Customer Reviews

Astak CM-818C2 2.4GHz Security Surveillance Camera Set

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Length:: 0:17 Mins

I live in a 2nd story apartment and installed a Swann 2.4GHz wireless that I picked up from the local hardware store about a year ago. I installed it after scaring off some would-be car thief's. I decided to replace it because one of my receivers went out and I replaced it with the standard Astak 2.4GHz wireless receiver. I was impressed with the receiver (w/remote) and so I thought I'd give these cameras a try (the Swann was very choppy and I had to mess with the brightness controls in the software I use, a lot). I use the second receiver to hook to the TV in my living room. The cameras and receiver are in the same location as when I was using the Swann.

These cameras are way better than the Swann. The video that comes with this review was taken from my PC (I wire it through a Roxio RCA to USB connector) and use a freeware program to capture it (Debut). There are three walls between my computer and the cameras.

Others post about bad reception because of wireless routers. I don't use one, but there are several that appear in my wireless network list on my Windows PC. To be fair, they could have changed their routers after I installed the Swann a year ago.

Downside: The audio is choppy and has static. I don't use the audio; I didn't use the audio with the Swann, either. This is the reason for my "low" marks. Also, in the manual I discovered that in low light the cameras will switch to black and white. However, as you can see from the video, the b/w hasn't switched on. There is a big flood light in my parking lot which may be the reason. Color 24/7. Judge for yourself.

Tip: you may need to adjust the antenna on the receiver to get the lowest amount of static. I've found that moving it about 20 degrees at a time lets you see the difference.

Well worth the money. I hope this helps.

This is a decent set of cameras at a good price, especially compared to similar brands. I found the cameras to be weatherproof, solid, and easy to use.

Due to no fault of their own, I would HIGHLY recommend you buy the wired version if you live in an urban area and/or near too many wireless access points. This is the primary reason behind the degradation in signal & video that cause many reviewers of wireless cams to wrongly give 1 star ratings to what are actually decent products. You can download the free tool, Netstumbler, and use it on a laptop to see how many access points are in your neighborhood.

I purchased this to add on to my current system, which has 2 cameras from astak. Works great like the others. It is very easy to install. I keep one extra camera on the ready for when we go for overnights or vacations because it is so convenient = the receiver plugs into any A/V port (there is always a TV wherever we go, or owe can use our portable DVD player). We have a few reception problems because of several wireless devices (phone, router), but not too bad. It would be nice if the channel could be changed on the cameras to improve reception - however, hasn't hindered our use of it so far. The picture is still clear enough. The color aspect is not significant...depends on how you use it. We monitor our kids with it. Great product overall. I highly recommend it over a baby monitor any day.

Have had these cams in use almost a month. Good for daytime surveillance. Not so much at night. They are outside and have weathered some severe storms.For the money I don't think they can be beat.

For a low price at a local store that "Costless in bulk" I found this to be a bargin in wireless security. Fry's does have deals with other companies/brands but for the stats and price I just had to have it. So far it's hooked up to a DVDR and set for 6hrs and works just great. The only thing I would recomend is to get a motion sensor light also on the area being screened so that your picture is in color and not B&W.
I like this brand better than some of the other companies because of the price and features. BTW I do also use Web cam for security monitoring.

Cheers.

This set performed exactly as it said it would. I also have a wireless router which did interfere with the signal until I simply changed the channel on the camera and then everything worked just great. One camera is about 60 feet away through three walls the other is 50 feet away through two walls and after a bit of receiver location adjusting video comes through with minimal to no distortion. Sure a wired system will produce better quality at longer distances but it comes with a much higher price. For the price offered this system did not disappoint (I would buy again). My only suggestion, if you plan to set up outside make sure you have a plan to hard wire or at least an outlet close by to plug in to as the battery feature only last a few hours at best. I ran my system through an inexpensive adapter at a local electronics store, tied it into a dedicated hidden coax cable and now I can watch security feed from any room in the house. Coupled with some inexpensive software purchased online, I can now be alerted when home or away, monitor and record audio/video from anywhere and receive emailed pictures/video of any security breach for under $200. Not Bad in my book.

Hope this helps

These cameras for the price are amazing. They do transfer video and audio, it is clear if you're in a reasonable distance. Our camera is about 200 feet away.

The Cameras themselves are compact and small. They do need a power source, so you can go 9 volt battery or plugged into an outlet. Ours have been outside for a month now and no complaints yet. They are weatherproof. It has rained and we saw no difference. Night vision also looks great.


Two bad things are we wish the color was more vibrant. The picture color is kind of dull. Also Auto switching on the receiver, we wish could be set to two cameras not go through all 4 channels and give us 2 blank screens.

Install is easy plug and play. Give these cameras a shot before spending a lot more.

We bought this camera as a gift. Taking the cameras, receiver and remote control out of the box we were impressed with the sturdiness and quality feel of the products, although right away the antenna of one of the two cameras broke off easily and we couldn't get it back.

Unfortunately we could not get the cameras to work properly. First we only got black on the screen, no picture whatsoever. The camera has ridiculously tiny switches inside the wire connector that you can use to change to 4 different frequencies. You need a needle to change them, they are so tiny. After trying the other frequencies we did see the occasional static on the screen. It turned out that we had interference from a wireless 2.4 Ghz phone in the house. Without the phone we did eventually get a picture, but the picture was very very blurry and still lots of static and lines. We returned it to Amazon.

Bought these to add to cameras i all ready have. Installation was very easy. They work ok but video quality is a little low and night vision range is shorter than my other cameras. Also the image sometimes freezes and i have to unplug them to reset. Far from the best cameras but better than nothing. One nice thing about these is the reciever has 4 channels and the cameras can be set to any of the 4 channels. So i could use them with the two cameras i already was using.

I purchased this as an option to a driveway alarm. I have a home office, and have an obstructed view of my driveway. I really liked the idea of being able to use Batteries vs Hard wiring the cameras. Unfortunately these cameras have a working range from the wireless receiver of about 5 feet. After that lots of static, and poor picture quality. I followed the instructions and tried every frequency but the same static poor quality image continued. Although, I bought this one due to the battery option on the camera, I even tried the A/C adapter thinking it could be a power problem. The box says 150-300 range (line of site) HA. Not even 10 feet before noticeable loss of image 20 feet worthless.