I’ve currently got a mix of Ring external and Arlo Q internal cameras, and I’m now looking for a few reliable external cameras. I want them to have ST integration for the sake of motion alerts triggering lights etc, but I’m happy viewing the alerts through a native app. It would be a big bonus if I can use them with Actiontiles though for live monitoring.
My only other requirement is a degree of security - I’ve heard Foscam mentioned as one brand that were marred by tales of being easily hacked, but if that reputation is undeserved I’m open to ideas.
Best case would be PoE or wireless - I don’t really want to run a mains supply.
I’ve ruled out Arlo as I’ve found their app to be too flakey. I’ve seen threads on here reporting the Unifi motion sensitivity is inflexible and goes off too often.
I’m okay with simpler IP cameras run through Blue Iris which seems highly thought of on these forums, but I wondered if that introduced a significant delay between motion->notification->viewing live?
I just got my Poe cams set up on blue Iris. The beauty of it is being able to use almost any IP camera you can think of and they’re all “compatible” with st. I’d check out ipcamtalk for camera recommendations, but I personally settled on Dahua brand ones. You can order them from a seller on there, alternatively hikvision is supposed to be good but you pay a premium. You can live view in action tiles pretty easily while still having secure cameras because remote viewing requires a password. The best way I’ve found to have it work in action tiles is to open up the streams to work on local network without authentication. Doesn’t seem to be a better, more secure way to do it without a lot of hassle.
Does Blue Iris handle any motion alerts regardless of the make of camera? And is it fairly intelligent? I’m tired of false positives (Arlo.)
And how easy is it to integrate BI with ST?
And do you notice much of a delay between motion and alert given that extra layer of processing?