Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Very bad performance product, October 13, 2008
I was very disappointed with this product. Everything feels cheap, and it also functions that way.
Maybe it's just my specific product, but the picture quality is really, really bad. You can hardly say it's a color monitor. Even dark blue colors look white. It makes me wonder how they created the product images...
The angle of the camera is ridiculous. The camera must be placed in front of the person to see him right. I thought I could place it aside the door, but then you will not see your guest. They say it has tiltable camera lens, but actually, you can tilt it only vertically. Changing the position horizontally ends up with a picture of your guest profile.
There is no option to change the volume of the doorbell or to disable it.
To make it worse, when you turn on the camera, it makes a sound on the outside unit, making sure the person know that you are looking at him...
It is so bad that I've decided to put it aside until some other use arise.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Easy installation over existing doorbell wires - ONE YEAR UPDATE, March 3, 2008
This was easy to install using our existing doorbell wires (2 wires).
The video image is color and good quality. The doorbell is loud and sounds good, but not "beautiful" or "elegant." Importantly, the audio quality and level between the outside and inside is good.
I've only had it connected for a few days and can't say it's durable or long-lasting.
The "alarm" feature makes a pseudo siren sound to scare away the "Bad guys" but is really just silly.
We had doubts about the performance and ordered one camera / one monitor, but then ordered a second monitor (you can connect up to three monitors to a single camera) so that we can see who is at the front door from both the basement and the second floor.
Camera angle could be wider for our set up, but it's sufficient. Also, the camera lens can be adjusted up and down (but not right or left).
UPDATE AFTER ONE YEAR
One of the two video units began to malfunction after about one year. Warranty on the product is one year. I did not expect a replacement after the warranty period, nor did SVAT customer service offer one. They indicated this product is being phased out in favor of another. They estimated 6 months from August/September 2009 for the new unit.
The malfunction is false or phantom alarms. The doorbell randomly rings, but no one touched it. At first we thought it was kids or something. It happened at any / all hours of the day, including 2:00am and 4:00am as a couple notable ones before we realized it was a system error, not pranksters. Since, we've been standing right next to the front door with the door open in the middle of the day and heard it ring but knew 100% that no one was on the stoop or at the bell.
SVAT customer service asked if we were using the provided wires for our wiring. We are and it was run through conduit during a remodeling when first installed. SVAT asked if the connections were all tight or if any corrosion was evident (especially outside). I had checked the connections. They were tight and clean. Eventually, SVAT wrote "Seems like a good install! It's difficult to know for sure, but I would image [sic] that there is an issue with the monitor itself, especially if the issue resolves itself when the monitor is disconnected."
Not sure if we'll replace it or not. I will run one more test to confirm the wiring hasn't been damaged. Since one of the units still works, I'll switch them to see if the same UNIT keeps malfunctioning or if the same installation location keeps functioning. If you are reading this after September 2009 and I haven't updated, then it is safe to assume the unit is malfunctioning. Otherwise, I'll update this post to blame wiring damage. (It's in conduit, the system worked fine for a year, so the most likely problem is the unit.)
The two-wire installation remains a real strong point of this system and might lead me to replace the faulty unit. However, I should be able to pull more wires for a better system via the conduit.
Not sure what I'll do:
Some of the low points of this system and some additional features not offered will make me look at other options. Low points for our installation are: limited camera angle adjustment, not wide enough camera image, can't adjust volume of ringer inside the home, the LCD does not have a wide viewing angle. I have to bend at the knees to lower my eyes beneath one of the unit to see a clear picture. (This is actually a difference between the two units, aka quality control, because they are mounted at the same height.)
Features I wish it had: (1) Sending a snapshot of the moment the person presses the button to the LCD. We mount from the side of the door, so it's harder to see the profile (live) by the time we walk to the monitor after hearing the bell. If it just snapped a still and put it to the screen until we arrived, it would be better. Then we could "go live" by hitting the talk button. (2) Ability to use the camera as an IP Camera for viewing anywhere on our home network's computers or on a DVR. This would be great especially since these cameras already have infrared lights. (3) Insteon / smarthome compatibility.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Works well over regular doorbell wires, November 28, 2007
The product works well over the standard doorbell wires. No new wiring necessary. The DC power adapter needs to be plugged in next to the unit which makes for an unattractive setup and for some logistics problems. The camera is situated to the side of the door. We have problems with the camera facing straight ahead and not towards the person pressing the button.
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