Bang for Buck 'Smart' Indoor Camera

tempura on 07/01/2018 - 07:56

I know the good ol Xiaomi has made few indoor IP cameras but the discussion is not limited to Xiaomi range.

Can you suggest me indoor camera which fits the following requirements:

  • Budget friendly, bang for buck kinda thing, best value, not necessarily the cheapest but price tag is important.

  • Must be smart; can be viewed via Mobile phone without any additional subscription needed and if can be paired with Google Assistance, even better.

  • Good high quality recording; am after something better than the old stuttering surveillance camera. Something smooth running.

Any input would be much appreciated. TIA!

Electrical & Electronics

Comments

  • [Deactivated] on 07/01/2018 - 08:06

    I would like to know this too. I bought a cheap IP camera with PTZ off flea bay for $30 something but it can only be viewed thru it's app & u can't record to a nas.

  • pegaxs on 07/01/2018 - 08:32
    +3

    As someone who recently bought the Xiaomi Dafang 1080p camera… Don’t. The firmware is flakey. Takes forever to set up and even when you do set it up, connecting to it is a slow and painful process.

    I thought that buying the Xiaomi camera would be a a breeze to set up and use. It isn’t. The phone app won’t connect unless it’s in Chinese, when camera talks to you in Chinese and updating the camera to at least work in English is painful…

    Now! InB4 “custom firmware!!” No. Just no. It is flakey at best. It never holds a connection. Runs for about 5 to 10 mins before it stops working. Auto connects ok, but need to manually start the video stream and you can’t manually set the IP address from the camera, so each time to needs rebooting, it picks up a new IP address and you need to go find it again…

    So, I give the Xiaomi Dafang 1080p camera a 4 out of 10. Quality is fantastic, as you would expect from Xiaomi, picture quality is great, but the user experience is atrocious. They spent so much on design and zero time on firmware and app intergration. I am just hoping that the custom firmware community comes up with something a little less flakey, but at the moment, it seems like both sides of the firmware spectrum are trash.

    • bdl on 07/01/2018 - 08:57

      Sorry to hear yours doesn't work well. My two work absolutely fine. Set them up in <5 minutes. (Yes, the Chinese voice prompts are still there, but just had the app create the QR code on my phone and pointed it at the camera). And no, I don't speak Chinese.

      I use the English Mi Home app on Android, works fine. Used stock for a while and also used with Fang Hacks, both work fine.

      As for the IP changing - what kind of modem/router do you use? You can set a DHCP reservation based on MAC address which will keep the address constant between reboots.

      As for your connection dropping out - also consider your upstream bandwidth - I had a few cameras running and they were maxing out my 2mbit/s upstream bandwidth - just something to be conscious of.

      • pegaxs on 07/01/2018 - 10:44

        I work in the IT department at work (so working with tech stuff isn’t hard…) and bought these based on others comments on them being good quality and easy to set up. They aren’t. I bought 3 of them and all three of them have been a nightmare to install and get working.

        I use the English Mi Home app on Android, works fine

        I have tried the MiHome app on iOS and Android, and both are worthless. Sure, I can get them to log into the network and connect, but then the app wont talk to them. You have to update the camera before it will communicate with the app and the only way that can be done is to set the app to Mainland China market and setting the language in the App to Simplified Chinese.

        also used with Fang Hacks, both work fine.

        It doesn't, though. I can not get it to shut down, reboot, reconnect and auto start the live stream. It has to be done manually every time the camera is power cycled (they need to be moved frequently). I don’t have the time to set up streaming on this device every time the boss moves it or powers it down. The default for RTSP should be ON. IP address reservation should be done ON the device, not the router.

        As for the IP changing - what kind of modem/router do you use?

        And no, I'm not going to fluff about with the router at work or at home and put in MAC address applied IP allocation just to get around an issue the camera shouldn’t have.

        As for your connection dropping out…

        It's not the connection dropping out. It's the camera. On Fang-Hacks it just locks up. The RTSP stream just goes dead. A reboot quickly solves this issue only to have it happen again 5 mins later. (ps: it's on the forum, they are looking into it…)

        also consider your upstream bandwidth

        Work is fibre-optic with something like 100/50mb connection. Home is VDSL with 50/25. At home, my Netgear Arlo has no issues. All 3 of these cameras just sit on the "initialising device" black loading screen for 2 to 3 mins waiting to connect. Don’t even bother trying to use them over 4G (before you ask, I'm on Telstra and full strength coverage.)

