today 60-80 USD more per cam. but .......... how often do you install a camera system? it will have the same quality in 5 years .. if you have dahua/hik nvr you can use any hik/dahua camera , you can upgrade to blueiris if you feel a rise in demand ... if you are planning to use blueiris in first place instead of nvr you will have a bad time with reolink !
reolink ... its a dead end !
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EMPIRETECANDY
IPCT Vendor
Yes just sod several cams, those hikvision ones are G1, right now move to the G2. From my thinking, the best compare is for price range, can't sell bad quality goods as good ones, end users are not fool, my experience is watching the bad feedback when you purchase things on the amazon or ebay or aliexpress. These days too many fake reviews.....oh i posted this video earlier today.
I dont think that he is insolved in this, because this guy ordered on amazon regular.
It seems that andy sold many cams, because it was sold out (look in the comments). also andy thanks him in the comment section. seems that he made $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
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