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When it comes to affordable tech, Roku is a brand that’s made quite a killing off its budget-friendly arsenal. Roku’s streaming devices and smart TVs are pretty popular, and it wasn’t all that long ago that the brand started offering home security and smart home products, too. Options include indoor and outdoor cameras, lights, plugs, and video doorbells. Regarding the latter, there are two options: the $90 Roku Wired Video Doorbell and the $120 Roku Wire-free Video Doorbell & Chime.
Both of these Roku surveillance devices support HD visuals, color night vision, and carry an IP65 rating for dust and water resistance. You’ll also be able to use either Roku doorbell without paying for an optional Roku Smart Home Subscription, which costs $4 per camera for a maximum of two cameras ($40 annually), or $10 per month for up to 99 cams ($99 per year). The issue is that without an active Roku Smart Home Subscription, you’ll be locked out of several useful features, the most glaring of which could make all the difference in an emergency event.
The feature we’re referencing is how long your Roku bell takes to start a new event-triggered recording once it stops recording a previous event. Without a subscription, you’re locked into a fairly long five-minute delay, whereas paying customers experience no delay between events whatsoever. In the world of home security, any type of recording delay is a drawback, and we have a feeling that Roku is well aware. Unfortunately, a five-minute buffer isn’t where the downsides end for the non-subscribers.
A Roku Smart Home Subscription unlocks some important features
The Roku Smart Home Subscription acts as a paywall for several other features, too. Without an active plan, you’ll have zero way of saving your event recordings, because neither of the Roku bell cameras offers local storage. Also, you only get 14 days of clip storage even with a paid plan, which is a huge downside. Roku Smart also adds a suite of AI detection features to your Roku bell, allowing the camera to differentiate between people, pets, vehicles, and packages.
Lastly, the paid subscription adds event filtering to the Roku Smart Home app. If you’re thinking to yourself, “Can I do anything without a paid plan?” the answer is yes, but not much. You can still use the Roku Smart Home app to view live feeds from your Roku doorbell, and you’ll still receive motion and sound notifications, as well as instant smoke and CO alarm detection alerts.
None of this is happy news per se, but Roku isn’t the only video doorbell maker that locks users out of more advanced features and settings. Brands like Ring are just as infamous for turning video doorbells into glorified peepholes that ping your phone if you’re not paying for a Ring Protect Plan. It’s the nature of the beast with internet-connected home security, but at least installing a bell or dedicated outdoor camera is a task that most DIYers can handle.
