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94 of 97 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
just got this and it is FANTASTIC so far....., April 14, 2008
This review is from: Safety 1st High-Def Digital Video Monitor (Baby Product)
Just got the item delivered today. I did pay a whole lot less then the $349.99 price amazon has it for right now. (and don't buy it from wizard entertainment, they had it [...], and then cancelled my order stating that it was out of stock, and then they have it listed here again, scam artists)
First, the box is nicely configured and when you open it, everything is there to see (some may think this is crazy but i purchased/returned a swat system and the thing was a pain in the butt to get out and put back in)
2nd, hooked it up and there is NO interference.... thats right, NO interference, none.... NO popping sounds, NO dropping picture, NO neighbors kid.... NOTHING... just very, very clear picture and sound. since I just got the system and hooked it up, I have not used the night vision or the zoom in/out, pan features. It seems pretty straight forward to use from the handset. The screen on the handset is somewhat on the small size but the clarity and the quality is pretty good.
I thought the camera and the handset would be a whole lot heavier but they seem to be pretty well made. When you put in the rechargable batteries in the handset make sure you unscrew the little screw at the bottom (or read the directions). So the handset comes with rechargable batteries and a power plug. The camera does not come with the batteries (even though you can run it on batteries) I am not sure about placing rechargable batteries in it.
I will update my review with more info, but so far, comparing it to other monitors, this seems to work flawlessly. I am amazed that no one had come up with this technology before. So my first impression of the item is very good and I would definitely recommend it.
**update 1** 4/25/08 ** tried the item with night vision and it is pretty good. during regular day mode, one thing i realized about the picture quality is that if you have a fast moving object like my dog running across the screen, the picture quality does get a bit choppy. it doesn't drop out but kind of looks like an older cartoon where the motion is not smooth. now this said, it really doesn't matter with an infant, just the fact that you would be using to see if they are awake if moving etc. if your baby is doing gymnastics then it may not be that impressive. the zoom also works pretty well. you get up to 4x digital zoom, when you do zoom in the picture quality suffer somewhat but it is still a great feature. the whole system is pretty easy to navigate. i am still very happy with the item.
**update 2** 9/7/08 ** Still using the monitor like crazy. Couple of things people pointed out. #1) battery life sucks... just awful but for my use which is mostly at night we have it hooked up to the power outlet and we rarely carry it around with us during the day #2) it is pretty annoying to hear that beep and see the logo everytime you want to see the video, its loud especially at night when everything is so quite. Other then those 2 things, the item is still solid. I will take those 2 negatives just for the fact that no one else can see my kid (you can't say the same about the 900 mhz or the 2.4 gig units) At night we have the auto volume limit at 2 and the sound only comes on when the baby makes sounds which is great. The video is always clear with the night vision and you can see every detail. Actually one other really annoying thing #3) is that the actual video unit in the baby's room, has a blinking annoying green light. I am sure you can't turn it off, so I had to put a piece of folded paper and tape it so it wasn't a beacon for the baby. I have had no wireless issues with FIOS actiontek router either. so overall still pretty happy with the unit and its well worth it for the security and privacy perks.
**update 3** 3/30/09 ** OK, so almost 1 year of use, I still highly recommend this to any parent. I don't know how people do without a video baby monitor... do yourself a favor and get a video one and not just an audio.
2 negatives -
1) The batteries do not hold a charge... period, no juice at all.
2) The view button, does not really work, you really have to push hard for it to work
NOW THE POSITIVE -
I called safety1st about those 2 problems, they will be sending me a brand new unit. This is what I call customer service!!! They will send me a brand new unit and I just have to send my old one back to them. I have been a very happy customer with the unit. After a full year of use, I would recommend it hands down over any other unit out there.
This is a must for all new parents.
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44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Best of the current models out there, but still flawed in many ways, August 10, 2009
This review is from: Safety 1st High-Def Digital Video Monitor (Baby Product)
I've been an industrial designer working on product designs for 10 years, so I'm a bit obsessed with details and with products that work in a simple, elegant way. (not saying that makes my opinion more valid, just providing some context) This product is adequate, is better than it's direct competitors, and has some nice high points, but overall is still flawed.
