I hope that no one takes my sentence in an arrogant way. I just purchased a home, and honestly i am learning what set up is best. I purchased the WYZE doorbell and am very happy with it. I also purchased a V3 and a SD card. Then I looked around online and am seeing 8-12 Camera’s that record to a DVR for consistent recording. It seems like a lot more work setting up individual cameras and having to pay for each one monthly and what not. So, I would really like to know some opinions on why so I can make an informed decision myself. Thank you to anyone who responds.
For reliability and better security the NVR based system with battery backup wins,
Wyze cams are Not Security Cameras as they can be taken out by WiFi Jamming, Cloud Storage issues and power failures just to name a few.
If you can afford a DVR system you would be better off.
Each has their purpose. I have a both a fairly high end (consumer) security video system that has cameras that are wired for connectivity and power, and feed a NVR with 18 TB of disk storage. The NVR and most of the cameras are on protected power.
I also have about 40 Wyze cameras in and around my house - all with uSD cards set to continuous recording. For a serious security issue, the NVR is the absolute go to. The cameras are far better, and all are recorded 24x7 on the NVR. However, the Wyze cameras are far more convenient for a quick look, and much easier to place in oddball locations.
As bryonhu pointed out, ANY WiFi connected camera will NOT have the reliability of a wired camera.
Welcome to the Wyze User Community Forum @aintitbillie!
Answer in two words… Cost & Labor.
My 1953 home has no “Ethernet”. It wasn’t even a word back then. I have 27 cams with more planned. I’m not running POE to 27 cams for a CCTV DVR system. I would rather spend $35 a Cam and run them on my WiFi. While you will hear users complain, you will also hear users like me who now experience nearly 100% internet and Cam connectivity uptime. I will enter my cam and security system in a battle against any CCTV DVR system out there and come incredibly close to negligible difference on uptime and completely destroy it on cost and installation labor.
The only current threat to my uptime and connectivity right now is trusting that AWS won’t smoke a server.
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There is rarely anything sketchy going on around my neighborhood, so I use Wyze cameras as a security hobby. If I needed mission critical surveillance I would go with a wired NVR system. The Wyze App with Cam Plus or Cam Plus Lite make it very convenient to check on your residence when away.
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Cost, ease of installation and the ability to view footage remotely (I’m sure this is possible with NVR system as well, but not 100% sure).
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Thank you everyone I really do appreciate the input, I decided on the DVR system simply because the idea of security is kind of set it and forget it unless something happens. Yet to each its own. Now i really hate to show my ignorance here. But i understand 4 ex employees from amazon starting wyze security company. What i dont understand is the vacuums and headphones and watches and i mean again the vacuum is so confusing… Is this just an attempt to create everything needed for smart homes??
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Hey there… would you mind sharing what dvr setup you decided to go with?
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It was the previous intent for Wyze to disrupt the entire Home IoT industry with an array of interconnected home automation devices. However, after jumping into those very deep waters, they subsequently found out how hard it was to keep their head above the surface in such turbulent market conditions.
Since then, Wyze has reconsidered their “focus”. This year, 2023, was announced as being dedicated as “The Year of the Cam”, hence the termination of feature enhancements on any existing non-cam product and cancellation of all non-cam new project initiatives.
Wyze has indicated the 2024 is going to be focused on AI. So… another year of nothing but Cam development.
I don’t know what you term “a lot” 50? 100?
I’ve been Wyzed-up since early 2019, I’ve got 5 properties I “monitor” and probably another 5 or 6 “special” things going on that I set up cameras for at the drop of a hat. Right now I’ve about 35 cameras I look at frequently, at 5 properties, From 3 cameras monitoring my recently deceased MIL’s house, to the 11 on and in the house I’m currently sitting at.
Overall I’ve probably purchased 60 cameras with my own $$$ for my own use and have had less than 5 die. I try and keep 10% for “hot spares” so I don’t have to wait for shipping to replace 1.
Wyze has the low cost cameras that keep bringing me back.
They USUALLY do good for the customer.
It just takes some time.
For example they came out with web view that everyone was asking for from day 1.
Then they decide to improve it, but that took a long time.
To have DVR setups up at my various locations would have cost me a LOT more.
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I personally don’t like this decision to abandon the smart home. It’s forced me to abandon hope and move on to Home Assistant. I had hoped I could expand my smart home in the Wyze ecosystem, but since they’re abandoning that, I have to find a new place to meet those needs.
Wyze will still be my primary Camera and AI platform (ie: I have 40 Wyze cams, including 6 Floodlight Pros, and Cam Plus Unlimited, and no plans to change any of that), though the lack of integrated RTSP may require me getting a few from other companies too for both redundancy and automation capabilities. I still love Wyze, but I think they are making a HUGE mistake on abandoning expanding the smart home in general…the other things are like funnel that bring people in to their cameras. I didn’t come to Wyze for the cameras initially. I came to them for the Smart scale, and then saw that they had good affordable cameras that worked with Tiny Cam, which would give me free person detection and local storage. Had they not offered other things besides cameras, I would’ve never even looked at them.
I guess time will tell. It would be interesting to see their data/metrics on how 2023 compared to the previous couple of years and see if they had more sales, more new customers at the same rate as before, etc. It must be paying off for them since they’re planning to continue into 2024 without much expansion beyond cameras and AI though. It is true that is their specialty, so I can see their logic. I just selfishly wish they’d go back to rapid smart home expansion. It was exciting. I bought basically everything and loved increasing in the ecosystem…but for most people, there are only so many cameras they need before they are done. 
I’m the exception with buying tons all the time 
It must be working though since they’re doubling down on it for a second year. I look forward to seeing what they come out in the “year of AI” as they said in the AMA.
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I was very disappointed when Wyze decided this as well. I have already invested in other No-Neutral switches and will be buying an interconnected Smoke\CO detector system that is centrally monitored soon. I also have my eye on a half dozen Smart Ceiling Fans that I want to install. There are several brands out there with some strong offerings that aren’t Cams.
Wyze will still be my core for the Cams and AI, and the HMS, but there are so many other places I need IoT and Wyze has dropped the ball on those. Time to go to the backup QB.
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Yeah, exactly what I am thinking.
I have my eye on about 5 different non-neutral wire switches or relays I am considering during Black Friday, including the GE ones you use (which just barely dropped in price again). I’ll probably end up choosing a local functioning option through Zigbee or Zwave though. I haven’t looked at Smoke/CO yet. But as you said, I will keep using Wyze for HMS for the foreseeable future. It has saved me from leaks a bunch of times now, and I already have dozens of contact sensors that work very reliably and last forever and will still trigger a siren even if power or internet go out. I have no complaints on that end…though they should add FLPro cameras to the HMS security camera pre-alert group.
I’m not ditching any of my Wyze stuff, just not holding out hope that they’re ever going to do anything besides cameras/AI from now on…which is the thing I love the most from them anyway.
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