I've been enjoying my Homeboy for quite some time. Why would I go with a wired version?
I have to recharge my Homeboy about once every two months.
The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base
51–60 of 75 posts
Re: The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base
#52I don't know, after seeing the video [1] from Brad Fitzpatrick about his experience with Nest products, I'm not sure I'd ever consider them.
Side note: if you watched the season premiere of Mr. Robot last night, there was a scene that reminded me of Brad's video (I'll say no more for fear of spoilers)
Re: The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use the UVC Micro to watch an indoor entryway. Video quality is satisfactory but nothing to write home about. Hardware design is nice. Considered the NVR but went with a small Linux VM instead.
What camera would you recommend for use ourdoors (full hd)? What software did you use in your diy linux setup: zoneminder, xeoma, or something else?
I use the Unifi NVR software[0] which ships with their hardware NVRs, running on a Debian VM within my home network. This works nicely with their iOS app[1].
The new UVC-G3[2] is rated for outdoor use, but appears to be preorder-only for now[3].
[0] https://www.ubnt.com/download/unifi-video/unifi-nvr
[1] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/unifi-video/id964967062?mt=8
Re: The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pretty much any other IP camera? D-Link has a range.
And that range dips down into the valley of crap. The smartphone software that came with the camera will frequently lock up, so it's nearly impossible to tell whether our baby is actually sleeping quietly or the image has just frozen. Ditto for the browser-based cloud garbage. I've resorted to just accessing the feed directly (via http://192.168.1.xx/video.cgi , which is a streaming jpeg) but that tends to lock up as…
That has been my experience with foscam IP cameras as well. The UI was horrible, they routinely lost the static IP's I had assigned, and it reached the territory of being something that caused more stress than it was worth. The only appeal of Nest for me would be a potentially more reliable experience.
Re: The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base
#55I 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?
I gave my experience and even provided screenshots but it appears that the above commenter downvoted me for having a conflicting opinion. Downvotes are supposed to be used for offtopic or malignant comments. I hope we can get a reply so I can see the shortcomings of dropcams -- because so far they've worked very well for me, but little do I know, maybe there are some real big issues that are just not in my regular routine use cases.
Re: The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base
#56One of the biggest issues with Nest is that they pretend to be a serious company that takes cares of your home needs (security/monitoring, fire & gas prevention and heating) but their products are toy like in that respect.
However I own 3 cameras and the fire alarm. The fire alarm, is worthless, I eventually disconnected it given the large amount of false positives. Then there are the cameras. I travel a lot so wanted a system that allowed me to monitor my home remotely for security purposes. However, I soon found out they are pretty much gimmick and any burglar will by-pass their security. If you own a nest cam, be aware that if the cam is disconnected from your Wifi, it will take 30 MINUTES FOR NEST TO NOTIFY YOU.
What did I learned? Burglars will power off the electricity in you house upon entry - to prevent alarms etc from sounding. This will bring you Wifi and your cameras down. Don't worry, 30 minutes later, or approximately 20 minutes after burglars have left, you'll know.
You'll also only be able to set notifications via email and push, so if you are sleeping you're out of luck. I was thinking of hacking a system with Twilio to do an automated call upon the email being received, but after finding out that it would take 30 minutes to even be notified I gave up.
Nest is cool, easy to setup and the cameras look nice, but they are toys. Other products might be hard to setup, look uglier but work. I'd rather they did both, but if I have to chose between ugly and works, and beautiful but doesn't - i'll take the first.
Re: The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base
#57Save 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'm partial to the Hikvision 4MP IP cameras and Blue Iris dvr software. What is great about Blue Iris is you can mix and match IP camera from different OEMs and it doesn't require any plug-ins to view live streams or recorded footage from any web browser. The only issue I've been running into is having too many 2k res cameras at 20+ FPS eats up a lot of CPU on DVR PC. Don't know if the Unifi DVR software is better optimized or if it only works with Unifi gear.
Re: The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base
#58One of the biggest issues with Nest is that they pretend to be a serious company that takes cares of your home needs (security/monitoring, fire & gas prevention and heating) but their products are toy like in that respect. However I own 3 cameras and the fire alarm. The fire alarm, is worthless, I eventually disconnected it given the large amount of false positives. Then there are the cameras. I travel a lot so wante…
Fwiw, a few UPS devices (for battery backup) could help out in this scenario.
Re: The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base
#59One of the biggest issues with Nest is that they pretend to be a serious company that takes cares of your home needs (security/monitoring, fire & gas prevention and heating) but their products are toy like in that respect. However I own 3 cameras and the fire alarm. The fire alarm, is worthless, I eventually disconnected it given the large amount of false positives. Then there are the cameras. I travel a lot so wante…
Fwiw, a few UPS devices (for battery backup) could help out in this scenario.
This is what most security companies do if they are any good. A battery backup with cell connection. Can easily replicate it yourself using a mobile hotspot on an old phone. Along with some usb battery packs. Pretty cheap and easy to make a solution. (Under $50)
Re: The Nest Cam Outdoor is a $199 camera with an easy-to-install magnetic base
#60One of the biggest issues with Nest is that they pretend to be a serious company that takes cares of your home needs (security/monitoring, fire & gas prevention and heating) but their products are toy like in that respect. However I own 3 cameras and the fire alarm. The fire alarm, is worthless, I eventually disconnected it given the large amount of false positives. Then there are the cameras. I travel a lot so wante…
Fwiw, a few UPS devices (for battery backup) could help out in this scenario.
It would require me to back-up the ISP router, the Apple Wifi router and 3 cameras - so 5 UPS. Yet even if I did that, given that my Internet connection comes via fiber, if they cut the Fiber, I am still out-of-luck.
It's as if an alarm company said, we will notify you after 30 minutes if someone comes into you house.