We bought this to replace our Summer non-digital video monitor, which we have LOVED for 2 years due to it's awesome picture quality, simplicity, and reliability. We needed to replace it due to the fact that our neighbor bought the same Summer monitor and the audio interference became unbearable as a result. So, we had to go digital to avoid the interference issues.
This Safety 1st monitor is the 3rd digital video monitor that we have tried. The Safety 1st "high def" monitor is the best of the three that we tried, but still has some flaws and makes me wish we could still use the non-digital Summer that we love.
Quick review of the "other" monitors we tried:
I should say that we first tried the Summer "best view" digital monitor to replace our Summer non-digital. Since we loved the non-digital, we thought this would be a great upgrade. Wrong. The monitor has a handheld unit and a remote that allows you to pan and zoom. It's obvious that Summer spent all of their development and part costs on this pan and zoom feature, because the rest of the product feels cheap. The camera unit feels like it would break if you dropped it on carpet, and is huge and clunky with flashing green lights that I'm sure my toddler would love to wake up and talk about at 4am. The handheld unit has a cheap feeling clip/stand that feels like it could snap off (why didn't they use the awesome clip/stand from their non-digital model?). And worst of all, the volume adjustment for the handheld unit is hidden inside a menu. So, it's 4am and you want to turn the volume up? You'll need to drill down into a couple of software menus to do that. It's an obvious case of cost-cutting, since I'm sure the simple dial volume knob on the non-digital version is much more expensive than a few lines of software code. But c'mon Summer, volume control is one of those fundamental features of a baby monitor! So, we returned it. Summer, you need to think about what you're doing to your brand when you cut corners like this...
The next monitor we bought was the Fisher Price remote control video monitor. Honestly, we didn't use it for more than ten minutes, since something was defective with the screen and it was flipping from bright green to red to blue. This didn't give us a lot of confidence (and isn't that why we want monitors in the first place?) so we returned it right away and ordered the Safety 1st HD version.
Safety 1st HD review:
First off it's clear that Safety 1st hired a design firm to design this product (or has a competent internal design organization). To start off, the packaging is great, with none of those ridiculous twisted wire security wrappings inside or anything like that. The product is clean looking, the camera is unobtrusive enough to match any baby's room, and the overall impression is that the product is pretty well thought out. Unfortunately, once you start playing with it you realize that the design intent was perhaps diluted as cost-reductions and other things started happening, and as such the product falls down on some major details.
The "high def" video:
First off, the term "HD" is more overused that putting a small "i" in front of any product to get people to consider it. The iToilet! High Def wallpaper! Give me a break. All of the digital monitors we looked at are about as far from HDTV as you can possibly get. They should be laughed at for even using this term. Seriously. With the Summer non-digital, with the camera mounted at the same location (about 5 feet from her crib), we could see our toddlers face clearly enough to see her BLINK. We could see if her eyes were open, if she had dropped her teddy bear, if she had pulled off one of her socks, if her foot was stuck in the crib rail. Perfect. Not so with ANY of the digital monitors. At most, I can see a dark fuzzy shape that I'm pretty sure is her full head of hair off to one side of the crib. We can sort of make out which way she is laying based on that dark fuzz, but seriously, all of these digital monitors have really low end video. If you live in an area that is not super close to another house, buy the Summer non-digital and enjoy life. If you have to have digital due to interference, this one works, but it's about as HIGH DEF as my kitchen sponge.
I'm not an expert, but I suspect that this all has to do with how all of these are transmitted digitally. We're all used to youtube and streaming videos that have the benefit of "buffering", loading the video up a bit before we see it, so we can have good quality. With baby monitors, obviously you don't want it to be buffered since you want an instant live picture, so I suspect this is why the video on all of these digital ones is so bad. Expect choppy, pixelated, low def pictures that look like small webcam images from 1996.
