Amcrest Doorbell

Have some questions or having issues with your IP Camera(s), Post them here for the mods and other users to assist you with.
GaryOkie
Posts: 418
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2020 7:23 pm

Re: Amcrest Doorbell

Post by GaryOkie »

The AD110 is indeed very unusual in how motion alerts are transmitted. It has the "standard" VideoMotion event *always* enabled which is what practically every 3rd party app will subscribe to for recognizing motion on Dahua/Amcrest cameras. However, SmartHome ignores VideoMotion events and apparently only responds to ProfileAlarmTransmit + AlarmLocal events which are triggered by the PIR and associated range/sensitivity filters. I am unsure how the blue motion detection zone grids factor into the SH motion alerts, as they are not normally a filter that can be used by PIR's. I suspect these grids do apply to the VideoMotion filtering only, which SH doesn't even use. This may explain why SH alerts for (PIR) motion outside this zone can occur.

3rd party software such as BI, HA, and SSS need updating to recognize these AD110 Alarm events to support the PIR. Otherwise, they will continue to be inundated with pixel-change based VideoMotion events. They also need updating to recognize the "CallNoAnswered" event to recognize doorbell presses.
vixhex
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2021 12:07 am

Re: Amcrest Doorbell

Post by vixhex »

Well, the Amcrest app finally went bonkers the last few nights and now it too alerts on every little bug or debris that moves around when night vision is enabled. I have basically now turned the motion detection off and use it only for when someone pushes the button.

On top of that, the app is a wreck in general, I had a few bugs in to amcrest support for months and they just closed the ticket with no explanation... Here was the last message I sent
..

Thanks for the update. So the original issue I reported of when you change a video quality setting in the synology software it breaks the ability of the amcrest camera to record video WITH audio to the SD card is something synology will have to fix?


As for the other three problems, I'm sorry but there is no way to show what I'm describing via a screenshot. Just follow my written examples and you'll see what I mean.

1. Go to the events page, pick a video, play back the video for a few seconds and then pause it. Then pinch the video to zoom in. It only zooms to the center of the video and you can't drag your finger around to see other parts of the video. This renders the playback function nearly useless.

2. go to the events page, pick a video, play the video for a few seconds and then pause it. In my case I want to pause it when a car pulls up in my driveway. Once paused the little zoom icon (magnifying glass looking at mountains) appears in the bottom right corner of the video. Tapping that button should make the frame that I paused the video on go full screen and sharable or downloadable with the share or download option. Instead of showing the frame that the video is paused on it shows the first frame of the video where motion was detected. Most of the time that frame isn't the one I'd like to share so I should be able to play the video to the frame I want to share, pause it, press the zoom button and share it.

3. multi view does not save. Go to devices, pick a camera, select multiview add up to 4 cameras. Exit to the home screen of the app, go back in to a camera and select multi view and the other cameras are gone.

Am I crazy or are these basic things that every surveillance app should have?

Ps to the previous poster who asked about my roku camera viewer app settings, I tried all of them and no matter what it causes the doorbell cam to crash and have to be reset. Gave up on that.
EddieColeslawski
Posts: 27
Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2020 2:08 pm

Re: Amcrest Doorbell

Post by EddieColeslawski »

I'm with you @vixhex the hardware is great, but the software leaves a little to be desired. Honestly, I would be willing to pay a nominal fee for better software and app support. For example, my wife can't use talk back on any of the cameras I have 2-way audio setup because she has Android devices and she echos horribly when she tries, which makes her regularly nag "we should have just got the Ring". It looks like they didn't build echo cancellation into their Android app for whatever reason, which I would think would be rather basic, but what do I know. iOS, however, has echo cancellation and 2 way audio works great. As a matter of fact, I have an IP8M-2493E dome camera and I laid the external mic ON TOP OF the external loudspeaker when I was testing with my iPhone, and no echo at all whatsoever, sounded great!
jack7
Posts: 904
Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:46 pm

Re: Amcrest Doorbell

Post by jack7 »

vixhex wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 7:02 pm ...
1. Go to the events page, pick a video, play back the video for a few seconds and then pause it. Then pinch the video to zoom in. It only zooms to the center of the video and you can't drag your finger around to see other parts of the video. This renders the playback function nearly useless.