        I look at electronic items like this… If my father can set it up out of the box, it's a great unit with excellent user features. If it takes an IT guy days to get it working, (and by working, i mean the lowest possible functionality) it's a piece of shit.

        • kiwijunglist on 07/01/2018 - 11:48

          I thought fanghacks firmware hack wasn't developed for xiaomi dafang camera it's for xiaomi xiofang camera isn't it? That maybe your problem. I don't own either camera.

        • pegaxs on 07/01/2018 - 12:41
          +1

          @kiwijunglist: No, there is one for Dafang and one for Xiaofang. The Dafang one works, it's just very very bare bones. It supports RTSP, which is great, but it lacks the ability to start the camera in a certain mode.

          I have found that the best way to get these Dafang cameras to work is in the app, swap to Chinese language, mainland region. Add the camera to your devices and then update them to 5.5.1.200 firmware. Then they tend to work. After it has updated (be in for 5 to 10 attempts to update and it's very slow.) you can change back to English.

          It's a fantastic camera, but the firmware just makes the experience so much more painful than it needs to be. It is not a device i would suggest to someone who's not up to messing about with devices. If you want a plug and play device, the Dafang is NOT that device…

        • bdl on 07/01/2018 - 20:01
          -2

          Calm down, was just trying to help.

          I just realised I have the smaller Xiaofangs, not the Dafangs. Too many fangs.

        • kiwijunglist on 09/01/2018 - 08:29

          @bdl: i think he is calm.

  • tempura on 07/01/2018 - 10:53

    Ok now that we clear that Dafang is probably no good, how about Xiaofang?

    • dcep on 07/01/2018 - 14:25

      region locked for new batch

  • dcep on 07/01/2018 - 14:27

    with dafang being shit, and xiaofang region locked

    better get 70miles dashcam as surveillance cam

  • [Deactivated] on 07/01/2018 - 21:11

    Oh god xiaomi is dapoof…what now?

  • tempura on 07/01/2018 - 21:47
    +1

    Ok, now that we exhausted Xiaomi, what's the next brand bang for buck indoor ip camera?

    • bamzero on 08/01/2018 - 14:58
      +2

      Well, apart from the Dafang the only other one I've tried is the Digoo DG-M1Q.

      Was about US$13 when I bought it. Picture quality is decent, although not quite as hi-res as the Dafang, and it's own app generally works ok, no region issues to worry about either. RTSP works out of the box as well, and have been using with TinyCam ok.

      Via its app, can view from outside the network without any router config, and offers 3 stream quality settings, HD, SD and LD (I have ADSL2 1mb up, can view SD no prob which still looks quite good, but HD gets a bit choppy.) Can also do two way audio comms, and motion activated recording etc. Has an SD Card slot, so everything is recorded locally, but you can view remotely via the app.

      For the price I think it's pretty decent value. The only downside I can think of is it's design for mounting. Being designed to hang on a screw, it's fine if you are mounting flat on a wall, but you'll need to pack it somehow if you want to angle it or use it free standing. The USB cable sticking out of the bottom is very exposed also, so not for secure installations unless you make a box for it.

  • perrocontodo on 08/01/2018 - 22:19
    +2

    Have you tried http://alfred.camera ? If you have a spare Android phone, you can't beat the price

    • tempura on 08/01/2018 - 22:34
      +1

      Is it really free app? And how (where) does it record to?

      • perrocontodo on 08/01/2018 - 22:53
        +2

        I haven't tried it myself bro. But according to their FAQ, they save video to the cloud for 7 days. You can download it locally using a browser. https://alfred.camera/forum/t/alfreds-ultimate-video-saving-… Good luck!

      • samlor on 10/01/2018 - 00:26

        The IP Webcam Android app seems to work well. I have used it because it is ONVIF and offers a video stream you can connect to your own/other surveillance application like iSpy or IP Camera Viewer on a PC/laptop on which I am trying to combine multiple cameras into a DIY CCTV dashboard/display. Incidentally, I have tried a number of cameras simultaneously and they all seem to drop/glitch out at times, with the OfficeOne SC10IP from this old deal https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/195865 being the most continuously reliable/stable probably because I am using that one wired into the LAN.

        BTW, I don't whether/what performance might need upgrading for continuous display. The Wireless access point/network (the cameras I have are not 5GHz Wi-Fi) and/or the laptop that I am using to collate and display the camera streams - itself on Wi-Fi with CPU usage elevated with each additional camera.

    • tempura on 08/01/2018 - 22:46
      +2

      I forgot to say thank you.
      Thank you.

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