Video doorbells and security cameras

Family has the Ring Pro, and overall it is pretty good.
Connections, door bells, and motion notifications are reliable and stable. That's a very important qualification for me. I have some Zmodo cams that became paper weight because of connection issues.

You can set the motion detection area to avoid cars and pedestrians far away from triggering a notification. Or else you will be bombarded with notifications.

Video quality is pretty good; acceptable distortion, decent white balance, easy to identify whoever rang the bell.
Not sure about low light, as family has a light that automatically turns on at dusk.

Sound quality is acceptable but less than stellar. You can hear the outside clearly. The problem is, the random person can probably tell you are not at home if you are not in a quiet environment when talking.

Not sure about battery life, as it is wired.

 

I used Ring at my last house (right from the first version), as well as the current one where I am now.

It worked well ... easy to see who is there. The motion-sensitivity is configurable so you can dial out false/random alerts. WiFi connection was rock solid, and video performance to the cellphone when answering a ring (or ignoring it but watching whose there anyway) was also reliable.

Low-light/night viewing is via IR, so while the image is very different it's not affected by noise issues the way a simple web-cam type unit would be in low-light situations.

If your existing doorbell is mains powered, and has power at the button (it will if your existing button is illuminated), then you don't have to worry about the battery. And if not, then a full charge is good for about 6-9 months, depending on how cold the area you live in is and how often the thing gets activated by motion/being pressed. The app will start warning you once you're down to about two-weeks charge left.

Install took about 5 minutes.

The only thing I didn't like was the little "Chime" units ... they're fine once you get them connected, but they were absolute bastards to get configured the first time through (it's easy to do, it just took multiple attempts). That may have improved.

Wouldn't hesitate to put one on any place I owned.

 

I'd rather use Nest Hello for its features than Ring Pro, , but as I recall there was one fatal flaw... Something utterly goofy like half-duplex voice communication with it only recording the outside half of the conversation in the recorded video. RIP Nest Hello.

 

I tried both Nest Hello and Ring Pro. Both were easy to install. Ring works better all around (low light, night vision, etc) and has a cheaper monthly cost.
The most important thing and the deal breaker was the Nest Hello had a noticeable delay for notifications whereas the Ring works almost instantly. The Nest Hello records video continuously which hammers the internet connection, but it is interesting to get cool time-lapse videos through the day and night.
I have a Nest thermostat and I thought it would be nice to have the doorbell video in the same app, but the app UI is a little clunky. Amazon bought Ring so the updates and Alexa intergration will be solid.

 

-1 for Nest Hello here as well. Although I'm still using it mainly for it's continuous recording capability, it's now acting as a conspicuous security camera more so than a door bell.

 

Another point to bring up is that Nest and Ring both have partnerships with some insurance providers, which will net you a discount on home insurance of "up to 5%". Something worth taking into consideration when looking at the monthly costs.

https://nest.com/insurance-partners/

 

I'm glad this thread popped up. We were looking at video doorbells and hadn't decided which way to go yet. But I'm leaning towards Ring Pro now. Thanks for the info guys.

 

Can someone comment on the internet-of-things security aspects of these things?

 

Not an IT security professional, but my uncle who is basically said no risks above what would be expected of having your bank account info stolen via a keylogger, or your data held for ransom from every day internet usage. If someone is really that committed to break into your house, an idiot with a crowbar and a heavy rock can manage it just fine.

So I guess when in doubt, use a deadbolt when you're home.

 

Realistically? If it's a device connected to a network, it can be hacked. Period. That's your best way of looking at it.

The only thing you can do is make your network as secure as you can, and patch as often as possible. I suspect that is where Google products will best most of their competitors, barring Amazon... perhaps. Alexa is still a security joke.

MAC filtering, having a separate guest Vlan, complex admin passwords, dedicated VPN tunnels, etc. There is no reason not to use these things.

 

I'd look also at Arlo by Netgear in addition to Ring and Nest.

 

I briefly had some little Arlo cameras on my house, but felt the quality was just ok and battery life not great. Granted, I also live in a cold place and that tends to kill batteries.

 

I’ve been using (insanely cheap) Wyze cams in my windows for six months now and have been thrilled with them.

 

I have a pair of the NetGear Arlo 2, which are 1080p, can operate on batteries, but I have them plugged into power adaptors so that I can use some of the advanced features, like selectable regions for motion detection. The can record video clips to the cloud for seven days for free, or you can pay for a subscription for more features, including face recognition. They have a great picture during the daylight, and good B/W night vision. I’ve been quite happy with them.

 

I got into techie stuff because I enjoyed it. Then it became my job, and... I still enjoyed it! Then I retired, and, frankly, I want to do this stuff just a few times a year. That's one reason why there are no IOT things in my house and, the only time there was ("Bird-Nest-Cam") it had no access to or from the outside world.

When I saw TV commercials for Ring, during my UK trip this year, it looked slick, handy, and the sort of thing that makes a person spend days just watching the screen hoping for an intruder! Gadget heaven. Then the word security began to echo around my head. It's all about security, right? Right?

I'd love to be able to buy something like this that is (apart from changing the default password) secure off the shelf. I wouldn't love having to update myself on nearly twenty years of network security developments since I retired just to do so. Or use a fraction of its capability by having it only accessible in the house. Although, if it is clever enough, that might be worth it.

Colour me cynical, but also colour me wanting to wrong about this!

BTW. Is that coffee pot boiling yet?