New Reolink Wired POE Doorbell Cam ?

[David L]

What?
Get up.....walk to the door....AND open it?
Hmmm.... What a strange new concept!
</end sarcasm>

Sometimes I miss they way things used to be back...back before cell phones, pagers...heck, even before answering machines!
Some how we got by, though.

Yeah, we would send the kids or wife to answer the door

 

[TonyR]

Yeah, we would send the kids or wife to answer the door

When they're not changing the channel for me on the 19" black and white, not-so-smart CRT TV!

 

[mephisto_uk]

I don't know if it varies with the version of Android but on my phone if you open the Settings option of the Reolink app, not the Settings for the doorbell, you can change the Notification sound and it's associated Notification settings ie vibrate etc. I've changed mine to a much louder sound and it uses it. Make sure you have the latest version of the Reolink app as I tried to do this with an earlier version and although it let me select a new sound it didn't use it! After updating to the latest version and doing it again it does use my selected sound.

I agree that it should pop up the notification and allow you to answer it even with the screen locked, as you can do with phone calls.

So, there are 2 levels of notifications on the app, one for the app itself and one for maybe the device itself. On Android, there are 2 "other" notifications, one for Miscellaneous and one for Push notifications. I configured both now to push notifications even when on DND, change the ringtone and enabled vibration. Why is that not the default is a good question.

I'm going to eventually integrate into BI and Home assistant, but now I just want the thing to work like a bloody regular doorbell. That is not asking much.

 

[mephisto_uk]

Why dont you do a bit of searching. You CAN have more than one chime. I have a post in THIS thread that confirms it can be done (I have 3 chimes - the original plus two that I added). I got this info from another user who ALSO posted in THIS tread.
While I have never used the reolink app, it does support pop ups on ios, and i am sure they are working to resolve the issue on android as its mention all over the net. What you are missing is that most folks in this thread are not using it as you would use your ring. They are using this doorbell specifically to integrate with blue iris. They dont use the alerts via the native popup app and in fact dont want the device exposed to the net. They get their alerts directly via blue iris. This 80 doorbell outperforms 400-500 dollar bells.

I did some searching but clearly not well enough as I was not aware there was a wireless option that works the same as the included one. Thanks. I've ordered a pair now.

 

[dok0619]

FEDEX delivering package. So I am definitely liking the video quality better with the Reolink than my old Dahua(I know I cant believe I said that either lol) Only issue is need to figure out how to tweak video settings to compensate for the dark image at times due to sunlight and also people of color's faces can get washed out...that would make it perfect. I now also have a doorbell chime in the house again even if its the reolink wall adapter, and the call quality is better than the Dahua was. Even if I cant fix the face washout in certain lighting conditions I do still have two other dahua cams that can capture those face shots.. one monitoring the driveway and a wedge cam on the opposing wall to the doorbell I use to monitor deliveries.

 

[mephisto_uk]

Some screen shots of the reolink app to configure notifications from the android system settings in case someone in the future wants to resolve the same issue as I had here:



I ended up configuring both Miscellaneous and Push notifications with the following settings:

 

[David L]

FEDEX delivering package. So I am definitely liking the video quality better with the Reolink than my old Dahua(I know I cant believe I said that either lol) Only issue is need to figure out how to tweak video settings to compensate for the dark image at times due to sunlight and also people of color's faces can get washed out...that would make it perfect. I now also have a doorbell chime in the house again even if its the reolink wall adapter, and the call quality is better than the Dahua was. Even if I cant fix the face washout in certain lighting conditions I do still have two other dahua cams that can capture those face shots.. one monitoring the driveway and a wedge cam on the opposing wall to the doorbell I use to monitor deliveries.

So I had to play with the settings alot to get our settings right. I can only say make small changes in the settings, I was over setting and never getting a good image. WDR would be nice and would of fixed my issue of people washed out in the sun then entering our porch. I finally gave up and let my other cameras handle the walk up to the porch, like you did and I focused on capturing good images inside our porch.

 

[camviewer43]

FEDEX delivering package. So I am definitely liking the video quality better with the Reolink than my old Dahua(I know I cant believe I said that either lol) Only issue is need to figure out how to tweak video settings to compensate for the dark image at times due to sunlight and also people of color's faces can get washed out...that would make it perfect. I now also have a doorbell chime in the house again even if its the reolink wall adapter, and the call quality is better than the Dahua was. Even if I cant fix the face washout in certain lighting conditions I do still have two other dahua cams that can capture those face shots.. one monitoring the driveway and a wedge cam on the opposing wall to the doorbell I use to monitor deliveries.

