I didn’t say you had to use the phone app. just that it’s an option to maybe help you get it set up.
And unfortunately there are lots of manufacturers that are going the phone app route - the wyze camera I bought for a trial I needed the phone app. I could name a bunch of things that are that way and not just cameras either.
I just remembered that there is another app that you might (or apparently not…) want to download. it’s called Foscam VMS.
it should find all the Foscam cameras on your network and give you a link to visit the settings page of the camera.
I’m not sure what you mean by that.
But I guess I should apologize that I sent you down the wrong path for the recommendation. Tho I’ve never had the issues you have with any of the cameras I’ve set up.
No need to apologize for anything. I downloaded the app, added the camera and created a new account. In the application’s homescreen, in the devices tab, I see just a static preview (picture) of camera’s view, but black screen in the ‘Live section’. Tried rebooting everything and upgrading the firmware, still without result.
At this point that’s just an insult, regardless if I’ve hit a defective specimen or not. Problem on every single step.
But did you try to open the RTSP stream (with VLC or something) ? Because in the end that’s the thing that matters. Everything else, the web interface, whether or not you see a live view in their webapp (a lot of browsers have problems with that, not only with Foscam), all that is pretty much irrelevant once the initial setup is done.
I’m unable to login after downloading their crap plugin/executable/whaetever.
I’m presented with unusable VMS application that can’t even stream cam’s content properly after logging.
This is borderline stupid and I’m not gonna continue debugging this product. You talk about how things are going to be smooth after the initial setup, but man, what was supposed to be 5 minutes job of plugging the cam, turning it on and logging in was 6h of work for me, and I have absolutely no interest in going forward with this.
Amcrest is the US-based company formerly known as Foscam USA. Foscam and they split some years ago, and Amcrest at least supports their products. Foscam worldwide, not nearly so well. This is my experience and opinion, having formerly been a Foscam user and customer.
I have a foscam and is quite solid: good resolution and I love the possibility to create the sensor for movimento or sound ( I use as a baby monitor).
Only 2 things to improve: official integration lack of love (no sensor exposed ) and sometime I have to physically reboot the cam via smart plug because becomes unreachable
I’ve purchased E1 Zoom V2 (I believe the first version does not have RJ45 port), and while I’m still setting it up, so far I’ve had zero-problems experience with setting up the camera itself and adding it to HA.
I’m still in the dilemma of which software solution to choose for NVR, but I just wanted to leave a note here of how glad I am that I found a camera that checks all my boxes.