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Review: Aqara's Video Doorbell G4 Offers HomeKit Secure Video in a Sleek Design
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Not sure where people are getting no motion detection? It works both with HKSV and internally in the Aqcara Home app.
I've had this for a few days now and it's excellent. I don't mind the widescreen view since packages gets left for me inside the balcony, and the doorbell is on the outside. Motion Detection and Face Detection works fine and the image quality is better than most other doorbells I've seen (as long as you run it in 1080p and not the default "Smooth/Auto"). 1080p is all HKSV supports at the moment, so that's not an issue.
Make sure the first thing you do is update the firmware though, it came with 1.0 something and updated to 3.5.2
Make sure the first thing you do is update the firmware though, it came with 1.0 something and updated to 3.5.2
I'm a fan of the wide view as it gives me a great overview of the entire street and sidewalk in front of my house
I bought one because it's the only HomeKit Secure Video doorbell that will work at all in my house. The big reason is because it doesn't hook up to the house chime box. My house chime box is too old to be compatible with any current doorbell, so I was relegated to using the old-fashioned kind. The other killer feature is that it can be set to ring any or all of your HomePods. Because of the location of the house chime box, we miss a lot of signed deliveries because we can't hear the doorbell. I do have three HomePods in my room (pair attached to Apple TV and a mini). It won't arrive for another week or so, so I won't know how good it is until I get it.
Yeah, unless the device in question is on a separate LAN that has zero internet access, I’m afraid it becomes a game of ”whack-a-mole” over time. You may be able to get by on consumer-grade routers by using whatever “parental control” facility they offer to set up rules that block internet access completely for the camera/device.
The down side to completely isolating the device from the internet is (a) if the device requires internet access to operate for any reason, it won’t work, (b) any sort of cloud-based service or storage used by the device won’t work, (c) you’ll need to explicitly allow internet access if you want to do a firmware upgrade if the device does not allow a local way to inject the new firmware image.
I run a few cameras in a separate network with no internet access but they can be accessed by the camera software on my NAS, where recordings are stored. My main interest in a device like this would be to record activity in the front porch area from a convenient vantage point. TBH, I don’t see myself wanting to reach for my phone every time the doorbell rings, especially if I’m away.
The fact is only supports 2.4ghz is also a problem - I have recently upgraded to the new Netgear Orbi Tri-Band Router wifi 6+ mesh system, and it's pretty much broken all of my 2.4ghz only items as it doesn't allow you to broadcast or seperate them. One such example are my 18 Nanoleaf shapes hexagons, which are now useless.
When I upgraded to an Asus Tri-band 6 router, I found all of my 2.4GHz devices stopped working. I eventually replaced that one with a 6e router and had the exact same problem. I tried troubleshooting everything and discovered the cause by accident. One of the Windows PC's that is about 3 feet from the router needed to be shut down to fix some stuff and I discovered all my 2.4GHz devices started working again. I turned the PC back on and they shut down again. Strangely, the PC was connected by ethernet and not WiFi, but still killed my 2.4GHz signal. Something about that PC was interfering badly. I've kept it turned off ever since and haven't bothered to find out which component was causing the issue. I had the worst time connecting 2.4GHz-only devices to HomeKit until I shut down that PC, returning several before finding the cause.
Try an experiment and shut down all the PC's in your house and see if your devices come alive again.
Are you saying this is allowed in your country (USA?) ?
In my country in the E.U. it’s not allowed to film the street like this for privacy reasons.
“Sleek design”? This is the worst looking doorbell I’ve ever seen
My country is Australia and yes of course this is allowed. There's no expectation of privacy in a public space.
The orbi doesn't allow you to set separate SSID's for each band? My Nighthawk 6E does, although it took a lot of work with support and one replacement to get it to work.
I've been patiently waiting for a decent wireless HomeKit doorbell, but I'm not sure this is it, and I think I'm just going to give up on HomeKit-compatibility. In my case, my front door area can get a lot of wind/rain, so I need something with very good weather protection, and per some comments in this thread, it sounds like this one has sub-par protection.
I also always wanted to avoid paying a subscription, but now I'm thinking that maybe I'm being too much of a cheapskate, and should even consider paying the monthly fee for an overall ecosystem of security products, if the quality is there.
"Dialing out" is less of a concern for me than it clearly is for many Apple enthusiasts.
I want something that works, and works well. And I do want wireless as my front door has no wiring to any chime anywhere.
