I’m referring of course to the Reolink Duo (2 lenses for ultra-wide-angle monitoring) Floodlight WiFi outdoor security camera that came in a large box for me this morning – just in time for more storms.
Over the years I’ve said a lot of nice things about Imou cameras and my two favourites right now are covering our house 24/7. Having said that – I was very impressed with the Reolink video doorbell – which is also now attached to the house and is doing a sterling job.
But of course I’m here to talk about the Reolink Duo Floodlight camera I just received and love already desite it’s relatively considerable size. Within minutes I had the camera added to the Reolink APP on my phone – alongside the doorbell… but this just keeps getting better…
Rather than copy the odd diagram out of the manual to show you, I went off to the Reolink website where I stumbled opon their Windows APP and… well, it’s lovely – I downloaded it and within seconds it had automatically found both my doorbell and the new camera – and asked me for the passwords I’d put into them. Up came quality live video… I’m looking at me now, writing this blog – stutter-free 30fps video with only a tiny lag.
To try to give you an idea of quality – I just took the Windows APP to beyond screen size and grabbed a bit of the image… this is way better than other APPS I’ve used… and you know what – unlike some cameras – it just WORKS.
Settings include the usual and unique things like image stitching for the two lenses. I could not switch to the highest quality mode on my Android phone so I asked Reolink why.
Meanwhile, reader Tim commented below that Reolink have already started to address this here and so I read the item in the link above, disabled hardware acceleration on my phone and sure enough the APP works at the highest quality albeit at a lower frame rate but at least now I have a choice.
I took a quick diversion (I use Chrome on Windows 11 64-bit) and discovered that Reolink also have provided the ability to let you view your camera on a browser. So I did that and… I noted the quality control (fluent/clear) in that web page – and in trying for the higher quality mode it told me I could not have the highest quality. Of course that could be down to the vast amount of info and my PC isn’t the fastest in the world – this IS a dual 4K camera after all. Here’s a shot from the browser:
That message above came when I tried to switch to highest quality mode – “current device won’t stream in clear mode. It is now streaming in the other mode”. The PC APP has the option to change quality by right-clicking the live video image and handles both quality settings no problem. There is a high data requirement at that “clear” setting and my PC is wired whereas the phone is of course on WiFi – regardless the quality in both APPs is great anyway and the camera itself is solid and reliable – and those floodlights can be BRIGHT.
While I’m here, the doorbell – same APP… of course a different aspect ratio… and fish-eye – but that’s fine for a doorbell…
The PC APP again has the right-click quality control and again you can view the doorbell in a web page – and you also have quality quality control in the web page – and it works…. I set the doorbell to it’s highest quality… which you can view on the Android APP – but here it is (below) on a WEB page..
And the PC APP…
One could have a field day with this – I need more cameras!!
Almost a full set of controls for both of my devices – I like it…
Here, the same scene on the Android APP…
Similar with a slightly more complete set of controls compared to the PC APP but of course on the latter you get better imagery.
So – good control, little lag, reliable – these are stand-out features of the Reolink products. The Reolink 4K Duo Panoramic WiFi Camera with Floodlights sells around 219 Euros at Amazon (amazon.es in my case) but also check Amazon in your area and of course the Reolink website. Not cheap but I’ve seen few other similar products with the same flexibility. Not all of us spend all our time on our phones – in the office I’m mainly on my PC.
SO – good camera with very wide angle 180 degree view without resorting to fisheye.
Excellent controls on the PC APP and on the Android APP.
Right – I’m on a roll now – the PC APP and browser view – viewing history recordings is easier than on any of the phone APPs I’ve used for different cameras.
I like this….
I expect if you disable hardware acceleration on your Android app you’ll be able to stream video at the highest setting. See https://support-d.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/900000587506-How-to-Enable-Disable-Hardware-Decoding-on-Reolink-Android-App?source=search
Hi Tim – many thanks for the feedback – I’d not noticed the “hardware decoding” setting in the Android App. Just tried that now – in “settings” in the APP main section – turning “hardware decoding” off… sure enough – slower frame rate but it now works at the highest quality setting – so it looks as if the phone is to blame not the camera – but at least now I have the choice. I’ve updated the blog accordingly (and fixed a few spelling mistakes – thanks). I’ve now turned the hardware decoding back on and selected the lower (still very high) quality setting. Nice to know.
Pete
Hi Pete,
A lot of security cameras want to “phone home” before they can be used.
Is it possible to access and operate this particular camera in complete isolation to the internet – i.e. in a local only wifi network?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-65975446
I know you want to view footage remotely, but there are other ways to do that i.e. you don’t have to use the software as provided.
Hi Pete,
A lot of security cameras want to “phone home” before they can be used.
Is it possible to access and operate this particular camera in complete isolation to the internet – i.e. in a local only wifi network?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-65975446
Watching BBC is marginally better than the daily mail. I’m on 4G broadband so no fixed address so no tradional VPNs. If anyone thinks the Chinese are out to get them, a simple solution is a guest network. Put cameras etc on that. I’ve not yet checked if the Reolink products need a phone home but to work from any arbitrary device externally I suspect yes.
Yes, they are cheap and they all “phone home” for a reason.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/china-cctv-uk-government-offices-national-security-b1086248.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/08/britain-to-remove-chinese-surveillance-gear-from-government-sites
Nice theory but firstly, these aren’t cheap – secondly, “law allows Beijing authorities to demand to see footage taken from ‘sensitive’ UK government sites” – Doesn’t the US government do exactly the same thing.. and most likely The UK government for all I know. Not sure why I’d want to monitor a home security camera while I’m at home. If you know better – please – feedback welcome. Local operation here – https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003452893-How-to-Access-Reolink-Cameras-NVRs-Locally-via-Web-Browsers/#:~:text=Input%20the%20IP%20address%20of,click%20Install%20to%20install%20it.
I accessed the camera with my Internet disconnected. I hope that helps.
I’m a long-time Reolink user, but their history with the Windows client is appalling. They frequently release updates that break even the most basic functionality. For example, a recent update lost the ability to select the calendar in the playback menu to choose which day’s recordings you want to view.
A recent iOS update also screwed-around with image scaling and still isn’t fixed.
Having said that, their hardware is well made and I’ve not had any issues with reliability.
Choosing to buy-in to the Reolink ecosystem is a bit like choosing Apple over Android though. Yes, you can web and RTSP streams, but to get the most out of the cameras you need to use the Reolink app/client, and unfortunately you can’t add feeds from other ONVIV cameras into the app.
Do you know if this one has an RTSP stream of both cameras stitched together? I remember the older Duo cameras had two separate RTSP streams for each camera, which makes doing AI object tracking in an external NVR like Frigate really annoying.
No I don’t – I’ve just used both the Windows and Android APPs and the Web Page version in Windows up to now.
No I don’t – I’ve just used both the Windows and Android APPs and the Web Page version in Windows up to now.
I found this.. https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/900000630706-Introduction-to-RTSP/
Hi Pete, I have the doorbell and the Duo 2 (without the floodlight) and in the PC app, if I right click on the video image itself I get the option to choose the video quality. I’m still getting my cameras set up here, but so far I really like them.
Kevin
AH, thank you for that, Kevin – Updating the blog now – appreciated.