watch this BEFORE you buy Reolink cameras (are they good for your Home Server?)

This is EVERYTHING I've learned about Reolink, their NVR system, PoE, and Solar Cameras.

Reolink NVR Kits - This is great if you're trying to save money and have a simple PoE plug and play solution. This does add difficulties to manage as all the streams are under a single device and kit camera NEED the NVR to function. Some kit cameras may have more features so check the specific features of the camera model in the kit. You can probably find a great deal used.

Reolink PoE Cameras - I've had no issues with these. Great for the Reolink ecosystem and using 3rd party services such as Frigate.

Reolink Battery/Solar Camera: This is awesome for a location that you cannot run a PoE line to. If you're sticking with the Reolink app you'll be fine. To use most of these with 3rd party applications you'd need a Reolink NVR to export the stream.

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⏰ TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - What we're doing
00:35 - Reolink NVR Kits
04:19 - PoE Dome Camera
06:54 - PoE Floodlight Camera
08:50 - Battery/Solar Camera
10:10 - Frigate coming soon...
10:38 - Final thoughts on Reolink

[CBrown]

Right after I watch a video from the Hook Up rating all of the Reolink to buy one you release this.. thank you! I love to see all sides.

[jeffrodrequez]

I did reolink cameras for a family member last year. I too initially went with the solar cameras but they would shut down into stand by mode. I called Reolink about this and they said that there wasn't a work around and recommended using a "wired" (power) model of camera, so that they would stay on all the time. Interesting video, I wish you would have done this a year ago when I was first doing it lol, I found out a lot of this via my own trial and error. I will say, reolink cameras are great and their support was really easy to work with. I had one camera that kept blinking out and I kept having to climb up and reset it. After some troubleshooting Reolink replaced the camera for free and the new one didn't have any problem. Also, Reolink was one of the only companies that had their own free web based (or download/install) software to view the cameras with, which is what we ended up using and have had no problems.

[wasdq]

Those are very similar to the Swann cameras I have had for many years. Yesterday I took them down and put up some new onvif cams. For the fun of it I connected the Swanns to a POE switch and blue iris detected the cameras and the stream links immediately, with no proprietary nvr, I have them in blue iris. Cam model(nhd-815).

[goodcitizen]

The reolink doorbell camera is great. In wifi (uses power of doorbell button) or poe version. Full rtsp/ blue iris support.

[euphanasia]

Made the switch to Reolink as well, but I still have a few Amcrest cameras hooked up, and for being just 1080p, they look really good.

[scarecrow]

I've had seven of the cheap ones outside my house for years. I have to reset the DVR every now and then, so they have worked as advertised .

[SebastianTur]

Reolink does not care about you as soon as you buy the product :
1. no updates for reported bugs just because they release a next model of NVR or cam. So for example firefox will display only live stream but you will not be able to watch recorded footage. Can you get it? This kind of bug and they don't care?
2. No linux client event though the nvr itself probably runs on linux itself !
3. Windows client in wine works only for old versions.
4. User support in general is a joke - they dont understand what you write and will just reply with template messages that will never solve anything.

[whothefoxcares]

Red Shirt Jeff should be able to build you a raspberry pi camera cluster with complete uid/gid file permissions for under his hourly billing rate 🙂

[mtbrdude]

You must have an outdated kit.... A lot of your issues aren't issues anymore. ONVIF is supported. Everything in the NVR can be done via a web browser on a PC.

[SusanneDepperman]

You got the best thumb nail picture ever. I had to watch. With your plethora of cameras. Hilarious

[BrentLeVasseur]

Why did you choose Frigate? Have you also tried Viseron? If so maybe do a comparison video, Thanks!

[rsisente]

Seems a little over complicated. The RTSP stream works best for me. I run agentdvr in a docker, and run multiple brands of cameras. Currently running some Reolink and some Tapo (tp link) within the agent dvr app, I can direct where all my recordings go on my NAS.

[amiitzhakov]

Q. to Techhut or any ones how i can set my Reolink in order to see all my camera from any place in the world?

[pshhyeahh]

You guys running these cameras/NVR on a VLAN?

[Bjotte]

It's not Freegate it's pronounced like the type of ship.

[AlL-fwcy]

Why did you go from surveillance station to Reolink? Sponsorship? I'm looking for a vendor to go with and want to like Reolink but I hear so many issues with them, synology seems solid but the nvr cost more as well and licensing sucks. Also why frigate vs scrypted?

[MunkFist]

Wait, so you're saying that Reolink doesn't allow you to view your cameras remotely while not in the home?

[icxf]

Reolink PoE cameras are very good for the money.

[dustinbaumler]

I have a relink trackmix Battery. solar camera I want to connect to an nvr How did you get yours to connect to your nvr

[SzyxYank]

yaya reolink are good, also are good for HA, But dont buy battery/solar camera these dont have a lot of functionality like rtsp