Creative Live! Wireless Internet Camera System

by Creative Labs

Product Details

• Item Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000BVLYLM
• Item model number: 73VF018000000
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 26, 2005

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description Wouldn't it be nice if you could keep an eye on your home or business no matter where you roam? With the Creative Live! Wireless Camera you can do exactly that, plus a whole lot more. In fact, the Creative Live! Wireless is one of the first easy-to-install Internet cameras on the market,

Setting up your Live! Wireless Camera is an easy, three step process.

The system consists of a camera unit and a wireless server that connects to your home network. View larger.

The camera is designed to be placed anywhere in your home or business. View larger.

Creative Internet Camera Center software lets you monitor up to four cameras at once. View larger.

allowing you to watch over your home or business from anywhere you have an internet connection. In fact, you can even monitor your property from an Internet-enabled mobile phone.

The Live! Wireless couldn't be easier to install. Detailed, step-by-step instructions get you up and running in minutes. At the heart of the system is the Live! Wireless Server, which connects to your home wired or wireless network. Wireless networking with the Live! Wireless Server is compatible with the 802.11 b/g, or "Wi-Fi" standard. Meanwhile, you can also connect the server to your network router via an included ethernet cable.

Once the wireless server is connected to your network, all you have to do is connect the Live! Wireless camera to the server via the server's USB port. The camera is small and lightweight and it includes a multi-attach base that lets you set up the unit virtually anywhere. The camera features a high quality 640 x 480 (VGA) sensor for crystal-clear images.

With the hardware set up, next you simply insert the CD into your PC's CD-ROM drive, follow the on-screen instructions, and you'll have the camera ready for remote monitoring in no time. Once you're up and running, you'll know right away when your camera sees something odd. There's no need to constantly check in with your Live! Wireless camera, as you'll receive an alert via email when your camera senses motion in the area. Plus, with the bundled Creative Internet Camera Center software, you can view up to four cameras from four different locations on one screen.

Thanks to Creative's secure server, you can create your own private, secure web address for remote monitoring. Set up an easy-to-remember web address where you'll go to access your camera -- and see what it sees. For example, you can set up an address such as "www.yourname.creativeddns.com" and then point your browser there to access your camera. What's more, you get free, lifetime remote monitoring services using the Creative server. The Live! Wireless system allows you to set up as many as four guest accounts for logging into the camera remotely.

The Live! Wireless system is much more than just a security camera. With the Live! Wireless camera tethered directly to your PC via a USB connection, you can use the camera as a dedicated webcam. The camera works seamlessly with Yahoo! Messenger, as well as other popular instant messaging applications, and allows you to add live video to your Internet chat.

The Live! Wireless system boasts one more nifty feature that's sure to please. The wireless server has a second USB port that works with all Creative flash drives and many other flash drives. Simply connect your favorite flash drive to the Wireless Server's USB port, access your website remotely, and drag and drop the files to your local PC.

What's in the Box
Wireless server, camera, wall mount bracket, DC power adapter, Ethernet cable, quick start guide, and software CD (Creative Internet Camera Center, Creative Live! Wireless Web-based Utility, Creative Internet Camera Diagnostics, Creative WebCam Live! Driver, complete user's guide).

Product Description

WebCam Live makes your instant messaging come alive with high quality video and audio. Add special video effects and exciting face morphs to your video chats - with the free Advanced Video FX software. Designed with a high quality VGA (640x480) resolution sensor, the Creative WebCam Live provides top-resolution videos and sharp, crisp pictures at 1024x768 resolution1. Utilize the maximum potential of the WebCam Live and record time lapse videos, or enable remote capturing and motion detection modes - the possibilities are virtually endless

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I really, really wanted to like it, September 10, 2006

By 

K. Fulton (Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Creative Live! Wireless Internet Camera System (Personal Computers)

I really NEEDED to like it, too. Trying to figure why my dog keeps going crazy during the day and I needed a wireless webcam to do it. But this is just not cutting it.

