Customer Reviews

Summer Infant Deluxe Day and Night Handheld Color Video Monitor with 2.5" Screen, Blue

5 star:		(128)
4 star:		(73)
3 star:		(31)
2 star:		(34)
1 star:		(50)

 

 

July 04
I entered into the purchase of this product with some reservations. My house has a wireless network and several cordless phones (both 900Mhz and 2.4Ghz). Overall I am very HAPPY with this product. Obviously, the reception does not approach DVD quality but it does what I need. I can hear and see my daughter from anywhere in my house. The best part is the mobility of the receiver. I can clip it on my belt and travel anywhere in my house and into my yard about 150 feet.

The picture is similar to a TV that only uses the old rabbit ear antenna so it will not be good for recording. I have traveled with my daughter and set up this camera in a relatives house also got a good picture.

Pros - acceptable picture
excellent sound
PORTABILITY

Cons - acceptable picture
price

Update (Jan 07),
Our monitor is now two years old and has worked flawlessly. It has survived several drops and falls. We still get good reception even in our "electronically cluttered" home. We have two wireless networks and six cordless phones operating.

Recently we needed a second camera to put in our newest son's room. I ordered one online and it did not work. I called Summer Infant Inc. customer service and they immediately shipped me a replacement camera. That camera also didn't work. After some investigation with the extremely helpful customer service rep, we discovered I has an older model system (2100) and it was on a slightly different frequency than the new ones (2100a). I resigned myself to buying a new system, but Summer Infant Inc offered to upgrade my old camera and monitor so it would work with the new camera that I already had purchased. They accomplished this free of charge, even though they were under no obligation to do so.

In my opinion Summer Infant Inc has excellent customer service. If I could, I would upgrade their rating to 5 stars.

I definitely wanted a video monitor, because my bedroom is upstairs and the baby is downstairs. Having a video monitor is great because you can check if the baby's awake or just squawking in his sleep before you go all the way in there. I've tried three: this one, the Mobi Cam, and the new Safety First version. Both the other two got constant static that caused the picture to flicker and a clicking sound to come through on the audio. This one is USUALLY static free, accept for a periodic BLARE, usually in the middle of the night. It's pretty frustating, but I've now found a low enough volume level whereby the static won't scare me out of bed when it hits but I can still hear if my son cries.

As for the other features, the "color" is pretty poor, but the night vision works fairly well. It's very nice that it's portable, and that you don't HAVE to mount the camera--you can place it on a flat surface and angle it to see. I also like that when it's unplugged, the video shuts off after a couple minutes so it doesn't drain your battery. Then you can pop it back on (or off) with the touch of a big button on top. When it's plugged in, the video will stay on all night, but I feel like it starts to get warm when I leave the picture on too long. I generally shut it off until he makes noise, then I turn on the picture to see what's going on down there.

Since I've tried THREE video monitors, and this worked the best in my house, I thought I'd pass the research along.

We got this monitor before my son was born. Since the box had previously been opened, we took it out and tested it. I worked great. Putting the camera on the wall allowed us to have a view of the whole crib. The picture is color during the day and black and white when it's dark at night. It's a clear picture, but not as clear as they advertise on the package. The reception can get interference when someone walks by or blocks the path to the monitor, but it clears up once the obstacle has gone or the monitor gets moved. Our house has two levels and the monitor also gets great reception on a different floor from the camera.

It was when I tried to take the monitor with me downstairs that I found out the battery wouldn't hold a charge. My monitor would only work when plugged into the wall. I sent an email to Summer Infant and they sent me a label to ship the camera and monitor back to them. It went UPS Ground across the country and took a week to get there. They had it for a week and then sent me a new one. I did not like being without it for almost three weeks, but I was glad to have a new one. Unfortunately, this new one is far worse. I can only get a picture on one of the two channels and only when the monitor is in the same room as the camera. If I leave the nursery with the monitor, the picture twists at an angle and scrolls vertically so that the image is imperceptible. Also, there is a button at the top of the monitor to turn off the video and just the sound is available if that's what you want. My monitor will spontaneously turn off the video and I have to press the button to turn it back on.

I contacted Summer Infant again, and they are sending me a new one and a label to return the one I currently have. I hope this new one works, because when it does, I am really happy with it.

UPDATE: I got the new monitor a year ago and it works great. My son now sleeps downstairs and I am upstairs most of the time. With this monitor, I can always keep my eye on him.

As a gadget geek, I'm not easily impressed by gadgets, but I'm impressed by this one. We have a new baby infant. And at first, I was not entirely convinced that we needed a video monitor (we already have an audio monitor a friend gave us). Having had this video monitor now for 3 weeks, my wife finds it indispensable while I find it surprisingly useful. In our 2000sq-ft single-story wood-frame home, the reception is great everywhere, and the picture is clear. We have a 802.11g wireless network in the house (2.4GHz) and a set of 5.8GHz cordless phones, and there is no interference with this 900MHz video monitor. But be warned: although the product is advertised as "color," the video is virtually black-and-white almost all the time, not color. Even during the day when baby's room is filled with sunlight (which are the best conditions to see color, according to the user manual), the picture is black-and-white with just a shade of color. In other words, don't expect actually seeing much color from this monitor. So why did I give it 5 stars? ...because I don't care much about the color, and the product works so well. It's self-explanatory with no real setup needed (a rarity in the world of electronics). The monitor provides excellent night vision (black and white, of course). The video camera and mount (which needs to be plugged in, of course) is quite flexible in its possible mounting configurations. The video handset, though slightly bulky, can be clipped to your belt to allow you to wander. There is a large soft button on top of the handset that toggles the video on and off to save batteries, or it can be plugged in so that you can leave the video on all the time. It works also as a regular audio monitor, but you can turn the audio off and rely on the green-orange-red LEDs to visually indicate how much noise the baby is making (this feature is brilliant and is more useful than you might think). You can even plug in a headset to the handset to listen to your baby privately if you wish. The only other drawback besides the always-black-and-white picture is that the rechargeable battery pack is a proprietary unit that can't be replaced with standard rechargeable AA batteries. As with all rechargeable batteries, it has a finite life, and when it dies, I'll be forced to buy their expensive replacement. But that's in the future, so I'll forgive it for now. One final recommendation: buy the model with the bigger 2.5" screen rather than the smaller screen (it's only slightly more expensive). It's much easier on the eyes and provides better detail.

