Reolink - good & bad

I was recommended Reolink on another forum and so I bought 3 RLC-410 cameras. This was about 2 months ago, still haven't finished home renovations so I haven't installed them yet but too late to send them back. I have a computer ready for Blue Iris and was looking for tips on setting that up and stumbled here.

So I appreciate that quality will not be as good as hikvision or Nahua, and that they are a bunch of liars, what should I doing to get a workable system out of this setup?
I'll be adding 4 more cameras in the future. But even if this system works brilliantly I will not be buying any more reolink due to these business practices.
 
haash80 said:
I was recommended Reolink on another forum and so I bought 3 RLC-410 cameras. This was about 2 months ago, still haven't finished home renovations so I haven't installed them yet but too late to send them back. I have a computer ready for Blue Iris and was looking for tips on setting that up and stumbled here.

So I appreciate that quality will not be as good as hikvision or Nahua, and that they are a bunch of liars, what should I doing to get a workable system out of this setup?
I'll be adding 4 more cameras in the future. But even if this system works brilliantly I will not be buying any more reolink due to these business practices.
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Where did you buy from?
 
I bought 1 from Amazon UK, and 2 from ebay UK. I opened them and plugged them into the poe switch to test them but threw away the boxes .
 
Not sure if you can return it, even if you return to Amazon the vendor can report you and I have read (if it is true, I don't know) that people have been banned from amazon for sending product back without a good reason so be careful.

I am still running reolink for over a year now. It still sucks on BI, laggy, and you cannot shut off the IR lights. It also gets extremely hot, not sure if other cameras also get this hot?

I have it hooked up to the reolink NVR which is loud as the reviews say and I feel is buggy, while trying to FF it will jump and screen will go blank, almost aneurysm inducing trying to playback on the NVR.

My next setup will be a dahua camera setup with POE switch running on a dedicated BI machine for recording, as you can set BI as a server so I can view on their app and any computer browser which is nice.

And like many I was in need for a quick surveillance camera and found highest rated "4mp" camera on amazon and went with it. I feel using it for over a year made the purchase more ok as it works and does what it should but just not in the best possible way. I don't want to replace it until there is something A LOT better, hopefully in 2020 if these lasts.
 
I purchased a Reolink 4 camera (2 bullet/2 dome) 4mp system about two months ago. The audio was great and I got some funny videos of my kids doing things that they wouldn't normally do in front of their parents. The video quality during the day was great. Night time quality was not nearly as good as the daytime quality. I installed two dome cameras outdoors and only tested a single bullet camera indoors. I spent quite a bit of time trying to adjust the night time recording triggers, but woudl end up with many recording of bugs. While I'm new to camera system setup I'm pretty sure I did thorough testing with lots of different scenarios and settings. The NVR interface was clunky to navigate and the recording trigger and playback options were fairly limited. Within the 30 day refund period, I determined that this system was not high enough quality for me and returned it for a full refund.
 
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Good job on the return, you will be happy that you did as it is limited and not the best, what made you buy the camera in the first place? How did you find this thread?

The NVR is terrible, I bought it originally to record and have power to the cameras vs purchasing a switch, thought I'd save some money, but I never use the NVR, it is difficult to playback video
 
I looked at the systems that Costco sales. For one reason or another decided I didn't like them and looked to see what I could find on Amazon that met my basic criteria (on paper).

POE
clear, high quality images both day and night
Long range night vision w/IR
audio recording
motion based recording and alerting to text & email
easy to use and setup
outdoor/waterproof rating

On the dome cameras I could not get the night vision to be high quality enough to ID a person at 10-15ft away from a 7.5ft high mounting point near the front door. It's pretty dark where I live so I think that contributed to the poor night vision.

At one point I planned to return only a single dome camera from the kit and upgrading to the PTZ camera in hopes that it would be better, but I didn't want to end up stuck with everything else after the 30 day window expired while I waited for the PTZ to ship from China.

I found this thread while looking around trying to find more reviews and tips on setting up and dialing in the Reolink system.

