the only reason i want to get the new 3rd gen and move away from my hello is that the hello no longer rings the chime in my house so i have to rely on the app to tell me when someone rings the doorbell
For sure. But then I have no night vision at all. I came from the nest hello which had excellent IR and didn’t have the lights. I just prefer the standard IR is all.
Yeah, Reolink or Unifi via Scrypted are the two best options, but only if the person has the technical know how, or willingness to learn how to set up Scrypted.
I’ve been really happy with my setup.
Before that, I used Nest Hello + Starling Home Hub. But am glad to be out of the Google ecosystem now.
Scrypted is a 3rd party tool that you self host on your Network. For the most part it's set it and forget it. The initial config is a little tricky (lots of video tutorials on YouTube, or you can use AI tools to help you figure it out). But it can send over Homekit Secure Video, which allows it to show up as a cam in Homekit. It can also send over things like button presses for your doorbell so you can set up automations in Homekit for doorbell presses.
It has to be installed to a local device on your network such as a Rasp Pi, Mini PC, Synology NAS, etc.
Scrypted is free. There are licenses available for additional features, but you don't need it for Homekit's core functionality.
From there, you get your doorbell ringing alerts on all your Apple Devices that support it.
I use that same setup, but with Unifi Cameras. So the experience is basically identical.
First pic Nest Hello and second pic is the new 3rd gen.
Pretty big rainstorm finally took out my nest hello. Figured it was a good time to upgrade with the new one just coming out. Just got it swapped. The increased FOV is great but the picture quality leaves something to be desired. Figured some people would want to see a side by side comparison. Both shots were captured at the same time of day. Don’t judge me decor haha, we are getting the house painted and everything is a mess.
Yeah it’s not a fantastic upgrade. I’m not an AI shill but I really do like the AI descriptions. Instead of just saying “motion at front door” it now describes “a black dog walked by” and I really dig it. I only check motion now if something weird happens.
Maybe that was in previous models but I was coming from nest hello so that was new. Even coming from nest hello the quality isn’t any better besides the increased fov lmao
Top Smart Doorbells on Reddit
1
Reolink
Wired Video Doorbell Series
82% positive of 559 users
No subscription, local storage, HA-friendly; no mechanical chime.
catamountalum2004
