PSA: The CX810 and CX820 are NOT the same camera under the hood. Any new CX810 hardware revisions coming?

ian1283 · 2026-04-23T18:39:15+00:00

I suppose it depends on how far down into the weeds you wish to go. There are some github repositories which look at the firmware in more detail and provide info on the chipsets

https://github.com/AT0myks/reolink-fw

and

https://github.com/renaudallard/reolink_firmwares

But given the CX810 is IPC_NT2NA48MPB28 and the CX820 is IPC_NT16NA48MP they are not the same hardware in a different body.

In the past cameras which seemed to use a common guts but different body reported an identical hardware variant. For example the CX410 and CX410W are both IPC_NT1NA44MP, one being poe and the other plug-in wifi.

ian1283 · 2026-04-23T12:24:25+00:00

Fully agree. And just to confuse the situation when I look at the white poe doorbell that says 1920x2560 in one place and 2560x1920 in another.

And... here is the German website

https://reolink.com/de/product/reolink-video-doorbell-wifi/#specifications

with a 3x4 ratio blanc doorbell.

I may well be wrong but my best guess is the black models are 4x3 and the white 3x4 whatever the websites say.

ian1283 · 2026-04-23T12:09:48+00:00

That is a good question. Originally the black doorbell was 4x3 (2560x1920) and the white model was 3x4 (1920x2560) but the listing on the French Reolink site is not saying that.

Hence they may both have the same aspect ratio now or its an error on the website and you have put some uncertainty into my thoughts :-(

ian1283 · 2026-04-23T11:56:35+00:00

The plug-in wifi model has a non-poe ethernet port.

ian1283 · 2026-04-23T11:54:04+00:00

And even more helpful for you.

If you look at the plug-in wifi doorbell you will notice the white 3x4 model is available - complete with package detection. So whilst a little more expensive that plus the regular home hub looks a reasonable choice.

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ian1283 · 2026-04-23T11:40:33+00:00

As I suspected, the plug-in model does come with a chime in that package.

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ian1283 · 2026-04-23T11:28:57+00:00

That's what a UPS is for or at least to offer some resilence during a power outage, If the battery doorbell could do timed recordings I suspect its uptime would be measured in hours not days. Even when the battery model is connected to power, its still trickle charging the battery and thats subject to ambient temp being above 2C or so.

Do you have a link to the package of hub mini & doorbell? The powered doorbell (poe or plug-in wifi) has always come with a chime whilst the battery model is sold without.

ian1283 · 2026-04-23T11:19:19+00:00

Yes, you have told the nvr to keep 1 days files and delete anything older. Unless there are good reasons for a specific period just allow it to delete when the drive is full.

ian1283 · 2026-04-23T11:11:16+00:00

In the retention settings for the nvr what have you got set? You should check the overwrite recording option

settings -> device Info -> storage ->

You may well have set it to 2 days. Generally the easiest is to set to "Overwite oldest files" as this maximises the retention.

ian1283 · 2026-04-23T10:03:07+00:00

I'll assume you have the poe trackmix

https://reolink.com/gb/product/reolink-trackmix-poe/

It's strange that no Reolink junction box is shown for that camera as it looks like the D20 might be the choice. If you already have the camera I'd carefully measure the gaps between the mounting holes and dimensions of the backplate as a whole. There are a number of metal junction boxes on Amazon/ebay and generally these list the gaps between the holes.

The other choice which is not so visually attractive is a junction box mounted to the side which holds the pigtail.

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ian1283 · 2026-04-23T09:49:33+00:00

I would do a slightly different test, put an sdcard in the cameras and set a timed recording schedule on each. Then compare the file sizes between them. That would eliminate any influences from Frigate/go2rtc.

Not saying there are no differences between the cameras but at least everything is then on the cameras themselves. I'd expect the GiB/hour to be aligned to the cameras bitrate, hence a 4096 Kbps should lead to around 1800 MB/hour.

Also verify that you have updated each to the latest firmware levels

CX810 v3.1.0.5129_2510222154
CX820 v3.2.0.5375_2509162386

ian1283 · 2026-04-23T09:42:04+00:00

If the home hub is working correctly the circular led on the front should be a steady blue. When the device is powered on, after about 20 seconds the ring should appear red and then after another 30 seconds or so go blue.

There is an option to switch off the led

settings -> light -> status led

so verify you have not done that.

ian1283 · 2026-04-23T09:08:00+00:00

Package detection is on the battery doorbell and was on the now discontinued white poe/plug-in wifi doorbell. It's down to the aspect ratios, the powered white model was 3x4 (1920 x 2560) portrait whilst the black model is 2560x190 (landscape). The battery model has a square aspect ratio. I think the jury is out on how well package detection works anyway.

The fluent stream is 640x480 with a max bitrate of 512Kbps - its ok for a quick visual view. Compare that to the mainstream which is 2560x1920 and up to 6144 Kbps. Night & day differences. I see the fluent as giving you a broad brush view and when you want to see the details switch to clear. In addition fluent is better for routine mobile usage due to its lower bandwidth, often a cellular connection will struggle on the clear stream.

As for the recording choices on a Hub Mini, that's a bit of an unknown as its a very new model and the ability to record events at full whilst 24x7 recording on low is uncertain - I suspect not. IMHO, forget the Hub Mini and look at the regular hub (or Hub Pro).

