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Review: The Philips Hue Line Now Has Security Cameras, But There's No HomeKit Support
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This feels like a Bob Marley song)
i am not paying subscription to review my own videos after paying $200 for the hardware.
people should stop supporting this business model.
Ring door bell is basically useless without subscription, can even replay the video after 1 min.
have to pay $10/Month.
people should stop supporting this business model.
Ring door bell is basically useless without subscription, can even replay the video after 1 min.
have to pay $10/Month.
it wont.
because they want to sell you subscription fee to view/download your own videos.
Unifi cameras are expensive because they don't charge subscription and their hardware is good.
Storing security camera footage off-site has its advantages. Burglars will likely try to take or destroy your file server if you use an on-prem solution.
Can someone recommend a good outdoor security cam that's currently supported by homekit. Wired or wireless. Would like to avoid Power over Ethernet. And if you go with the newer eufy cams, can't they still be run on the eufy app? Plus and minuses of that? thanks.
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We've found the Meross Homekit appliances to be easy to set up and use. They don't have compatible security equipment yet, but when they do, we'll probably use them for that too.
A 200$ security camera with a 40$ anual subscription to record video which should be their primary function. This people think they are sellling a PlayStation, this is a security camera which should have recording video as a primary function. I’m not paying an annual subscription for “security cameras“ this is just plain dumb.
Since I installed a Home Assistant I don't need the Matter/Homekit label in my IoT devices to configure it in Home App so no problem with no native Homekit support, in fact I'll never pay for homekit/matter devices
*cough* Arlo *cough*
This is exactly why HKSV didn't take off, because honestly it is vastly superior than anything else I've tried.
I'm surprised you named Eufy, they are one of the only companies to support HKSV.
Well, then Philips/Signify won't have a cash cow on their hands with this one.
I'd buy one in a jiffy and I'm sure a lot of other Apple device users would too, since I like how well Hue works in my home. A misplaced effort of forcing a subscription model.
The price of this cam relative to almost anything else on the market, that supports HomeKit, just screams "Apple users" as in a group that is ready to pay a lot more money for their iPhone than the Android crowd and therefor ready to pay more for a fully compatible Hue accessory. I'm no stranger to paying $40 for an LED bulb just because I liked that quirky design of yore.
There are many Hue alternatives and yet I wouldn't pay for those $10-20 lights or cameras, while the bundled apps require you to hand over all you user info and usage data, location etc., which are going straight to China.
Sorry Signify, I won't be buying your overpriced cam any time soon.
I think Eufy is poised to remove HKSV from their product lineup. That's why he named them.
Eufy was among the first to support HKSV, but their newer products do not support HKSV in favor for their own subscription service.
Oh wow... that really sucks. They all want to make as much money as possible.
I hope someday, a Matter supported camera will automatically inherit from all these HKSV features.
It also was never really clear that HomeKit Secure Video is an optional feature on top of HomeKit. 4 years ago, I bought HomeKit cameras, thinking it would come with HKSV.
I can only comment on Arlo and Eufy Wired Pro cameras.
Arlo:
I have a few of the Ultra 2 (4k camera) and 2K Camera. Yes, they say for 4K and are better video quality than some of the other 4K ones. But, the 4K quality is not good in my opinion. Also, the subscription fees are over price. Plus there are all these limitations. For example, they support HomeKit (which is great when via my my Mac or Apple TV). But, not HKSV. Why? Money, they don't want to have you Apples cloud and not pay them. Anyway, there are many other little gotchas. I won't be buying additional ones.
Eufy:
I have 2 of the wired E330 Pro cameras along with Homebase 3 hub. These are 4K cameras and the quality is pretty good. Better than Arlo. I bought the system because I thought it supported HomeKit. Unfortunately, these don't and it's supposed to be coming next year. They are very slow as they said this year. Delays, Delays. Also, their app does not let you stream 2 cameras at the same time. Again, another feature they say is coming. Also, since they are the Pro cameras, you can't stream to PC. Hilarious that they call this a Pro camera and they don't have this feature. Oh, for video storage, no fees as the the Homebase hub I got with the package can store video locally.
Anyway, I can go on and on.
I'm thinking of trying out the Unifi Project. I'm really curious on the video quality compared to Eufy. From what I have heard from others, the video quality is really good. However, pretty expensive compared to Eufy. And it seems for outdoor cameras, I still have to do Power over Ethernet (real bummer). Also, I believe you need to buy a UniFi OS Console. They many optinos for this. But, entry one is about $199 I think. They have cameras for $99-$449 depending on the quickly. Indoor and outdoor. The plus is not fees for storage either.
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These are complete rubbish for the price. You can get many more for way cheaper with Homekit too.
HomeKit sucks. Both Google and Amazon did it better
In no way is that true.
Homekit itself is way more secure, Locally managed and capable of managing multiple Hue hubs as though they are one. If you lose internet You can still control your house with HomeKit.. You can’t with the others.
Homekit response is instant. The others can take 10s of seconds.
Alexa UI and management is awful.
Home Proper Matter support And it’s build into AppleTV
A few scattered homepods can hear anything in the house - even rooms away. Way better Than the Echos / Google devices.
HKSV and video in general is better.
Adding in Home Assistant opens it up to pretty much any device.
Siri works well for HomeKit - however, I will agree that Google and Alexa are better at multiple requests… but this can be mitigated with scenes.
It’s not perfect of course. Siri needs to be better… but we have siri AI coming it seems.
I hate that I cannot swipe rooms left to right now And have to select on a drop down. Other homekit apps can still do this.… which is another thing - there are a huge amount go 3rd party HomeKit apps.
And you can easily create a HK only network for devices with the right router and block weird devices from calling home.
Which is why no one should buy them… espeically at that price. I won’t be buying any devices without matter support from now on and swapping out over time. Same with cameras…no HomeKit no sale.… or at least something I can add in a via home assistant / hoobs... like eufy cams ( some are HK compatible - some only via HK ) and yes I‘ve blocked the devices calling home…
Unfortunately, at the outrageous cost of security camera subscriptions, these companies could lose 9 ’homekit or no deal’ customers to 1 paying subscriber, and they would still come out on top. The market is not going to win this battle.