Thanks for the example. So the Reolink video quality looks much better than the Dahua doorbell camera? I guess it's 5MP for the Reolink vs. only 2MP for the Dahua?

 

[dok0619]

Thanks for the example. So the Reolink video quality looks much better than the Dahua doorbell camera? I guess it's 5MP for the Reolink vs. only 2MP for the Dahua?

Yeah that was always my pet peeve with the Dahua doorbell. I figured with it being a Dahua and it was much larger than most other video doorbells it would have a better camera.

 

[AngryBoomer]

No doubt the Reolink has a fantastic image. It's been solid connection wise (wifi) and works well with Blue Iris. Haven't tried any of the advanced notification features yet, but my app on android 13 looks different than what was posted above by @mephisto_uk

 

[dok0619]

No doubt the Reolink has a fantastic image. It's been solid connection wise (wifi) and works well with Blue Iris. Haven't tried any of the advanced notification features yet, but my app on android 13 looks different than what was posted above by @mephisto_uk

My android screen was different too but I was able to drill down in the settings and find similar settings.

 

[EyeOfSauron]

Email support and request talk support.
The push trigger is great info, thanks.

I just heard back from Antonio at BI support:

Our developer is currently working on the two way audio feature for this product. I will forward this email to him.

E-mailing BI support seems much more effective than contacting your congressman!

 

[mpking828]

If you don't care about POE and are ok with wifi, there are better options as you have seen.

I've been using the EZVIZ DB1 for the last few years. One of them finally died today. (Camera still works, but put pushing the button has no effect, which makes it useless).

Most everyone on the RCA HSDB2A thread seems to be moving to the Reolink.

Since I'm Wifi and traditional transformer power (and chimes), what would you recommend?

 

[David L]

$88 from ReoLink:

Reolink Video Doorbell WiFi | Smart Wired Doorbell with Chime | Reolink Official

5MP WiFi doorbell camera that supports night vision, person detection, 2.4/5GHz dual-band WiFi, and intuitive smartphone App.

reolink.com

Oh, FYI, I was able to use the same mounting holes as my EZVIZ...

 

[VorlonFrog]

I switched to the Reolink WiFi doorbell a few months ago. It's been incredibly reliable, especially when compared to the EZViz DB1C.

 

[Philip Gonzales]

Anyone have any good tips/tweaks for dark faces? I know a lot of it depends on the situation but def one area I'm struggling with a bit.

 

[David L]

Anyone have any good tips/tweaks for dark faces? I know a lot of it depends on the situation but def one area I'm struggling with a bit.

I don't have an answer, I know I played with contrast and brightness a lot.

 

[EyeOfSauron]

Anyone have any good tips/tweaks for dark faces? I know a lot of it depends on the situation but def one area I'm struggling with a bit.

One of the UIs, might have been the mobile app UI, has controls for highlights and shadows. I brought up shadows a bit and lowered highlight some for daytime only, it made a big difference.

edit: it was in the mobile app (connects locally).

 

[Philip Gonzales]

One of the UIs, might have been the mobile app UI, has controls for highlights and shadows. I brought up shadows a bit and lowered highlight some for daytime only, it made a big difference.

edit: it was in the mobile app (connects locally).

View attachment 174034

Thanks! Also thank you @David L . Much appreciated. We'll see how it looks tomorrow but already looke like a big improvement from the default.

 

[teredactle]

I see a lot are using the app UI for this doorbell, and a lot using the WIFI version of this doorbell. I bought this (POE version) doorbell to cover the inside as it has the very large viewing angle (160deg I think - which is perfect for my use), and it's POE so removing a wireless WC3 with RTSP fw.
However, the quality of the video is not great (and not even close to the WC3), and by that I mean the colour and the "sensitivity (needs more light); it's a bit dark and so bumping up the brightness/shadows sort of washes out the faces (not a show stopper); ideally it would be great to understand best settings using indoors.

I see a lot of comments about settings via the mobile app, does the WIFI version not have a UI you can reach by URL (like the POE version)?
-I have turned off the IR option as I find that it makes the primary area too bright and shadows even darker
-anyone have any recommendations using it indoors (although I know I'm an outlier using it like this)
-has anyone found any new firmware for it?

Cheers