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As a happy customer, I picked nanit because it actually worked. We didn’t even use the “smart” features, but “you can turn on the app from anywhere you happen t

As a happy customer, I picked nanit because it actually worked. We didn’t even use the “smart” features, but “you can turn on the app from anywhere you happen to be and expect the video feed to work” is unfortunately a bar that no competitor I tried could meet. The others were mostly made by non-software companies with outsourced apps that worked maybe 50% of the time. I wish we could have local-first and e2ee consumer software for this sort of thing, but given the choice of that or actually usable software, I am going to pick the latter.

vlovich123 1y ago
The vtech camera is working well enough for me for what it’s worth. But any such app solution generally implies transfer through the company’s servers.
- sbrother 1y ago
  Yeah that’s fair, we had one of those too which absolutely did everything it advertised. The nanit is a different product that doubles as a home camera that lets you monitor your home while you’re away. Its software/networking is impressively reliable.
- hippo22 1y ago
  It seems possible to establish a p2p connection with the camera where the company servers act as a broker.
varenc 1y ago
I self host my "baby monitor" with UniFi Protect on UCG-Max and a G6 Instant wireless camera. It's more work to setup, but pretty easy for a techie. It has the "turn on the app anywhere and it works" feature, and with a 2TB SSD I get a month+ of video storage. Because storage is local, it doesn't need to compress the video and I get a super clear 4K image. And I use Homebridge to expose the camera over Apple HomeKit which is a convenient and a more user friendly way to access it. And HomeKit also gives you out-of-home access with a hub. I love my setup, but I couldn't in good conscience recommend it to a non-techie friend, especially if they're sleep deprived from their infant. But I do miss the lack of any baby-specific features like sleep tracking. It has support for crying detection, but that's it.
- sbrother 1y ago
  Ok that’s really cool; I didn’t know you could set up Apple’s smart home thingy to forward a live feed to the cloud.
  - varenc 1y ago
    It's pretty cool! But homebridge is another service to run in a Docker container.. so even less user friendly. But it's definitely the primary way everyone that's not me accesses the baby camera. The out-of-home access requires a "HomeKit Hub" which can just be an Apple TV that's always plugged in. And HomeKit also has "HomeKit Secure Video" feature which is cloud based video storage, but with E2EE. But don't recommend their video storage really.
  - spockz 1y ago
    Alternatively you can setup a vpn with rules that automatically enable vpn when you try to connect to specific addresses. Works with Tailscale and on-demand VPN for me. This will work with any IP webcam.
  - close04 1y ago
    I have a bunch of cameras from various vendors, some with open FW, some with their original FW, all cut off from the internet. They used to be connected to Frigate but due to performance issues I offloaded the work to Scrypted on a RPi and an AppleTV and the setup works great. It was easy to set up and it's easier to use than any other app, assuming you are into the Apple Home ecosystem. It's not really self hosted since it relies on Apple but it's the least evil at this point. Giving unencrypted video and audio to some company (if what OP says is right) would be way beyond my risk tolerance point.
  - brabel 1y ago
    I have a smarthome setup I built myself using Lua and a Raspberry Pi. Anything it can do locally can be securely exposed on the internet via a service like netbird , which I use for free and is literally a command to get running, or tail-scale which I believe is harder to use. I don’t have video but I think that would work in that scenario as well.
