That might be some wishful thinking. I tried getting some Reolink cameras a neighbor decided to buy on his own, to work with Blue Iris the other day, there was no way to configure them without installing their shitty app. All they have to do is just like every other not-shitty camera, enable DHCP, RTSP and ONVIF by default and then fuck off. But that’s not happening.
I told him to send them back, I wasn’t going to deal with them.
Initial setup with Reolink is hit or miss. You’re right that those settings are off by default, which sucks. The better cameras host their own WebUI with which you can login and make changes with no app required, but the cheaper ones cut that corner and need the app. With that said, yes it is an initial hoop you might have to jump through, but once done and isolated you’ll never have to deal with it again. It’s a worthy trade off for the affordability and featureset IMO, but of course it could always be better.
Except they’re not all that affordable for the features. Not many that are POE, and their MP/optizoom compared to cameras half their price isn’t great. I can get Amcrest or Vikylin for less, and have everything that Reolink doesn’t out of the box. You also have to be careful with them that you don’t get Reolink NVR-locked cameras.
I’ve heard Reolink touted a lot and so far I’m not seeing the advantage.
NVR = Network Video Recorder. It’s the box that has the hard drive(s) to record all the video streams coming in from the cameras over WiFi or Ethernet.
That might be some wishful thinking. I tried getting some Reolink cameras a neighbor decided to buy on his own, to work with Blue Iris the other day, there was no way to configure them without installing their shitty app. All they have to do is just like every other not-shitty camera, enable DHCP, RTSP and ONVIF by default and then fuck off. But that’s not happening.
I told him to send them back, I wasn’t going to deal with them.
Yeah initial setup requires their app (once).
But you can use their app without creating an account, which is such a breath of fresh air compared to everyone else.
Initial setup with Reolink is hit or miss. You’re right that those settings are off by default, which sucks. The better cameras host their own WebUI with which you can login and make changes with no app required, but the cheaper ones cut that corner and need the app. With that said, yes it is an initial hoop you might have to jump through, but once done and isolated you’ll never have to deal with it again. It’s a worthy trade off for the affordability and featureset IMO, but of course it could always be better.
Except they’re not all that affordable for the features. Not many that are POE, and their MP/optizoom compared to cameras half their price isn’t great. I can get Amcrest or Vikylin for less, and have everything that Reolink doesn’t out of the box. You also have to be careful with them that you don’t get Reolink NVR-locked cameras.
I’ve heard Reolink touted a lot and so far I’m not seeing the advantage.
I have a Reolink setup that’s entirely air-gapped. No app required, just configure everything through the NVR unit.
What is an NVR unit?
NVR = Network Video Recorder. It’s the box that has the hard drive(s) to record all the video streams coming in from the cameras over WiFi or Ethernet.