RLK16-820D8-A - Cameras only work with the NVR?

mleonhardt

On the product page of the RLK16-820D8-A there is a note

"The cameras of the kit cannot work without the NVR."

What exactly does this mean?
It is clear that those cameras then need power provided by a PoE switch. Are there any further limitiations of the cameras from the kit, compared to the standalone 820a cameras?

Cynthia

The cameras of the kit don't have the UID, which means that you can't add the cameras as standalone cameras. If you connect the cameras to the NVR, it is not a must to use the PoE switch.

mleonhardt

Interesting information, that should be more emphasized in the specs!

The usual reader would expect that the cameras in the kit are normal 820a cameras.
To be on the safe side I expected to be able to reuse the cameras with other NVRs (either commercial ones or handmade with own hardware) when I later might decide to swap out the NVR with one with more functions.

So what are the exact consequences of the missing UID?
What exactly does "you can't add the cameras as standalone cameras" mean? Obivously the cameras must be visible on the LAN, so they have at least DHCP (which would be OK in my later use cases). What about configuring the parameters of the cameras? Is that web-interface on the cameras for the configuration also missing?

Or is the only missing feature that the cameras would not show up in the reolink-app?

As this seems to be only a software limitation - is there an option to reflash the firmware with the full version?

Cynthia

The camera can be used with the NVR only.

It can't be used on the web interface. If you want to view it on the web, you can just connect the NVR and the camera will show under the NVR.

Or is the only missing feature that the cameras would not show up in the reolink-app?

It can't show in the APP as a separate camera. But the NVR can be added to app and then you can see the camera under the NVR in the app.

mleonhardt

@cynthia
To be clear, those cameras of the kit should not be called RLC-820A when they do not support the full feature set of the "standalone" RLC-820A cameras. This is misleading.

I asked "To be on the safe side I expected to be able to reuse the cameras with other NVRs ..."

So your answer does not address that issue. When I swap out the NVR in the future there is no NVR the cameras can connect to. At least the chances are that there will be no Reolink NVR that the cameras can connect to. In the future I want to experiment with smarthome stuff and/or more intelligent person detection algorithms which the Reolink NVR does not support. So for me in order to save the majority of the investment the cameras also have to be usable without the Reolink NVR.

From the internet (still missing full manuals) I see that at least the "fully featured" RLC820A has a website on the camera where one can adjust the settings of the camera via a browser. Is this option also present on the kit-version of the RLC820As? And if yes - are all the settings of the camera supported there or if not - which settings are missing?
The internet states that the RLC-820A support ONVIF (but that information is missing in the specs). Does the kit-version of the RLC-820A also support ONVIF?

Or asked indirectly: Are those kit-cameras compatible to other NVRs - e.g. Synology? (Which the fully featured cameras are.)

mleonhardt

... one more question related to the topic here:
The firmware of the cameras are updatable. So my question is: Is there a special version of the firmware for the kit-version of RLC820A or are both variants of the camera served by the same firmware-update?

mleonhardt

Ping?

Cynthia

Hi there, the camera can just work with the NVR.

If you want to view it on the web, you can just connect the NVR and the camera will show under the NVR. It can just not support connecting as a standalone camera on the browser. The basic function of the RLC-820A in the NVR kit is the same as the standalone RLC-820A.

The RLC-820A in the NVR kit doesn't support ONVIF. But it is the same as the above method, you can add the NVR to the third-party software.