Door phone and camera

[okalautar]

Hello

I am looking for a door phone (Domoticz-capable of course) and also cameras for checking and recording outside the house. My first idea was to put them just under the roof, at the 4 corners of the house.

I was looking at Dahua for the door phone (VTO2000A + screen VTH + VTNS for POE) because it seems we can receive calls also on smartphones, so naturally also Dahua for cameras. If I understood correctly, this would allow to show camera on the door phone screen.
Ultimately (but that's a bit too far), ideal scenario would be to have this screen showing as well Domoticz dashboard ! But I don't know if this is reasonably possible. I would like it stable, not something we have to troubleshoot every two weeks because something changed somewhere... So I am doubtful it is possible, so just the Dahua solution (if I understood correctly how it is supposed to work) would be a good first step.

There are so many types of cameras that I don't know which one to pick.
Any help on this or indication of simple material resource would be helpful, as long as it is understandable. I don't even know the technical vocabulary.
Basically I want to see and record my garden, cameras moving, ability to record and notify if something happens...
Instinctively, I was more attracted to dome cameras because we cannot see where they are looking...
But I don't know much on the subject.

Everywhere I read, feedbacks seem generally quite positive about Dahua. The thing then is to pick the right model I need.

Thanks in advance for any feedback...

[lost]

Basically I want to see and record my garden, cameras moving, ability to record and notify if something happens...
Instinctively, I was more attracted to dome cameras because we cannot see where they are looking...

You can see where a dome camera looks, lens can be seen day and at night that's IR lights (when used, see later)! As well, if you intend to change the direction they look at, you'll most certainly be unable to use integrated movement detection (because movement detection areas are fixed & will not follow camera move).

Have only experience with some basic Dahua IP cams: IMO, better use 2 basic ones (or a single but wide angle/2.8mm) than 1 dome that'll have to implement costly IA functions (human/car detection...) to work reliably when cam lens move.

Also take care that so called "tripwire" settings that are embedded even in basic Dahua devices sometimes misbehave: Had some rare issues with on trigger reached and off was never met. So hours of continuous captures until I restart the cam... or another movement luckily triggers the end. So I sticked to usual detection zones & this does the job even outside if you can avoid trees & where light conditions may quickly change a lot (beware of sunny days with scattered clouds & wind!).

For outside use, as well, best is to avoid using IR light from the camera at night: This brings lots of flying insects (and spiders that hunt them... in front of IR & lens!) at night during winter. Dahua have some devices with good night sensitivity figures & time/aperture range tunables. I have a IPC-HDW2231TM-AS-S2 that really does a good job with IR off at night. This was a 50/55€ device when I purchased this one (may have increased) from aliexpress.

Otherwise, better use an external IR light that switches on at night than embedded one: Insects will not fly just in front of the cam!

Concerning Domoticz integration, you'll only have the capture URL... but this URL triggers captures as well on FTP/mail if the feature is used on Dahua cams! So better avoid using it. Main video stream is rtsp and domoticz does not support it as well as web browsers (OK with VLC), but usually you can also setup a secondary (lower quality) mjpeg stream that can quite easily be integrated in a Domoticz custom page for LAN/local use.

From an Android device, Ojo does a very good job to monitor main rstp streams: This app use vlc libraries IMO better than VLC itself. Easy setup as a wall of cams, very quick to get video feeds (VLC, even on PC, that's >10s to sync up after launch). Really the best I found.