I fall for a video doorbell because of the break-in to a friend. I thought I found the perfect one: Lorex 2K Wired Video Doorbell
It offers:
RTSP
MQTT integration (using a docker image as a middleware)
Looks okay (not bad at least)
Works with my old mechanic doorbell
Everything worked fine until I realized that I cannot mute the chime. We have a kid, and this was one of the main use case to have “silent” mode during nap and evenings. I thought every smart doorbell would offer this?!
Anyone using any video doorbell that works well?
Must have:
No subscription fee
“silent” mode
Nice to have:
MQTT
Local streaming
The only thing I found that is close to it is the google nest doorbell. It seems to have a silent mode, it looks at least sleek and records up to 3 min (not sure if this is total or per event)
I just recently got the Reolink doorbell cameras. I’ve only had them for two days.
They don’t have a silent mode per se, but I didn’t plug in one of the chimes. I use lights and cell phones as door notifications.
It doesn’t work with the old mechanical chime. If it wasn’t snowing outside, I’d post a photo of it installed on the wall, but here is a snap of my cameras. They’re 5mp and are the purple ones in the middle of the photo. (Christmas lighting)
So far, I like mine. I’m planning on firewalling off my system for local control. The reolink is probably one of the only ones that doesn’t work with the old bell, but the picture is pretty amazing. “The Hook Up” gives a pretty comprehensive review. I am yet to have someone ring my bell, but i’m pretty happy with the notifications and the AI in this system. Wish I could be of more help.
has dual rtsp streams so you can can have main stream and a sub stream (I use it with blue iris)
local streaming and storage
api that you can use for integration into various systems (I have it integrated with Home Assistant)
supports webhook triggers for events like button press, motion, audio
Has a sleep mode, but it totally disables the camera. Even the streams are sleeping until it is woken up. But will totally silence everything as per your needs.
No subscription fee unless you really want to use their cloud service.
No direct mqtt support… but I’m sure if really needed something could be put together via a docker. I’m not sure if somebody already has.
