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The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base

arstechnica.com

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Re: The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base

#21

Post by toomuchtodo »

jasonellis wrote: post #11
JshWright wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What...? it's not like Nest would ever shut down a service, leaving its users with nothing more than an expensive piece of plastic and silicon... Anyone who buys this is nuts.

I really regret buying into the Nest Cam ecosystem. I have 3 now. Sure, it's convenient to view things remotely, but I also run a NAS and I hate not having the option to record locally or serve the camera streams myself instead of relying on Nest's service or paying an outrageous price for recording. The only reason I went with them in the first place is that they have a very good picture and viewing range.

If you ever want to escape: https://www.ubnt.com/unifi-video/unifi-nvr/

I've deployed them for my uncle at some of his rental properties in less desirable parts of town for the security of his tenants.

Re: The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base

#22

Post by EA »

dmm wrote: post #14
Overtonwindow wrote: post #7

A broader question I've had as I've been looking into these is: are there any low-cost alternative is that do NOT involve the cloud? I really don't want to send video from inside and outside my home across the Internet. I don't mind that I can't check it remotely. I'm more interested in giving my wife the ability to see what's outside without spending an arm and a leg or letting it go out onto the Internet.

There are lots of inexpensive ip cameras on the market. I use several to watch my animals from work. There's a specification called ONVIF that most of them more-or-less implement that allows applications to discover cameras features like how to get the video stream and PTZ. I use a Foscam 8921, which is a pan-tilt 720p camera and a Crenova something which is a 720 fixed dome. The Crenova is flaky, dropping frames but…

It's offline now, but I mounted a 8918 to the bottom of a deerfeeder in our backyard.

http://deercam.tumblr.com/about/

The cam lasted about a year out there until it quit working after an electrical storm. It lived through a lot of rain, wind, and Alabama humidity.

Re: The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base

#23

Post by IshKebab »

Overtonwindow wrote: post #7

A broader question I've had as I've been looking into these is: are there any low-cost alternative is that do NOT involve the cloud? I really don't want to send video from inside and outside my home across the Internet. I don't mind that I can't check it remotely. I'm more interested in giving my wife the ability to see what's outside without spending an arm and a leg or letting it go out onto the Internet.

A pretty big benefit of the cloud is that intruders can't just destroy your recordings.

That said, the subscription prices are rather insane.

Re: The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base

#24

Post by randallsquared »

dvcc wrote: post #19
kevenwang0531 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DIY home security is definitely a large market. Every house in America has some form of subscription-based home security system mostly consisting of door sensors and a monitoring service. If home security startups can make a good-enough product that lets users monitor their own homes, they can charge a much smaller fee and still be more useful than companies like ADT.

Interesting is it more of a regional thing then? I've lived in the NE suburbs my whole life and really never ran into that many installations.

I see a lot of security system stickers on windows and doors, but I don't know anyone who actually has the subscription. Mostly the stickers are just marketing, I think.

Re: The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base

#26

Post by radoslawc »

Magnetic mount only? Access trough cloud service? $200? Seems like something that should be marketed in TV Shop shows. Anyway I highly recommend https://zoneminder.com/ even old laptop with built in camera can be decent playground for it then buy some cheap Chinese IP cameras with WiFi and make separate VLAN for them on router cut off from internet access (some of those cameras are doing home ping back or even sending images to Chinese servers). For $200 you can buy 2 to 4 of them, old lappy and you're done.

Re: The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base

#27

Post by goldenkey »

mseebach wrote: post #8
Overtonwindow wrote: post #7

A broader question I've had as I've been looking into these is: are there any low-cost alternative is that do NOT involve the cloud? I really don't want to send video from inside and outside my home across the Internet. I don't mind that I can't check it remotely. I'm more interested in giving my wife the ability to see what's outside without spending an arm and a leg or letting it go out onto the Internet.

Pretty much any other IP camera? D-Link has a range.

Ive owned both dlink and a dropcams. The dlink cameras are absolute shit. Often disconnecting from wifi. Unable to handle the bandwidth to upload good quality video. Firmware and software along with admin web panel is absolute junk, poorly translated as if foreign contractors made it as hasty as they could. Dlink cameras are also cheap plastic crap and easily topple over. Dropcam has worked great for me even with Nest taking over. I have a server that I connected hackable cameras to, but multiple 1080p streams is not the easiest to handle affordably. As a hacker, even dropcam offers a pretty decently priced service for peace of mind. Dont get dlink tho whatever you do.

EDIT: I should mention I even bought the mydlink Camera Video Recorder (DNR-202L) and what a heap of shit. Clogged up my LAN somehow, despite the fact that dropcams have 1080p and don't have any effect. Cameras often lost connection to the DNR-202, and the quality that it could support had to be severely downgraded. D-links solutions are atrocious. Please, save yourself the money and time. The dlink stuff is cheap for a reason -- and well, not all of it is even cheap. I bought the wide angle rotating cam and it ran me $200. And it was just as terrible as the little dinky $50 dlink cameras. Ugh.

Re: The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base

#28

Post by wepple »

veidr wrote: post #13

I have the $200 old regular indoor Nest camera. It's so horrible, in more ways than I would have imagined that a camera could possibly suck, that it's completely redefined my understanding of awful. It's caused me to rethink many other purchases way outside of the category, from blenders to TVs to cars. Absolutely don't ever buy a Nest product, unless your aim is to do experimental anitmaterialism therapy.

curious to know why, I have one and really like it, but maybe I'm missing something?

Re: The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base

#29

Post by baseten »

antsar wrote: post #25

Save yourself $50 and the monthly subscription fee. Recording software runs on any networked machine, and there's no cloud dependency. https://www.ubnt.com/unifi-video/unifi-video-camera-g3/ (Not affiliated)

I like their wireless stuff. I've been looking at the ubiquiti cameras and NVR for a while but haven't pulled the trigger.

Re: The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base

#30

Post by Mister_Snuggles »

Does it require a cloud service to operate? Will it work if I put it on a WiFi network that can't access the internet? Does it present an MJPEG stream that I can consume with other tools to do recording and monitoring locally?

My current cameras meet all this criteria. They've got a cloud service available, but they work just fine even if they are unable to phone home.

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