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I think many of us are suffering from subscription fatigue these days, and while a video doorbell can be a great addition to a smart home, too many of them require you to sign up to their own cloud service to access stored recordings. The Netatmo Smart Video Doorbell is a welcome exception.
I Use the Netatmo Smart Video Doorbell
I settled on a Netatmo Smart Video Doorbell which has been around for a few years, but still ticks the main boxes I want in a smart video doorbell.
Spec-wise, you get 1080p recording with HDR and infrared vision for better performance at night. The field of view is 140 degrees diagonal, which typically shows you a visitor from about mid-thigh to head even if they are standing in front of it. Most people take a step back after pressing the button, and then you can see all of them. It's waterproof to IP67 standards.
It's compatible with all the main smart home ecosystems: Apple's HomeKit, Google Home, and Amazon's Alexa.
The unit is a direct replacement for a wired doorbell and is powered by the same wires, so you don't have the hassle of recharging or replacing batteries. It's compatible with both mains-powered ones and low-voltage circuits with a transformer in the 8V to 24V range. This appears to cover the vast majority of hardwired doorbells.
Another key selling point for me is that it gives two ways of accessing stored video footage, neither of which required me to take out a new cloud service subscription.
Why You Need a Smart Doorbell
There are three main benefits to fitting a smart doorbell.
First, and most obviously, you can see who's at the door before you answer it. That's particularly useful in the age of online shopping. There are few things more annoying than the doorbell ringing at an uncivilized hour, struggling out of bed and into a robe, heading downstairs to open the door, only to find that the caller has left their package and gone—all the more so if they put a "we missed you" not through your letterbox!
Second, you can still answer the door when you're not at home. There's one-way video, from the doorbell to your smartphone, and two-way audio, so you can have a conversation with the visitor. This can be useful in a number of ways.
If you get a delivery while out, you can tell them where to leave it. If it's a suspicious-looking character, they will think you're home when you speak to them. And if it's a friend or family member arriving early, and you have a smart lock, you can even let them in remotely.
Third, the device doubles up as an external security camera. It can be triggered to activate recordings when it detects motion, or when a person is detected, whichever you prefer. Either way, you get instant alerts on your smartphone, whether you're at home or away.
If you spot someone suspicious, you can use the two-way audio capability to ask them who they are. If it's someone up to no good, hearing you speak to them through an apparent intercom will generally be enough to send them running!
Stored Video Footage Can Be Valuable
If the worst does happen, and someone commits a crime on your property, then it can be really helpful to have stored video footage available. Even if nothing happens at your own home, security camera footage can sometimes still be useful.
If a neighbor 's home is broken into, for example, the perpetrator may well have taken a look at other residences (perhaps being driven away from yours by spotting the camera), so you may well be able to provide valuable evidence.
There was even a case at my previous home where a serious crime took place further up the street, and police wanted to check whether my camera had captured footage of someone leaving the scene (sadly not, on that occasion).
As much as I wanted a camera that stored video clips, the one thing I didn't want was yet another cloud subscription. Many smart doorbells can only save video to the company's own cloud servers, but the Netatmo Smart Video Doorbell is different.
It has an SD card slot and can store footage directly to that. No subscription is necessary, and when the card is full, it just overwrites the oldest recording, so there's no maintenance involved. An 8GB card is included, but larger cards are not expensive these days, so you can swap it out for a larger one if desired.
Depending on how many visitors you get, and the size of the card you use, you'll typically have either weeks or months of video footage available.
You Can Still Have Cloud Storage if Desired
There is one drawback to local storage: a thief who is savvy enough to know the capabilities of particular products may know that footage is saved to a card inside the camera unit itself. If they steal that too, then they would take the evidence with them.
Netatmo guards against this by supplying a special security tool that is needed to remove the unit from the mount. But a thief could potentially have the right tool, or simply take it by force.
So the doorbell supports cloud uploads too, but instead of having to subscribe to a Netatmo service, you can use an existing Dropbox account. The only thing to note here is that while the SD card overwrites older recordings immediately, Dropbox will just keep adding to them. I go in around once a month to delete older recordings, keeping about a month's worth at a time.
Sadly, Netatmo had to cancel plans to support HomeKit Secure Video (another cost-effective cloud video solution) after it found the technical demands were leading to over-heating, so you can't use iCloud.
The Netatmo Smart Video Doorbell is available on Amazon. There are other smart video doorbells out there that don't require a subscription. These include the Reolink Video Doorbell Camera, the Google Nest Doorbell 2nd-gen (but you only get three hours of stored footage without a subscription), and the Blink Video Doorbell (but you need the Sync Module 2 and USB hub to enable local recording).
A smart video doorbell offers both convenience and security benefits and can be even more powerful when paired with a smart lock. You might also want to fit security cameras inside your home, though there are a number of issues to consider before doing so.