Ring doorbell? CCTV?

[purpleme12]

Hi
Do you think ring doorbell or CCTV would be better?
Can you attach ring doorbell to outside walls so it watches your gardens as well as your door?
I guess I'd need my 2 gardens and the side of my house where my door is, to be watched
Is this CCTV job or ring doorbell?
I don't know much about any as I've never had to think of this before
How much did you pay for yours, whatever you got?

Ok I'll have a look at this too
Why is the hard drive safer? Sorry if this is a stupid question

Also all these cameras do they record sound? Or is that too sophisticated or more money? I mean it's not really essential I just wondered

Safer as there have been problems with criminal hacking of some cameras (including Ring apparently). The cameras record sound as well and you can also talk through them (and ask them what they are doing which is very useful if someone is walking around your property). The system can alert you when someone/thing comes into view.

Ah right thank you

Do these ring and blink ones also record sound as well does anyone know? And can you talk through them as well?

@purpleme12

Ah right thank you

Do these ring and blink ones also record sound as well does anyone know? And can you talk through them as well?

Yes you can talk through the Ring system and hear sound too.

And a hard drive is only safer if you think your personal wifi setup is harder to hack than a professional cloud hosting company.

I have a eufy doorbell and it’s excellent. Very good video quality and sound (you can talk to a visitor via the app if you’re not in). You can set the zone you want it to cover in the app so depending on how big your front garden is, the doorbell video might cover it.

Thank you I will look at all of these options

Are all of these cameras ok vision in the dark too?

What you're describing is definitely a combination of a Ring doorbell and Blink security cameras. I don't have the doorbell but I do have the cameras, they are very good. When triggered records for about 1 minute and saves to the web from where you get an alert on your phone and can see the saved video. I currently have 2 cams but will add more soon.

If you buy the older model (XT2 - still on eBay) then there is one big advantage - you don't need a monthly subscription. But because of this they do attract a price premium.
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333257884606?epid=2304892371&hash=item4d97b7c3be:g:VFoAAOSwQNxgwCkA
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334129255636?epid=17038890824&hash=item4dcba7d4d4:g:WwIAAOSwMFJhKkrN

Which cameras do you have? It only records for a minute?

Blink XT2 cameras. You put them up with just two screws, they're motion sensored so don't record constantly, have good night vision though I prefer day vision in my well lit garden, they're battery powered (lithium batteries last as long as 5 or 6 months in a very high traffic area or 2 years when in a very low traffic area). They work on WiFi, you don't pay for data storage, the alerts and feed can come straight through to your phone/Alexa or whatever, and there's even a two way speaker system which is great for telling couriers to leave parcels or telling visitors you'll be back in a min and such.

We have this one which is part of the Aiwit system.

It records on motion, can ping on motion though I often turn that off at the moment (slightly awkward with kids running in and out and sometimes up and down the front garden at it) and can record when looking at the app and I can take a screenshot of what's on the camera at any time, which was a selling point for me.

@cctvrec the other posts on here said you need a subscription to keep the recordings on that camera?
You say you don't need to pay for that?

I'd go with a wired system. Might seem old fashioned, but much more secure, no storage with a third party and no charge for storage.

And don't forget that if you are filming beyond your property you are subject to data protection law.

I just want to film in my garden
What if in order to get a view of the whole garden you have to take in a teeny bit of the neighbour's drive for example? Or there's a little of street in the film, so that you've can see the whole garden?

@purpleme12

I just want to film in my garden What if in order to get a view of the whole garden you have to take in a teeny bit of the neighbour's drive for example? Or there's a little of street in the film, so that you've can see the whole garden?

Hmm well that's not your property and you would be subject to data protection law and you would have to display a sign saying " cctv in operation " or similar. It's not fair to film someone else's drive without telling them.

Oh right I didn't realise that
I thought as long as you were only doing it for the garden (so only had the bit next door in so that you could see the whole garden) that wouldn't apply
Seems more complicated than I thought now!

We have the nest ones, one in the front, one over the back

No doorbell, but you can view on phone, optional alarms, rewind function and choose different options on how many days footage you keep

Really pleased with ours

Per pp post, we can see a bit of road/drives etc and so can our neighbours. We now text each other if we ever need the 'opposite view' and we did put cheap cctv signs on the 2 nearest lamp posts

It's the next door neighbours who are the reason I want to watch my garden!!

I have the Blink XT2, same as the links I sent - that model doesn't require a subscription, but the new ones from Amazon (Indoor and Outdoor) do.

When you set up the camera you can set zones that the camera doesn't record. So for example you could record up to the top of your fence, but not above the top, or you could exclude the neighbour's house etc.

It only records a minute or two but that's usually all you need to capture a "critical event". Think of it more as an alarm system than a monitoring system.

You can change the time, but it's always a balance between how long you record, how often the cameras are triggered and how long the batteries will last. They are AA size but not regular batteries - look for the ones described as Ultimate Lithium.

if you want to record for longer then you can always add a permanent power supply cable (on eBay) if there's a power outlet within range

[quote purpleme12]@cctvrec the other posts on here said you need a subscription to keep the recordings on that camera?
You say you don't need to pay for that?[/quote]
I don't pay a subscription but my camera is from last year so it's possible they've changed? It the new ones require it, I'd suggest getting a cheap used one from ebay or something. I love my camera and wouldn't be without it.
It magically stopped all the teen terrors from throwing stuff at my house. Parents couldn't do a thing apparently but when I threatened to name and shame them with cctv evidence, their parenting limitations changed and they were suddenly able to keep their children away. Funny that.

@filka I just had a look on Amazon. It's such a shame that Blink have gone down the greedy subscription route now too. When I buy something I want to be able to use it once paid for, not be held to ransom for continued use of it. Such a shame as the product is brilliant.

Well you can still buy the old XT2 on eBay, and even look further afield to eBay.com. The only catch with that is that the system is region-sensitive so you have to buy the whole system, base unit plus cameras from one source. You can't mix and match say, a UK base and a US camera.

But I think the lack of subscription charges on the old XT2 is keeping the eBay prices very high.