Best Baby Video Monitor - Review Of Summer Infant Best View Handheld Baby Video Monitor
The Summer Infant Best View Color Baby Video Monitor has all the necessary requirements that parents need, making it one of the top quality baby video monitors available. It's 100% digital technology provides crystal clear sound and video with a secure, private transmission up to 350 feet. The Summer Infant Best View Handheld Color Monitor has a large color screen at 2.5 inches which is larger than most handheld baby video monitors.
A very useful and unique feature of this baby video monitor is the ability to remotely pan, scan and zoom on the camera. Parents using this monitor have given it an average customer rating score of 4.5 out of 5.
Video Picture Quality:
During the day the color picture quality is excellent and the black and white night vision is also very good, even in a totally black room. Black and white night vision is standard with color monitors with infrared technology. There are red lights on the front of the camera around the lens which most people find are not too bright, but a few people have experienced these lights to flash every 5 seconds which in turn makes the vision on the monitor flash also. The majority of people do not experience the flashing red lights on the camera and it is presumed that those who did have either a faulty camera, or the room was not dark enough for the camera to distinguish between functioning in night or day vision.
There are green lights above the camera lens and soft red lights all around the camera lens that should not be flashing on and off. There is a green power indicator light on the camera that is generally considered to be too bright, some people have resolved this issue by covering it with electrical tape.
Audio and Reception:
The sound quality is very good, it's so sensitive you can hear your baby breathing if you want to. There are a wide range of audio settings, from loud to quiet, to off. The LED lights that indicate sound from your baby light up even when the volume is turned off, they also don't change based on the volume setting on the parent monitor.
The one common complaint from parents using the Summer Infant Best View Handheld Baby Video Monitor is that it doesn't have a volume control knob, but you have to enter into the menu to adjust the volume, it's very easily done but some people find it an annoying feature of this monitor.
The range is very good, the manufacturer quotes 350 feet but to expect an optimal distance for in home use of around 60 feet. Many people have used this monitor over multiple floors in their homes without any interruption in transmission of audio and video, there is also no static with this baby video monitor.
Transmission & Interference:
The Best View Handheld Video Baby Monitor system operates at 2.4GHz (802.11g) a common frequency for many household wireless networks. The majority of people that use this video baby monitor system do not experience any interference or decreased performance of other electronic devices such as wireless router, laptop computers, iphone, wireless printers, TiVo, NAS, PS3, XBox 360, Wii and cordless phones. There is however, the other minority that do experience interference with wireless routers (802.11g) and other electronic devices.
On one occasion a laptop running in a bedroom next to the room with the camera, resulted in the laptop being unable to access wireless networking. Trying 802.11n (MIMO) might solve interference issues for some people.
Other Features:
Batteries:
The monitor uses 3 AA rechargeable NiMh batteries which are included, and last up to 10 hours. If you are running the monitor on batteries instead of AC power the screen turns off automatically to conserve battery life and you have to turn the video back on by pressing a button on the top of the monitor, the baby monitor does not automatically turn off the video image if it is connected to the power.
Remote Pan and Zoom:
A great feature of the 'Best View' baby video monitor is the pan/tilt and zoom functions. The camera has a motorised mount, it can be turned through a wide range of motion, it's controlled by a small joystick on the handheld monitor. When the camera moves it's very quiet so it wont wake up your baby, it pans about 320 degrees so you will be able to scan most of your child's room, this is an advantage to monitor the toddler who likes to get out of bed and play in their room.
The camera can tilt upwards 90 degrees and downwards about 40 degrees from horizontal. There are 2 zoom levels (not continuous as with the pan) which work quite well, it's nice to be able to see if your baby's eyes are open or closed.
Extra Camera:
A unique feature of the 'Summer Infant Best View Baby Video Monitor' is that it can take up to an additional 3 camera's, making 4 in total, a great benefit when you have more than one young child you want to see and hear.
Parents opinions about the Summer Infant Best View Color Baby Video Monitor usually run along the line of 'love this monitor', 'absolutely great monitor', 'fantastic baby video monitor', 'best video monitor I have seen', 'great buy, worth the price for peace of mind'.
The consensus is that the Summer Infant Best View Color Baby Video Monitor with 2.5' screen is one of the very best and most popular baby video monitors available today.