Hello everyone, i am really looking into buying an aqara g5 pro as the next step because of my aqara doorbell. I want it to be able to record 24/7 en everything online and on aqara website is really vaguely and different everywhere. If i get it will i be able to turn on 24/7 recording because of my apple homekit through my apple tv as a base or do i need to buy an NAS?
I want to know this before i go out and buy the camera because otherwise i will lean towards an eufy camera that comes with an base so i don’t have to buy it separate. Would be a shame though because i have the doorbell and buying an eufy with base would mean i got 2 different systems and probably resell the doorcam to fully swith to eufy which i dont want to because they dont got homekit support.
I have already bought two G5 Pro PoE cameras but haven’t installed them yet. From what I have found so far, it seems that using RTSP with a small local Mini PC for recording could be a simple and relatively low-cost way to achieve continuous recording.
I am currently planning my setup and looking at different approaches before I start installing everything. Hopefully people who have already gone through this process can share their experiences.
Via HomeKit Secure Video (HKSV) in Apple Home, recordings are by default only event-based (motion, people, animals, vehicles). Additionally, videos stored via HKSV in iCloud are only retained for 10 days.
Via Aqara’s Cloud Storage, the “Unlimited Plan” allows unlimited event-based recordings to be stored. However, uninterrupted 24/7 recording is not supported on the cloud or on the camera’s built-in storage. The Aqara G5 Pro comes in two variants: one with 8 GB of storage and one with 32 GB of built-in storage. The 32 GB version is rated to hold approximately 24–28 hours of total event-based clips before older footage is overwritten. An SD card cannot be added afterwards.
Because continuous 24/7 recording requires external storage, a NAS with sufficient capacity is highly recommended for the Aqara G5 Pro. I personally use a Synology NAS — they are quite expensive, but also very reliable. I also run Home Assistant in a VM on the NAS, and it centrally handles the backups for all of my laptops and servers. Furthermore, the video recordings are mirrored to an encrypted cloud storage, simply because burglars might steal the NAS as well.
As an alternative, a FritzBox can be used by connecting USB devices like a USB stick or a USB hard drive and mounting them as a NAS on the network. However, you don’t get RAID redundancy that way, and mirroring data to the cloud becomes quite complicated. I’ve heard a lot of good things about dedicated DIY software like Unraid (NAS OS), but I don’t use it myself since I already have my Synology setup. Ultimately, Synology’s ecosystem is just far more mature and user-friendly compared to a basic FritzBox setup or having to build and maintain a custom DIY solution from scratch.
I only can second what @JohnD said. Apples HKSV is only recording events or streaming without continuous recording. For my uses cases that’s totally fine. However, when recording 24/7 is needed, I’d suggest to use a NAS or at least a HDD connected to the router
If you have a PC or Windows server you could run Blue Iris, this software is regarded as one of the best windows solutions out there.
In the past I have used Synology and qnap for recording video, but for event based and 24/7 recording nothing comes close to blue Iris, especially when it comes to scrubbing through the videos.
As an added bonus, there is also built-in AI for detections of lots of different types of objects including face detection, number plate, recognition, etc.
If you’re goal s 24/7 then you need a separate system for recording. You can use a NAS for just writing files or some NVR software like Scrypted for better integration. You’ll need additional hardware regardless and will need to do some configuration.
Aqara has a camera hub product coming (no timeline, only showcased at CES). I don’t know if it will support 24/7 recording or what features it will have. And it may not arrive on a timeline that works for you - but you deserve to know it’s in the works.
By 24/7 recording, do you mean you want to record when there is an event or do you want to store ALL video?
Next is how long do you want to store video for?
So, if we take my setup as an example…
I have a garage full of classic Lambretta scooters. Quite valuable.
I want to record when anyone approached the garage door, or is in the garage.
I want to keep the video for a week (Anything beyond that is useless as we are guarding against theft)
I need 24/7 recording to see who keeps messing around our driveway gare where our car is parked. And lots of attempted break ins happening recently so protecting our surroundings by having an eye is necessary at the moment, i plan to not need footage older then 2 weeks
for 24/7 recording a nas is a must, even better with a good cpu and memory because then it will likely allow you to install a container app, this will then allow you to install frigate, which for me is second to none at the moment.
