UniFi Protect vs REOLINK NVR

GeX

GeX

GeX

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Joined
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Location
Manchester
I'm looking at overhauling my Dad's camera system, I installed it about 20 years ago and it uses analogue cameras and a very old school CCTV DVR.

I have a UniFi setup, it made sense for me as I already had a UniFi gateway and multiple APs - so it was low friction to just add some cameras.

For a new system tho, as would be required for my Dad's house - I'm looking at REOLINK, but I have no experience with their software stack.

Price wise, the REOLINK system works out cheaper and with higher resolution cameras.

UniFi
Cloud Gateway Max plus 1TB SSD - £279
8 Port PoE switch - £102
uvc-g5-bullet PoE, 2K, £125
uvc-g5-turret-ultra PoE, 2K, £95

Total: £601

REOLINK
RLN8-410, 2TB, 8 PoE port NVR, £220
RLC-810A-Bullet, PoE, 4K, £73
RLC-833A-turret, PoE, 4K, £85

Total: £385

Functionality wise, he just wants something that will be always recording - log motion events but not notify. Can then review the timeline if anything has happened. This is easy to do in UniFi Protect (it's what I do).
What does this look like for REOLINK, I read their cloud stuff doesn't work if you use a local NVR - but don't know if that matters.

There's very little chance this will be linked to Home Assistant (I do actually do that on mine, and also have some REOLINK cameras connected to UniFi Protect too). I do not think he'd get any value of the rest of the UniFi stack and am aware he could get a CloudKey+ but that's still £238, and is an older product now).

So I guess what I'm getting at, what is REOLINK's ecosystem like and how parent friendly is it. I don't want to be on call for issues, it needs to just work like the existing one has done for so long!

I can see that the headline spec of the REOLINK cameras are 4K vs 2K on the UniFi ones - but also understand there's more to it than sensor resolution, how do the cameras actually compare?
 
Let’s get this out of the way, Unifi’s camera range is still over priced and not upto Hikvision standards in terms of physical build quality, or image and the lack of full colour in low light sucks. You’re paying tomorrows prices for many year old tech.

With that in mind, why not use decent 3rd party cameras with Unifi NVR? It’s not like you want notifications or analysis, so it seems a no brainer.
 
As someone who owns Ubiquiti cameras, I don’t know why you would buy them if you didn’t own other products in the ecosystem first.

But the Reolink cameras unless you also want to buy some APs and other Ubiquiti kit and manage it for your dad.

Alternatively look at a ‘proper’ CCTV brand like HIK because you can reuse the existing analogue cabling with new digital cameras and NVR.
 
Avalon said:
With that in mind, why not use decent 3rd party cameras with Unifi NVR? It’s not like you want notifications or analysis, so it seems a no brainer.
Click to expand...

I was considering this, with the hope that once setup that it will "just work".

b0rn2sk8 said:
As someone who owns Ubiquiti cameras, I don’t know why you would buy them if you didn’t own other products in the ecosystem first.

But the Reolink cameras unless you also want to buy some APs and other Ubiquiti kit and manage it for your dad.

Alternatively look at a ‘proper’ CCTV brand like HIK because you can reuse the existing analogue cabling with new digital cameras and NVR.
Click to expand...

As someone who also owns them, it's why I began to question using them in a new installation :D

I don't think he'll get any value of the dashboards and posh looking APs - so don't think that'll ever happen.

I'm not fussed about re-using the existing cabling, I don't even know that it would be suitable. istr it being basically composite signal, with power injected into - I don't recall exactly, but it it's easy enough to access and replace.
 
Could also look at the Tapo range?

I have the 4K solar cameras, they are really good. The new H500 hub, with an additional 2.5 Sata SSD drive, and a tablet. All local storaged. Can log 24/7 if you want, or just on activity. You can turn off notifications in the app. You can set different zones if you want for different things (like this zone for people, this zone for animals). It'll also (apparently) stitch footage together to track from one camera to the next.

If he just wants something to record and look at it, it ticks all the boxes.
A 1TB expansion will give (roughly) 20 days 24/7 recording for 4 cameras.

Total spends depending on what SSD you went for, but, would be around £274.97. And if a tablet was required, eventually, £544.97.
 
Last edited:
GeX said:
I'm looking at overhauling my Dad's camera system, I installed it about 20 years ago and it uses analogue cameras and a very old school CCTV DVR.

I have a UniFi setup, it made sense for me as I already had a UniFi gateway and multiple APs - so it was low friction to just add some cameras.

For a new system tho, as would be required for my Dad's house - I'm looking at REOLINK, but I have no experience with their software stack.

Price wise, the REOLINK system works out cheaper and with higher resolution cameras.

UniFi
Cloud Gateway Max plus 1TB SSD - £279
8 Port PoE switch - £102
uvc-g5-bullet PoE, 2K, £125
uvc-g5-turret-ultra PoE, 2K, £95

Total: £601

REOLINK
RLN8-410, 2TB, 8 PoE port NVR, £220
RLC-810A-Bullet, PoE, 4K, £73
RLC-833A-turret, PoE, 4K, £85

Total: £385

Functionality wise, he just wants something that will be always recording - log motion events but not notify. Can then review the timeline if anything has happened. This is easy to do in UniFi Protect (it's what I do).
What does this look like for REOLINK, I read their cloud stuff doesn't work if you use a local NVR - but don't know if that matters.

There's very little chance this will be linked to Home Assistant (I do actually do that on mine, and also have some REOLINK cameras connected to UniFi Protect too). I do not think he'd get any value of the rest of the UniFi stack and am aware he could get a CloudKey+ but that's still £238, and is an older product now).

So I guess what I'm getting at, what is REOLINK's ecosystem like and how parent friendly is it. I don't want to be on call for issues, it needs to just work like the existing one has done for so long!

I can see that the headline spec of the REOLINK cameras are 4K vs 2K on the UniFi ones - but also understand there's more to it than sensor resolution, how do the cameras actually compare?
Click to expand...
The G6 range is 4k and actually reasonably priced.

Other than that, if you dont need notifications I'd get the unifi nvr and 3rd party cameras; they're still going to be better than the UI cameras, but the software has come a long way and I personally think its great.
 
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