SVAT GX5201 Wireless Portable Video Monitor with 2.5-Inch LCD & Night Vision Security Camera (Color)

Other products by SVAT Electronics

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7 x 3 x 1 inches ; 2.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000M8UTZG
• Item model number: GX5201
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,262 in Camera & Photo (See Bestsellers in Camera & Photo)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #1 in	Electronics > Security & Surveillance > Surveillance Video Equipment > Security Monitors & Displays > Color Monitors
  #82 in	Camera & Photo > Surveillance Cameras

• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001

Product Description

Product Description
SVAT's easy plug-and-play wireless video surveillance system allows you to monitor everything and anything, at a fraction of the cost of traditional surveillance systems. The GX5201 system has a high resolution 2.5-inch LCD monitor that is loaded with features. The camera has a resolution of 360 TV lines, which provides crystal-clear images. Camera also has built-in audio and voice activation, as well as manually adjustable pan-and-tilt capabilities. The GX5201 is for indoor use, and has the option to be able to connect up to three separate indoor or outdoor cameras. This indoor color camera system is suitable for your everyday needs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars poorly designed but functional, November 28, 2007

By	S. Coales "moneypitminer" (NJ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This unit will pick up interference from any number of household electrical items. In my case, this was seen by a rolling line on the screen - maybe once a second or so. Annoying when using the night vision mode, and also when you want to use the sound from the camera too - with each roll of the line, you get a clicking sound.

I was able to, largely, get rid of this interference by slapping on a ferrite core noise suppressor to both the camera power line and the monitor power line. FERRITE CORE 1/4" CORD NOISE SUPPRESSOR well worth the couple of dollars.... Though why on earth the manufacturer didn't work this little gem out and do it already is beyond me.

I have a set of wireless speakers in the housePodz Wireless Rechargeable Speakers, I use a 2.4GHz wireless router (same frequency as this camera) and was able to prevent interference by using ONLY channels 1 and 2. Using channel 3 blocked my router completely. Cordless telephones were unaffected.

The power adapter input for the monitor IS inside the battery compartment which is a royal pain if you plan on going truly wireless with rechargeable batteries. You have to pull out the batteries and leave the battery compartment cover off to use.

The metal kickstand is alright, it works, it doesn't fold over and droop as I expected.

The 'scan' function works surprisingly well - this allows you to set the monitor to come on whenever sound is detected (baby crying, or door opening etc). You can even set the level at which the thing activates, which is actually quite sensitive.

In 'auto' mode the monitor will track between however many cameras are connected - flicking between views every 10 - 20 seconds or so, which again is rather handy. I will be putting one camera at each end of our basement so I can see what the kids are up to.

The camera mount will move if you even so much as think about looking at it, so place or mount it carefully unless you want to be for ever re-adjusting the thing.

The IR LED night vision... other reviewers put the useful range at about 6 foot - that's generous, but it really depends what you need to see. Still, it's good enough to see what our infant is doing in his crib at night. I dare say you could improve this by using another IR source in the room though (to see what I mean, play around with your TV remote, you will see the flashes...).

The selection switches for camera input are wicked small DIP switches (3 pin) that are secreted away at the bottom of the monitor unit. Still, I suppose that once they are set you don't need to be changing them all too often. I am shocked that the manufacturer did not hide them behind the power adapter input or somewhere even more inaccessible.

Oh! And you can plug this into your TV if you really need to. The picture quality is alright, you can even plug in the sound too.

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good product but could be much much better, August 28, 2007

By	GenZen "GeneralZen" (New Milford, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

I was hesitant to purchase this after reading the last review. But my experience has been delightful.

I have no issues with power interference or power filter problem. Power supplies for camera and receiver are perfectly fine. I can connect the units to any outlets around my house and they work fine.

I originally had some WiFi interference with my wireless router because the receiver was right next to the router in my office when I was testing it. But, once I moved it away from the router, it worked perfectly fine with no interference.

**UPDATE** There is some interference but not drastic enough to distort the image. It depends where the receiver is around the house.

Positives:
* Color picture quality is excellent compared to the black and white Summer Infant monitor product (which had terrible interference problem).

* Also, I like the auto enable feature. Basically, the unit stays on standby (the receiver screen in shutoff until a sound from the camera activates it automatically). The input audio level can be adjusted on each individual camera.

* The unit supports up to three cameras

* The receiver color screen brightness is adjustable (so late at night, you can make it a bit darker)

* Lens has a nice wide-angle view. From 6 feet away, it can almost cover the length of a twin mattress

Negatives:
* The receiver uses four AAA batteries. I would have preferred a slightly thicker unit if it accommodated AA batteries. I have plenty of high capacity rechargeable AA batteries that I use for all our digital toys, but no AAAs. AA batteries are generally cheaper too.

* The power plug connects inside the battery compartment. The batteries have to be removed in order to use the power adapter. BAD DESIGN. This is incompetent design.

* Night vision is weak past 2 feet away. I can barely see anything past 4 feet.

* Camera lens does not zoom in or out. A manual zoom lens 2x or 3x would be a great feature to add in the future.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars better than traditional baby monitors but........., November 10, 2007

By	stefan grunspan (paradise) - See all my reviews

First, the picture on the screen in the product shot is hilarious. You will never see anything that clear or colors that vibrant. Then again, most people want to hear if their child is crying and maybe see if they've rolled over, or climbed out of crib etc. and for that purpose this works. I took this system traveling with me and its performance varied wildly. In some places it was totally unusable within 10 feet line of site. In others it worked from one end of a house to another. 2.4GHz wifi will interfere. For example every time I clicked on a link in my browser the monitor would go hazy. The bottom line is you will have to test it in your setting. Oh and like other reviewers said, the fact that you have to remove the batteries to plug it in is stupid. I modified, but I doubt most people want to take a soldering iron to their baby monitor out of the box.


Compared to most consumer electronics this is a pretty weak system. But
the sad fact is that baby monitors sold through babys-r-us and the like are of awful design and quality, and they are as expensive as this unit. It is the best option I have found.

UPDATE**********
I have found this system completely blocks my wireless router's signal on channel 2. It has three channels for three cameras. On channel 1 the camera's image is so severely distorted as to be useless. I think this is due to my neighbor's wireless router, but I can't be sure. I have yet to try it on channel 3, but given the fact that I had planned to connect at least one more camera, I think this system is pretty much useless in my house. As I said above, this system is very dependent on your location. I am sorry that when editing an review you can't take away a star.