I got the non-portable video monitor when my baby was born, did not use it much because it was too much hassle to move it from room to room, plus sometimes plugging in and out and messing with the cords wake up the baby. So 10 months later after she was born, I decided to get the handheld one, used it for 1st time last night, could not believe how relaxed i was that i could see her on the monitor from room to room. the picture is not that good, but the picture is not good on any other video monitors anyway! so portable is a huge plus!!! the rechargable batteries last up to 10 hours!

I love this product. My daughter had a breathing/choking problem when she was born and this monitor was a huge help. It let me know if she just had a dry cough or if she couldn't breath, which as a new mom is terrifying. Now that she's 8 months old and has outgrown this problem it's still nice to see if she's lost her passifier or just let out a cry in her sleep. That way I'm not running to her bedroom and waking her up. Some people have complained in other reviews about the color and interfearence, but I haven't had one problem with those being an issue. The color does come in great but sometimes if it's in a bad position it won't be as colorful... that's not a big deal. If I have bad reception it has the option to change the channel from A to B, that always works. I recommended this to a friend expecting and definately think the money is worth it. It certainly helps you to not worry and eases your mind to just look at your baby. You use it daily and it could be used for future children. All I can say about this product is LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!!

Our first monitor was just for sound, but every time we'd hear somethhing, you had to go and check. With this monitor, if you hear something, all you have to do is look at the video to see if you need to go in the room. I was worried with the negative reviews I read for this product, but it works great for us. You can strap the monitor to your belt, and get some things done around the house. The video in the dark is great. The monitor is color, but you'll only see that if your room is brightly lit.

This does work well if you do not have a 900mhz cordless phone or other cordless or wireless products in your home or a close neighbor. The "color" is only during the day and it is not vivid. Do not go by the picture on the box! When you do get good reception it is a clear picture and the portable feature is nice. However, be careful b/c many items interfere with the reception.

Like some of the other reviews, this monitor does not have perfect picture quality but it does have good quality even at night time. We have not had a problem with reception even when we are using our cordless phones. One thing I do not like is that when it is in portable mode the picture only stays on for about a minute then it goes into a standby mode where the screen is blank but you still have sound. If you want to see the picture you hit the top snooze button for a quick look. If it is plugged into the wall the sound and picture stay on which is how I use it at night time. Customer service told me that they do that in order to save the battery life when in portable mode. I would like for the picture to stay on all the time in portable mode, but that might not be a big issue for someone else. Also the stand that it comes with (it pops in and out) is made cheaply and one side of mine already broke. I can still use the stand using the other side that did not break, but I was disapointed that it broke after only using it a couple times. Otherwise, this is a great monitor to have if you want to be able to see your child without having to go in their room over every sound they make. I would recommend this to any new parent.

We ordered the Summer Infant Video Monitor because it appeared to meet our needs the best. It provided a color video image with audio on a handheld receiver. This appeared to be much better than the competiting products due to its complete portability (i.e. did not require a bulky telivision monitor).

The product arrived as promised and we set it up as indicated by the directions. Unfortunately, the unit that we recieved had very poor range (less than 3 feet) and the image was only black and white with severe static when the monitor and camera were within three feet of each other. Outside of three feet, nothing was observed on the monitor. Along with the poor range and video quality, there was no audio unless the monitor was changed to the other channel. As a result, we either had a video image or audio. But not both. These were the same issues stated before in previous reviews.

We called Summer Infant Products Customer Support. Talk about the model of customer service. After I dialed the toll-free number, a customer service agent answered after three rings (i.e. no machine, voicemail, or receptionist to deal with). I explained what I was experiencing with their product and asked if it was the way the video monitor was designed. The lady said "no, not at all". She asked for my address and said that we would recieve UPS shipping labels in a couple of days via the U.S. Postal Service and to repack the unit in the box we recieved it in and send it back to them. They would either fix it or replace it. As promised, the labels arrived and we sent the unit. Within a week, we had a new video monitor.

We set the new unit up as directed and the best way to describe it is "perfect"! We can take the monitor to our mailbox and still see our child in full color and sound (at the same time). This unit far exceeded our expectations.

Overall, we did have similar problems as some have reported. But it appears they did not call Summer Infant Products for support. Boy, we sure are glad that we did. I don't think that any other product compares to the capabilities of this one. It would have received in excess of 5 stars from us, but it took an extra 9 days for us to have a working monitor. That was the only drawback.

Bottom line: This is a great product! I recommend it to anyone!