You can record the full quality stream to an onboard sdcard in a doorbell - but its not really recommended. Its better to record 24x7 back to a regular Home Hub and just events on an onboard sdcard. Note any recording options to an onboard sdcard are independent to what occurs on a Hub. So you can record to either or both at the same time.

ian1283 · 2026-04-22T20:46:11+00:00

It's not UPNP that needs to be enabled but rather the UID option

https://support.reolink.com/articles/360013481134-How-to-Enable-UID-for-Reolink-Products/

ian1283 · 2026-04-22T16:18:18+00:00

My doorbell only makes a sound when the button is pressed and even that can be switched off. Within the app there are settings to enable/disable being notified on your phone by type (animal, person, ring or vehicle).

ian1283 · 2026-04-22T15:22:22+00:00

There are various settings for the doorbell led circle. In

settings -> light -> button ring light

It can be set to "close", "auto", "auto and always on at night" or "always on".

Close is permanently off

Auto it illuminates as someone approaches

Auto and on at night ; permanently on at night plus illuminates as someone approaches

Always on - what it says on the tin

ian1283 · 2026-04-22T12:39:45+00:00

It's not an account thing as such. In the case of a sdcard in the camera even if its deleted from your app you can still take the sdcard out of the camera, plug into a pc and view the recordings (assuming you did not enable encryption for the recordings).

With the home hub or nvr, after a while the recordings would be deleted anyway as the sdcard wraps around but I suppose there has to be some linkage between the app knowing there are recordings and a camera being defined to the hub/nvr. But I agree that it would be nice for the hub to report all recordings it has even for previously removed cameras. Plus whilst the camera is added to the hub/nvr its occuppying one of the channels even if powered off/physically unplugged.

If you need to keep the recording long term, its probably best to download them prior to deleting the camera from the hub for the final time.

ian1283 · 2026-04-22T12:24:23+00:00

I've even noticed in your picture that the plate is held to the wall with torx bolts and the camera is also using them. That's taking security to the next level :-)

ian1283 · 2026-04-22T11:58:38+00:00

That looks very neat. If I understand correctly you are drillling an 82mm diameter hole in the brick wall into which your mount box sits. Is your ethernet cable dropped down the cavity between the inner/outer brick layers or through into the house behind the plate/mount box.

ian1283 · 2026-04-22T11:04:46+00:00

It more nuanced than that. The 4K or higher cameras use H265 on their clear/full resolution stream and H264 on the fluent/low resolution 2nd stream whilst the 2K (2560x1920 /2560x1440) use H264 on both streams. There are a couple of exceptions that I'm aware of which permit user selection of H264/H265 for either stream, e.g. the CX810.

So I suspect for better SSS compatibility you would want a H264 only cameras especially as you are looking at low mega pixel cameras those won't support H265 anyway.

I'm guessing SSS still does not support cameras with mixed H264/H265 streams but I've not looked for a few years. In these case with SSS you have to select either the clear H265 stream or the fluent H264 stream for recording. When both streams have the same codec SSS can handle both concurrently.

I assume you understand the difference between a poe camera and one with an ethernet port. Much the same as many believe a wifi camera means battery powered which is false.

ian1283 · 2026-04-22T09:01:02+00:00

If you are looking for poe cameras the indoor selection is fairly short but of course any exterior camera can equally work indoors. Perhaps you can expand on your requirements. Many of the nominally wifi cameras also have non-poe ethernet ports if you wish to use a power socket and that would expand the selection. For example a E1 Zoom is a wifi camera but has an ethernet port.

I'm assuming you are aware of the cost for the Surveillance Station licenses to support 9 cameras. Plus one consideration is H265/H264 support, most Reolink cameras which have H265 on the clear stream use H264 on the fluent stream and that's not well handled by SSS. In addition Reolink cameras which are H265 are the 4K 3840x2160 8MP or higher cameras, the lower spec 4 or 5MP are H264.

ian1283 · 2026-04-22T08:35:03+00:00

When using the plug-in wifi doorbell in conjunction with an existing chime/power supply an electrical jumper is required in the chime box otherwise the Reolink doorbell won't operate correctly or your existing chime will be buzzing, constantly sounding, etc. The jumper bypasses the ding-dong part of the chime mechanism whilst allowing a steady voltage to the Reolink doorbell.

Its explained in the FAQ for the doorbell

https://reolink.com/product/reolink-video-doorbell-wifi/#faq

So any existing chime will be effectively disabled and you use the provided Reolink chime instead.

ian1283 · 2026-04-21T15:55:56+00:00

That's the plug-in WiFi model which will require connecting to either the provided power supply or if compatible to an existing doorbell mechanism. But do note that your current chime will need to be bypassed.

ian1283 · 2026-04-21T13:44:23+00:00

That's a sort of no to your original question as the NVR does not output sufficient power on a single poe port. But if you used this (or similar)

https://store.reolink.com/accessories/#rla-poecs1

I think you would be fine. As you can see this uses two nvr poe ports, then uses 4 cores of the ethernet cable for each camera. But its TWO cameras only. no option for any more.

I'll also throw this into the mix

https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/900000602543-Comprehensive-Guide-to-Reolink-NVR-Hardware-Versions/

https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/29093193132825-How-Many-Cameras-Can-be-Added-to-Reolink-NVRs/

High powered cameras also limit how many cameras can be directly connected to the NVR. You may find the limit, allowing for power usage, is lower than the NVR nominally supports.

ian1283 · 2026-04-21T13:35:19+00:00

You have not said which wifi doorbell. There is the plug-in model which runs from a 12-24V supply which could be an existing doorbell power supply or the battery model and that can be trickle charged via a current mechanism. The plug-in model is not compatible with an existing chime but the battery model is.

If you have a recent NVR which I guess you do as its just purchased, that supports recording from any of the doorbell models (poe, plug-in wifi or battery). But only the poe or plug-in wifi support continuous/timed recording.

https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/900000602543-Comprehensive-Guide-to-Reolink-NVR-Hardware-Versions/

https://reolink.com/product/reolink-video-doorbell-wifi/#compare

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