The Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro isn’t low-cost at $249, nevertheless it’s prettier and extra subtle than the equally priced Ring Video Doorbell Pro ($249) and the Nest Hello ($229). It’s not for everybody, although, since you should have a Vivint Smart Home system and repair plan to go along with it. While Vivint provides top-of-the-line professionally put in and monitored sensible residence/residence safety options in the marketplace, that service isn’t cheap, both. More on that later.
Like these rivals, Vivint’s finest doorbell is outfitted with infrared evening imaginative and prescient and a picture sensor that helps HDR—and the digital camera’s picture high quality is great. It has a wider discipline of view than both of these video doorbell—180 levels vertical in addition to horizontal—enabling you to see your total porch (the digital camera has 1:1 facet ratio and backbone of 1,664 x 1,664 pixels, however video is streamed in 1080p).
This assessment is a part of TechHive’s protection of the best video doorbells, the place you’ll discover evaluations of competing merchandise, plus a purchaser’s information to the options you must contemplate when purchasing.
Even although the doorbell is put in at a proper angle to my entrance door, it nonetheless affords a view greater than 50 toes down my flagstone entry stroll. There is a small quantity of fisheye distortion when objects are very near the digital camera, however the wide-angle view lets me see guests head to toe, in addition to packages left wherever on the porch.
Notice the message on the prime of the display indicating {that a} bundle has been delivered, and notice that the decision is crisp sufficient which you could learn the brand on the truck within the driveway that’s almost 100 toes away.
Package and individual detection
And bundle detection is without doubt one of the Doorbell Camera Pro’s finest options. In addition to sending “person detected” alerts when somebody comes inside vary of its movement detector, the digital camera can even provide you with a warning when a bundle has been delivered. If you may’t get to your porch instantly, and the doorbell is in “deter” mode, it’ll sound an alert tone on its speaker (I chosen a “you-who!” whistle) each time somebody approaches your door, inflicting them to look to the supply of the sound and subsequently current their face to the digital camera. In addition to the alert tone, a brilliant purple LED encircling the doorbell button lights up. You can flip this “deter” characteristic on or off, or you may schedule it to function on a schedule.
Michael Brown / IDGPush notifications provide you with a warning when the Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro detects an individual or a bundle.
Another exceptionally good characteristic—though it’s optionally available—is the Doorbell Camera Pro’s skill to repeatedly file to an area network-attached arduous drive (a four-channel NAS field, primarily, though it could accommodate only a single 1TB drive and it could’t be used for another objective). Vivint calls this product the Vivint Smart Drive and it operates with as much as 4 of Vivint’s safety cameras (each indoor and outside fashions). There’s no arguing that it’s costly, however there’s additionally no arguing that it’s a unbelievable choice to have—and it’s unmatched by another vendor.
Rather than file a brief clip solely when movement is detected or somebody rings the doorbell, as much as 4 of Vivint’s cameras file repeatedly to the drive for as much as 30 days (you get 14 days of clip storage within the cloud with out the drive). When you take a look at the digital camera’s dwell view through the Vivint cell app, you may press a Rewind button to deliver up a timeline of recordings. Dragging your fingertip alongside this timeline scrubs band and forth by time of recorded video. At any level alongside the timeline, you can begin watching in actual time or at an accelerated velocity: 2X, 4X, or 8X.
VivintThe Vivint Smart Drive is a dear possibility at $249, nevertheless it delivers steady video recording for as much as 4 Vivint safety cameras with out fear that you just’ll stumble upon your ISP’s knowledge cap.
Markers on the timeline provide you with a warning to detection occasions, and a label seems on the prime of the display to let you realize if it’s an individual or a bundle alert. Rewind, fast-forward, and play/pause controls enable you to rapidly find these motions occasions, and there’s a useful time stamp above the timeline and a date stamp above the first video display.
Whether the digital camera has flagged an occasion or not, you may create a video clip lasting both 30 seconds, 90 seconds, or 5 minutes from any place to begin on the timeline. You can then both obtain the or share a hyperlink to the clip. If your digital camera captured a criminal offense in course of, you may share this forensic proof with the police. Unfortunately, these clips are not timestamped, an element that might diminish their worth to investigators.
