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May 28, 2024

Should You Give Roku's New Security Products a Try?

One convenient feature is being able to watch camera and doorbell videos right on your TV Going through some bills recently, my wife and I noticed that our ADT security system with home monitoring,

One convenient feature is being able to watch camera and doorbell videos right on your TV

Going through some bills recently, my wife and I noticed that our ADT security system with home monitoring, which started at about $40 a month, had climbed to almost $70 a month. So when I saw that Roku, a company I cover regularly for streaming products and TVs, was now offering smart home and security products for far less money, I decided to give them a try.

I’ve been using the Roku products only for about a week now, but so far they’ve been easy to use and worked reliably.

While CR hasn’t yet evaluated the Roku security cameras or the products as a system, we’ve tested and recommend the Roku Wire-Free Video Doorbell and Chime SE and Roku Video Doorbell & Chime. Both do well in our ratings—better, in fact, than the similar Wyze product they’re based on. We’ll have more to say about these additional products when our real security-product experts are able to get and fully test them. But my quick take is that if you’ve been looking for a budget-priced home security system that will work with other smart home products from the same brand, the new items from Roku are worth considering.

Before we dig in, here’s some background: I’m no security expert. In fact, until I got married and became a parent, my idea of home security was keeping a baseball bat near the front door and nailing shut the one window in my apartment that was accessible from an alleyway.

My wife had an entirely different view of keeping our home and family safe, especially after we bought a house outside the city and I was traveling a lot for work. That led us, more than a decade ago, to install a whole-house ADT security system. That includes window and door sensors/alarms, several motion sensors, and two glass-break alarms. The system is controlled via a digital touchscreen, and we pay for 24/7 monitoring.

Back then, choices were fairly limited, mainly to professionally installed home security and monitoring systems from such companies as ADT, Brinks, and Sloman’s. Now, of course, options abound, with a wide range of more affordable DIY setups from companies like SimpliSafe and Arlo added to the mix.

Since we first had the ADT system installed, we’ve added two Blink outdoor cameras, a pair of Blink video doorbells, and two Blink indoor cameras that we use to keep an eye on our two cats when we’re away. These two systems don’t work together, but we like the Blink gear because it was inexpensive, has done relatively well in CR’s security camera ratings, and lets us monitor live and recorded videos through a phone app.

Roku expanded its home security products this spring, joining a line of security cameras and smart home items it debuted late last year. The new security line now includes a basic home monitoring system with a keypad, indoor and outdoor security cameras, wired and wireless video doorbells, and a floodlight camera with motion and sound detection. These join smart home products such as smart plugs and lighting.

Right now you can only buy Roku’s smart home items online at Roku.com and Walmart.com, or in Walmart stores.

If the Roku products look familiar, it’s because they were developed in partnership with Wyze—they work a lot like Wyze’s security and smart home items, too. But the Roku and Wyze devices don’t work with each other.

You can install and monitor all the products yourself or you can sign up for professional 24/7 monitoring by a company called Noonlight, which also provides pro monitoring for the Wyze security products. It costs either $10 a month or $100 if paid annually. That’s in line with what other live monitoring services charge.

You’ll need to download the Roku Smart Home app to set up, control, and monitor all of Roku’s security devices. Probably the biggest attraction of the Roku system for both my wife and me is that it lets us monitor everything from the 75-inch TCL 6-series Roku TV in our family room.

Photo: Jim Willcox/Consumer Reports Photo: Jim Willcox/Consumer Reports

Just about any home security system will need at least a few indoor and outdoor cameras, probably a doorbell video camera, door and window sensors, plus some type of hub to control them. Here’s what I bought to try out the Roku system. All told, I spent about $330, plus tax.

• Roku Home Monitoring System SE, $100 (Including a monitoring hub and keypad) • Roku Video Doorbell & Chime SE, $80• Roku Outdoor Camera SE with Base Station, $74• Roku Indoor Camera SE, two-pack, $50• Roku Smart Bulb SE, four-pack, $25

The outdoor camera has a rechargeable battery, but Roku offers an IP65-rated solar panel as a $25 option that can keep the camera charged. All the Roku cameras record in 1080p resolution.

Although they’re not related to security, I decided to get a four-pack of white smart bulbs, which I installed in my son’s room because I thought he’d enjoy being able to control them from his bed. (He wasn’t all that impressed and uninstalled all but one of them.)

In addition to the items I purchased, Roku also offers smart plugs, a motion-activated floodlight camera, a 360-degree indoor camera, and a Smart Home Starter Kit. There’s also a wired version of the outdoor camera, which costs $50. You can also buy additional entry sensors, motion sensors, and keypads to add to your system.

Inside the home monitoring system package I found a “Protected by Roku Home Monitoring” window sticker, though it’s hard to imagine that the sticker—in Roku’s trademark purple-and-white color scheme—will strike fear into the hearts of many would-be burglars as we hope our ADT yard sign and stickers do.

Source: Roku Source: Roku

As you’d guess, all of the products connect to your home network. Setting up the various components was pretty straightforward. While there are printed quick-start guides, they basically tell you to scan a QR code to download the Roku Smart Home app (different from the regular Roku streaming app) if it’s the first time you’re setting up a Roku device. The guides do show you illustrations of what’s included. And they tell you what each of the status lights means. For example, a flashing blue light means the device is pairing or connecting, while a solid blue light means the device is connected and working.

The app does a nice job of walking you through setting up each element of the system, using video guides and illustrations. You also get audio prompts when the devices are ready for—or have completed—pairing or connecting to your network. To add new devices, you go to the app and tap the Plus (“+”) sign. Almost all the devices I installed required a firmware update, which took a few minutes each.