The details I like:
-no interference
-works fine no matter where I am in the house, no loss of quality. I haven't tried it from a quarter mile away like some other reviewers, because quite frankly I couldn't run back fast enough if I saw our toddler having an issue anyway if I'm that far away. It's not like you're going to bring the monitor to the grocery store with you, what's the point if you're not close enough to run in and check on baby anyway?
-camera unit is fairly pleasing looking, and it's monochromatic colors mean it goes well with any room color.
-camera unit mounts to wall very simply without multiple parts like the Fisher Price.
-handheld unit is small and light, but that's a neutral point, as I don't keep it in my pocket anyway, it usually sits on a table. I suspect that "make it the size of a cell phone" was the message given to the designers, right or wrong.
The details that make me nuts (Safety 1st, we know you read these reviews: pay attention!)
-camera unit: plug cable is way too short is and is black. Did a long white cable cost too much? Cmon, who want's a black cable snaking up their wall on an angle because the cable is too short too run straight.
-camera unit: on/off button is horrible. Looks nice, works horrible. Make it a simple mechanical on/off switch! As it is, it's a round button that you have to hold down for a few seconds, then this light ring turns green, or sometimes orange, or sometimes does nothing. Is it on? Is it off? I keep having to press the button, hope for the best, and check the handheld in the other room to verify that it's on. C'mon, make it a simple on/off switch that I can tell instantly if it's on or off! Keep it simple!
-camera unit: strange blinking green light. The light around the on/off switch (the one that confuses you about if it's on or off) magically blinks green on and off...maybe when the baby moves? Maybe when something makes a sound? Maybe when the evening news is on? Who knows, what I do know is that my toddler likes to talk about it when she should be going to sleep. So, i put electrical tape over it. Safety 1st, are you listening?
-camera unit: adjustment for angle is this horrible sounding/feeling clicking thing. I'm either breaking it, or just angling it correctly to see baby. Details, details...
-handheld unit: no stand. It's really small, which is nice, but it's got such a small footprint that the weight of it being plugged in on my nightstand makes it fall over. I shouldn't have to adjust where the cable is just so it stands up. Put an integrated, solid feeling stand on this thing just like the Summer non-digital monitor and call it a day. I don't need to be balancing a cell phone sized thing on it's end at 4am.
-handheld unit: volume still stinks. Please, please, please just copy the Summer non-digital and make a nice simple rolling wheel type volume knob. I know it costs an extra 40 cents to produce, and it may add an extra quarter inch to the size, but volume control needs to be ultra simple. As it is, to change the volume you need to turn the screen on first (lighting up the room and prompting wife to wake up and say "what's wrong?" Why can't I just have a knob to adjust volume without having to turn on the screen? It's the middle of the night, I don't want to have to think about a multi step process to adjust sound.
The problem is that when you push up or down on the monitor, the display automatically turns on, which means you have to wait for the 3 second "I hope that marketing person got fired" Safety 1st logo to disappear, then either wait for the screen to automatically go off, or push the left button to manually turn it off. Why does the monitor-on feature have to be tied to the volume?
Here's how it works with our old Summer non-digital: turn dial up or down.
There's a lesson in there somewhere...
-handheld unit: BEEPING. I'm convinced that this is some sort of BEEP experiment to see if people can go BEEP insane from a combination of parental BEEP lack of sleep and constant BEEP beeping. Every time you push ANY button on the unit, it BEEPS at you to let you know that you just pressed it. BEEP. Want to see your baby? BEEP! Want to turn the volume down two levels? BEEP. BEEP. Want to turn the screen off? BEEP! Want to turn off the BEEP feature? You CAN'T. Want to turn the volume level of the BEEP down independent of the system volume? You CAN'T. BEEP.
-handheld unit: logo...
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37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best monitor currently available., August 5, 2008
This review is from: Safety 1st High-Def Digital Video Monitor (Baby Product)
I recently purchased this video monitor for use in our home, to replace the Summer Infant Handheld video monitor we were NOT happy with. I spent hours reading reviews of all the monitors I could find online. I am happy with my purchase. I believe this monitor was a good choice, although it's not perfect. Here's my review:
1. PICTURE. This monitor has by far the best picture of any baby video monitor I have seen. That being said, it is NOT "high-def" to the standards of a high-def television. It is high def compared to other monitors currently available. 5 STARS.
