Should I Buy a Refurbished Home Security Camera?

You can save a lot of money with a refurbished home security camera.  Let’s take a look at what refurbished means and see if it’s worth consideration. I never knew that a refurbished home security camera existed until recently.  Readers of this site know that I am a fan of the Samsung HD Plus Home Security Camera.  I already have one and like the features and price.  You can read our review of the Samsung SmartCam HD Plus. Well, I was in need of another camera and stumbled upon a Manufacturer Refurbished Samsung SNH-V6414BMR SmartCam HD Plus Home Security Camera.  It costs … Read more

Alternative Power Sources for Home Security Cameras

This is a great article for anyone having problems finding a way to power their home security camera.  The typical home security camera comes with a mini USB cable that measures between five and ten feet.  Also included is a DC power adapter to plug the USB into.  Sometimes, there’s no DC outlet anywhere close.  Today, we discuss alternative power sources for home security cameras. There are a lot of ways to resolve this issue.  There are a few alternative power sources.  But before diving into that, consider simply replacing the current mini USB cable with a longer one.  The … Read more

Should I Subscribe to Petcube Care Cloud Services?

Seems like every home security camera has a paid cloud service these days.  So it’s no surprise that Petcube has decided to announce a cloud service of their own.  The service is designed to work with their Petcube Interactive Wi-Fi Pet Camera.  The Petcube Care service is their answer for owners that wish to access their video from hours, days or weeks ago.  Let’s look at the service and figure out if it’s worth subscribing to. In our Petcube Product Review, we noted the absence of a cloud storage feature.  We also noted the absence of any on-board storage such as an … Read more

How to Eliminate False Motion Alerts on an Amcrest HDPro or HDSeries Camera

You have to love the Amcrest HDPro and Amcrest HDSeries home security cameras.  Great pieces of hardware.  These cameras can do almost anything asked of it.  The trick is knowing how to get it to do something.  Today we discuss how to eliminate false motion alerts on an Amcrest HDPro or HDSeries camera.  Both camera models use the same web interface so when we refer to the HDPro in this article, it also applies to the HDSeries. First, if looking to understand how to setup motion, first setup email.  We have a detailed article on how to setup email on … Read more

How to Use a Smartphone as a Home Security Camera

I recently upgraded my Apple iPhone 5s to a new giant Apple iPhone 6s Plus.  I like my new phone a lot and figured I would never use the old phone again.  I thought about selling it, but it wasn’t worth much.  I then uncovered some applications and services that allowed me to use my smartphone as a home security camera. So why would you want to do this?  A good home security camera is likely to set you back over $100, potentially much more than this.  Your old smartphone is free and so are many of the applications that … Read more

An Overview of Camio for a Nest Cam or DropCam

Most people never heard of Camio.  It’s a cloud recording service similar to Nest Aware.  It also has the ability to work as a similar service for your iPhone, smartphone or tablet.  Potentially this service is a good way to turn your old smartphone into a home security camera.  I’ll write more about that another time.  This article is about using Camio with a Nest Cam or DropCam. Should you try Camio?  Is it better than Nest Aware?  What’s it cost?  Let’s take a look. What is Camio? Camio is a cloud based video recording service.  The service allows recording of … Read more