I’ve read the plan types summary but I still don’t understand them for what I need. Maybe someone can help me.
I have v2 and v3 cameras, I didn’t enroll in cam plus lite.
I have SD cards for continuous recording in all of my cameras.
What I have set up is a front porch for example, detection zone for movement. I don’t need person detection. For movement (even if it’s a squirrel) I want to get notified on my phone and have the whole event recorded on my sd card to look at. The event recording will likely show a 12second video (it used to anyway) but I can go back in the recorded timeline on my sd card if I want to dig deeper.
Have the plans changed to do all this with free service? Does it all still work like this? I don’t understand that discussion about cam plus lite and thumbnails etc.
If you were seeing 12 second videos you were NEVER viewing your SD card. The videos under “Events” are the cloud based videos ONLY. If you want that to continue you need to sign up for “Lite”.
If you are okay using SD recordings (and they can/will be longer than 12 seconds) you can play them with View Playback after opening a particular camera’s live stream.
Ok, so I was using the cloud all along to see the detected event (that was letting me preview 12s). So what’s changing is those are now showing thumbnails only, and I can still drill down and view the whole thing using the sd card’s continuous recording?
Under free, I’ll still get unintelligent object detection, app notifications, the ability to see the sd card recording but just an unhelpful thumbnail preview ?
The Free Thumbnail base plan has no AI and no cloud video storage. Just a notification of movement and a snapshot on the events tab.
The CamPlus Lite, for whatever you feel like paying for it, adds 12s clip cloud video storage for any detection event you set saved for 14 days and also Person Detection AI
CamPlus adds full length video recording stored to the cloud for 14 days plus Vehicle, Package, and pet detection.
CamPlus Pro is the whole enchilada.
If you are unsure of what you want (what you loose if you opt out) during your 14 day trial of CamPlus, you can take the cam off of CamPlus and try it on basic and\or CamPlus Lite before the end of the trial and make a decision from there. The trial subscription will still be there till it expires and you can always reassign that cam back to the trial license.
EDIT: Yes, with SD continuous record the original video will always be there until recorded over based on your SD size and video quality.
The web browser view is something I’ve been interested in. Is that available on Cam Plus for $15 a year? Is that per camera only? I’m surprised there isn’t a home bundle price for an accounts unlimited amount of camera for that home for pro or pro plus.
That depends on what you want out of your particular setup.
I have both. HMS and 12 cams all with CamPlus.
All the CamPlus plans are specific to each and every Cam you have. Not the Home Monitoring (HMS)
The HMS is more of a home security and alarm system with professional off-site monitoring with a living breathing person (Noonlight) who will text you and call you and then the police if they can’t reach you.
Cams only (no HMS), with or without CamPlus, are more ‘self monitoring’.
Cams are NOT required for the HMS but are simply another layer that can be integrated with it. Cams CANNOT trigger an alarm on the HMS, only sensors can do that. The cams you add to the HMS are scheduled to have special features added in the future, but they are not live yet. You can add up to 5 cams into the HMS but they have limited additional functionality at this point.
The HMS does come with one free CamPlus license for one cam - included with the home monitoring license.
The WebView comes with every CamPlus license. Each licence is for one cam. So if you pay for 5 CamPlus on 5 Cams, those 5 will be in the WebView window. There is no additional charge for WebView beyond the CamPlus license on each individual cam. Be aware though. WebView is only in Beta development so it is still being tested and tweaked.
When I mentioned SD, I meant the SD card. However it does raise a point. If you record continuous to the SD Card, you will get twice the recording time (length of video end to end) by recording in SD quality rather than HD quality.
In fact, there is an Unlimited plan for CamPlus with annual $99 or monthly $9.99 for 99 licenses… IF it is still being offered. That is what I am on.
If you are interested, try this link from a post from @carverofchoice, one of the best Mavens I have found in the forum!
Also, I am not very familiar with CamPlus Pro as I don’t have it. So, not sure how that works with hardware… @WildBill posted above, he probably has better info than me.
Lot of good info posted by others above, but the short answer is yes. The longer answer is you can also get back what you had - free 12 second clips - by signing up for Lite at $0.
