Ask HN: Video Doorbell Without Subscription? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Video Doorbell Without Subscription?

14 pointsuser5684399 comments

I've found the Eufy option with local storage and it looks great, but still I have some privacy concerns. Also some people is complaining about delay with the notifications. If possible I would like it to run with battery but I guess I could install a cable one.

Another feature that I find interesting is to be able to switch off the internet access and only allow within the local network when I'm at home.

In the future I would like to setup more home automation devices like the thermostat and an alarm system. So I guess I should go for an open source approach. The problem I see too many options out there and the hardware part is even more confusing to me. That's why I was looking in ready to use products. My developer skills are also very limited but I think I could learn this part.

But for now I would like to start with a good choice for my first device since my regular doorbell stopped working.

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It's not open source but the Unifi Protect Doorbell G4 does not require a subscription/cloud connection. I haven't purchased it yet (it's on my todo list), they want you to use their Unifi Protect software to get all the features out of it. I've seen that it's possible to hook it into home-assistant which is open source.

https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi-protect-cameras/produ...

Wonder if that hook in is just as a camera, though. Unifi cameras do expose RTSP streams in general but I’m just not sure if you get any actual doorbell functionality out of it with the HA plugin.

My understanding (again haven't tried this personally) is that there are integrations for Unifi Protect that will allow it to chime. There are doorbell specific events and services listed on this page [1] and an example [2].

[1] https://github.com/briis/unifiprotect#installation [2] https://github.com/briis/unifiprotect#send-a-notfication-whe...

I believe it is, I have mine set up using a community plugin to expose it on to HomeKit so it works just like a native HomeKit doorbell camera (push notifications, and the ability to hear/talk through it).

The Unifi Protect mobile app is infuriating, for some reason it wants me to enter a new TOTP code about once a week. So basically any time I launch the app.

The one consideration I'd give is you need really good wifi coverage for it. I'm not sure if there's a way to lower the quality slightly, but it can take 5-10 seconds just to start viewing the live feed for some reason, because I don't have an access point close enough to it.

My experience with both the web UI and the app is that they work so annoyingly slowly that it just frustrates me so it's awesome that it's possible to integrate it into HA and still have the functionality you're buying it for. I've only tried Protect stuff with HomeBridge but that was kind of disappointing and I couldn't get it to work properly because it wanted to re-encode the stream using ffmpeg for some arcane reason and that was not a great experience on a Pi. I'm a recent convert to Home Assistant but it's good to know for the future! :)

FWIW, I recently got a Eufy wired doorbell and wasn't pleased with it. I had been running all my access points with the same SSID which works well enough for most things, but the Eufy associated with the most distant AP, I setup alternate SSIDs, but the streaming peformance was still poor --- audio would cut in and out; and video and audio were out of sync. I'm in the middle of the woods, you can see two of my neighbors APs, but not at the same time; if it doesn't work on my network, woe is you if you're in a suburb.

That said, I've had good reviews from people with the battery only Eufy doorbell, so that may be better.

I use a PoE camera with a local zoneminder server. It has motion detection to log an event and can optionally send an email (not utilizing the email part myself).

Abode (https://goabode.com) doesn't require a subscription. Everything is handled on your local network if you opt out of the monitoring subscription. Alerts are sent to the app, with push notifications. They have a outdoor camera that can be wired up to your doorbell.

Overall, I really, really like Abode. I feel like I'm in control of my home security system.

Wyze sells one. They push their subscription, but it's not required to work.

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