this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2025
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Replacing Ring Doorbell w/ Reolink - How has HA - Reolink - Frigate worked out for you? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 weeks ago by njordomir@lemmy.world to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world
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We aren't too fond of cameras around here and there's almost always someone home so it's not really a necessity for us. Having said that, we've had a few cams for a while now and most important is the doorbell.

I'm certain for 95% of you I don't have to explain why I want the Amazon/Ring bell gone.

I run HA and have deployed Frigate separately to start messing with IP cams.

Here is my question? I understand that you can take the feed from the Reolink bell/cams and import it into Frigate from which I will send it over to my home assistant. For those of you who already do this, how offline is it? Did you need to set up any kind of reolink account to adjust settings or do the initial login? Does the camera try to call home occasionally? Is it fully offline?

I learned my lesson with Amazon. I want to control this doorbell myself and I'd to avoid video, audio, or logs exiting my network without me knowing.

How has the Reolink - Frigate - Home Assistant trio panned out for you?

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[–] kik2civeswt1@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Not entirely on-topic, but in case you aren't aware, there is a slight functional difference between the white and black models of the Reolink doorbell camera. The video on the white has a portrait aspect ratio, whereas the black's is landscape.

[–] njordomir@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I was curious about that. I settled on the black one for my space, though I haven't ordered yet and I probably would also be happy with white. There is a long straight wall to the right of my door, so I need basically no FOV to the right and the left can sweep the whole yard in the background.

[–] paequ2@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What camera/doorbell did you end up ordering?

[–] njordomir@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

My partner had a preference for the wider FOV so I got the black one. It paired no problem and after banging my head against the wall for a while I got the stream working in Home Assistant, VLC, then Frigate. I haven't decided how I want to handle the recording. I have yet to set up notifications and I'm not certain if my doorbell circuit is providing enough power, which would explain why the Bezos Bell sucked at keeping a charge (also surveiling your customers all day takes a lot of juice). This may become a slightly bigger project if I have to rerun the wiring.

There was a lot of hype around this bell and that naturally makes me skeptical, but rarely have I had a device pair and get to a functional state that quickly, even in most proprietary apps. We'll see how it works out once I have it wired in.

[–] paequ2@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] njordomir@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You are correct. That wasn't the most descriptive statement on my part :D

The black Reolink WiFi doorbell one was what I purchased. I was tempted by the PoE one because it would avoid using WiFi bandwidth but there's no cable in that area.

[–] paequ2@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago

Oh, damn! Nice! You got the WiFi doorbell! I read Frigate doesn't recommend WiFi cameras, but seems like you got it working decently enough?