Front door camera

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After many hours spent browsing front door monitoring consumer products (including trying and returning the Ring doorbell), I have concluded I should just go with something that can be scaled up to an eventual whole-house solution. I'm currently thinking I'll start with Blue Iris on one of my PCs, and a wired IP camera or two covering the front door area. After drowning in information for a couple of weeks (DVR, NVR, CCTV, SDI, CVI, TVI, IP, 720p/1080p, megapixels, field of view, etc etc, and soooo many cameras to choose from) I finally found this site, which is proving to be very helpful!

Okay, so I know I will start with Blue on a PC instead of an NVR (at least for now), find a POE switch, and run the ethernet cable. What I really need, though, is some camera suggestions. I figure I will use two, one to catch a closeup of the someone at the door, and one to cover the area from the door 25 feet or so to curb. If one wider angle camera can cover both--90 degrees would be required--I'm open to that, too.

The part I'm leary of is the audio. The wireless Ring unit I had produced only garbled audio. If the Fukikam (now Vimtag) 351HD we have indoors produces useful two-way audio I have yet to hear it. Ditto with the Lorex LNC234 I tried out. Surely I may not have tried hard or well enough. But truth told, it didn't seem realistic to me that any mics and speakers hiding in the last two could really be up to the task of producing good two-way audio from a distance of several feet from the person talking. Which means, probably, an external mic and speaker, which is fine.

So, I would be grateful for any suggestions for 1) camera or cameras that will cover the front door and out to the curb, and 2) external mics/speakers that will work with the camera and with Blue Iris to provide clear, trouble-free two-way audio with someone at the door. Oh, at the other end would be an app running on an Android Nexus 5 or an iPhone 6.

Thanks in advance,
Tony
 

fenderman

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fenderman

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After many hours spent browsing front door monitoring consumer products (including trying and returning the Ring doorbell), I have concluded I should just go with something that can be scaled up to an eventual whole-house solution. I'm currently thinking I'll start with Blue Iris on one of my PCs, and a wired IP camera or two covering the front door area. After drowning in information for a couple of weeks (DVR, NVR, CCTV, SDI, CVI, TVI, IP, 720p/1080p, megapixels, field of view, etc etc, and soooo many cameras to choose from) I finally found this site, which is proving to be very helpful!

Okay, so I know I will start with Blue on a PC instead of an NVR (at least for now), find a POE switch, and run the ethernet cable. What I really need, though, is some camera suggestions. I figure I will use two, one to catch a closeup of the someone at the door, and one to cover the area from the door 25 feet or so to curb. If one wider angle camera can cover both--90 degrees would be required--I'm open to that, too.

The part I'm leary of is the audio. The wireless Ring unit I had produced only garbled audio. If the Fukikam (now Vimtag) 351HD we have indoors produces useful two-way audio I have yet to hear it. Ditto with the Lorex LNC234 I tried out. Surely I may not have tried hard or well enough. But truth told, it didn't seem realistic to me that any mics and speakers hiding in the last two could really be up to the task of producing good two-way audio from a distance of several feet from the person talking. Which means, probably, an external mic and speaker, which is fine.

So, I would be grateful for any suggestions for 1) camera or cameras that will cover the front door and out to the curb, and 2) external mics/speakers that will work with the camera and with Blue Iris to provide clear, trouble-free two-way audio with someone at the door. Oh, at the other end would be an app running on an Android Nexus 5 or an iPhone 6.

Thanks in advance,
Tony
There are several threads with folks using hikvision cameras with external speakers and internal or external mics...perfect intercom like Two way audio is tricky...
 
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NSA, Jr, it has a nice wide angle. Audio only one way, though (from the camera). Also I was thinking 1080p--720p may not not provide enough resolution out at the sidewalk, especially with the wide angle coverage.
 
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Fenderman, I'm not surprised to hear it's tricky or kinda swimming upstream, as I've been looking quite a while without success for a reasonably priced straightforward solution. There are lots of those camera/7" screen products but none of them get routinely good reviews or they don't store or they're wireless or they're from outfits you've never heard of and probably never will again...and they're standalone. Then there are the new flock of doorbell/camera/voice products but as I noted I tried the Ring and it didn't work well enough for me. I looked at standalone voice-only intercom systems--figuring it could be separate from the video--but it looks like the main market for these intercoms is commercial (apartments, condos) and they're overkill and quite expensive.
 

blake

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Do you really need two way audio? It can be done with a few hikvision cams but it's gonna take some extra components. Can you post a picture of your front door area?
 
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Truth told, we've been getting along without it for nearly three decades :), so no, don't really need it. Our front door opens on an outdoor atrium and it's another twenty feet to a sliding door to the house. I just thought, wow, in the old days lots of apartments had intercoms to see who had pressed the button at the front door on the street--why not do that here, and with video? But I'm not crazy about the the products sold for that purpose. The inexpensive ones don't get uniformly good reviews, and the expensive ones...well, why not start building a complete solution with that money? So I'm casting about looking for advice.
 

blake

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I would just go with a good 2mp turret cam for your front door and be done.
 

BD1031GM

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A related question regarding your use of the Lorex LNC234.

Were you able to use it with the Blue Iris software? I can't seem to get it to work, and I've tried numerous settings and configs. I use other cameras on with Blue Iris and they work fine. Any guidance you might be able to provide would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Bill
 
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Hi Bill,

I returned the LNC234, never tried Blue Iris, and shelved my front door video/audio dreams for now. Though if I were to resurrect the project I might well get Blue Iris and look only at cameras that work with it.

Tony
 

BD1031GM

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Hi Bill,

I returned the LNC234, never tried Blue Iris, and shelved my front door video/audio dreams for now. Though if I were to resurrect the project I might well get Blue Iris and look only at cameras that work with it.

Tony

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the quick reply, I'll keep searching for the answer.

Bill
 

steve457

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Have you looked at intercom companies such as Aiphone, http://www.aiphone.com/home/products/ (look at their J series line). Our house came with one of their systems installed and it works great as a home intercom (room to room) as well as turning on the camera when someone rings the doorbell. Not sure if you can communicate/view over the internet, but it looks like their JKW-IP model would enable that functionality. Major downside is their stuff is $$$.
 
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