I'm still trying to figure out the right NVR and cameras to fit my needs. I want to lean towards Hikvision or Dahua but they both seem to have had some serious problems in the past with poor customer support. Hikvision bricking w/firmware, Dahua NVR rebooting & skipping of frame recording and both not wanting to sell to end users.
 
tkinkade said:
I looked at.. and looked to see what I could find on Amazon that met my basic criteria (on paper).
..

I'm still trying to figure out the right NVR and cameras to fit my needs. I want to lean towards Hikvision or Dahua but they both seem to have had some serious problems in the past with poor customer support. Hikvision bricking w/firmware, Dahua NVR rebooting & skipping of frame recording and both not wanting to sell to end users.
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Hi tkinkade,

I also looked at Amazon - and now with more experience this is my assessment:

Buying from Amazon, ebay, Aliexpress:
Beware, Be cautious. Numerous vendors are purposefully deceptive and even fraudulent in their descriptions.

There's just too many bad actors in the above sites for someone new to this subject to expect to avoid the bad.

Definitely look here for feedback and experience from members with regards quality products and vendors.
Go with the recommendations of others here, some of us have been burned and want to help out.

Yes, there's always a bit of discussion on what is better / best - and in the end you will need to take some time to find the appropriate judgement on what you think will work for your situation. We hope you can use the experiences and knowledge we share here to make that judgement based on better facts and information.

W/re to customer support - Hikvision and Dahua traditionally have not been in the business of supporting end users - but letting those who rebrand their products do that.

If you need better support their are a number of vendors selling security cameras which provide good support ( such as Nelly's Security, note they support this forum and have a great thread going on their version of the Hikvision 1080p doorbell cam here )
 
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

I've read a lot of threads and guides linked to on these forums over the last few weeks. I'm technical in my line of work doing Internet related stuff but there's a lot to digest specific to this arena. As far as support, I'm mostly concerned with is the ability/ease to return defective products and get firmware updates.

I'll probably pop into another more appropriate forum/thread to post my current go forward plans and questions I come up with.
 
tkinkade said:
I'm still trying to figure out the right NVR and cameras to fit my needs. I want to lean towards Hikvision or Dahua but they both seem to have had some serious problems in the past with poor customer support. Hikvision bricking w/firmware, Dahua NVR rebooting & skipping of frame recording and both not wanting to sell to end users.
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Interesting, did you see the forum posts about Dahua, they seem pretty solid and what I'd go with, I want to get the doorbell setup myself.
 
Nice deal, how is this compared to others people are sharing? I don't see any reviews or much on it here.
 
I've had 2 reolink bullet cameras now , both have gone faulty ( 2nd one was to replace the first faulty one ) and got a reolink dome camera at the front

the first bullet cam developed some sort of fungus growing on the inside of the lens even though supposed to be waterproof , this left the image with a cloud / blur during daytime hours , they replaced this and I received a new camera

the second one has gone same way , so have been in touch with them again , got to the return / replace stage and now they say I didn't purchase from them and wont replace :(

The dome even seems blurry at times but not as bad as the bullets

so looks like im in market to replace the bullet again , any recommendations for a 4/5mp camera with a similar zoom , I know people rate dahua and hikvision but couldn't find a similar spec whit optical zoom

also got a hikvision nvr , so can you use the smart features with non hikvision cameras or am I tied to hikvision if I want to use these features

thanks in advance for any info



Below are pictures of the camera faults , I will be steering well clear from reolink in the future

Camera 1 fault

unnamed (1).png unnamed.png

Camera 2 (replacement camera)

Camera Rear_01_20180214171345.jpg
Camera Rear_01_20180214180022.jpg
Screenshot_20180216-124129.png
 
Interesting thread with a lot of information. Fenderman, you have a nice forum but seem to get a bit agitated and aggressive when Reolink comes up. Have you thought about making a non aggressive closed educational thread about the issues with Reolink. Honestly, a Start here Section with just helpful basics would be helpful for everyone and keep people frustration levels down. It took a lot of digging and time to find this thread about Reolink and took even more time to understand why you hate the company so admittedly. At the beginning you come off as biased because you don't explain why you dislike the products and company. Not till later in the thread do you fully understand the issues with the products. Other members help chime in and enlighten the issues. Most people aren't coming on here to tick senior forum members off. Most people are confused with all the products out there. Remember we all have to start off somewhere. A little patience goes a long way and so would a - Start here Section with just helpful basics thread and breakdowns would be helpful for everyone. Nice forum but can be a bit daunting at first.
 
