I’m seeking suggestions for some type of a security camera for the front door (at the house). Packages are being stolen from the front doors in our neighborhood and we figure it’s about time to put something in.
If you have some type of a camera or camera system, I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts. We are (probably) capable of wiring and installing something, but not inclined (or capable) of a serious DIY program-all-the-bits kind of project.
We have a Ring 2 doorbell. We used to have a Ring 1.0. It was horrible, we complained enough that Ring sent us a version 2 to shut us up. It’s less bad than the model 1, but still not good. I have AT&T “Gigapower” 1Gbps up/down and a strong wi-fi signal on the porch, and I often cannot connect to my Ring from my phone. Usually by the time someone rings my doorbell, I get the notification, open the app, wait for it to whirl and whirl, finally get to see the porch … the person is gone. The commercials that show an almost instant connection to talk to whomever is at your door are very misleading, IMO. Folks on the Ring subreddit (reddit.com/r/ringdoorbell) blame the cheap wi-fi chipset Ring uses. Also, the video quality is not nearly as good as the commercials, especially if your porch is shady or people coming to your door are backlit (you know, like most every porch in the USA?). Usually all we see on our video clips is a silhouette. It would be difficult to identify an individual human being out of all the other human beings from our Ring footage alone. I suppose I could add some studio lighting but that kinda defeats the “discrete” ideal.
I have heard some good things about the Nest Hello doorbell but I have been told we are spending no more money on video doorbells 
Also, the Netgear Arlo cams look good.
I use skybell and enjoy it. The video is clear, captures based on movement, alerts me to movement/doorbell. I am happy to show you the app on my phone if you will be at the space tonight.
We have a ring pro, works pretty well, dont recommend the non pro version, it sucked.
What is the difference between the two?
We have the Nest system and love it. We haven’t installed the Nest Hello yet but have had a Nest Outdoor at the front door for around a year and it works great. We did not have any issues with it in the summer heat but it is in the shade. A friend shared their Ring camera with me and it is OK but I like the Nest app better.
ETA that my brother also has a Nest camera and the police used his camera to ID someone who broke into his car at night.
The regular is not wired and has less options for setting up the motion parameters. The pro has customizable zones, the regular has 4 total and they are based on distance. The regular was unusable imo.
Thanks, I’ve toyed around with the thought of getting a Ring, but haven’t yet done any research. This is good info.
I just want to echo what @jswilson64 is saying. I really don’t think it’s my internet connection that is the issue, but I suppose it’s possible.
Ring here, too.
Agree with @jswilson64 in regards to the interactivity in the commercials being misleading in my experience.
But like it fine, partially because I don’t generally care to interact with individuals at the door, anyway, and the video off it is just fine for my purposes (looks much like that posted by Ryan, but probably smaller resolution).
Non-Pro Ring 1 / Ring 2 can be wired for power if you have an existing doorbell transformer and wire to the location. Ours is hardwired FWIW.
Ring wants to blame my Internets. I sent them screenshots from the WiFi Analyzer app (Android) showing my signal strength and lack of congestion and they backed off of that. Took a pic of my phone right next to my Ring doorbell to show them the location.
I’ve long been interested in something like this for my folks living on some acreage out in the country. They’d like to know when vehicles show up at their place and perhaps see who’s coming during the ~30 seconds it takes to enter the gate and drive up to the house. With a standalone workshop building strategically situated in a crook in the driveway, there’s a good point to set all this up.
I’m skeptical about any sort of IP video system being capable of reliably delivering a response time that’s as fast as all the advertising would have us believe. Throw in app spoolup on the phone, stream setup, and the design decision most make to absolutely mandate connectivity through their servers Because Reasons™ and yeah, it’s never going to fire up as fast as you can tab to that notification. On a local network, it seems like one could get reasonably snappy response with reasonable P2P comms to the point that one could use it like an intercom; remotely I’d expect some lag to the point that it’s more like a fast notification that something’s happening.
Some of my experience with this is via Foscam, who offered both a dangerously obsolete browser plugin (obsolete to the point that only Firefox tolerated it and those extensions went EOL sometime this year) and a laggy cloud solution. I’ve since removed that device from my residence - pretty sure that someone in Shenzen has plenty of motion-triggered footage of me walking down the stairs in various states of undress for laundry in addition to feline shenanigans.
Can you answer a few questions.
For example a face image such as the doorbells you will not likely see the package that is placed under it.
Do you want 24/7 recording or just motion clips?
Do you have wireless internet?
Do you mind changing/recharging a battery every few months?
I wonder if these are any good …
You can get notified and have a conversation with someone at your door from wherever you are.
Johnny-come-lately 
Doh! … I shouldn’t be on the Internets … I’m so tired
Sleep bro, you need it
For my purposes at the house, I would have largely been satisfied with something like an EyeFi SD card loaded into inconspicuously-located game cameras - provided that it could transfer photos in a timely fashion as they were created - however said SD cards had oddly narrow host compatibility lists last I looked into them. The company looks to have been reduced to a patent-licensing entity as of last year and now Toshiba FlashAir seems to be the go-to product on the 'Zon.