vachina 1y ago
What competitor have you actually tried? My girlfriend’s parents have a few cheap TPlink solar powered CCTV and they work flawlessly since setup. I used to jerryrig an Android phone for Alfred and that too worked well. My impression is live feed is a solved problem.
- sbrother 1y ago
  I tried a high end Philips one and a Nest camera. Both were way less reliable than the Nanit. Possibly because they didn’t play nicely with my mesh WiFi at home. But regardless I just wanted to vouch for Nanit’s software, whatever they are doing with their networking and UX is really good.
  - jaas 1y ago
    Their networking is awful in my experience. The WiFi chip is cheap crap, extremely sensitive, cuts out a lot, and doesn’t support WPA3. I had to set up a dedicated Nanit-only AP in my house in order to stabilize the connection. It would not work any other way, tried many different configurations, even other APs.
  - ycombinete 1y ago
    Beware of Philips in general: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE58YisgFeQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE58YisgFeQ They've mostly sold off bits of themselves, and/or licensed their name to other producers. It's highly unlikely that Philips actually made that camera.
- sandGorgon 1y ago
  i have a tplink as well and can vouch for it. it has iphone and android apps and can show live feed. mine costed 30$ and free live video.
huflungdung 1y ago
[dead]
bialpio 1y ago
I have 2 free-roaming rabbits in one room of the house, we've been using Eufy camera to access live feed and found no issues with it, definitely would buy again. And the SD card recording allows us to seek a couple days into the past - it is pretty fun to watch the rabbits scramble to the automatic feeder at the set time.
gambiting 1y ago
My £15 TP-Link camera that we use as a baby monitor works 100% of the time. I can use it completely locally too with nothing sent to their servers at all, or use it through the internet if I want to. Got 4+ years of continuous use and counting, with zero issues.
jrochkind1 1y ago
> you can turn on the app from anywhere you happen to be and expect the video feed to work if i'm understanding "anywhere you happen to be" right: Real question -- I'm not a parent. What is your use case for wanting to monitor your baby remotely from a different location than your baby? Obviously someone is with them at the house or location with the baby! You don't trust em? Or just like seeing/hearing your baby when you are out? I see why a baby monitor in general is helpful so you can be in another room in the house and still keep an eye/ear on baby, but obv someone has to actually be in the location with the baby! (and the monitor at least needs to be on the wifi, right? So the monitor is in a place you have network access to, yes?)
- varenc 1y ago
  It's true! my recent real use case: - I'm at a small party 1 block away. Baby is sleeping in the bedroom with mama but I'm trying to protect her sleep. I listen to baby with an airpod in my ear at the party. If baby shows signs of waking I come back and either bottle him or help mama feed him. Also just because I'm out of the house and miss my baby and want to stare at him...
- sbrother 1y ago
  It's a reasonable question! I'm past the baby monitor stage now, but when we used our Nanit from a different network it was for things like: * Doing garage or yard work where Wifi coverage was spotty. May seem like an edge case but remember that when baby is sleeping is exactly when you want to be doing things like yard work. * Hanging out across the street cooking out with the neighbors while baby sleeps * Having a couple drinks at the hotel bar on vacation after baby goes to sleep. You're only ~30 seconds from your room if baby wakes up, but it's nice to not have to sit in a dark room for the whole evening after 7pm.

