New RCA HSDB2A 3MP Doorbell IP Camera

Ford

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Just to be sure, have you tested that 2-way audio is working in BI for the HSDB2 after following the steps in that video?
I have not been able to get the mike button in BI to work with the HSDB2.... so far....

I can hear the sound from the HSDB2 in BI just fine.
 

Chadsturgill

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No it didn’t work for me either.

BTW, in BI you can take a small black image and overlay over the RCA logo. It’s what I do. Works great for BI but of course you won’t have it in the RCA app.
 

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Notice no logo. ;-)

I also disable PTZ controls because they don’t work for this camera. Wish I could hide them.

BI can do some awesome things too. I use the BI Fusion Smartthings smartapp and camera trigger. It senses motion and can be used to automate things in ST. Bad thing is it’s based ok pixels and not the PIR. But you can block our areas you don’t want to detect motion on. Also have modes for day and night based on schedules. Very cool things you can do there with automation that you wouldn’t have without BI
 

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tonydotigr

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Good call with the overlay. Just created a small black rectangle in Paint proportional to RCA and that did the trick.

Yes, able to get audio in BI (mic works at doorbell side)... but no MIC to the doorbell from app.
 

Aocam

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So my testing with laview is done. I found , same as others, that I cannot use hik tools (connect, Ivms) because laview uses its one directory and I get camera already registered error. Question to ALL, is it worth to unregister it form laview and recreate under rca or hik directly to use someone else app on the phone or stay laview? Does anyone else have cool functions that I could use all just about the same ?

Answer for someone who wanted to use both angled plates down and left. I found appropriate longer screws at nearest Lowes and so far so good .
 

Chadsturgill

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IMO I would unregister from LaView and go to RCA Security, so you can use the other apps if you choose. If you delete the LaView account once the camera is removed then you should be able to use the LaView Connect app too but not the LaView One app.
 
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@Chadsturgill - I believe I remember an old Hikvision (NSC-DB1) doorbell thread that you mentioned having issues with rain getting inside that doorbell camera lens. Have you had any issues with the HSDB2a? My NSC-DB1 has performed great on my front (covered) porch, but my back doorbell keeps having issues with water and I need to find another solution.

Has this forum determined that there is any significant difference between the LaView Halo One and the RCA HSCB2a? The LaView is currently on sale and about the same price as the RCA (around $150), but I prefer the gray color of the RCA over the white LaView doorbell.

Thanks in advance for your help!
 

fcol

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Thanks for all of the helpful tips here. I just installed the RCA HSDB2A and am using the RCA iOS app and Blue Iris. A couple questions:
  1. Is there a way to turn off access to the cloud? For security reasons, I'd rather only allow traffic on my LAN (I use a VPN to access Blue Iris). I have UPnP disabled on my router but can still access the feed in the RCA app when I'm off my LAN. In the IVMS-4200 software, I didn't see any networking settings to prevent it from uploading to the internet. I don't care if I lose access to the "video doorbell" features.
  2. In my indoor test setup, the back plate (near the top) gets really hot (I can barely hold my finger on it after a few seconds). Anyone else notice this? I'm using a Honeywell 24VAC 40AV transformer, no chime connected. I have the "resistor" (that came in the package) connected (but as far as I can tell, it's just a fuse since I measured less than 1 ohm across it). Using a Killawatt, the transformer plus camera are using 5 watts.
  3. I downloaded the iOS Guarding Vision app and can't get it to connect. I'm using the same username admin and password that I use in BI. But I always get "Receiving data from the device timed out" or "Error code:8200" in this app. It's not a big deal - just curious.
Thanks
 
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@Chadsturgill - I believe I remember an old Hikvision (NSC-DB1) doorbell thread that you mentioned having issues with rain getting inside that doorbell camera lens. Have you had any issues with the HSDB2a? My NSC-DB1 has performed great on my front (covered) porch, but my back doorbell keeps having issues with water and I need to find another solution.

Has this forum determined that there is any significant difference between the LaView Halo One and the RCA HSCB2a? The LaView is currently on sale and about the same price as the RCA (around $150), but I prefer the gray color of the RCA over the white LaView doorbell.

Thanks in advance for your help!
Wow, I never saw your response to this question I posted a month or so ago. I just searched back and it looks like you said you didn't have any water issues with the HSDB2A.

I guess the second part of my question still holds. Assuming the LaView only comes with the white face plate (that is what it seems like), is there any downside to going with the RCA over the LaView?
 

Chadsturgill

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@Chadsturgill - I believe I remember an old Hikvision (NSC-DB1) doorbell thread that you mentioned having issues with rain getting inside that doorbell camera lens. Have you had any issues with the HSDB2a? My NSC-DB1 has performed great on my front (covered) porch, but my back doorbell keeps having issues with water and I need to find another solution.

Has this forum determined that there is any significant difference between the LaView Halo One and the RCA HSCB2a? The LaView is currently on sale and about the same price as the RCA (around $150), but I prefer the gray color of the RCA over the white LaView doorbell.

Thanks in advance for your help!
The HSDB2 has been fine in the rain. No issues at all. I think if I had a covered porch the older one would have been fine.