First of all, it's really not wireless, which you already know if you read the installation info on the Amazon page. You have to plug it into the wireless server, and then you have to plug the server into a power outlet. Not the most ideal set up, but I really needed it, so I figured I'd try it anyway.

Problem #1, the camera is so light, it won't even stand up by itself. The cord keeps pulling it over.

Problem #2, it's supposed to be easy to install, and apparently everyone on here thinks it is, but it was giving me fits. I got as far as it telling me to unplug the temporary network cable, and then it asked if I wanted to set it up for the internet, and I said yes, and everything was downhill from there. It wouldn't find the camera at all without the network cable plugged in, and even when I had it plugged in, it would find the camera, but kept timing out trying to connect to it. And the couple times I did get the connection, it would drop almost immediately.

I finally "deleted" the camera, and ran the wizard again to install it, and said NO to the set up for web question, and then it worked.

However, problem #3, it can't see outside at all. I tried pointing it out the window and it was completely washed out, you could see a very faded tree and that was it. I thought maybe it was a reflection problem with the window, so I opened the window, and same thing. I have read about cameras not being able to see in the dark, but this one can't see when it's too bright, apparently.

The other complaint that I have is that they tout this wireless bundle as a security thing... monitor your house from the internet, etc. But then the camera they bundle it with is a regular webcam, not a wide angle. If you're going to try to monitor a room, then you need wide angle. All it is is a USB webcam and a wireless server, it should have been easy for them to just put the Live Ultra (I think that's the wide angle one) in there instead of the Live. Or maybe sell the server separate so you can buy whatever webcam you want.

Oh, and my other gripe is that the phone tech support is only open M-F during normal business hours, so if you need help setting it up, you have to call from work. In which case, you won't have access to any of the equipment while you call, so they can't walk you through problems.

Annnd, one more thing... I was wishing that the software it came with had the same features as the Web Cam Center software (only for multiple cameras.) I like the feature that records a photo every 10 seconds and stores them on the hard drive... that way I can just put it in thumbnail view and browse through until I see something in the frame that's not supposed to be there. With the software that this comes with, it will take a photo every how-ever-many seconds, but then it puts it together in a movie, so unless you know what time something happened, you'd have to watch the whole movie in order to see anything.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to install and easy to use., July 4, 2006

By 

T. Pearman (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creative Live! Wireless Internet Camera System (Personal Computers)

I purchased the camera as a security cam for our house and as a way for my other half to be able to see the cat (the cat always sleeps in the same place by the window) when she is working out of town.
This camera works great with a Linksys WRT54G wireless router.
Just use port forward in the settings on the router and away you go. That fact that Creative will host the page with that displays your camera is fantastic.
It is a great buy!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just what I was looking for - great value, April 11, 2007

By 

Michael J. Gallagher "Mike" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Creative Live! Wireless Internet Camera System (Personal Computers)

I was looking for a set of web cams for security purposes while we were on vacation. Setup of the cameras was very straightforward and had them both up and working the way I wanted them to be in about 30 minutes. I had one camera trained on the front door and one on the basement door. I was able to view both cameras side-by-side with Creative's Internet Camera Center software. The cameras are also individually accessible via any web browser.

To view the cameras, you have the option of subscribing to a DDNS service so your cameras can be accessed by a DNS name, or if you keep track of your public IP address (as I did), you can use that as well. If you have more than one camera, you'll have to configure a unique web and streaming port for each one, and port forward appropriately.

I also used the camera's motion detection capability. It has the capability to email you when motion is detected, and will send you a configurable number of still images of what it detected. If you do use the feature, be prepared for false positives. Sudden light changes, such as lights on timers, seem to trigger the motion detection. I probably only received five or six emails per day (all false positives, thankfully), which I thought was perfectly acceptable.

The camera image is quite good for a camera in its price range. I considered a Linksys, however after reading all the horrible reviews regarding its camera quality, I passed it up for the Creative.

Overall, I'm really happy with the product.