360 video doorbell (videobell)? Really? Is camera necessary? What about battery life? Is it wireless anyway? 360 Corporation has released new video doorbell that I will review now. Model number is: D819. Check 360 Smart Video Doorbell review out. As always I’m telling the truth about the product.
Package
Box contains 5000 mAh doorbell, mount with 3M VHB tape, guide sticker (so you know where you should drill (of course you can just use 3M tape)), base station (it’s WIFI signal amplifier and speaker), user guide, USB cable (to charge the videobell), screws kit and disassembly tool (like the one in smartphones for SIM cards). There was also EU plug adapter (sits very good, it’s not a cheap one).
Doorbell has pretty big chargable 5000 mAh battery and it’s waterproof. Quality feels Xiaomi-like – it’s very good. The length of doorbell is 15.1 cm, width is 6.1 cm and depth 3.2 cm so it’s not the smallest doorbell.
Installation
First of all you need to download 360 mobile application. You will find QR code in manual. It redirects to Google Play, so I think there’s only Android version.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.qihoo.camera
Then you need to register new 360 account, add new device (video doorbell of course), plug in base station and press the SET button to pair the device. Then just follow instructions to finish pairing base station with doorbell.
Doorbell itself can be installed using screws or 3M tape (the best height is 1.4 m).
To remove doorbell from the mount you need to use disassembly tool (or something similar like small screwdriver)
Functions
What does it do? Why is it better than normal doorbell without camera? Well, there we go:
- Visitor identification – doorbell can recognize visitors. It actually works, but do you really need this? I don’t.
- Lingering alert – when someone lingers at your door, you can receive an app notification – that’s pretty cool. Basically it records short videos (up to 36 seconds in my case) when someone walks or stays behind your doors. You can watch these videos (that are saved in encrypted cloud storage and MicroSD card) later using your smartphone. You can also share these videos (to Google Drive for example).
- Visitor video call – you can see a person and talk with him using your smartphone. Yep, that’s useful. It’s like intercom with camera.
- Disassembly alarm – when someone will disassembly the doorbell, then it will sound an alarm (very loud) and you will receive an app notification. You need to turn this off before charging your doorbell!
- Live view – yes, you can watch live video from your doorbell (sic!) anywhere in the world using smartphone. You can use zoom in function in live view (it’s zooming in pretty good). You can also talk to smartphone and doorbell will sound with your voice (scare your neighbour! :D)
- LED light around the button – it lights up when someone is near the doorbell or press the button. You can turn this off in options.
Video and sound quality
Videos are saved in cloud storage (only latest 48 hours is free! Good enough…) and micro SD card (inserted into base station (indoor)). It uses H.265 codec. Video resolution is 1536x1376px and there’re 20 FPS.
Video quality is very good at night and day. I think it’s equal to Xiaomi IP cameras or even better. This doorbell supports HDR and the screen automatically adjusts according to ambient light. It also automatically turns on night vision when it’s very dark. It has 162 degree lens – that’s really wide-angle camera. Picture has some distortion, but it’s more important to see more in doorbell cameras.
I will post some photos, but I have resized them:
Video quality is more than enough, seriously. The sound quality is very good (it’s like talking through smartphones). Sound in doorbell base is loud enough.
As I said before it uses great video codec which is H.265, so files should be small and good quality. Let’s see. Here is content of micro SD card:
After opening “date folder” we can see “hour folders”:
and then raw video files:
Here are video file properties from MPC-HC application:
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42
File size : 661 KiB
Duration : 8s 209ms
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 659 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2019-08-11 12:02:45
Tagged date : UTC 2019-08-11 12:02:53Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main@L4@Main
Codec ID : hvc1
Codec ID/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Duration : 7s 999ms
Bit rate : 625 Kbps
Width : 1 536 pixels
Height : 1 376 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 1.116
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 20.003 fps
Original frame rate : 20.000 fps
Minimum frame rate : 11.628 fps
Maximum frame rate : 37.037 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.015
Stream size : 610 KiB (92%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2019-08-11 12:02:46
Tagged date : UTC 2019-08-11 12:02:53Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 8s 209ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 45.4 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 3 900 Mbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel(s)_Original : 1 channel
Channel positions : Front: C
Sampling rate : 16.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 45.4 KiB (7%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2019-08-11 12:02:46
Tagged date : UTC 2019-08-11 12:02:53
1 minute of video is 4.8 MB – nice. 32 GB micro SD card (30 GB real capacity) is enough for 104 hours (a little more than 4 days) of video material (it’s recording only when someone is staying or passing next to doorbell, so I think 32 GB microSD is enough).
Disadvantages
- Battery – it’s 5000 mAh, but I think it’s not enough. It’s 63% after 3 days! Maybe that’s because I was testing it and watching live view or saved videos pretty often. You can change settings to “low battery mode” (it will save battery life, but it may not record all actions (or it will record too short amount of time)). You can also change monitoring range (near (1 m) -> medium (2 m) -> far (3 m)) – I’ve had 3 meters setting when testing it. You can also disable “Human motion detection”. That should increase battery life.
- GPS has to be enabled when pairing with base station – why? You don’t need to enable GPS while using application though.
- Temperature range is -5 to 45 Celcius. It may be even -20 Celcius in my country, so…
- High risk of theft
- The doorbell is fair-sized (but how it can be smaller if we got 5000 mAh battery and good camera)
To be honest I think it’s better idea to use normal doorbell without camera in line with IP camera if you live in house, but if you like gadgets or you live in apartment then go for it! Price? Not great not terrible: https://couponsfromchina.com/2019/08/07/360-d819-smart-camera-doorbell-coupon-price-gearbest/
My score: 7/10