vlovich123 1y ago

The vtech camera is working well enough for me for what it’s worth. But any such app solution generally implies transfer through the company’s servers.

sbrother 1y ago
Yeah that’s fair, we had one of those too which absolutely did everything it advertised. The nanit is a different product that doubles as a home camera that lets you monitor your home while you’re away. Its software/networking is impressively reliable.
hippo22 1y ago
It seems possible to establish a p2p connection with the camera where the company servers act as a broker.

varenc 1y ago

I self host my "baby monitor" with UniFi Protect on UCG-Max and a G6 Instant wireless camera. It's more work to setup, but pretty easy for a techie. It has the "turn on the app anywhere and it works" feature, and with a 2TB SSD I get a month+ of video storage. Because storage is local, it doesn't need to compress the video and I get a super clear 4K image. And I use Homebridge to expose the camera over Apple HomeKit which is a convenient and a more user friendly way to access it. And HomeKit also gives you out-of-home access with a hub. I love my setup, but I couldn't in good conscience recommend it to a non-techie friend, especially if they're sleep deprived from their infant. But I do miss the lack of any baby-specific features like sleep tracking. It has support for crying detection, but that's it.

sbrother 1y ago
Ok that’s really cool; I didn’t know you could set up Apple’s smart home thingy to forward a live feed to the cloud.
- varenc 1y ago
  It's pretty cool! But homebridge is another service to run in a Docker container.. so even less user friendly. But it's definitely the primary way everyone that's not me accesses the baby camera. The out-of-home access requires a "HomeKit Hub" which can just be an Apple TV that's always plugged in. And HomeKit also has "HomeKit Secure Video" feature which is cloud based video storage, but with E2EE. But don't recommend their video storage really.
- spockz 1y ago
  Alternatively you can setup a vpn with rules that automatically enable vpn when you try to connect to specific addresses. Works with Tailscale and on-demand VPN for me. This will work with any IP webcam.
- close04 1y ago
  I have a bunch of cameras from various vendors, some with open FW, some with their original FW, all cut off from the internet. They used to be connected to Frigate but due to performance issues I offloaded the work to Scrypted on a RPi and an AppleTV and the setup works great. It was easy to set up and it's easier to use than any other app, assuming you are into the Apple Home ecosystem. It's not really self hosted since it relies on Apple but it's the least evil at this point. Giving unencrypted video and audio to some company (if what OP says is right) would be way beyond my risk tolerance point.
- brabel 1y ago
  I have a smarthome setup I built myself using Lua and a Raspberry Pi. Anything it can do locally can be securely exposed on the internet via a service like netbird , which I use for free and is literally a command to get running, or tail-scale which I believe is harder to use. I don’t have video but I think that would work in that scenario as well.

vachina 1y ago

What competitor have you actually tried? My girlfriend’s parents have a few cheap TPlink solar powered CCTV and they work flawlessly since setup. I used to jerryrig an Android phone for Alfred and that too worked well. My impression is live feed is a solved problem.

sbrother 1y ago
I tried a high end Philips one and a Nest camera. Both were way less reliable than the Nanit. Possibly because they didn’t play nicely with my mesh WiFi at home. But regardless I just wanted to vouch for Nanit’s software, whatever they are doing with their networking and UX is really good.
- jaas 1y ago
  Their networking is awful in my experience. The WiFi chip is cheap crap, extremely sensitive, cuts out a lot, and doesn’t support WPA3. I had to set up a dedicated Nanit-only AP in my house in order to stabilize the connection. It would not work any other way, tried many different configurations, even other APs.
- ycombinete 1y ago
  Beware of Philips in general: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE58YisgFeQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE58YisgFeQ They've mostly sold off bits of themselves, and/or licensed their name to other producers. It's highly unlikely that Philips actually made that camera.
sandGorgon 1y ago
i have a tplink as well and can vouch for it. it has iphone and android apps and can show live feed. mine costed 30$ and free live video.

huflungdung 1y ago

[dead]

bialpio 1y ago

I have 2 free-roaming rabbits in one room of the house, we've been using Eufy camera to access live feed and found no issues with it, definitely would buy again. And the SD card recording allows us to seek a couple days into the past - it is pretty fun to watch the rabbits scramble to the automatic feeder at the set time.

gambiting 1y ago

My £15 TP-Link camera that we use as a baby monitor works 100% of the time. I can use it completely locally too with nothing sent to their servers at all, or use it through the internet if I want to. Got 4+ years of continuous use and counting, with zero issues.

jrochkind1 1y ago

> you can turn on the app from anywhere you happen to be and expect the video feed to work if i'm understanding "anywhere you happen to be" right: Real question -- I'm not a parent. What is your use case for wanting to monitor your baby remotely from a different location than your baby? Obviously someone is with them at the house or location with the baby! You don't trust em? Or just like seeing/hearing your baby when you are out? I see why a baby monitor in general is helpful so you can be in another room in the house and still keep an eye/ear on baby, but obv someone has to actually be in the location with the baby! (and the monitor at least needs to be on the wifi, right? So the monitor is in a place you have network access to, yes?)

varenc 1y ago
It's true! my recent real use case: - I'm at a small party 1 block away. Baby is sleeping in the bedroom with mama but I'm trying to protect her sleep. I listen to baby with an airpod in my ear at the party. If baby shows signs of waking I come back and either bottle him or help mama feed him. Also just because I'm out of the house and miss my baby and want to stare at him...
sbrother 1y ago
It's a reasonable question! I'm past the baby monitor stage now, but when we used our Nanit from a different network it was for things like: * Doing garage or yard work where Wifi coverage was spotty. May seem like an edge case but remember that when baby is sleeping is exactly when you want to be doing things like yard work. * Hanging out across the street cooking out with the neighbors while baby sleeps * Having a couple drinks at the hotel bar on vacation after baby goes to sleep. You're only ~30 seconds from your room if baby wakes up, but it's nice to not have to sit in a dark room for the whole evening after 7pm.