Wife Wants A Ring Doorbell, I Want Decent Gear. Help Me Win!

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Ring will be introducing a POE enable doorbell in early 2022. Will this be a big upgrade from the WiFi enabled models?

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Swampledge

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Ring will be introducing a POE enable doorbell in early 2022. Will this be a big upgrade from the WiFi enabled models?

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It will depend on whether it’s features are directly available via LAN or if they need to pass through Ring’s servers. That information isn’t clear in their promotional matter that I could see.
 

IReallyLikePizza2

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It will depend on whether it’s features are directly available via LAN or if they need to pass through Ring’s servers. That information isn’t clear in their promotional matter that I could see.
I'll put $1,000,000 on Ring servers only

No way any of it will be available locally
 

The Automation Guy

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While Ring might be the easiest turn key solution for a doorbell camera, I personally don't agree with the inability to record footage locally. I also don't want to pay for or have to rely on some "ring server" located God only knows were. Therefore I refuse to use Ring or any other similar "turn key cloud" solution.

A lot of us use BlueIris software to record our cameras. I have a EZViz DB2 at my front door and their older DB1 at my garage door. Both camera streams are recorded locally. I have BI set up to text me a screen shot whenever there is motion at the front door. Not only I am not relying on a cloud server somewhere, but I have found the alert notifications to be much more reliable than the EZViz software. Part of that is that I get an alert whenever their is motion, not just when someone presses the doorbell. For example, there isn't a single delivery person that rings doorbells anymore. They all drop (throw) and go. The downside is that it doesn't provide immediate "two way communication" to someone that does ring the doorbell, but the text message image works well enough for about 99% of the alerts I get. I just want to see who is at the door. I can always open up my BI mobile app to get live footage, but I don't have the ability to have two way communication. I can hear the audio from the camera, but I cannot speak to anyone standing at the door. Personally I have never seen the need for two way communication. Nothing says "I'm not home" more than someone answering the doorbell via software instead of physically coming to the door. I'd rather not answer it at all (and make someone wonder if there is a person inside or not) than answer it via software (which is a clear sign someone isn't home IMHO).

Anyway, that is another approach you can take. If you want to end up with more cameras then a local storage solution is going to be beneficial. I'd recommend you make sure your doorbell camera can integrate into that larger camera system instead of being limited to the cloud access and OEM software.
 
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IReallyLikePizza2

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I'll counter the above with my 2c, never in my life have I WANTED to go back and view the footage for a doorbell. So if its stored on Rings servers, I don't care anyway. I don't even pay them, so I don't have the ability to go back. If I want to see what happened at my front door, I'll pull up BI and watch my real camera with 10x better quality

Two way talk has been useful for me quite a number of times, usually its CenterPoint energy coming to do their yearly check of the gas meter, and instead of them attempting to hop my gate or try and get in, I can just let them know to give me a minute and I can open the gate for them remotely. There has also been a few times when I'm back in the garage or something and can't come right away, in that case I can tell whoever it is to hang on a second. I've also hidden packages around the front for UPS to pick up, and then just told the driver on 2 Way talk where it is
 
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