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Front Door Camera


alex88

Question

Hi All, I want to install an outdoor IP camera at the front door of my house. I have searched the Fibaro forum and read all of the posts on cameras, which were very helpful.

I managed to setup my Samsung SII as an IP camera which is pretty cool, but off topic (

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)

My question is, does anyone have an opinion on the best IP camera to buy?

By best, I refer to:

- the quality of the camera

- how weatherproof it is

- how tamper proof it is

- how well it integrates with Fibaro (not sure this matters given that it will be an IP camera, but I am guess that there are models with more functionality than others)

- how easily I can setup a scene to switch my tv over to view the camera feed when someone rings the door bell (once again, this question may be independent of the camera itself)

Would you install a wired camera hard-connected directly to your router to make it more secure or is the consensus that a wireless IP camera is secure enough?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions/help.

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I bought a Vivotek FD8361 Vandal-Resistant Fixed Dome Network Camera. I was incensed enough to write a review. Here it is, tweaked a little.

Like you, I spent ages looking for a porch/front door camera. My criteria were; HD camera (no fuzzy images), dome, vandal proof, Power Over Ethernet (PoE), outside use (weather proof), recessed in ceiling, IR lights (night viewing), motion detection. This camera was a stretch on my budget but on paper seem to have a lot going for it. Construction is sturdy and solid with several options in terms of mounting it. I've recessed mine into the ceiling of my porch and it looks great. The camera was easy to install, merely connecting it to a CAT5 cable connected to a PoE enabled switch (Netgear) at the other end. You can quickly access the camera from a web page, but even more convenient is the fact that Vivotek have an iPad app so you can watch the cam whilst setting it up (eg, for field of vision, etc).

However, the user experience is poor. There are 'Save' buttons all over the place, some confirm that they have saved, other pages just sit quietly (having saved). The menus are obtuse and the there's no simple settings to get this camera going. I've tried to get email going using SMTP, but there is an error with no clues. SD Card management is poor, with the 'format' function deleting files, but 'losing' the space. Motion detection took one setting after another with no clues as to what was missing. Finally, I've got this camera to store video clips on a server, only to find that the length of video is restricted to 4Mbytes, which is a little under 5 secs. The only solution seems to be turning down the frame rate, the quality, etc, which defeats the object of having HD in the first place. I'm guessing this is a 'commercial' camera and that you'd be better off using this as the video source with motion detection and anything else performed off camera. Not a great buy for a domestic installation.

I can't get video to work through the Fibaro, only an image, although it does keep refreshing the JPG image on the iPhone app. However, through the main console, it won't display at all. The worst part of it is the motion detection, or lack of it. It's either always 'detecting' motion, or not at all. There's a view of it on my

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here.

My recommendation, is to go get an Axis, but don't get a Vivotek.

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