Levana BABYVIEW20 Interference Free Digital Wireless Video Monitor with Night Light Lullaby Camera
From SVAT Electronics
There is nothing more important to you than your childs safety and security. You want to be with them day and night to know that they are safe at all times. But with so much to do around the house in an average day, you know that it isnt always possible. The BABYVIEW20 is Levanas easy-to-use video baby monitor that ensures youre always there for your loved one. This portable system allows you to watch over your child with a handheld monitor and be alerted whenever she makes a sound, even when the system is in standby mode. The night vision feature allows you to see your child when its dark, and you can play comforting lullabies directly from the camera. The BABYVIEW20 is the perfect solution for every parent - now you can rest easy knowing your child is safe!
Amazon Sales Rank: #897 in Camera & Photo Color: Sage Green Brand: Levana Model: BABYVIEW20 Dimensions: 5.75" h x 1.06" w x 2.50" l, 2.85 pounds CPU: AMD Athlon 1 GHz Memory: 128000MB DRAM Hard Disk: 1GB Processors: 1 Native resolution: 640x480 Display size: 669.2913385827
There is nothing more important to you than your child’s safety and security. You want to be with them day and night to know that they are safe at all times. But with so much to do around the house in an average day, you know that it isn’t always possible. The BABYVIEW20 is Levana’s easy-to-use video baby monitor that ensures you’re always there for your loved one. This portable system allows you to watch over your child with a handheld monitor and be alerted whenever she makes a sound, even when the system is in standby mode. The night vision feature allows you to see your child when it’s dark, and you can play comforting lullabies directly from the camera. The BABYVIEW20 is the perfect solution for every parent - now you can rest easy knowing your child is safe! Levana BABYVIEW20 Highlights Set it Up in Seconds Just switch on the camera and monitor and the system is ready to use. You will immediately see what the camera sees on the LCD screen. Watch Your Child with No Interference -- Clear Signal Technology A digital wireless system ensures that you get a clear picture of your baby at all times. No interference from cordless phones, microwave ovens, WiFi signals (from wireless routers), Bluetooth devices, or other wireless devices in your home. All video and audio of your baby is kept private and secure -- a digital signal ensures a secure link that can not be intercepted. Watch your baby anywhere in the house or outside (up to 150 ft). Hassle-Free Portable Monitoring The battery-powered monitor makes carrying it around easy and convenient. The included rechargeable Lithium-ion battery gives you up to 4.5 hours of continuous use, allowing you to easily move the monitor from room to room. A low battery indicator lets you know when the battery needs to be recharged. Just plug the monitor into a wall outlet to charge the battery or for long term use. Around The Clock Monitoring with Standby Mode Standby mode allows you to rest easy, but be alerted instantly. This feature shuts off the monitor’s screen and audio. It will only turn back on when your child starts to cry or make noise. You will be immediately notified on the monitor you when your child starts to cry -- the LCD and audio will switch on. Night Vision Allows You To Watch Over Your Child Both Day and Night! See your child at night with built-in night vision. Infrared LEDs output light that is invisible to the human eye but can be seen on the monitor. The night vision will turn on automatically when it gets dark and allow you to see up to 15ft away. It also turns off during the day to save energy. Comfort Your Child at Night with Lullabies and a Built-In Night Light The BABYVIEW20 helps to soothe your baby to sleep at night. The camera plays a selection of lullabies that you can control with the monitor. With a push of a button you can start playing music, change the song, or stop the music when your baby is asleep. All without having to go in the room and disturb her! You can also comfort your child with a built-in night light that glows softly to help calm your child in the dark. You can turn the night light on or off with the touch of a button. Place the Camera Anywhere For ultimate portability, the camera can be battery powered (4x AAA - not included). Attach the camera to your baby's crib with the included crib mount! You can also use the camera’s magnetic base to adjust the camera for the perfect view of your child. Hear Every Sound The camera has a built-in microphone, which allows you to hear everything that's happening in your monitoring location. LEDs on the monitor indicate the level of audio being detected, even if the volume is turned down. 24/7 Customer Support If you require help at any time, Levana support representatives are available 24/7 to answer any questions or to guide you through setup. Call 1-866-946-7828 to speak directly to a representative. ROHS Compliant The BABYVIEW20 is compliant with RoHS standards. RoHS stands for Reduction of Hazardous Substances, and is a European initiative that was developed to reduce the use of hazardous materials in electrical and electronic equipment. The RoHS compliant logo means that Defender has taken the initiative to reduce the use of hazardous materials in the production of this baby monitor. What’s in the Box: Wireless Monitor Wireless Camera Rechargeable Lithium-ion Battery Power Adapter for Monitor Power Adapter for Camera Magnetic Base for Camera Camera Mount Mounting Hardware Quick Start Guide Instruction Manual 1 Year Warranty 24 Hour Online/Toll Free Support
