Review: The Roku Interior Camera misses the local video storage point

A few years ago, Roku licensed home security technology at Wyze in Wyze to create a set of cheap security cameras. Rocco’s decision can bring some new magic to Wise or more of the same. It turns out that the Roku Indoor SE camera is less than the same because the local video storage is unknown from the Roku Smart Home app.

If you do not mind paying for a cloud plan to unlock its best features, Roku Indoor Camera SE technology is a somewhat strong option for $ 20. But mandatory subscriptions do not make cameras at reasonable prices. Otherwise, consider skip the Roku cameras to get a real budget competitor from Tapo, EUFY or Wyze.

Price, availability and specifications

Roku Indoor Se camera for $ 20 in Walmart and Amazon – makes it cheaper than most other budget safety cameras than Wyze, Tapo, Blink and Eofy. It comes in white and includes an energy transformer, USB cable and installation devices.

Although you can skip the Roku cloud storage plan by entering a good MicroSD card, I am not recommended because of the poor user experience. The camera displays live video feeding and sends basic notifications without subscription. You can subscribe to the Roku camera subscription for $ 4 per month to store the video for up to two cameras or $ 10 per month for unlimited cameras.

What is useful in the Rocco’s inner camera?

Sufficient video quality at a low price

There is nothing leading about the Roku Indoor Camera 1080p video quality. I have resulted in good results on the well -lit grades at any time of the day, and her infrared night vision was strong enough to capture most facial features and clothes details at night when I was not moving.

Although the level of details is acceptable 15 feet in all lighting environments, it is more likely to reduce clarity in transferring topics in unlimited rooms during the day and dark rooms at night. Although it fails to Tapo and EUFY in this aspect, the SE’s interior camera is more than enough for most homes.

The compact loudspeaker produced an excellent sound quality and was loud enough to hear anywhere in the room without little distortion; The camera sirens are very effective. One of my favorite features is to discover smoke warning and carbon oxide, which sends a notification to your phone if one of these warnings comes out in your home. It was also the only notification that worked constantly when testing the mobile phone application.

Camera control using the Roku Smart Home app is often easy due to a clean user interface. Clicking on the camera from the main screen is to download a direct video brief where you can use a two -way sound to talk to others and save the shots manually on your phone. The gear icon in the upper right corner opens the settings menu, where you can adjust the registration options, discover smart movement, and notifications. I like that you can choose the continuous registration of movement events, but the movement events are more practical when reviewing the shots later.

When using it with two cameras, Rocco’s cloud plan for beginners is more affordable than similar offers from the competition. Its plan is approximately $ 10 for Wyze and Blink, but it is a better deal than Tapo and Eofy. The cloud plan includes 14 days of video date, smart movement detection, and there is no slowdown between recordings.

Roku Indoor Camera SE is easy like finding an open wall port and connecting it. You can put it on any shelf or magnetic surface if you do not want to use rising devices. However, installing a pregnant woman with nails or adhesives is a painful process that takes only a few minutes to complete it. I really enjoy the magnetic mountain, which gave the camera an ideal point of iron overlooking the front door.

What is bad in the Roku Indoor SE camera?

Storing the overwhelming local video and applying animals that Dabab

Although Roku Indoor Camera SE uses almost the same technology as Wyze Cam V3, it reduces corners with local storage to reduce retail price and encourage customers to purchase a cloud storage plan.

In another camera of budget safety, local storage will be a reliable way to circumvent subscription fees. Roku denies this by not allowing you to display local video recordings in the application, which is an advantage for each competitor. Instead, you will need to remove the MicroSD card and connect it to a computer or smartphone every time you want to review the shots.

But you can definitely rely on the camera to send notifications when detecting movement or sound, thus reducing the need to withdraw the card. right? This was not the case in my test, as none of the video event notifications were played on my phone except for the smoke warning option I mentioned earlier. Flasting, the camera seemed to extinguish the movement of movement detection within minutes of checking this. Not receiving notifications reduces the security benefits of this camera and makes it difficult to recommend.

My other problem with the mobile phone application is that the link to Alexa and Google kicks you with the Roku Auxiliary Center article instead of running the process directly. Likewise, the application directs you to the online portal to activate the smart home notifications on the Roku flow box instead of preparing it in the application, which uses the same Roku account. While this is a relatively simple grip, it will be easy enough to solve it with the application programming interface to connect different services.

Should you buy it?

It is not a process like competition

Roku Indoor Camera SE is a safe safety camera at home when you pay a subscription price, which is long to overcome the price of $ 20. Her video quality is not bad, and I love her cloud plans are not expensive. In addition, magnetic installation devices are an effort to install. However, the lack of useful local storage leaves a large hole enough for similar prices and better performance of Tapo and Eofy to fill without much effort. The unreliable notifications are the final factor that prevents Rocco from being a serious competitor between budget security cameras.