2. go to the events page, pick a video, play the video for a few seconds and then pause it. In my case I want to pause it when a car pulls up in my driveway. Once paused the little zoom icon (magnifying glass looking at mountains) appears in the bottom right corner of the video. Tapping that button should make the frame that I paused the video on go full screen and sharable or downloadable with the share or download option. Instead of showing the frame that the video is paused on it shows the first frame of the video where motion was detected. Most of the time that frame isn't the one I'd like to share so I should be able to play the video to the frame I want to share, pause it, press the zoom button and share it.
...
What I would do on my Samsung tablet for problem 1&2 in SmartHome app.  Other android/ios device methods may differ.
1.  Pause video, go to full screen, and tap screen 3 times. Then use two fingers to zoom and move around screen.
2.  Pause video, go to full screen, take a screenshot(For me, a side of hand swipe left of screen to right), then save or share.
vixhex
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2021 12:07 am

Re: Amcrest Doorbell

Post by vixhex »

Thanks jack7, unfortunately you can only pan around the image after zooming on while the video is playing. You can't play it to a certain point, pause, and then zoom in on anything other than the center. You can hit play again, quickly pan around and then try to pause it when your subject enters the frame.

Either way, the software is pretty unrefined but I guess that's what we get for buying products that nowadays are essentially loss leaders for paid subscription models and software services. I guess I need to refine my expectations.

On another note out of nowhere my cameras no longer show thumbnails in the events tab. I give up.
TheUsualSuspect
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2020 2:44 pm

Re: Amcrest Doorbell

Post by TheUsualSuspect »

TheUsualSuspect wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2020 4:19 pm Ok, last update from me for a while . . .
Gave it a year.... the Amcrest AD110 is bye bye. Changed to the DoorBird D101S. It is a little choppy as the frame rate is lower, and I cannot view the doorbell in the Amcrest View Pro (have to use the Blue Iris App), but these downsides are small prices to pay for absolute stability and much better responsiveness of the PoE wired LAN solution.
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Revo2Maxx
Site Admin
Posts: 5820
Joined: Sat Jun 15, 2019 3:05 pm

Re: Amcrest Doorbell

Post by Revo2Maxx »

Yeah I hope that 500 brick with 720p picture gives you what your looking for. The AD410 that is a 4mp camera is out and I am not sure why or what the problem you were having with your AD110 but there is no way that I would be going to a DOORBIRD from Amcrest Doorbell just because the camera has POE there is no way it would be worth 500 to go back to 720p video.

Wish you luck with your new Doorbell. Crazy they offer it with Wifi built in if it is POE why would someone want Wifi?
Here to help the best I can.
Be Safe
TheUsualSuspect
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2020 2:44 pm

Re: Amcrest Doorbell

Post by TheUsualSuspect »

One, I bought it used for $100. Two, an offline disconnected camera displays black that looks worse in 4MP than a functioning connected 720p live stream.
TheUsualSuspect
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2020 2:44 pm

Re: Amcrest Doorbell

Post by TheUsualSuspect »

I got my DoorBird ("DB") up and running. The image admittedly not as good, but it is not that bad. I have attached before and after shots. The biggest difference is that DB is "fisheye" to give a wider view. I have other cameras to capture license plates, this only needs to be sharp enough so I can recognize faces, and both cameras meet this criteria. The upside to the lower resolution and wired ethernet makes it much faster response time. From doorbell push to notification is under a second. As a bonus, The Amcrest camera failed to load 80% of the time, and the rest of the time it took 5 seconds to load. I took the door chime kit off my doorbell, as DB gets PoE so doesn't need it, and simply rings the inside doorbell by connecting two pins simulating a button press. Also, DB now remotely opens my electronic lock on my gate with another relay. This is purely a bonus, but it it pretty sweet. DB NEVER LOSES CONNECTION—EVER—and works very well with Blue Iris. In short, I wish I went with this solution from the beginning. This is an Amcrest forum, so to Amcrest: please check out your competition and consider making a PoE solution. I wanted to go with you and would have paid a premium if you had the same features and your better camera.
Attachments
Doorbird.png
Doorbird.png (503.87 KiB) Viewed 2188 times
After—Doorbird.png
After—Doorbird.png (1.26 MiB) Viewed 2188 times
Before—Amcrest.png
Before—Amcrest.png (1.48 MiB) Viewed 2188 times
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