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Thread: WiFi cameras that "do smart stuff" but also let you see a local video feed?

  1. #1
    Automated Home Guru
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    Default WiFi cameras that "do smart stuff" but also let you see a local video feed?

    I've been playing with Blink but one annoyance is all video comes to your phone round-tripped via Amazon/Blink servers, meaning a lag of several seconds.
    They're surely just IP cameras under the hood but I know of no way to directly grab a feed off them, though of course it's going through my router.

    Is there anything out there which will do all the motion-detection and smart-things stuff, e.g. notifications and remote viewing, that will also let me just look through the camera over my WiFi? I spend 99% of my time at home, in the middle of nowhere so my main use case is to keep eyes around my property e.g. why has the light come on at 2am, is someone walking around my house while I'm inside unable to see them, is there a delivery man looking lost trying to find our front door, etc.

    I haven't the time or money for a full CCTV system or laying ethernet everywhere but the systems I see seem to fall into two categories, either they are 100% app-based or traditional CCTV.
    Is there anything out there in the 3 figure cost bracket that can do both?

  2. #2
    Moderator toscal's Avatar
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    I have just installed two Tapo cameras at my mothers house. They work either via the Tapo app and have all the motion detection and app notifications. The reason I chose them is that they have their own IP addresses, so you can access them using something like VLC player. For the money I think they are excellent, about 25 pounds.
    They are easy to set up, you can set up more than one detection zone per camera, they can except an SD card so you can record locally then access the recordings via the app. Picture quality is very good. Pan and tilt works very well, though can be a little laggy when accessing remotely. They have a microphone and speaker built in so you can have two way conversations. Night vision is good too.
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  3. #3
    Automated Home Guru
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    Quote Originally Posted by toscal View Post
    I have just installed two Tapo cameras at my mothers house. They work either via the Tapo app and have all the motion detection and app notifications. The reason I chose them is that they have their own IP addresses, so you can access them using something like VLC player. For the money I think they are excellent, about 25 pounds.
    They are easy to set up, you can set up more than one detection zone per camera, they can except an SD card so you can record locally then access the recordings via the app. Picture quality is very good. Pan and tilt works very well, though can be a little laggy when accessing remotely. They have a microphone and speaker built in so you can have two way conversations. Night vision is good too.
    Sounds worth looking into, my preference would be Wifi, mins-powered outdoor units if I can find one.

    Apparently you can get a direct link to Clink cams (someone made a homebrew project). The hub mainly is used for lower-power comms, I'm sure it's a basic IP cam under the hood. I bought a bunch of them in a sale but not so sure they are the best option - taking advantage of Amazon's extra long return window!

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