Video doorbell recomendation

[risquare]

On the marked again (after 2 failures) for video doorbell.
Any recommendations. I reduced my list of requirements to this

- easy to integrate with HS3 (for ring notifications)
- no monthly fees
- stable (4 stars or more) app for iPhone for two way talk and video stream


desired features but not a must

- video stream available to process by Blue Iris
- compatible with CromeCast and ChromeCast plug-in for HS3
- compatible with GoogleHome
- integrated keypad for door/gate unlock

Your feedback will be highly appreciated.

[pugsly]

I'm using a Ring Pro. It's a nice doorbell/camera setup but the plugin for HS3 doesn't work so you have to rely on IFTTT. I'd be interested to hear what other folks are doing.

[jmaddox]

I'm using a doorbird. It's a nice looking stainless steel device powered by POE and allows an ethernet as well as wifi connection. The API is published allowing you to pull the video feed for blueiris etc. The downsides are that it has VGA quality video and connecting to the device using it's built in app remotely is very hit or miss. Roughly half the time I'm unable to connect/communicate with whoever rang the bell.

[risquare]

50% success with "doorbird" that is "German engineering" and very well documented. Imagine my experience with 2 Chinese undocumented units. Surprisingly no one gets it right among tens of various vendors.

[mrhappy]

On the marked again (after 2 failures) for video doorbell.
Any recommendations. I reduced my list of requirements to this

- easy to integrate with HS3 (for ring notifications)
- no monthly fees
- stable (4 stars or more) app for iPhone for two way talk and video stream


desired features but not a must

- video stream available to process by Blue Iris
- compatible with CromeCast and ChromeCast plug-in for HS3
- compatible with GoogleHome
- integrated keypad for door/gate unlock

Your feedback will be highly appreciated.

I know jmaddox has replied concerning the DoorBird unit, I may be biased as I wrote the plugin for it but I'm not seeing the 50% connection/no connection issue - the app to me seems to be OK but does not rate more than four stars (3.6 in the Play store today). In my experience they have tried to give it more functionality but instead made it slightly worse by it's new complexity, it would be easier if they just went back to basics a bit IMHO. They are in active development which could be more than said from some of the Chinese type units on eBay and the like.

I have been trying for integration with ChromeCast but this seems as much as an issue with ChromeCast than anything else, the stream from the unit is MJPEG or RTSP but ChromeCast does not like that. Various guides seem to suggest an intermediate web server to serve the stream in a format ChromeCast is happy with but in my testing that did not work correctly. Instead I opted for a still image, I grab it from the DoorBird and then serve it in the HS web server and change the ChromeCast displays to that still image.

I'm fairly happy with it...

[brientim]

[risquare]

Thanks for the feedback so far. It's worth mentioning that DoorBird is one of the most expensive of the bunch.

[eufreka]

Laview doorbell cam (blue iris) how to notify Homeseer?

So I have ordered the laview doorbell cam from amazon ($99)...supposedly it works with blue iris, which is a MUST for me.

It is designed to work with existing 24v doorbell wiring, which I *don't* have...

So, I also ordered this 24-volt plugin transformer (works with Ring Doorbell?), which I hope will simplify powering it...hopefully it will work for this device.

HOWEVER, that leaves the question of connecting it to Homeseer: what is the best (and cheapest) relay/drycontact (whatever is appropriate) to wiring into the transformer wiring to doorbell cam that will signal Homeseer that the button was pressed? (MIMOlite? Seems overkill?)

I don't want to bother wiring in an actual electrical chime. I just need the button to tell Homeseer it's been pressed and let Homeseer take actions(flash lights/speak through Echo/send text/etc.).

Does this make any sense? (The cam should arrive today, so I may have more info in a day or two...)

[wadesready]

So I have ordered the laview doorbell cam from amazon ($99)...supposedly it works with blue iris, which is a MUST for me.

It is designed to work with existing 24v doorbell wiring, which I *don't* have...

So, I also ordered this 24-volt plugin transformer (works with Ring Doorbell?), which I hope will simplify powering it...hopefully it will work for this device.

