What doorbell camera in 2022?

The Automation Guy said:
I'll say that I haven't had any issues out of my EZVIZ DB1 or DB1C cameras. The DB1 is probably over two years old and the DB1C is probably a year old now. Both have been in continuous operation since I purchased each of them and I've had zero problems with them. I have a decent power supply and multiple wireless APs around the house to ensure good wifi coverage. Those two things can play a huge role in how reliable these camera are. I also only use them to feed my BI machine via their RSTP feeds. I have never tried to use the OEM app/software for anything other than setting up the cameras. I know the cameras will loose sync with the OEM software after just a few hours usually. I've always assumed it's because the cameras cannot access the internet and therefore cannot "call home" to the EZViz servers.

For a wireless camera that uses your existing doorbell wiring, I think the DB1C is as good an option as anything else available today. But I would certainly recommend the DB1C over the DB1 because the image quality is much better on the DB1C.

If you can use POE at the front door, then that opens more possibilities and the DB1C may not be the best choice.
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I was not saying it was an issue or bad product. I work with electronics daily so I understand issues occur with them. It would drop the wifi signal is what I ended up determining with mine. it was the only device on the network that would constantly drop out. I have a full TP Link OPmada set up with a total of 6 Access points covering my total property which is 1/4 acre. I can walk down the street a good ways and maintain good wifi signal. The network is not the issue. I was thinking it had something to do with heat build up because the front door gets direct constant sun for the entire afternoon. I initially thought it was power related but after testing the transformers, all of them were fine I say transformers because I fired the parts cannon with out testing initially. The Nest has been on line since I set it up and has never lost connection. I like the control over the DB1 versus the nest but I love the lack of wife bitching with the nest.
 
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I can't blame heat for the failures of the DB1C I had. It was on the north side of the house so it saw no direct sun at all. It did run hot, all the time. I started with a 24 volt 30VA transformer and ended up dropping it back to a 16 volt 30VA transformer trying to fix the problem. It still ran hot with the 26 volt. Besides the regular iFi dropouts, with an AP not more than four feet away from it, it would reboot constantly. That's the straw that broke this camel's back. When I say drop outs and reboots I mean in excess of 200 times a day at times. Thanks, but no thanks. If someone offered me one for free I'd send them five bucks and tell them to keep it.
 
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sebastiantombs said:
I can't blame heat for the failures of the DB1C I had. It was on the north side of the house so it saw no direct sun at all. It did run hot, all the time. I started with a 24 volt 30VA transformer and ended up dropping it back to a 16 volt 30VA transformer trying to fix the problem. It still ran hot with the 26 volt. Besides the regular iFi dropouts, with an AP not more than four feet away from it, it would reboot constantly. That's the straw that broke this camel's back. When I say drop outs and reboots I mean in excess of 200 times a day at times. Thanks, but no thanks. If someone offered me one for free I'd send them five bucks and tell them to keep it.
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You and I walked a similar path! As part of the trouble shooting and Beta test transformers, access points, hard reboots, endless firmware updates, changing options.

Has offered no permanent fix to the endless (random) wireless drop outs. Had two other units just sitting on the bench for half a year just being monitored by various network diagnostic tools.

Some just too monitor network traffic / dropped packets / RX-TX errors. Others to track latency by pinging to obtain a rough uptime before the ping values exceeded what is normal or when the device actually dropped off the network.

Given I live in the cold ass North the heat output wasn’t really top of mind for me. Until like many of you who live in the South and regularly see 30’C and above.

Hot doesn’t describe how warm this thing gets and obviously indicates poor design and component selection.

The hardware really looks and feels great but that doesn’t matter if it doesn’t fucken work!
 
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Vansmak said:
I'll throw the Amcrest AD410 in the mix. I've owned one since the beginning of the year. It's strictly a WIFI doorbell, but does integrate nicely with Blue Iris and no monthly fee associated with it.
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How is the resolution over WiFi?
 
i have the Hikvision ds-kd8003 , with option mifare reader + keypad , quite pleased with it
Also 2 indoor panels
For SIP:
You can connected the devices as a regular extensions :> but you loose hikconnect/cloud , also no video anymore in early preview, only video after pickup
Or you can register asterisk as an extension on the primary indoor panel (the indoor runs a SIP server on port 5065) , so call gets forwarded to asterisk => advantage, if asterisk is down, everything still works, still video on indoor panels

