So I ahve been an ADC customer through Surety for some time. I am using Video and I currently have 5 outdoor cameras plus the doorbell.
I recently tried a Reolink NVR with a few cameras to compare becuase I fee like some parts of the ADC video experience are lacking.
AFter comparing, I am sticking with ADC primarily for alerting which seems much easier to use and get setup correctly than Reolink.
Setting up the alert areas and getting the correct alerts with less false alerts is much better on ADC, however the camera resolution and price of cameras is much better on Reolink
My questions/comments are as follows:
ADC cameras are much more expensive for less resolution. Not sure why we don’t have resaonably priced 4k cameras available. Or even reasonably priced 4mp cameras for that matter.
Live video from the app is very annoying to me. I hate the 3 min timeout, only being able to see 4 cameras at a time is strange to me, even on the website. Having to click play on every camera when I open the app instead of having the cameras play automatically is also very annoying.
Just curious if these things are just me nitpicking or annoy other people as well.
I did get a good deal on the adc-csvr2000p, so I will be able to at least connect that to a monitor for good live video, but I wish there was a better remote option for viewing live video.
You’re not the only one complaining. I’ll give you my 2 cents on price and resolution.
There are Alarm.com 4MP cameras now and more expected to come out this year. At least the new outdoor bullet camera should be 4MP like the floodlight and pro series cameras are now.
Why aren’t they all 4MP or even 4K? Alarm.com is focused on cloud video services. Streaming a bunch of 4K cameras to the cloud is costly in terms of bandwidth and storage space. Is it worth the cost? That depends on how large an area you’re covering. For a larger area & further distance (outdoors or a big warehouse) it helps but for typical rooms & smaller outdoor areas 4K doesn’t add much value from a security perspective. You need to know that an intruder is on the property and what they basically look like, you don’t need to know what color their nose hairs are. I think people sometimes focus too much on specs and not enough on application & outcome.
When recording locally, the argument is different because it’s not as expensive to stream and store high res video locally. Reolink has optimized for local storage, Alarm.com for cloud.
Why are Reolink cameras cheaper? They’re a Chinese company that sells direct to consumer. Alarm.com is an American company that OEMs cameras from brands that are already more expensive than Reolink to begin with. Alarm.com argues that the quality and security (cyber not phsyical) of their cameras is better.
I like lower priced products but I don’t understand how Reolink is sustainable long term. They sell the hardware very low cost and have no services strategy. How do they make money? Some companies have treated hardware as a loss leader and made money selling customer data. Some have been propped up by their government. I’m genuinely curious how Reolink makes money long term.
I’m glad Alarm.com is starting to offer more 4MP cameras. I’m not sure if/when they’ll have a 4K camera. And I have nothing against Reolink, I just wonder what their plan is. I think it’s good that they put pressure on companies like Alarm.com.
Thanks for the response. I agree, I am probably overthinking the resolution. I currently have adc-vc728pf cameras so the 4mp is available. And I get the cloud focus but I think there are features that are needed in the app that people woudl want, specifically around viewing live video. The alerts are great, but If I want to go take a look at my house, I can only see 4 cameras at a time and I have to click on very one to get live video. That to me is a pain.
Also It woudl be cool of someone does go with an SVR to have a remote way to access the SVR view of all the cameras with live view.
The alerts are great, but If I want to go take a look at my house, I can only see 4 cameras at a time and I have to click on very one to get live video. That to me is a pain.
The Alarm.com mobile app supports up to 4 cameras viewed simultaneously, that is mostly due to the limited screen size. You can tap on one of the camera feeds, then full screen the video. Tap on the multi camera view button in the top right and all 4 feeds should start simultaneously.
You can view up to 25 streams simultaneously on the Alarm.com website with various arrangements.
You can view up to 16 simultaneously on the SVR local interface.
You can create camera groups and use multi-camera live view to switch between groups on the mobile app. When viewing full-screen live video you can use the
button to switch to multi-camera live view and then select which group you want to see.
