After trying to get the Ezviz DB1 to work, but also playing with it, trying to get videofeeds by other soft- and hardware than the ezviz app on IOS, I have a few conclusions, which I would like to share. All of this concernes firmware V5.2.4 build 190124. Did not try the 190304 yet.
1. At first I bought a 12V 18VA transformer (an Eaton TR-G3/18), because 12V is the mninimum requirement for the DB1 according to ezviz-support. And I purchased a Honeywell D117, which was on the list of compatible chimes on the ezviz website. And as you can see herafter, I also had to get an accespoint. So the total extras did cost 60 Euroos, making a total of 200 Euroos.
2. I must say the picture quality is great. It has a 1536x2048 (Hor x Ver) max resolution. The picture has a strong fishey effect, this means that verically you have an full overview (180 deg), while horizontally it is 105 deg.
3. The ezviz app is acceptable. I miss a few things that I have seen in other apps like wifi signal strength in dBms so you can see how changes in you wifi setup works on the doorbell. This seems to be quite important. It needs a strong wifi signal. What I also miss is the possibility to switch off the chime sound of the DB1 itself, which sounds through all of the street. Confusing is the way the different kind of footage is stored on the DB1: you have manually recorded videoos or taken pictures in "my album", PIR-event videoos in Gallery and pictures of people who actually ring the bell in the call-list. These are not all selectable in one view of the app.
The video-feed tp the ezviz-app does not resume automatically after a connection loss. Why??
4. As said, the DB1 needs a strong WIFI signal. Especially for receiving the call from the doorbell. My router did not suffice in this sense, because it was seperated by two walls and 4 meter distance from the doorbell. It gave a signal of -60 to-65 dBm according to the Guarding Vision app.
Although the picture from the doorbell was fine and I did get movement notifications quite fast, I never received a doorbell ringing call. However the call-list was filled with every ringing of the doorbell. So I just did not get the push messages.
I added an accesspoint on a location where it was only seperated by two doors and 2 meters from the doorbell and this gave me a -48 to -52 dBm signal (90%-95% signal strength according to the accesspoint).
And now I get the call within a few (max 2) seconds on my Iphone7. Pitty that I first have to login to the Iphone before I can answer the call.
5. The DB1 seems to soft-reset itself now and then, which will take a few seconds. The frequency of this seems to depend on how fast these streaming clients can proces the videostream and therefore also on the set resolution. When the client is fast enough the DB1 is very stable. An Iphone5 eg. makes the DB1 realy unstable when the resolution is set to Ultra Hi Def, resulting in a few resets per hour. Yes all the connected devices, also the fast ones loose their connection at that point. Ultra Hi Def on a Ipad 2 will give a few resets per day. While setting the resolion to Hi Def will give in both cases (iphone 5 and ipas 2) a stable setup. On a I phone 6 Ultra hi Def is vary stable.
If you want to have a live-video feed all day long for weeks in a row I guess you should not use the ezviz app, because it does not resume the video-feed automatically again after the doorbell did a soft-reset.
I use IPCamViewer for IOS, which resumes the live-view automatically after it loses the videostream for a while (why cant the ezviz do this)
6.The resolution on all connected devices including external rtsp-connections as well as the internal recording on the micdrosd-card is depending on the latest changed resolution on any of the ezviz-app connected devices. Even the shared accounts connected to the DB1 will change the resolution of the DB1 if they change the app resolution (should not be possible for the shared accounts I think). This is not visible on the other connected devices. So if you change on one device from ultra-HD to HD the text underneath the livestream window of the other devices is not changed, but the resolution is. However restarting the app will show the correct resolution.
This means if the last set resolution is ultra HD it will be : 1536x2048; if Hi-Def it will be 768x 1024; at standard it will produce 800x600. And this is happening on all connected devices. So there is only one stream available.
7. When things go wrong, like after connecting a very slow device to the videostream (like in my case a 2nd gen raspberry pi), or when changing wifi settings or connecting to a new accespoint, it can take a while before the doorbell is stable again. Important is to close all connected apps completely and restart them again. This will speed up the wait time for a stable network connection.
So my conlusion is after the first install, or some playing aronund with network settinngs you should not jump to conlusions, but give it some time to set.
8. There is no PIR sensor in the doorbell. So the brochure lies about this. When you cover the lens, no movement is detected.
Apart form that in bright sunny weather it seems far more sensitive to movement than in darker gloomy weather. It also detects lorries much easier than passenger cars. It even gave a PIR-event when a bee was flying in front of the lens (nice footage though).
9. Facing the the western skies the DB1 switches quite late to the night-mode, while it also switches late to the day-mode.
10. Annoyingly you can not switch off the chime sound on the doorbell itself. You can switch off the also annoying movement detection beep on the doorbel however.
11. In eg. VLC you can get a videostream by rtsp://admin
asswd@192.168.xxx.xxx:554/Channels/1 or rtsp://admin
asswd@192.168.xxx.xxx:554/Channels/101
12. Using the Hikvisioen iVSM-4200 Client windows-software you can change a number of settings of the CCD like WDR and back-light-compensation. You can also download the footage stored on the memory-card, except the videoos stored under "my album" (where are these??.
13. Videoos recorded by hand are stored in "my album" The "PIR-initiated" videoos are stored under "Gallery" These are not the same appearantly.
These are my findings until now. If you disagree with any of this, please tell.
