Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)It took longer to unpack the camera and recorder than to set it up - literally. If you're not tech savvy, this is the camera for you. When I first installed it, the recorder kept beeping. I finally figured out it was the alarm that is triggered by motion. The problem - there was no motion! I finally turned off the alarm.
I set the camera up in the kitchen late in the evening - we're almost never there that late. The motion detection triggered every few minutes for no obvious reason. I checked the video files - around 200 of them. Only four had motion, and that was me getting a cup of coffee. The rest had ZERO motion.
Since the motion is simply on/off, the camera is not suitable for use when pointing towards trees, for example, monitoring your yard. It would constantly trigger.
If you don't care about the motion trigger, the unit is great. You can record to chip automatically when motion is detected (supposedly) or on a schedule. For example, record between 1am and 3am. It includes a 2gig CF card - the manufacturer claims a 3hr recording time.
Video quality is decent, not great. It's designed for lower resolution displays, not hidef, so looks blocky on our LCD. You can easily recognize peoples faces. I have to do some more tests and see if I can get the motion detection to work correctly. I want to use the camera by the front door - ideally the motion alarm would trigger when someone approaches the front door, and I could then switch the TV to AV input to see who's there. We have a universal remote - I programmed one of the buttons to switch to AV1. So the front door alarm goes off, I hit a button and see who's there. That was the plan - I'll see how it works out!
For another test, I set the camera on a table pointing at the inside of the front door. The door is glass, so the video is too bright - the camera does not compensate for it. Again, it continuously triggered. I called tech support - they had me point it at a wall, four feet away. It still triggered. They were at a loss. After additional testing I found the problem - in very low light, or extremely bright light, the motion detection appears to be triggered by the higher contrast pixels being transmitted. In regular light, the motion detection works fine. In dark or very bright light, the motion detection is useless.
The menu system is pretty basic, and the navigation to watch recorded videos is just a directory tree - you're better off watching the video on your computer.
Camera: Larger than expected, but not too bad. Large array of IR LED's provide light to 25'. Included stand is light duty, but will work fine if you set t up and forget it. My guess is it wall last a couple of years outside. Base has mounting holes, screws provided.
Receiver/DVR: Small, archaic menu, easy to use.
Supports NTSC and PAL. Two resolution settings, 640 x 480 / 320 x 240.
FYI, this is NOT a network camera, IP camera or web cam. It can not be hooked up to a computer (unless you have RCA audio and video inputs) - it's designed to be hooked up to a TV. The receiver supports up to 4 cameras.
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Swann SWA43-D6C12 Digital Wireless Camera and 4 Channel SD Recorder
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