For Home Assistant, there is an asterisk addon, and lovelace SIP card, so you can pickup the call from HA or just a regular softphone , for HA , i use the RTSP feed to fetch the camera

For Home Assistant, i also created addons , based on SDK from hikvision, this is a listener to get events like (doorpess / door motion / door open events )
There is also ISAPI, but its more limited, it has no listener, you can just open a door with a curl command, thats about it.. SDK is better
 
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I have to add one more thumbs down for the EZViz DB1C. I've had one in use for over a year and came to read this thread simply because I've had enough and am looking for a replacement. Love the functionality but the WiFi dropouts are so frustratingly endless. I've followed sebastiantombs battles with his DB1C as WiFi is the source of my problems just like him. I even installed a dedicated AP a few feet away from my front door, so I know the WiFi problem is not on my side. Looking closely at the AD410 like others have suggested.
 
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Anker has Eufy doorbells, they are wired or battery, basically competitive towards ring/nest - but seem to be a little better hardware. The little box you get for it stores your video recordings.

I'm not sure how "good" these are, I don't have them. I am forced to look at new options because for a doorbell camera, 230$ for a upgraded Ring Doorbell, seems like a bit much, especially when I can reinvest everything into a system to replace it.

I want something to preroll at least a configurable amount of time frame like 10-30 seconds. I want continuous live video stored on these cheap hard drives we can get. and I want to be able to access that stuff from my mobile phone somehow. I don't mind reviewing the stuff on the backup pc. I have several pcs here for that kinda thing.

If Eufy cams can use ipcam opensource or modified opensource that would be fine too. I don't really need email notifications with an app. but the lag with the ring app is rediculous, I hate cloud IP cams.
 
Just installed the Amcrest AD410 and it turned out great (this is my first DB cam, BTW). Got it connected to BI seamlessly. Still struggling getting it to work properly with my Echo Show. Although Alexa will announce when the doorbell is pushed, I still can't get the video to display on the Echo Show.

The only other complaint I have is about the mounting wedge (to get a better angle for the camera). I was hoping to get at least a 30 deg wedge but they only provide a 15 deg wedge. Ended up making my own. Overall, still impressed with this cam.

Found out too that the AD410 is identical to the Lorex 2K doorbell cam. The Foscam DBW5 appears to have identical specs to the AD410, leads me to wonder if their guts are identical.
 
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I just removed our ezviz db1, got sick of the wifi dropouts, delayed alert notifications, thing super hot to the touch, etc. All I want is a simple doorbell that works and works in blue iris so i bought the cheap Armcrest ad110 for 89 bucks. set it up the other day. picture is acceptable to me, alerts come in seconds and it works flawlessly in Blue Iris so Im happy. Thought about the armcrest ad410 but its double the price and again I just want a doorbell that rings and I can see whos there :) Oh and it also works great on alexa too.
 
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Just placed my pre-order for the $87 Reolink POE doorbell today. The estimated shipping date is October 17, 2022. I'm very skeptical it'll work well with BI, but I'm looking forward to comparing it to my current wifi LaView LV-PDB1520F1 (rebranded Hikvision DS-KB6403-WIP).

I would still much prefer UniFi G4 Doorbell Pro, but I'm not in the UniFi ecosystem so can't justify it.
 
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aesterling said:
Just placed my pre-order for the $87 Reolink POE doorbell today. The estimated shipping date is October 17, 2022. I'm very skeptical it'll work well with BI, but I'm looking forward to comparing it to my current wifi LaView LV-PDB1520F1 (rebranded Hikvision DS-KB6403-WIP).

I would still much prefer UniFi G4 Doorbell Pro, but I'm not in the UniFi ecosystem so can't justify it.
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you dont think the reolink will work with BI? Why u say that? Dont most of their reolink cams work with BI?
 
That depend on what your definition of "work with BI" is.
 
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flynreelow said:
you dont think the reolink will work with BI? Why u say that? Dont most of their reolink cams work with BI?
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I hope it works well with BI, but I've never owned any Reolink cameras in the past. I always read they've historically had problems with BI, especially in terms of iframe control and fixed frame rate. I'm willing to give this one a try because there are so few hardwired PoE doorbell cams on the market. I guess that makes me a guinea pig and I'll post my results. :) If it's junk I'll just return it!
 
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