(2.5 stars) Some good ideas, but didn't work well in practice overall When I got our first video monitor, I wondered if it would be useful, or just a gimmick, or one more way to worry about the baby! We've found it very useful. There are just some things that an audio monitor can't tell you. And being able to check on your child without the disturbance of going into her room can save a lot of trouble, especially in the transition times in the evening and in the morning, when little disturbances can lead to bigger ones. The video was especially useful when our child was a little older and moving around more, and we had left her to settle herself - which sometimes can seem like crying herself to sleep! :-( We used the video monitor to see if she was just unsettled (so we very much did not want to go into the room, or she wouldn't learn to settle herself) or had gotten into a spot she couldn't get out of (stuck in the bars of the crib, or lost her lovey, so we needed to go in and set things right). Video monitors are also useful to see when a child is awake, and how awake - sitting, standing, lying down or trying to climb out of bed! - or on her way to sleep, or not. And they can be lots of fun, too, to watch and listen! Our other monitor is analog, and once in a while we'd hear our neighbor talking on their cordless phone - which no doubt means they hear us sometimes! A digital monitor, like the Levana, should be private and static-free. So, I really wanted to like this product. Plus, I really needed it when a new baby arrived. But while it has an attractive design and some interesting features, the Levana Babyview monitor doesn't seem especially workable or useful for us. The main issue, of course, is the video and audio quality. Both are problematic on the Levana BabyView: Video: The video quality seems barely adequate. The resolution on the baby's face is OK, but just. The frame rate seems too low - you don't get anything like continuous motion. Every several seconds, the video freezes. From time to time, it freezes for a much longer time. The video compression used results in a blocky, low resolution quality, though luckily that primarily affects low-contrast areas. Overall it's tolerable but not especially enjoyable to use, and lower quality most of the time than our analog monitor. Audio: The audio had a persistent high pitched background whine when it was on. Also, it's apparently set to switch off and on at low volumes, so the audio is intermittent with lots of clicks, which is less than useful and more than irritating. The tiny microphone is in an odd location on the camera, it almost seems like an afterthought, perhaps that's part of the problem. Overall, much lower quality than our analog monitor. Further, the user should be able to better control the audio - have a microphone that picks up even low level sounds, and have a volume control on the handset that you can adjust; then the user can decide what to hear. Good quality audio can add a lot of information to how the child is doing. You don't want to lose audio quality to get video - a monitor like this should have good quality audio and video. Some aspects of the Babyview are well done: - The design is fairly attractive and compact. (Handset is 5.8" H with the antenna x 1" deep without the clip x 2.5" wide.) - The 2.3" screen is reasonably large. - The auto-switching between regular light and night vision seems to happen quickly and effectively. - The lithium ion battery in the handset is the best battery technology, in terms of power for the weight. (It's what's used in digital cameras and cell phones.) They claim over 4 hours of battery life. - The power adapters work at US or international voltages. - The included clamp for the camera is well made and seems likely to work well in a variety of setups. Other features are good ideas that don't work well in practice: - The voice activation feature, which leaves the screen and the sound off until it picks up some sound, helps conserve battery and perhaps parents' nerves and sleep. But it needs too much noise to switch on - it's either set to too low a level, or the microphone isn't sensitive enough. And again, this is something that the user should be able to adjust. - The little curved base is clever, but doesn't work that well at the optimum focal range of 5 feet. When placed on a dresser next to the crib with the camera is tilted down enough to see the baby, the base blocks a big part of the image. In addition, when the camera is in the base, the camera starts to tilt due to the heavy filter on the power supply wire (a biggish black cylindrical part on the wire). So for both those reasons, the cute clever magnetic base isn't much use in practice. Some of the features seem potentially nice but I'm not sure I'd use them - such as the nightlight and the music. I almost wonder if they added them to distinguish this product from their security cameras. Finally, there are a couple elements of the design that aren't so great. Having a bright green power LED on the front of the camera is thoughtless on a baby monitor, though luckily it's easy enough to tape over (and there are so many lovely colors of electrical tape these days). And the glowing red night vision lights seem to have too much potential for distracting or even upsetting a child. The wireless frequency is 2.4ghz, the same as wireless internet and some cordless phones. The Levana has enough channels (32, with auto signal hopping) that intereference shouldn't be a major problem, but I can't definitely evaluate that at this point. The company's website is [...], though there's very little info there. Their parent company is SVAT Electronics, which makes security cameras and the like. So even though this is a new product from an unknown brand, they do have experience with this sort of thing. Perhaps their next generation of this product will have some of the wrinkles ironed out. Good reception/decent video quality. Simple to use. Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R36L3YS2VNQUAB The most important factor about these devices are not having any dropped receptions, etc. Carrying a video signal wirelessly seems like a pretty hefty task. The Levana Babyview20 *INTERFERENCE FREE* Digital Wireless Video Monitor does a good job carrying a consistent signal; I haven't experienced any major freezes or losing video signal. However, I did notice some very brief pause when there's fast motion during night vision, but it is very brief. The night vision works very well. The camera contains 9 infrared lights. In the dark, you can actually see it glowing red, but it is pretty dim (the green power LED is brighter); hopefully, that's not something that would scare the baby at night. You can see the actual infrared lights during the video I've uploaded, but it is actually not that bright; that is how the digital camera sees it -- not to the human eye. But from the video, you can just get an idea of how much infrared lights are in there. According to Levana, the infrared lights are 100% safe to the baby. There is a VOX (Voice Operated eXchange) feature, which allows the monitor to be off and only turns on when there is sound detected (for example when the baby starts crying) on the camera. This is a nice feature, but it would have been nice to be able to adjust the sound sensitivity to even detect lower sounds. The monitor comes with a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery. According to Levana, it takes 3 hours to fully charge; blue LED means it is charging and when it goes off, it means fully charged. The camera requires four AAA batteries (not included) if you don't connect it to an AC adapter. Levana claims the camera can operate for 4.5 continuous hours with AAA batteries. (and about half if you use the night light) So obviously, it's best to have an outlet nearby the camera to use the AC instead or be sure to buy some rechargeable AAA batteries. On the left side of the monitor, it has a PLAY/STOP, NEXT, and VOX button. On the right side of the monitor, it has ON/OFF dial (which also controls the volume), and BRIGHTNESS UP/DOWN button above it. The power adapter jack is also on the right side bottom. Below the LCD screen, it shows the POWER/LINK/VOX/MUSIC indicator; there's also an audio level indicator between them with green LEDs. And of course, there's the speaker below it. That's all it is. It is really basic and simple. * Takes about 3 seconds for the monitor to turn on * There's four levels of brightness. * 3 lullabies can be played on the camera. You can play/stop/next from the monitor. * There is a Night Light switch on the camera, which just turns on three star-shaped lights on the camera. * The camera comes with two mounts. One is for clamping on a crib and the other is a magnetic cradle. The cradle is actually pretty nice, which will allow you to rotate the camera in many directions freely with ease. Careful with the magnetic cradle! The magnet is pretty strong, so you'll want to keep sensitive electronics, especially hard drives away from it. Sure, in today's HD world, it'd be nice to have everything in great quality. However, higher quality videos will obviously take higher bandwidth to transmit and more battery power. The video quality is pretty much what one would expect with low-end/average webcam. It's not horrible, but you have to be realistic. Overall, it's decent since you can still tell what you're looking at. Pros: - Good range for around the house (100-150ft) - Have not lost any reception. - Design is fit for a baby's room. - Pretty close to real-time (about approx 0.5 second delay - not a major big deal) - Night Vision works great. - Night light - Monitor can be clipped on to your belt or as a stand - Comes with two AC adapters for powering camera or charging monitor - Basic, very simple to use. Cons - No color adjustments; you get what you get. (webcam quality) - Could use wider lens to see surroundings. (perhaps have an add-on to attach easily to screw on to the lens) - There should be a button on the monitor to turn on/off the night light. - The camera could use rechargeable lithium batteries like the monitor. - Should be able to adjust sound sensitivity for VOX - Would be really nice to have an automatic panning/zooming capability - Sound can echo. I give this product a 3 1/2 stars, but will be a bit lenient and give it a 4, since I have not tested other baby monitors. Nice Iteration of an Existing Concept The Levana Babyview20 is definitely not a unique idea, but the way its been implemented could be considered unique. How many of us want to see and listed to our babies? My wife just recently had our second child, so testing out this product was easy. In addition to being just a regular video monitor, the Babyview20 offers music, a night light, night vision, and nearly static-free audio (overall, not bad). Both the monitor and the camera can run off of batteries, although power adapters are included. When we first setup the unit and tested it out, we were quite pleased with the quality. Since our daughter is so young, we simply placed the camera in her bassinet. If your child is older, you can use the included attachment to attach the camera to a crib-side. Overall, quality was good, we could hear her breathe, and all was well. Setup was definitely a breeze. During subsequent uses, however, we ran into some issues. The monitor started to lose its connection to the camera. Flipping off the monitor and turning it back on, powering the monitor with the power adapater, and even switching batteries in the camera didn't make a difference. I was forced to call Levana, which offered very friendly customer support. I was told to simply hold the "VOX" button (which is a mode that will only turn the monitor on if audio comes from the camera) and hold down the night vision button on the camera. After doing this, lo and behold, things started working again. Either way, if you run into the issue, hopefully this can help prove to be useful. In the end, a great product that was executed very well. It's not perfect by any means (the music could sound better, for one), but, considering this appears to be Levana's second product, I think they've, hands down, got a winner. UPDATE: After about a week of writing this review, I've had nothing but trouble with the camera and monitor. It keeps loosing its connection, and, despite the advice they gave me above, I haven't been able to get it to work. Also, before, there wasn't much static coming through the monitor, now it has a constant noise coming through it despite my daughter sleeping.
