TRENDnet ProView Wireless N Internet Surveillance Camera TV-IP512WN
- Up to 4x greater wireless coverage as compared to wireless g IP cameras
- View, record and manage advanced features from any Internet connection
- Program motion detection recording, email alerts and more with complimentary software
- Features a removable lens, I/O ports, 2-way audio and Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS)
- 3 Year Limited Warranty
Product Description
The ProView Wireless N Internet Camera transmits real-time high quality streaming video over the Internet. Manage your Internet Camera from any Internet connection. Wireless n technology provides unsurpassed wireless coverage and improved streaming video quality. Add this camera to your wireless network at the touch of a button with Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS). Manage up to 32 TRENDnet cameras with the included complimentary camera management software. Advanced f… More >>
TRENDnet ProView Wireless N Internet Surveillance Camera TV-IP512WN
First and foremost I have been using this camera for only 2 weeks, so I do not claim to be an expert with this item just yet.
Pros:
1) The camera image quality is amazing, it delivers vivid images that can be tweaked in the IE firmware/software and in Trendnet 2.0 software that is supplied.
2) The 2 way audio from the built in microphone is also very good, although most of the time I turn it off because it picks up more of my own conversations than I care for.
3) The camera can be used outdoors, but you will need to buy a Camera Enclosure to protect it and have a near by power source, you can purchase a CE off of e-Bay for $40.
4) You can monitor your home/office anywhere you want from anywhere in the world.
Cons:
1) I had to contact tech support 4 times to try and understand their convoluted software. The software is very confusing, and I have worked with some of the most complicated software ever produced.
2) The tech support Trendnet has contracted are all from India, so they all have really thick accents, so often you are having to ask them 2 and 3 times to repeat themselves so that you can hear their instructions once, this is very frustrating but sadly par for the course.
3) For my particular usage I wanted to record all the time, so I purchased a 500GB hard drive and named it my surveillance HDD with the sole intent of just monitoring my home. Their IPView Pro 2.0 software supplied with the disc is out of date, a new version must be downloaded from their website. Sadly the new IPView Pro 2.0 software version is plagued with bugs, I wanted to record continuously, but it will only record for one day then it shuts the camera off. It says I have no more space allowed for allocating new recordings, but I have a 500 GB drive with less than 2% used for a 24 hour recording! Eventually out of frustration I went back to the firmware/software supplied by logging into the camera’s IP address and now I have it recording all the time, but it will only record in 1 minute increments, but it records continuously. This could be a pain if you want to locate an event that occurred sometime over night and I have to make a new file for each new day and move last nights recording over to it by hand, EVERY DAY!
4) I have not figured out how to get the IE software or IP Pro software to only record when it detects motion as the box claims it can do, if it could do this then big hard drives wouldn’t be needed.
I will update my findings on this camera in the next 3 weeks, and if Trendnet decides wisely to put out another software update that fixes this space allocation issue with the 2.0 software for continuous recording then I might well shift my 4 stars to 5.
Rating: 4 / 5
Picture quality on this camera is terrible. Greens are purple-white and the picture is very fuzzy even after focusing the lense. I had to send the camera back to Trendnet for replacement. The first time, the camera failed after a couple of days as it would display only a white screen with outlines of objects. On the replacment camera, the colors were so bad it looks like a cartoon picture.
However, the camera does work well over wireless-N and the web utility is simple to use. Trendnet customer service was reasonable.
I will not be buying any more Trendnet products as their quality is just too poor for the price.
Rating: 2 / 5