HOWEVER, that leaves the question of connecting it to Homeseer: what is the best (and cheapest) relay/drycontact (whatever is appropriate) to wiring into the transformer wiring to doorbell cam that will signal Homeseer that the button was pressed? (MIMOlite? Seems overkill?)

I don't want to bother wiring in an actual electrical chime. I just need the button to tell Homeseer it's been pressed and let Homeseer take actions(flash lights/speak through Echo/send text/etc.).

Does this make any sense? (The cam should arrive today, so I may have more info in a day or two...)

I have a couple of these for a external dry contact sensor


https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Dete...contact+sensor

[wpiman]

So I have ordered the laview doorbell cam from amazon ($99)...supposedly it works with blue iris, which is a MUST for me.

It is designed to work with existing 24v doorbell wiring, which I *don't* have...

So, I also ordered this 24-volt plugin transformer (works with Ring Doorbell?), which I hope will simplify powering it...hopefully it will work for this device.

HOWEVER, that leaves the question of connecting it to Homeseer: what is the best (and cheapest) relay/drycontact (whatever is appropriate) to wiring into the transformer wiring to doorbell cam that will signal Homeseer that the button was pressed? (MIMOlite? Seems overkill?)

I don't want to bother wiring in an actual electrical chime. I just need the button to tell Homeseer it's been pressed and let Homeseer take actions(flash lights/speak through Echo/send text/etc.).

Does this make any sense? (The cam should arrive today, so I may have more info in a day or two...)

I just got one of these clones from Nelly's security. It is pretty far from my wifi station- so I am not getting great results. I think poe is the way to go here..

[BillBurn]

I have a doorbird connected via POE ethernet to HS and I use MrHappy's great excellent plug-in. I have actually found the app to be pretty reliable but that's probably because I am connected via Ethernet.

I can stream it to my Security DVR (Surveillance Station) and take snapshots with the Netcam program.

The video resolution is not great, but it's good enough to make out who is at the door.

It's expensive but it's a high quality build and it has POE and Ethernet which was a must for me as I did not want to have to worry about batteries and I wanted a highly reliable network connection.

[risquare]

Bought a third Chinese product GBF (some people never learn from their own mistakes). This one at $220 is twice more expensive than the other Chinese brands that I tried before and twice less expensive than DoorBird. As the saying goes "you get what you pay". This unit is much more reliable and much better documented (by Chinese standards) .

The good
Has both WiFi and Ethernet PoE.
Has dedicated "dry contacts" for push/call button announcement to HomeSeer (extra hardware needed) and existing doorbell chimes whatever you have.
Has dedicated "dry contact" input for opening door/gate from inside by a simple push button.
Has a keypad and dedicated "dry contacts" both NO and NC for door/gate opening by code and remotely by app.
Standard video stream that is captured by Blue Iris
Decent picture quality at 720p
Works reliably with WiFi so far.
Nice design and sturdy aluminum weatherized enclosure.
Some of the shortcomings below can be augmented by Blue Iris.

The bad
Constant trigger of false "motion detection" by trees and leaves. No selection of area to monitor for motion. All or nothing. I opted for nothing.
Big lag of 3-5 seconds for voice communication.
Still some bugs after firmware update to the latest.
Doesn't send snapshots or video clips when motion is detected or visitor is pushing the call button.
Needs an external antenna (provided) for the WiFi because the case is all metal.
One can find things online on YouTube that are not documented
The camera is not "fish eye" and doesn't show the face of a person standing next to it. One must step back 3-5 feet for the face to be seen.

[vbhoj74]

I think everyone shares the same experience with VDP solutions available in the market, pretty much hit or miss. So what I just do is put a Hikvision 4MP IR Cube cam on top of the door (Indoor only as of this writing, or use the newer Hikvision VDP same as the laview mentioned above which is outdoor rated). Both of these are onvif and integrates with NVR nicely. I've a 24x7 monitoring tabs around to house to see the feed, and whenever someone pushes the standard electrical door bell we just look at the cams. If you need the interface to HS, then I would just put a z-wave single module switch to the door push bell.

[jjohnston]

With the doorbird unit, can I trigger an event when the doorbell is pressed?

[mrhappy]

With the doorbird unit, can I trigger an event when the doorbell is pressed?

Absolutely, and also when it detects motion if you so wish.