2. SOUND. The sound quality is very good. There is a soft "whoosh" of interference that is constantly in the background when the receiver is on. I have never seen a monitor that didn't have that interference, and this is better than most. The microphone appears to be very sensitive and picks up my child's smallest sounds. 4 STARS.
3. RECEPTION. The reception is unparalleled in my opinion. There is only an occasional blip of interference on one side of the picture that resolves quickly. We walked three houses away on either side of our house before we lost reception. Needless to say the reception inside our home and in our yard is flawless. Even several houses away the reception didn't degrade in quality - it was perfect until it was lost, displaying a lost connection symbol. A few steps back toward our house restored perfect reception again. Additionally, the monitor does not appear to conflict with our wireless internet in any way. 5 STARS.
4. PAN/TILT. This monitor advertises the ability to pan and tilt. If you are picturing being able to remotely control the camera to move in any direction, that's not what it does. From the remote parent unit, you can zoom in on the picture 2X to 4X. While in a zoomed view, you can move right, left, up or down within the picture, just as you would if you zoomed in on a picture from your digital camera. You're not actually seeing anything outside the original view, and the camera is not actually moving. The zoom feature does produce fairly clear images, however, and for us we like being able to see both our kids in their bunk beds in the zoomed out view, and then zoom in on each one individually. I find it slightly irritating that to move within the zoomed view you have to keep pushing the right, left, up or down buttons repeatedly, moving only slightly with each push. I wish you could hold down the button and have it move smoothly until you released the button or reached the edge of the picture. 4 STARS.
5. TIME OUT and OTHER FEATURES. This monitor has an on-screen menu that allows you to set your preferences for the Time Out feature, AUTO level, Night vision (infrared) and adding other cameras. TIME OUT allows you to set how long your want the screen to be on before it automatically shuts off to save battery life - 5 seconds, 15 secs, 25 secs, or OFF which leaves it on until you turn it off. I really like this feature because you can hit the view button to see the picture and then just set it down and it will turn itself off. The sound continues after the screen turns off unless you have set the AUTO LEVEL, which turns the sound off and then turns it on if there is a sound in the room. You can set this to OFF, which keeps the sound on until you turn the unit off, or to level 1, 2 or 3 which makes it more or less sensitive to sound, i.e., it will turn the sound on for smaller noises on level 1 or wait for bigger noises on level 2 or 3. I like this a lot because then you don't have to listen to the "whoosh" of background noise, but you know if your child starts to stir it will turn back on. I am satisfied with how sensitive it is with my 3 year old, I will wait and see how I feel with the baby coming soon, knowing I'll be more paranoid about every noise with him. But so far I like how this works. For NIGHT vision you can turn the infrared on, off, or to auto. I don't know why you would use anything other than auto but I guess it's nice to have the choice. I only have one camera so the part about adding other cameras is not something I can comment on. I will say the menu was only partially intuitive for me, but it didn't hurt me to read the instructions for once and all my questions were answered there. 5 STARS.
6. OTHER. In the area of nit-pickiness, there is a Safety 1st screen that comes on every time you turn the screen on, as if it shows while the unit is booting up. Whether this is necessary or not I don't know, and it does bug a little, but it's only on there for 1 second so it's not that big of a deal. The screen does return to the view you had before, like if you were zoomed in on a certain spot it returns to that, which is nice. You don't have to find the view you want all over again. The screen is pretty small, smaller than our old one, but the picture is so much better it makes up for it. I would rather have a smaller, but better picture than a bigger crappy one. I do like that the handheld receiver is small and portable, easy to carry in your pocket or use the clip provided. Finally, the power button on the camera blinks brightly when the camera is on, which can be annoying in the dark. I taped tin foil over it to cover it up.
Overall, I would recommend this monitor to family and friends without hesitation. I am sure that future models with improve upon this one, and there are some things I would change if I could, but I am convinced this is among the best if not the best baby monitor available today. I love it. Shop around for the best price.
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