Whatever happened to vBulletin? That was peak forum software. Simple to use, no frills, and no bloated tracking shit.

All the car community forums are operated by Fora at this point, and they’re trying to push some bullshit AI assistant called “ForaFrank”. I blocked it on every car forum I’m a part of, and have encouraged others to do the same.

I just remembered that I have a Wyze Doorbell v1 flashed with Thingino sitting on my desk. It was going to be my next test before my wife vetoed Frigate (she gets final say if it replaces something she uses).

Pretty sure Thingino supports ONVIF. My FIL has a UDR with Unifi Protect, I can try it with that.

If Reolink doesn’t paywall basic feature, I might consider that. Mainly concerned about a functional “it works without fucking around” 2-way audio and doorbell.

have you considered the G4 wifi doorbell?

Yes I have. Cheapest one on eBay right now is over $350. MSRP when new is $200, and Unifi has apparently discontinued them.

I’m not going to be storing 24/7 footage outside of important motion detection instances, which we can just download to our phones or whatever if it’s important enough to hold onto. Everything else can be recorded over.

When I was testing Frigate, I ran a single camera storing 24/7 footage specifically to see how long it would go for. I think it used 100GB after a week or so. Multiply that by 6, that’s, well, 600GB. But I’m also not super concerned with having crystal clear footage at all times (Ring set my expectations really low), and even 1366x768 @ 20-30 FPS is more than plenty for what we need.

For the doorbell, I’d use a proper doorbell cam that can use the existing wires for power.

That’s how my current Ring doorbell is connected.

Reolink’s wifi one comes with an adapter to use it with existing wiring.

I keep seeing Reolink pop up. Would a Reolink doorbell work with a Unifi NVR? I’d rather have a G4 wireless, but that’s very likely to not happen.

Only thing id note though is you probably want some kind of SSD for the camera storage.

Good idea.

I’m going to be running this with Unifi cameras.

Regarding the doorbell, one option you have is to try finding a second-hand Unifi G4 Doorbell (non-pro). It can be wired with only the two wires you already have. Just make sure you have relatively good 5GHz WiFi reception near your front door, because the 2.4GHz antennas on this model are notably bad.

I’ve been watching the wifi G4 doorbell like a hawk, it’s just perpetually sold out 😂 eBay listings aren’t any better, being even more expensive…