Home Security Cameras, etc ----- Ring or Arlo.....or something else (1 Viewer)

[RowdyRawhide]

Looking at getting some cameras to offset our alarm. Alarm company wants 3 to 1 as far as price. So I figured I would throw it up here to see if the community had some input. My BIL has Arlo and seems to like it, but he's an impulse buyer so I sure he hasn't compared too much.

Thanks
Aaron

 

[Richard Cranium]

I put up a ring floodlight that covers my driveway and garage and am fairly happy with it but don’t want to pay the monthly fee for the videos. I’m looking at other options now if I want to add additional cameras to cover front door. I’m thinking of just getting some IP cameras and my own NAS to keep the recordings without paying the fees. However that means the storage would be local which is not ideal.

 

[k9dr]

Wyze cams are great - inexpensive, easy to set up, and great video.

 

[MegaTon44]

If budget for this project is not limited, I'd strongly recommend Nest IQ cameras in conjunction with a Nest Hello doorbell. The quality is very good, but the cameras are very pricey.

 

[arch3r]

I have 4 nest cameras in my house. No external, yet. Got them because I already had the nest thermostat. One app to control everything. The cameras are expensive but video quality is great. Going to add outdoor cameras and the nest doorbell in the future.

And of course I have a camera on my chips.

 

[CraigT78]

I've got Lorex Security Cameras on the outside of my house, all wired to a DVR in the attic - depending on your budget and your desires, these are the best vaule out there and their quality is hands down better than any of the streaming cameras out there. With that being said - there is work involved - running cables and all that.

Inside the house I have several Arlo 2 camera - I like them, the app is good, they integrate with SmartThings, and have good night vision. Can't go wrong with Arlo if this is what you are wanting to spend the money on. Easy setup and quick notifications.

I ordered a RingPro doorbell for my wife for Christmas - I'll post a review when I get it. We wanted the realtime 2 way audio so we can combine it with my smart door lock.

 

[Richard Cranium]

I hope the audio quality is better on the doorbell than the ring floodlight cam. I can hear people in driveway great, but if I talk through the speaker it comes out with a lot of static. It’s a common complaint on the floodlight cam.

 

[Venturalvn]

I went with Blink over Arlo. They're both comparable as they're battery operated, but that means neither will run 24/7. The biggest differences between a lot of the battery systems is the night time vision. There are some reviews online and on YouTube that compare the night vision between a variety of both wired and battery systems, so look around at those.

The biggest upside of the battery systems is ease of installation. Took about 3 minutes a piece to install any of my Blink cameras.

 

[DoubleEagle]

Wyze cams are great - inexpensive, easy to set up, and great video.

I have the Wyze cams also. Can't figure out how to set one to watch the front door.

 

[Quicksilver-75]

We went with an Arlo system. It's nothing fancy but we avaiod paying any subscription and can manage our video as we like. It's fine for what we need. And being wireless makes it nice incase you want to switch up views or bring in the cameras so you can watch your puppy eat all your tv remotes and Christmas bulbs....FML..

 

[k9dr]

I have the Wyze cams also. Can't figure out how to set one to watch the front door.

Here is the current live view of my front porch from the window closest to my front door. The camera is inside and angled to get the best view.

 

[DoubleEagle]

Here is the current live view of my front porch from the window closest to my front door. The camera is inside and angled to get the best view.

View attachment 227221

Looks good. My problem is there is not AC outlet any near the front door.

 

[Darson]

I have about 9 D-Link wifi cameras around my house. They are relatively cheap ($40 each) and easy to set up. All are indoors and all but one are facing windows to give an outside view. They are pretty much useless at night because the IR lights used for night vision just reflect off the windows so give no outside view.

The reason I got them is that we have a monitored alarm system and get false alarms every few months - by definition, when we're not at home. When the alarm company calls, I can quickly check the cameras on my phone to see if there is anyone around or in the house and tell them to reset the alarm or send the police. The only time police were sent was when the internet connection was out (once in the last 3 years). The funny thing was that the internet came back shortly after and I could see the officer walking around the house and checking all the external doors.

A nice feature is the motion detection that will email you a picture when the defined area of the camera view sees a change. I set this up when we were on vacation to see if our cleaner would come to the house as scheduled. I hadn't optimized it so I ended up getting a few thousand photos emailed to me. For a laugh I stitched them together to make a stop motion film of our cleaner in action

I've had them for over 5 years and am pretty happy. Having said all that, I'm thinking of switching to a wired setup - primarily to have outdoor cameras that work at night and also to cover the parts of our house which the WiFi doesn't reach.

 

[RowdyRawhide]

I have the Wyze cams also. Can't figure out how to set one to watch the front door.

Here is the current live view of my front porch from the window closest to my front door. The camera is inside and angled to get the best view.

View attachment 227221

How do the Wyze cameras night time viewing work through the windows. The indoor camera that I have does not work with nght viewing through the windows

 

[Taghkanic]

I had the Ring camera for a short while, with an attached solar panel (so you could mount it anywhere within reach of your Wi-Fi network). It worked fine... except at night. Its supposed “night vision” feature was a joke. Nothing was visible.

I now have a Nest Outdoor cam, and am pretty pleased with it. To fully tap into its capabilities, a modest monthly subscription is necessary. But I like it. Easy to set up, good notification system, able to review 30 days of video at anytime from anywhere.

 

[k9dr]

How do the Wyze cameras night time viewing work through the windows. The indoor camera that I have does not work with nght viewing through the windows

Not as well as it should. If you turn the IR on it reflects against the glass. If the IR is off, the picture capability is OK but limited. This is a current pic outside my business with a camera aimed thru the glass front door

 

[k9dr]

Current indoor IR enabled pic at my business

 

[IaHawk]

I know this thread is a few years old but had some good information in here, any updates on recommendations for security cameras?

We currently have an indoor Canary camera, mainly just to keep an eye on the kids while they were home for about an hour after school by themselves but now I'd like to get a complete setup and open to recommendations. I've tried the Ring Doorbell Pro for a few weeks but have not been happy with the quality of the video and have had some issues with it disconnecting from the Wifi, so I have decided to return that and go with a outdoor camera setup.

I'm willing to spend up to $1000 for the right setup, but would prefer to be closer to $500. The setup would include 3 outdoor cameras (or 2 outdoor cameras and one doorbell camera) and one indoor. I'm fine with local or cloud storage and if the features are worthy, would be fine paying a subscription for those. Outdoor cameras would need to connect via WiFi and battery operated as well.

Appreciate the input.

 

[Taghkanic]

I have used Nest for several years and am very happy with it.

 

[rimmerryan]

Nest [aka... Google] for sure... that's what we have as well!

 

[Eloe2000]

I use Arlo firstly because I dont want to pay monthly fees (it includes a rolling 7 or 10 days of video storage for free) and also because initially I wanted battery operated until I could run hard lines. Subsequently I just bought the Arlo solar panels so I don't even need to worry about recharging the batteries and I haven't bothered running the hard lines. Nest cameras are better, but also much more expensive last I checked plus you have to deal with the monthly fee. Arlo has been updating a lot lately so now they have their video doorbell (which isn't relevant for my house) as well as a security light and much better night vision than my older version.