The home monitoring hub gets set up first. I placed both the hub and keypad on our media console, next to the Roku TV in our family room. (The keypad comes with both screws and anchors, as well as adhesive strips, for wall mounting.) I installed one of the entry sensors on a side window and placed a motion sensor near our basement door.

The Roku video doorbell replaced one of the Blink doorbell cams on our front door, and I set up an outdoor camera facing our back deck. Finally, I placed an indoor camera in our kitchen facing the family room so we could see our cats’ feeding area.

Once the system is set up, you have a choice of three system modes: Home, Away, and Off. You can also set the amount of time you have to turn off the system before it triggers an alarm when you enter or leave your house. You need to create a PIN to change modes or turn off the system from the keypad, or to cancel an emergency response if one is initiated accidentally.

While you can monitor everything from your TV, you need the mobile app to set up rules, create shortcuts, schedules, device triggers, and more.

It was fairly easy to use “rules” to create shortcuts or to schedule events, using the Plus (+) icon on the app’s home page. You can schedule the days and times you want an action to occur, such as turning all lights off at midnight or starting a coffee maker each morning at 6 a.m. In my case, I set a rule that activates the motion sensor to turn on at 11:30 at night and then shut off at 5 a.m. when I get up to go to the gym.

Editing devices or changing rules was also easy: Just tap a pencil icon and choose either “Edit Devices” or “Edit Rules.” (There’s also an “Edit Rules” button on the home page.) To delete a device, just click on the device on the home page, click the Settings icon, and hit “Delete Device” at the bottom of the screen.

I found it easy to install the cameras and sensors around our house. But while the outdoor camera connects to the base station via 2.4GHz WiFi, the base station itself requires a wired connection to the network, as well as power. I was fortunate to have an extra ethernet jack on my Eero mesh router, plus an unused outlet nearby, but others may not be so lucky.

Photo: Jim Willcox/Consumer Reports Photo: Jim Willcox/Consumer Reports

One thing that many people will like is the price. Roku’s items are typically at the lower price range of the market, and its professional monitoring through Noonlight is about as inexpensive as it gets. SimpliSafe, for example, charges $15 a month for pro monitoring, while Ring’s starts at $20 a month.

As I mentioned up top, both my wife and I like the ability to monitor all the camera feeds on our main TV (see photo above). Although the app is important—you’re not always going to be sitting in front of your TV—it’s a big plus to be able to check the status of the system, get notifications, see live videos from the doorbell and outdoor cameras, and even answer the door, all from our family room sofa. And even if you don’t own a Roku TV, you can still get that functionality on a TV if it has a Roku streaming player connected to it.

Also, you can use Roku voice remotes (or the app on your smartphone) to arm the system, control lights and smart plugs, or view camera footage on your TV. Most devices are also compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant devices.

Video QualityIn general, I thought the video quality from the Roku cameras was good, not much different from our Blink cameras. But my wife and I both thought the video quality from the Roku video doorbell camera was noticeably better than the Blink doorbell it replaced, so images were a bit sharper. Another plus is that the Roku doorbell camera has a wider viewing angle, so it’s able to capture a wider field of view in front of our house. Like many other video doorbells, Roku’s has two-way audio, so you can speak to, as well as hear, someone at the door, with the video appearing on both the app and Roku TV.

One thing I don’t like is that the Roku video doorbell needs to be charged periodically. With just a week’s worth of use, the battery was down to 15 percent. Because the micro USB charging port is on the back of the doorbell, that means I’m going to have to remove it from the base plate, recharge it, and then reinstall it. My Blink doorbell runs on an AA lithium-ion battery and can last up to two years before it needs replacing.

SubscriptionsTo get full functionality with Roku, you’ll need to spring for a camera subscription, something most other companies also require. The basic plan, which covers just one or two cameras, costs $4 a month or $40 a year. A Camera Plus subscription covers all the cameras in your system, including video doorbells, for $10 a month or $100 annually. That’s the same price as Ring’s Basic and Plus camera subscriptions, and $2 a month less than Google’s Nest Aware services.

When you pay for the subscription, your video clips are stored in the cloud for 14 days. Without the subscription, only still images are stored. You also get “smart detection,” which can identify whether a person, package, vehicle, or pet triggered an alert. One other benefit is that there’s no delay between viewing events; without the subscription, you have to wait about 5 minutes to see a refresh of the image.

Roku’s security cameras let you add local storage via a microSD card (up to 32GB), so you can store recordings and back up events. With the Blink cameras, to store videos locally you have to purchase a separate sync module, which costs about $35, and then add an external USB drive (up to 64GB).

Paying for pro monitoring by Noonlight gets you phone alerts when an alarm is triggered; a live agent will immediately text you to see if you need assistance. If you do need help, or don’t respond, the agent will send emergency responders to your home. An agent is also contacted if you press the panic button in the smart home app or on the keypad.

Some Final ThoughtsAs I mentioned earlier, I’ve only been using the Roku products for about a week now, but so far they’ve been working well and reliably. We’re not quite ready to give up the ADT system, which—though expensive—has worked pretty much flawlessly since it was first installed. If we do, there are certainly other, more established players in this space that we’ll also check out to see if they have features the Roku products lack or perform better.

But it appears to me that if you already own a Roku TV or streaming player and are looking for budget-friendly home security and smart home solution, then these items from Roku are worth considering—especially for those who like being able to monitor everything on their TV without leaving their couch.

James K. Willcox

James K. Willcox leads Consumer Reports’ coverage of TVs, streaming media services and devices, and broadband internet service. His focus ranges from the challenges of finding affordable internet service to emerging display technologies. A veteran tech journalist, Willcox has written for Business Week, Maxim, Men’s Journal, Rolling Stone, Sound & Vision, and others. At home, he’s often bent over his workbench building guitar pedals, or cranking out music on his 7.2-channel home-theater sound system.