I have not been on the HA forum for a while, and don’t currently have a working HA install as my previous one was installed on a Raspberry Pi which has been re-purposed.
I am looking to replace one or two old Hikvision CCTV camera’s that were installed by a previous owner badly! I have been looking at Reolink and some of their POE camera’s/Battery Doorbell, does anyone have any experience of using them with Home Assistant?
I reached out to Reolink about both HA support and ONVIF (for Ubiquiti/UniFi) who advised me " Wi-Fi and PoE doorbell and Reolink Battery Video Doorbell (2nd Gen) support ONVIF and Home Assistant. Battery-powered doorbells require a connection to a home hub and an NVR to support ONVIF and Home Assistant"
I am somewhat confused on the use of a Home Hub to support HA.
Also I am wondering if installing HA on a NUC would be preferable for storage (if I don’t use the Hub) to use some form of NVR?
Apologies if I have not explained myself fully. Happy to answer any questions.
Reolink core app is pretty awesome. Most things just work and the dev who is a community member and is always adding stuff to keep up with Reolink.
The raspi, however… Let’s just say cameras may be a bit more than it’s ready for. How to Troubleshoot Raspberry Pi Crashing
Hi,
I use Poe doorbell and 3 Poe cameras from Reolink, all without the Hub and it integrates great with Home assistant.
I believe you only need the Hub if you use the battery models.
The hub helps conserve battery life when viewing the device’s recordings. It will also soon serve as a local AI manager for analyzing camera footage.
It’s also worth noting that firmware updates are currently being tested, particularly for the battery-powered wireless doorbell, which will allow it to connect directly to Home Assistant without needing an additional device.
It’s a great brand that integrates seamlessly with Home Assistant.
As for the NUC, even without an NVR, it’s still preferable to the Raspberry Pi if you’re using Model 3 or 4.
They’re very similar, though, but I’d advise you to wait a little longer—a new version of the Home Hub is supposed to be released (I think I saw “October” mentioned somewhere).
Ah OK, maybe worth holding off then which is somewhat of a pity but if a new version is coming I can understand. Is there any more info on the new version?
It will apparently integrate their AI (locally) for customized detection. It works with an HDD, but I don’t have the details. Maybe someone from Reolink will stop by.
Check out the videos from the Reolink booth at IFA—you’ll see more there.
Unless you’re planning to run something like the Frigate add-on on the HA box itself, I doubt there will be much noticable difference between a Pi5 (or even 4) with NVR compatibility/function/performance. Exception might be a dashboard with more than 4 or 5 cam feeds.
That said, unless you already have an unused Pi, I would always lean toward a NUC-like PC. Theres not much (if any) financial or other advantage to the Pi by the time you get one with enough memory and add storage/case/power/etc.
The HA Reolink integration is fantastic. All local, and the Motion/Person/Vehicle/etc detection is virtually instant.
For the POE cams, NVR/Hub is optional if you put an SD card in each cam. Same should be true soon for the doorbell. There are doorbell firmware updates in beta allowing for hub-less integration.
But, I would still go with the NVR/Hub. Performance will generally be better reviewing recordings vs pulling off the cam’s SD card. Probably even more so for battery cams.
Reolink’s site pretty much hides the Pro series cams and NVRs, but the Pro series have some advantages and aren’t that much more expensive. Make sure you check them out. Reolink cams can have a relatively narrow FOV compared to some others. If that is a concern, the Pro series closes the gap.
My biggest complaint about Reolink is the night vision is not nearly as good as my eufy S3 Pro cams, but it is good enough for me, and the speed of a local integration easily makes Reolink the overall winner.
@Sir_Goodenough Thanks for the info, I don’t have a spare HDD tbh. I was looking at the Home Hub with a SD card but am thinking of my options currently. The NVR you linked looks great tbh. Would just need to find an appropriate HDD to go with it. The benefit if that NVR is that is has an HDMI out. Just to be sure it only works with cameras?
I had a look and found an update about the Hub 2 but couldn’t find much info. Not sure I will hold off to get it. One thing I will say is Reolink have been very helpful with their replies so far.
I have 3 doorbells and a Duo WIFI Reolink camera in it now. It only records on the first 4 I think. The Doorbells POE direct to it, the Duo is over my internal network.
Quick Update: I have installed Home Assistant on the NUC and installed a few integrations already. I’m now looking at how I can integrate it further into my home. I’ve been in contact with Reolink regarding the Hub 2 to see if they can advise when it’s due to be released. I may opt for a POE Doorbell if I can find a way to install it near my front door. I’m also looking at lighting and repairing my defunct home alarm with Konnected
Reolink replied regarding the Hub 2 and advised the release date is expected to be “end of this year”, so I am not sure I am willing to wait that long tbh.
