NEST Camera Support

[TexARC]

I like the nest cameras but hate the monthly costs. Searched here and did not find: Does BI support Nest Outdoor Cameras?

[MikeBwca]

Search for 'Nest'. There are several posts.

[TimG]

Hi TexARC,

We all hate monthly costs, which is why we are here. The problem with cameras like Nest and Wyze, is that they are designed to be locked in to a proprietary monthly cost system, and while they may work with BI this month, that may stop following a future firmware update to the camera.

I would advise you to look for cameras with standard protocols such as Onvif, or to ask people here what they are using. A standard NVR has many advantages over a monthly cost cloud system, and Blue Iris has many advantages over a standard NVR.

I haven't looked at Nest cams recently, but I would be very surprised if they have an outdoor cam that can see in the dark as well as my Dahua cam, and the bad guys do have a habit of doing bad stuff in the dark !

[TexARC]

Thanks, TimG - yes, you are right. Santie Clause has brought me a very nice PTZ with optical zoom that I need to install and it looks like I'll definitely need BI to make it work, once I get it installed properly. The Nest cams are very handy for ease of installation and wifi connection, but when they got bought out by google they arbitrarily forced every camera to display a blue LED light. This announces to anyone "casing the property" at night to see where the cameras are so as to avoid them. GOOG removed the ability to turn off that LED. That invalidated their contract with me, but since they won't take back the five I have I would love to be able to utilize BI to not "brick them". I did search for "nest" up here but aside from the doorbell version didn't see anything that was assuring about BI's ability to incorporate their feeds. Since I am getting BI anyway, I think, I'll have to be a guinea pig/beta if necessary. I can imagine there are *a lot* of people like me that got suckered into Nest, only to have goog buy them out and change the rules on us. <shrug> I'm curious about whether they can screw around with my cameras if I am not subscribed with them - probably they retain some way to mess me up regardless....

[TexARC]

Merry Merry, Tim ! I noticed in another thread that you are able to use Blue Iris with a Nest DoorCam? How difficult was the software installation/configuration, and how do you like it? I actually bought a Nest door camera but since I don't have an already-installed 12v doorbell installation, and I have several choices for where to install it (ground floor, third floor main entrance, elevator door entrance ground floor, etc. I have been delaying doing anything further with anything to do with Nest having cancelled all subscriptions once I realized the full cost of FIVE/SIX cameras. They do not even have a "multiple" discount - thppptt! I guess the primary questions are does BI enable realtime notices of someone at the doorbell, or is it just a recording of what came and went some time prior? Appreciate your sharing. And hope Santie Clause was very good to you. I can peek under the tree and see this: .

[TimG]

Hi TexARC,

Must be another Tim ! I don't have any Nest gear at my house, and have posted about how they actually attracted thieves in my area - they were looking for these £150+ devices and then removed them all on the same night. The amusing fact was that NONE of them got any video of the device being removed.

We do seem to have an odd issue on this forum where somebody will claim they have one of these locked down devices working fantastically, but they never respond to our standard request to explain their settings.

My personal thoughts on ptz cameras, are that they will always be looking the wrong way when something happens. They are excellent for a good look around, but can't replace multiple fixed cameras.

As we say in England, "Bah, humbug"

[HeneryH]

You could sell the Nest cameras on a reseller market.

Any use of Nest with BI will be a hack at best and you would still need to keep your subscription going because all of the current hacks make the cloud Nest service act like the actual camera. You stream from Nest Service not stream from Nest Cameras.

[TimG]

You stream from Nest Service not stream from Nest Cameras.

Wow ! Good info

[HeneryH]

and worse, you need to set your cameras to share publicly so that you can get a URL.

[TimG]

does BI enable realtime notices of someone at the doorbell, or is it just a recording of what came and went some time prior?

I would expect the latter. My personal take on the doorbell and camera is to keep them separate. My Homeseer installation can easily monitor the existing doorbell - presently done with an old X10 device - and a simple door camera can be used in the place of a door spy hole for Blue Iris. Homeseer could then send a message and picture to my phone.

Nothing for the thieves to get excited about, but plenty of info for me !