Review- VTO2301R-P 2mp Door Station/Doorbell Dahua/Empiretech

looney2ns

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Courtesy of @EMPIRETECANDY we have another cam to checkout in return for a fair and honest review. Thanks again to Andy! He does such a great job of supporting everyone here.

We have the:
VTO2301R-P
PC and ABS material make it ideal for indoor and outdoor use.
1/2.8" 2-MP HD CMOS camera.
Offers two–way video call with indoor monitors.
Video and voice messages from visitors can be checked on the indoor monitor.
Video call through app.
IR illumination and auto WDR.
IP65 rated.
H.264 and H.265.
PoE power supply.
Full specs here: Link
Operators manual: Link

Price approximately $120 shipped.

Purchase here: Link
OR
Purchase here: Link

PXL_20220419_184014916.jpg PXL_20220419_184135735.jpg PXL_20220419_184352017.jpg

Night picture depicting the ring around the button being lit.
PXL_20220420_040451105.NIGHT.jpg

The good, it's POE, button is lit at night, Ir works well, but only comes on after a doorbell press.
The picture FOV is limited, it will need to be mounted higher than the typical door bell camera as you will see in the videos. It will need to be mounted at around 5ft at a minimum.

Using DMSS app, I had many failures when pushing the button on successfully receiving a notification on my phone. I could initiate a call from my phone with no issue's.
Callers at the door bell could not leave a message.
Callers were not recorded if the call to the phone failed, or if it was not answered.
DMSS is very hit and miss at playing back videos from the SD card in the VTO.


Update 5/12/22:
After lots more futzing around I have gotten it to work reliably.
Here's what finally worked.

I deleted the VTO from DMMS.
I reset the VTO to factory defaults.
Added VTO back to DMMS via P2P.
I had to change the settings in the phone to exclude DMSS from Android power saving.
I had to manually choose a sound file in the phone for the notification sound, otherwise it stayed silent when VTO sent a notification to the phone, even though it was supposed to use a file from the VTO.

Dahua Engineer says that callers not able to leave a message when no answer, will be added in a future firmware update.

Picture isn't up to par for a 2mp cam, but it works just fine for seeing a face near the camera.

Had it up and running about 10 days, and no reboots I've seen.

It works fine with Blue Iris, even though its ONVIF capable, it doesn't have any IVS or Motion detection to take advantage of the ONVIF to send alerts and triggers to BI.

I must give props to the noise reduction in the camera. My neighbor was mowing with his Zero Turn mower, if you are familiar with them, they are loud. No sound of it other than one or two short blips during the 15 minutes he was running it on the other side of my driveway recorded on the VTO. Impressive.

My verdict is that the DB6I is the better all around choice, it would be great if a POE ver of the DB6I would surface.

Video settings:
I used the substream in BI, as that is the only stream that allows 1080p, the main stream is limited to a max of 720p
Frame rate 15fps, bitrate 4mp, H264, scene mode set to auto, BLC turned on, brightness 45, contrast 50, Hue 50, saturation 48, gamma 50, Iframe not adjustable.

Video recorded and exported from Blue Iris



First time I walk up the steps, the IR for both the VTO and my 5442 door cam is on. Second time, just the VTO Ir is on.


A still shot from the VTO:
Drbell.20220426_130621226.34.jpg
 
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looney2ns

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So you still like the DB6 over the 2302 even though the DB6 is a PITA to config because it needs two apps to be able to config everything?
IMHO, Yes, after the setup pain is through, the DB6I is overall a better performer, and at this point most things work as advertised. YMMV.
If a firmware update can cure the VTO 2302, that'd be great.
 

sebastiantombs

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@looney2ns Thanks for the review of both of these. I am pretty disappointed with the VTO and just don't want another WiFi doorbell. I got "burned" by the DB1C and it's left a bad taste here.

Given that they can get PoE and WiFi into a VTO it boggles the mind that they don't put it into a "regular" doorbell. I really think they're missing a large market with a doorbell that is PoE capable versus WiFi only.
 

sebastiantombs

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I'd be happy with "once in a while". The DB1C shows around 200 disconnects per day and the AP is less than four feet from it albeit on the other side of a 2x6 framed wall with vinyl siding. I've played with 2.4 and 5 GHz for the connection, bit rates and frame rates. No results at all. Had it on a 24 volt transformer, say a 30 foot run from the transformer to the DB1C. Swapped that out to a 16 volt transformer. Same results no matter what I do with the POS.
 

johnfitz

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I'd be happy with "once in a while". The DB1C shows around 200 disconnects per day and the AP is less than four feet from it albeit on the other side of a 2x6 framed wall with vinyl siding.
Is there a chance you have a defective unit?
 

sebastiantombs

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Whatever would make you think that? :lol: It started doing that about six months after it was installed. The point being that failure in that short a time, and out of the return period, just isn't acceptable. Then again, it's a piece of consumer level junk in the first place. I had hoped for better, but got worse. Simple answer for me is that unless it's PoE it's just not going to be used on my system.
 

The Automation Guy

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Any way for you to check the SIP capabilities of this doorbell camera? If not, would you be interested in letting me try it out? I have a full Asterisk phone system in my house that I could tie it into. Obviously that is beyond the capabilities of the average homeowner, but if someone already as a Asterisk or PBX system system installed, they might be interested in learning how it all ties together.
 

CCTVCam

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I would like to see Dahua come up with an improved version of the Ubiquiti G4 Pro doorbell.

Ubiquiti aren't far off the perfect doorbell if it wasn't tied to their DVR. Dahua seem to be not matching the G4 for sensors nor picture quality but have the advantage of an open platform. Surely Dahua can come up with an open version bell likea G4 Pro without actually copying it?
 
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