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Trickman2 said:
Interesting thread with a lot of information. Fenderman, you have a nice forum but seem to get a bit agitated and aggressive when Reolink comes up. Have you thought about making a non aggressive closed educational thread about the issues with Reolink. Honestly, a Start here Section with just helpful basics would be helpful for everyone and keep people frustration levels down. It took a lot of digging and time to find this thread about Reolink and took even more time to understand why you hate the company so admittedly. At the beginning you come off as biased because you don't explain why you dislike the products and company. Not till later in the thread do you fully understand the issues with the products. Other members help chime in and enlighten the issues. Most people aren't coming on here to tick senior forum members off. Most people are confused with all the products out there. Remember we all have to start off somewhere. A little patience goes a long way and so would a - Start here Section with just helpful basics thread and breakdowns would be helpful for everyone. Nice forum but can be a bit daunting at first.
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No you can search the word reolink and get all the information you need.... It's expressed in this thread many times.... I can't help you if you're too lazy to do a little bit of work.... Here's the cliff notes reolink is garbage and should be avoided like the plague...
 
fenderman said:
No you can search the word reolink and get all the information you need.... It's expressed in this thread many times.... I can't help you if you're too lazy to do a little bit of work.... Here's the cliff notes reolink is garbage and should be avoided like the plague...
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LOL, I got that out of the reading the thread but with them lying and being deceitful to you. I would have thought you would have made it a goal to point this out to the public very clearly with logical facts while making the information quickly available. If you want to allow them to continue with the deception to the public then by all means continue on with your current practices. If you want to stick it to them and help others while your at it. Then a - "Start here Knowledge section with just the basics and breakdowns" . Personally if it was my forum I would prefer the latter and make them regret the day they lied. Even a quick google search then would find this forum and it will hurt their sales. Honestly, really doesn't matter that much to me... I already went with your sponsor Nelly's because of the support and willingness to provide useful information to me. Still plan on ordering more camera's and hence why I was reading up on ReoLink and other cameras.

V/r
Trickman2
 
Well said, does Nelly sponsor offer all models? Might go to him as I need a lot of help setting up my system to pro-level.

Still using reolink and enjoying it, probably not getting the most out of it but afraid to upgrade to anything else currently, if you do the research there is a lot of help on the forum, it is just in many different locations and piecing it together can get confusing and break your confidence.

Let me know your setup Trickman2 and how it went with Nelly, might be interested in trying them out.
 
TL1096r said:
Well said, does Nelly sponsor offer all models? Might go to him as I need a lot of help setting up my system to pro-level.

Still using reolink and enjoying it, probably not getting the most out of it but afraid to upgrade to anything else currently, if you do the research there is a lot of help on the forum, it is just in many different locations and piecing it together can get confusing and break your confidence.

Let me know your setup Trickman2 and how it went with Nelly, might be interested in trying them out.
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I just did the online chat with a rep. They only carry HIKvision. I went with this NVR -NSN-616(4K)-16P 16 Channel POE Plug-N-Play 4K NVR and to start with just two turret camera's
NSC-2X8-DM 4K (8MP) Ultra HD Outdoor EXIR Turret IP Security Camera 2.8mm. This is just a starting point and need to decide on more cameras. Thinking about this model "Duhua SD49225T-HN" to the camera's.
 
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I am going with Blueiris and quicksync intel core i7 that will run 24/7 vs a NVR, felt i was better, then you can use the app for instant notifications.

I have a NVR and it is a lot more work to playback and use vs BI.
 
TL1096r said:
I am going with Blueiris and quicksync intel core i7 that will run 24/7 vs a NVR, felt i was better, then you can use the app for instant notifications.

I have a NVR and it is a lot more work to playback and use vs BI.
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Cool, I may go that route eventually but have to start somewhere. So NVR is a good start for now and hopefully this is a good model. I would think a linux based software system would be better on resources.
 
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