Hardware wise, I think they are identical from looking at the FCC filings
 

Chadsturgill

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Thanks for all of the helpful tips here. I just installed the RCA HSDB2A and am using the RCA iOS app and Blue Iris. A couple questions:
  1. Is there a way to turn off access to the cloud? For security reasons, I'd rather only allow traffic on my LAN (I use a VPN to access Blue Iris). I have UPnP disabled on my router but can still access the feed in the RCA app when I'm off my LAN. In the IVMS-4200 software, I didn't see any networking settings to prevent it from uploading to the internet. I don't care if I lose access to the "video doorbell" features.
  2. In my indoor test setup, the back plate (near the top) gets really hot (I can barely hold my finger on it after a few seconds). Anyone else notice this? I'm using a Honeywell 24VAC 40AV transformer, no chime connected. I have the "resistor" (that came in the package) connected (but as far as I can tell, it's just a fuse since I measured less than 1 ohm across it). Using a Killawatt, the transformer plus camera are using 5 watts.
  3. I downloaded the iOS Guarding Vision app and can't get it to connect. I'm using the same username admin and password that I use in BI. But I always get "Receiving data from the device timed out" or "Error code:8200" in this app. It's not a big deal - just curious.
Thanks
Not that I am aware. For RCA (any) app to work you need the cloud. I packet captured the traffic from the camera a while back and it talks back to ezvizlife all the time. That is also how the doorbell knows to pop up the app in your phone when it’s pushed. If the cloud is not accessible, none of that would work. At that point I would argue, you should have just spent the money on a Better camera and let the doorbell be the doorbell. ;-)
 
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I have a question that may not be specific to this doorbell, but it relates to the Hik Connect, Guarding Vision, RCA, etc. apps and my ability to use this doorbell. These apps work fine for my DB1 doorbells to view a live video stream. But, they seem to fail to playback prior videos captured on the SD cards when I am not on my home network. They get to about 85-95% and then say that playback failed. This was working fine when I was using a Comcast cable modem, but have not worked since I recently switched to AT&T and switched out the modem. I am running the modem in bridge mode since I have a dedicated router/firewall that I want to have the WAN IP.

I assume the live view is RTSP, which seems to be fine. Any idea how the playback videos work and if I need to open any ports? I am wondering if UPnP is no longer working with this setup and I need to manually open some ports. The other explanation may be that AT&T is blocking this traffic, but I hope that isn’t the case.
 

flynreelow

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I have a question that may not be specific to this doorbell, but it relates to the Hik Connect, Guarding Vision, RCA, etc. apps and my ability to use this doorbell. These apps work fine for my DB1 doorbells to view a live video stream. But, they seem to fail to playback prior videos captured on the SD cards when I am not on my home network. They get to about 85-95% and then say that playback failed. This was working fine when I was using a Comcast cable modem, but have not worked since I recently switched to AT&T and switched out the modem. I am running the modem in bridge mode since I have a dedicated router/firewall that I want to have the WAN IP.

I assume the live view is RTSP, which seems to be fine. Any idea how the playback videos work and if I need to open any ports? I am wondering if UPnP is no longer working with this setup and I need to manually open some ports. The other explanation may be that AT&T is blocking this traffic, but I hope that isn’t the case.

you shouldnt need to open any ports.. i think it has to you with your ATT service
 
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you shouldnt need to open any ports.. i think it has to you with your ATT service
That is what I was afraid of. I wonder if these HikVision servers are in China and AT&T is blocking them. I am not looking forward to it, but I may need to follow up with their technical support.
 

Chadsturgill

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They are most definitely in China! Lol

There are several articles on the web calling out Hikvisions ties to the Chinese government and how they could possibly be gathering information (very sensitive stuff) from all of these cameras. All my other cameras are literally dumb. No cloud, just RTSP and are not calling home to China. I literally don’t care about this one because it’s outside and it’s capturing random people walking dogs etc.. if it were in my living room. I would not have it send this data to China. No way No how.
 
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I guess my other option is to not rely on these apps for video playback and instead use ZoneMinder, which is why I have it. I just find it convenient to quickly use these apps after they alert me of motion or someone rings the doorbell.
 

Chadsturgill

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I sell Forensic / Incident Response related tools. I run full packet capture on my egress at all times. Just looked at traffic for last week. Number 1 place this camera is talking to is you guessed it. Beijing China. Take a look at the screenshot from the tool I sell and support. It's an unrecognized protocol on TCP and UDP. I support over 3500 protocols and applications. Not too much I can't understand, this one however is odd. I've done this before. In an older version of the firmware on the DB1, I could actually see the image and video streams in clear text. They fixed that in a firmware release. The HSDB2 hasnt ever seemed to have been configured to send things in the clear, or at least not in a standard protocol that could be read or parsed by mainstream tools.
 

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bcslaam

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I guess my other option is to not rely on these apps for video playback and instead use ZoneMinder, which is why I have it. I just find it convenient to quickly use these apps after they alert me of motion or someone rings the doorbell.
Are you running zoneminder and BI together or just ZM?
 

Chadsturgill

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Proof they are encrypted, but this image actually appears to be headed to Amazon EC2 cloud and not China, but who cares at that point. Actually easier to obfuscate if not being sent to China. Alright, I need to get out of this because I will start to develop tin foil hat syndrome.
 

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