Nest cameras are among the many few different safety cameras that may file repeatedly, however these units file repeatedly to the cloud, which might trigger issues for customers with knowledge caps and/or restricted add bandwidth. Vivint’s cameras file solely event-triggered clips to the cloud. My ISP doesn’t presently impose an information cap, however I dwell in a rural space and do must put up with very sluggish add speeds. Vivint’s official suggestion is to have a minimum of 1.5Mbps of add velocity for every digital camera. Unlike Nest, Vivint doesn’t permit you to tailor the standard of the uploaded video stream to scale back its bandwidth consumption.
Michael Brown / IDGA message on the prime of the display labels this occasion as somebody ringing the bell. Skip again and skip ahead buttons allow you to soar to earlier and subsequent occasions (the bar to the left of the inexperienced line signifies earlier occasions, and the dot signifies the present occasion).
Motion detection
You can draw a single however irregularly formed detection zone along with your fingertip throughout the digital camera’s discipline of view, to dam issues like branches from shrubs and bushes from creating false alerts, and you can too fine-tune the movement detector’s sensitivity. But the digital camera proved so correct at discerning the motion of individuals from different issues—together with animals, for probably the most half—that I didn’t discover the customized detection zones to be all that needed.
There was only one event within the a number of weeks that I examined the doorbell when it mis-identified my giant (12-pound) cat as an individual. But that occurred round 2:15 a.m., and solely after he jumped from the porch to a bench after which a 20-inch-high planter. I’ve two different smaller cats, they usually’ve by no means set off an individual alert.
The Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro appears extra like a standard doorbell than most, measuring simply 1.5 inches extensive and 4.5 inches tall. Much of the explanation for its svelte dimensions, nonetheless, is that it doesn’t rely upon a battery for energy. I believed that might be an issue for me, as a result of it by no means occurred to me to make sure my common contractor included a doorbell after we had our home constructed 12 years in the past. Fortunately, Vivint’s installer got here up with a intelligent resolution: My eating room is on the opposite facet of the wall from my entrance porch, so he drilled gap into the outside wall, snaked the doorbell wiring by to the junction field internet hosting an AC outlet, and linked it to a plug-in adapter there. (The doorbell can function on 12-24 DC or 16-24 AC adapters that ship a minimal of 1.0 amps.)
Michael Brown / IDGThe Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro solely as soon as mis-identified my (obese) can as an individual, and that was at 2:00 a.m. (I added arrows to level out the cat and the alert).
The doorbell has dual-band 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) wi-fi adapter onboard; however as an alternative of connecting to your Wi-Fi router, the doorbell connects as an alternative to Vivint’s sensible residence management panel and the management panel connects to your router. The doorbell helps two-way audio, and you may speak with guests utilizing both your cell gadget or the management panel. By the identical token, you may view thumbnails of each occasion and choose any of these thumbnails to play a recording in a bigger window on both your cell app or on Vivint’s management panel.
Deep sensible residence integration
As with all Vivint’s merchandise, the Doorbell Camera Pro integrates tightly with the remainder of its sensible residence system, together with its new Car Guard onboard diagnostic product. When you’re viewing a dwell stream from the doorbell, you may push a button on the backside of the display to deliver up the person interface for the safety system, the place you may arm or disarm the system, lock or unlock any of your sensible locks, and open or shut your linked overhead storage doorways.
Michael Brown / IDGWhen an individual is detected, dwell video is streamed from the doorbell to Vivint’s management panel.
You may also create customized guidelines equivalent to “record a clip with all cameras when an alarm is triggered;” “turn on my porch light when my doorbell detects a person at night, and turn it off 30 minutes later,” and even “record a clip with my doorbell when my vehicle is disturbed.”
But as I stated early on: This stage of sophistication, safety, and automation isn’t low-cost. The Doorbell Camera Pro prices $249, the optionally available Smart Drive prices one other $249, and a Vivint sensible residence system begins at $599 plus a $99 set up charge (which is usually waived if the corporate is working a promotion). The equipment consists of the aforementioned sensible residence hub, two door/window sensors, a movement sensor, a water leak detector, and a $100 credit score for extra sensors. Monthly service charges begin at $39 and embody skilled monitoring. If you select to finance the system buy by Vivint, you’ll must signal a service contract; no contract is required in the event you pay for the {hardware} up entrance.
If these prices aren’t a barrier, the Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro is the very best gadget in its class.