Customer Reviews

Logitech WiLife Digital Video Security--Outdoor Master System Camera

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I like the ease of set up, the video quality; however it does not work consistently and I find this frustrating. I can not make sense of when it works and when it doesn't. I don't know if it's because my home's wiring is older or if the product is faulty. When it is working - it is great. Another thing to be aware of is that it's very tedious to get rid of video footage that you no longer want. Each tiny segment has to be deleted one piece at a time. I haven't found a way to delete large chunks of time; such as deleting one day.

OK, I like the camera, seems to work most of the time but something keeps taking the cameras off line and requires a power cycle to get them back on-line. It could be the building power (Historic district, 80 year old house) and I'm running two cameras 300' from the main panel. Not the level of reliability I was looking for in my business, but finding a way to make it work. I went with the Pro upgrade and it needs more features. I should be able to control all aspects of the command center remotely but cannot change brightness (for example), but what is there seems to work fine.

I'm using snap shot alerts sent via multi media to my blackberry, they are slow and not considered useful in catching someone in the act. Sometimes I get the multi media alert 24 hours later. Could be AT&T, but haven't figured it out yet.

You really should have a dedicated computer to run more than three cameras, it chews up disk space and bandwidth fast. We noticed a serious slow down of our database applications when the cameras are on.

Super easy to install, software is easy to understand.

Great monitoring tool, not a great alarm system.

Extra cameras are too expensive when compared with other systems.

When I first got the system and installed it, I was excited. Installation was easy. It started right up. It was sending me email alerts. I could access my cameras from the internet. How cool was that!!

But now 3 months later the bloom is off the rose, and I am ready to scrape it or send it back. It is just too unreliable. I have my system at a location that I only visit once a week. I would estimate that less than 25% of the time does it make through an entire week with all three primary functions (local recording, email alerts, internet viewing) all working, all week. And it's not just one thing. It's multiples. Logitec's help system always has suggestions but reliability never improves and the same problems continue to repeat.

So unless you can physically access the system daily and/or are ok with parts of the system going down for periods of time, I would stay away from this product.

Great idea. Flawed execution.

I purchased one outdoor camera to monitor my driveway. The 15-minute setup is not likely to occur, in my opinion. It took me about a half an hour. I had to change my firewall settings. Once it was determined that it worked, it took another hour to mount the camera outside. For this price, I am impressed. I asked my alarm company what they would charge and they say $4,000 or more. The quality is good, it is recording based on motion detection. The software is easy to use. I am not interested in remote features so I can't speak to them. I think this is a great product, and am considering to add another camera.

I initially bought this camera system in Sept. 09 to mount on the front of my house to figure out who was walking their dog late at night and letting it poop up and down the sidewalk on my block (was an on-going regular problem for months). I was able to adjust the brightness and contrast under the camera set up options in the command center to get a good night picture on a dimly lit city block. With the adjustments, the picture was good enough at night to see who was passing by, and it even captured opossums at night. There was a lot more activity on my street than I was aware of. I was able to set the camera recording area and sensitivity to not pick up movement across the street, just on my side of the street. And I caught the culprit...

After figuring out who the inconsiderate neighbor was, I moved the camera next to my raised pond in my backyard, where my turtle (Stephen Colbertle the Turtle) lives. I've wanted a turtle cam since building the pond! Stephen is a red eared slider, so I hardly ever get glimpses of him out of the water. Now, I can see him up close and personal whenever he gets out to bask in the sun. I've adjusted the camera sensitivity so it doesn't record (video on my computer) when the wind blows the pond plants a little, and I've set the brightness and contrast to auto-adjust (which works with the sunlight changes thoughout in the day). I've set up a free account on the wilife website so I can even log in and check on my turtle when I'm at work. It doesn't make for super exciting viewing but its pretty cool (okay, has been called geeky).

When the camera was in my front yard, it was close to my computer inside the house (just one wall between camera and computer). Now that it is in the backyard, there are three rooms between where the computer and camera are, and some yard space, and there are no problems with the picture.

I haven't had any problems with the camera, and I think the software program with command center is very easy to use and intuitive. If my camera dies, I will buy another one (if out of warrantee), and I am considering buying some additional ones to add to my system (watching for price drops).

One thing I would recommend to anyone purchasing, rather than using the CD that comes with the camera to load the software, go to the wilife website and download the most up to date software for the system.

I didn't expect the camera to work as well as it has (but I was tired of the dog poop on the sidewalk, and stopping that was enough motivation to give the camera a try). So far, it has worked great for me and I am very pleased with this product.

EDIT 12/1/11: I bought a second outdoor add-on camera in Dec. 2009, and both of my cameras are still working two years later.

These cameras are set up for 24 hour motion detection right out of the box. If you need them to record constantly, then you need to create a schedule and tell them to do so. Make sure you have alot of hard drive space because the files are huge, due to the quality of video.
Also, if there are times that you want recording to be off, you also have to schedule it and tell the cameras to not alert or record.

As usual Logitech exceeded my expectations. This system is a perfect all-in-one camera/dvr setup ready to use right out of the box, just make shure your own a decent PC. Out of all of my computers the Intel Duel-Core(@1.7ghz each)processor works the best. Execelent picture quality surpassing even some high end panasonic and sony systems I have used through busnesses. Very easy to use, hardest part would be mounting the camera.Tough built-temp. already been below recommended operating temp in my area, still no problems.Extention cords of any lenght don't effect performance.IMPORTANT: completly weatherproof connections NOT with tape. if possable run under edge of roof or if possable use garage power source. I highly recommend this product, if you buy it just to test it I bet you will keep it.

One word...Outstanding. The WiLife system misses NOTHING...even a deer in the driveway at 3:45 am gets recorded. The system is easly expandable and I will be adding more cameras soon.

I have had a Logitech WiLife Security system for over two years and there is a lot that I am satisfied with. It was easy to install, the motion detection that can be activated by each individual camera is great and saves having a constant recording, connecting to my computer by house wiring is a great idea and one of the best features that I like about this system. I am operating two cameras. One of the went bad after an year and Logitech replaced it promptly. I can keep at least four months of motion detection videos from two cameras on my computer and use less than 20 gig's. With cats and other animals around, there are a lot of video recording. To be able to attach this to my computer is another great feature of this product. I have two desk top computers and I leave them on 24 hours a day 365 days a year. I have done this for at least 7 years ahd have never had a hard drive go bad. This is mainly due to very good battery backups. Since I was already keeping my computers on, the Logitech system adapted well to my setup. The only complaint I have is that I wish the cameras could produce clearer pictures. I cannot read the letters and numbers on vehicle license plates that come down my driveway. When compared to other security systems that a home owner can buy, these cameras are just as good or better. I firmly believe Logitech has a great product and I wish they could improve the cameras. Everything else works great. I can also view the recordings when I am away from my home.

The Logitech Wilife outdoor cameras have a known defect (caps melting).
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They fail in about a year. This is due to the following four 1000uF caps: C26 C27 C31 C32. The initial was a10v cap then later releases were 16v. I replaced them with 25v. See Digikey part number UHE1E102MHD6. The caps are from Nichicon and are Aluminum Electrolytic. They are rated for 10,000 hours at 105 degrees C. The caps don't fit perfectly (the original are 8mm diameter versus 12.5mm that I put in) so insulate the leads and let them float above the circuit board.