Zmodo recently got in touch with me wanting me to check out their camera products. Zmodo is actually the brand of my PoE NVR system before I replaced it with my current Reolink setup. I’ll link that video of the upgrade in the description down below. So, I’m familiar with this brand and they have been making security cameras way before Wifi security cameras became popular. (28 sec)
They sent me their Greet Pro doorbell camera which includes a chime and an extender called the beam.
So, let’s check out the features.
It is a smart doorbell with a 1080P HD camera recording at 25 fps.
It has a 180° field of view.
It has night vision up to 16 ft.
It can connect to both 2.4 and 5 GHz WiFi
It has 2 way audio
It has a PIR motion sensor and will alert you of movement even if the person is not going to press the doorbell. It records to the cloud motion alerts for 36 hours for Free or subscribe for 5 dollars a month and you will get 24/7 recording to the cloud.
You can record your own voice message which is pretty cool instead of a generic message.
This camera comes with the Beam Wifi Extender which also acts as a digital chime.
Now, let’s open up the box.
We have some flyer here..
A window sticker…
A quick start guide
We have the beam which is a 2.4 Ghz WiFi extender and also a digital chime.
Then, we have the doorbell itself… the Greet Pro… which has some resemblance to Ring… like in between the original ring and the Ring Pro.
We have the rubber button, which has some positive feel when pressed. On the side is the speaker. At the back is the wall plate… On the other side I’m assuming is the mic or the speaker also. On the bottom is where the security screw will be screwed in…
The camera body is plastic…this camera is weatherproof with an IP51 rating…just minimize direct exposure especially to rain.
What else is inside the box…
We have some mounting screws.
We have a tool set here…
We have a drill bit
A level…
security screws.
We have a philipps screw and torx screw driver which is the same as what Ring includes on their cameras…so somebody copied somebody…
Then, we have the power accessory which is not necessary and is used if you hear a buzzing sound from your chime. This is installed in your doorbell chime just the same setup when you install the Ring Pro or the Nest Hello.
It is time to set up the camera …
First, if you haven’t done so download the Zmodo app from the app store or google play…
Click the Plus sign on the upper right coner..which gives you a screen of multiple options and can be confusing…so make sure you read the start guide. If you have the beam extender, you have to connect it first which the option is at the bottom of the page…
Click Tap here to begin setup… but first plug in the beam and make sure you are also close to your WiFi router.
Click on the Network that has AP ZMD on it..then go back to the app.
Now it will prompt you to choose your WiFi network and type in your password. It will connect to the network and finish the setup which can take a few seconds. Now we are able to see the beam on the list of devices.
Now, time to setup the Greet Pro. I have to do this a bit differently but the next step usually would be to install the doorbell using the doorbell hook up in your front door which I’ll also show later on but for now, I’ll use my AC transformer to setup the greet pro. (19 secs)
We have to click the plus sign on the upper right corner…and this time we will click the automatic option. Click the check button and the greet pro should be easily connected.
Then, we will just need to name the device and click done. You also need to type in a password so that the doorbell will be more secure.
Now, the setup is finished. You can then sign up for the cloud service which they have 3 options. The basic plan which is free, you will get alert clips for the past 36 hours which is a good thing that they offer this because I know Ring doesn’t have a free option and with the Nest, you will only get snapshots of the alerts for a few hours if you don’t subscribe. They have a 7 day plan for 5 bucks a month or 50 dollars a year which will give you 7 days of continuous recordings and also of alert clips storage. They also have the 30 day plan for 10 dollars a month or 100 dollars a year.
Let’s check out the settings and features of the app… on the main screen, on top you will see the modes of your devices where you can change the status of each of them in different situations. There’s Home, Sleep, Wake Up and Off modes. You can edit each of these modes which is basically changing the status of the devices on notifications and sharing either turned on or off…
On the bottom of the main screen, you will see the events tab where you will be able to view events like motion detection and when somebody pushes the doorbell footage.
On the greet pro tab itself there is the Live button where you can view the camera in real time. You can swipe left or right to view the whole 180° field of view and you will notice that you will not have the fish eye effect like what you get if you have the original Ring doorbell camera.
In this view, you can also record what you are seeing or take a snap shot…use the mic for 2 way communication and listen or mute the speaker.
You can also change the resolution to HD or LD which I think is low definition..anyways.. You can also have access to the playback which is basically a timeline of your recorded footage.
On the top right there is the gear icon for the camera settings where you can turn on or off the microphone or the chime. You will also have the share tab and the cloud service. There is a 1 month trial of their cloud service which one benefit is the 24/7 real time recording; intelligent alerts and you can also access your recordings on the web from your computer aside from your phone’s app.
There is also the Ring alert which is if you want to schedule the notifications if when you want or not want to get notified.
Then we have the voice message where you can record your own message which you have an option to play instead of you talking to your visitors. I like this feature.
Then, we have the night vision where you can choose for it to be always off, auto and always on and the sensitivity to low, normal or high.
Then we have volume levels.
And the motion detection area where you can adjust the motion sensitivity and also adjust and modify the area where you want to get alerted if there is motion.
Time to install the Greet Pro in my front door. After you turn off the breakers and removed your old doorbell, just screw the 2 wires to the screws on the wall plate. Screw in the wall plate to the wall and hook up the main doorbell camera by aligning it with the tabs and slide it down and use the security screw to lock it in at the bottom of the camera.
Time to test out the features. First we are going to test how fast the motion alert notification is followed by pushing the doorbell and see if there is any delay especially up to the point of opening the app and answering the doorbell using the message option.
Next we are going to test the 2 way communication.
The recorded footage itself will only have the camera’s audio and not the phone’s side.
Now, night vision footage…
As to daytime footage, this camera doesn’t have HDR or WDR – high or wide dynamic range which causes the bright areas to be overexposed and the dark areas to be underexposed. To counteract this, zmodo has a brightness slider and when I initally set this up, this was the footage that I got where I was way underexposed. I have to play with the brightness setting on the app to have a balanced exposure especially near the door so that I will be able to recognize the people that rings the doorbell.
On this snapshot, it was a bit too much brightness and the lighted area is overexposed but I have a clear view of my face.
Eventually, I dialed it down to have more balanced exposure.
One thing I noticed though is that the cameraneeds some time to upload the footage to the cloud. So, if you get an alert which I did at 6:47, I will not be able to view it even after several minutes…and it will just say poor connection. Try again later…other past alerts I was able to view.
It took around 10 minutes before it was viewable from the cloud…so this is something to think about.
Overall, the zmodo greet pro is a good alternative if you are looking for a one time purchase doorbell camera without the monthly fees. You can just have their basic plan which gives you 36 hours of alert videos for Free. Compare this to the Ring doorbell or the Nest hello that to view recorded footage, you need to sign up and pay a monthlyor yearly fee.
Zmodo Greet Pro at Amazon – amzn.to/2LTiVJa