I've been spending the morning doing some Googling and YouTube-watching. I was originally thinking Ring, but the PQ seems a lot worse than I thought it would be, and am now leaning towards Nest. But who knows...I'll probably continue to delay a purchase since they all seem to have flaws.
I also always wanted to avoid paying a subscription, but now I'm thinking that maybe I'm being too much of a cheapskate, and should even consider paying the monthly fee for an overall ecosystem of security products, if the quality is there.
"Dialing out" is less of a concern for me than it clearly is for many Apple enthusiasts.
I want something that works, and works well. And I do want wireless as my front door has no wiring to any chime anywhere.
I've been spending the morning doing some Googling and YouTube-watching. I was originally thinking Ring, but the PQ seems a lot worse than I thought it would be, and am now leaning towards Nest. But who knows...I'll probably continue to delay a purchase since they all seem to have flaws.
I understand not want pay subscription for doorbell. I am exact same. We have smart doorbell and indoor cameras and it was very hard find HomeKit compatible and no subscription, they are so rare out there (at least it is in UK). Recently have new camera since one died and didn't want buy same brand since it expensive and not 100% how long lasting their hardware, new camera unfortunately not HomeKit, we have to choose HomeKit with subscription or non-HomeKit and non-subscription.
How old is it? Mine was about 30 years old and just the separate transformer (in the wall box behind the old electromechanical chime box) had to be upgraded. A new one was $25 and in-stock at Home Depot. Took me 5 minutes to swap.
It’s at least 70 years old and is a rental. We cannot make changes like swapping out a chime box. That’s what makes the Aqara so attractive. None of the other IoT doorbells would work.
I don't know how old the house's chime box is, but the house is that old. Since we've only been here 3 years and don't own the place, we don't know the history of when that chime box was installed. I took it apart and found it was incompatible with any smart doorbell, making the Aqara my only alternative since it supplies its own chime box and therefore is my only option except the non-smart variety.
I made a lot of internal changes in the house such as cameras, light bulbs, light switches, door lock, etc. When we do eventually move out of this place, probably in a year or two, I've got a lot to dismantle. I'd have to put back all the old stuff.
HomeKit doorbells are surely the way. I recently looked into getting the latest Nest Doorbell (wired, UK) since I have Nest smoke alarms. I was confronted with a hot mess of compatibility issues. Was I buying Nest Doorbell or Nest Hello? Ha ha, gotcha! It’s just a branding change, same under the hood. Which app do I need, Google Home or Nest app? Seems probably nest app. But only some gadgets and features work with Google Home. 24 hour video recording, depends, depends. Chunky battery version is the newest thing but won’t do that. Will it work with a Google speaker? Anybody’s guess.
You get the picture. Anyway I decided to install the Google Home app on my iPhone and instantly saw Google weaving its tendrils into my private life. Send an invite to someone you know to add them to your home setup? Sure, Start typing their email address in the field provided. Then let you heart sink as you can only type the first letter and the only way you can enter the email address is by letting Google Home have access to all your contacts and take it from there. Despicable.
If ONLY Nest had stuck with Apple instead of selling out to Google, my life would be so much simpler, probably cheaper, and far less spied on,
You get the picture. Anyway I decided to install the Google Home app on my iPhone and instantly saw Google weaving its tendrils into my private life. Send an invite to someone you know to add them to your home setup? Sure, Start typing their email address in the field provided. Then let you heart sink as you can only type the first letter and the only way you can enter the email address is by letting Google Home have access to all your contacts and take it from there. Despicable.
If ONLY Nest had stuck with Apple instead of selling out to Google, my life would be so much simpler, probably cheaper, and far less spied on,
Yeah it real shame that Google brought Nest. I have smoke alarm from Nest before Google brought them and they used work with Philips Hue light so it flash red when alarm go off and it perfect for Deaf person but unfortunately when Google brought Nest and that feature been remove. I have to rely on my iPhone alert for smoke alarm instead. Basically right now there no Deaf friendly smoke alarm that easy buy at mainstream and is smart now that Nest Protect taken away by Google. Going be tricky find replacement after 10 year is up.
3 layers
1. Im using Unifi products - so it is as easy as selecting on a map the countries Rhett you want to block
2. Block DNS requests - but it is as good as you are able to keep them updated, and that requires analysis of the your logs…. Or get the list elsewhere
3. Isolate devices through a VLAN vs block outgoing connections for a group of devices. Unifi does that too.
I have the same doorbell, I use lithium ion AA batteries and they work OK.