TRENDnet ProView Wireless Advanced Pan/Tilt/Zoom Internet Surveillance Camera TV-IP400W
by TRENDnet
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List Price: Our Price: $115.00 You Save: $111.01 (49%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Digital Camera See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of TRENDnet ProView Wireless Advanced Pan/Tilt/Zoom Internet Surveillance Camera TV-IP400W
Customer Review: camera works well, good value
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this model camera a few years ago, and have just bought another. I'm not an IT person, but with the help of the Users Guide, and a very helpful tech support person, it's working well. The camera comes with a Quick Start Guide, but there is additional documentation available from the Trendnet web site - the Users Guide, FAQs and one on remote web access, all as pdf docs. It's worth taking the time to read everything and understand the steps to get it working. Even if you don't understand the ins and outs of network configuration, you can get it going by just carefully following their instructions. The difficult part is making the camera visible via the Internet, because there is a lot of variability in how each local network connects to the Internet.
With the older camera, I could view the video with Safari, but could not control pan and tilt. Worked OK using ActiveX with IE (running in XP as a virtual machine on my Mac). But the preset position settings did not work at all. That's when I emailed Trendnet tech support, who recommended a firmware upgrade (to version 3.36). That process was trickier than the original setup, but I got it done. The user interface looks quite different from the older version (version 3.17). But the really good news is that I can now control the camera from both Windows IE and Mac's Safari, including configuring and using preset positions.
I can't view the video on my iphone, as it requires java. However, I did find an app called Cam Viewer that works. I don't see video in real time, but as a series of still images with a user-settable refresh rate. Good enough to accomplish what I wanted.
I was impressed with the Trendnet tech support - I got a prompt response to my email, the person was knowledgeable, and stuck with me through several questions until I got it all working.
Customer Review: Ok for the price
Summary: 3 Stars
I purchased this camera after having owned the TV-IP110W (an excellent camera for the price, also reviewed by me elsewhere.) I went into it expecting it to be a pan/tilt version of the same unit. I discovered after the fact, which I would have learned had I read other reviews before buying it, that despite having a higher model number, it is actually an older camera with older technology. I learned this by calling tech support to determine why the picture on this one looked like I was viewing it through a sandstorm while my TV-IP110W was clear in 1/2 the light. Sooo... on to the summary:
Pros:
* Easy to setup and install. No issues getting it setup.
* Reliable. Some people have reported having to reboot it every few weeks, but I really have only had it crash once in over a year. Maybe I'm just lucky.
* Easy to use interface, though not mobile friendly (See below.)
Cons:
* As mentioned, quality is fairly poor, even for a camera of this price range. Picture is usable with daylight streaming in from a glass slider on one side of the room and bay window on the other side AND numerous overhead bulbs, but I wouldn't say much more than usable. The TV-IP110W is much clearer with 1 small window and a single low powered CF bulb.
* A little sluggish on the movement, but not bad
* Interface is not very mobile friendly, but there are work-arounds available if you are html-handy and ambitious.
See: [...] for a detail of the protocol used to control the interface via standard put/get commands. Not as clean as the ActiveX control, but it works.
Overall, its a decent camera that gets the job done, but don't expect to be overwhelmed.
Customer Review: Never got it and no reply from vender.
Summary: 1 Stars
I have never recieved the item and after several emails to the company, no one has bothered to reply to my emails, I think it is a bogus company and Amazon is fronting for them, Amazon has not helped me either. I have no trust in either. I am in the process of legal action and or criminal actions against both.
My review across the board
Customer Review: Expert setup needed
Summary: 4 Stars
This webcam works reliably for me and does what I bought it for, but the network setup was certainly challenging. To be fair it's the same situation with other similar internet camera products, but I would definitely not recommend that anyone new to networking take this on without expert help. The setup is complex, the manual is sketchy, and there are some bugs to overcome. Once you get past the initial installation and setup, it's easy to connect remotely and see what's going on in the vicinity of the camera (silently though, there's no microphone). I can connect successfully from my WinXP notebook (Firefox), my Nokia N800 linux tablet, or my Windows Mobile cell phone. The picture gets fuzzier in low light, and the frame rate of video is slow over a wireless connection, but it works well enough.Customer Review: Can't Beat the Features and the Price!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought one for my house 1 1/2 years ago so I could see my cat when I was out on business, then I bought another one 4 months ago to monitor the back entry and traffic area. I haven't had problems with them and setup was relatively simple, after following the instructions.
I am a very detailed person and compared feature to feature, this product to similar D-Link and Linksys models. TRENDnet beats them on features and the price is 1/2 of that of D-Link.
You can pan and tilt the camera when you are out on business and it sends me email alerts when motion dection is triggered.
I wish they had this deal 4 month's ago!!!!!!
This is an amazing price...