Summer Infant Day and Night Handheld Color Video Monitor with 1.8" Screen - Silver
by Summer Infant, Inc.
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List Price: Category: Baby Product See more product details |
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Baby Products Reviews of Summer Infant Day and Night Handheld Color Video Monitor with 1.8" Screen - Silver
Customer Review: We have twins, I recommend you buy this monitor system....
Summary: 5 Stars
We have twins. They are now 9 months old. We went back and forth between a couple of different monitor solutions and chose this product. We bought two camera's and two monitors. He have one camera over each of the twins bed (please use common sense and tack the power cord that hangs down from the camera so that the cord is no where near your babies reach). We have two monitors this allows each of us, my wife and I, to have a monitor while at different rooms in the house. We can each see both babies with one monitor by switching the A/B switch on the side. Set up was super easy. During the day, or with proper light in the nursery, the image on the screen is in full color. During the night the image on the monitor screen is in black & white.
Problems? A little audio static. Video static is practically non-existant. It's the audio static that can catch you off guard. These units have audio so you can hear what's going on in the room; if your baby is crying or coughing, etc. It also has a indicator of green to red that shows audio strength, so if you are sleeping you can turn down the audio portion and see by the indicator if there is audio in the room (baby crying will shoot the indicator to red). Great idea but there seems to be a fair amount of static so we are never sure if there is a baby crying or static being show on the indicator. So we just turn up the volume and listen, an easy solution.
One thing I want to address: some nit-wit, in a popular review, said that the "light on the camera kept her child up all night". Okay, I almost did NOT BUT THIS SYSTEM BECAUSE OF THIS STUPID COMMENT. I thought that there must have been a light projected for the night vision to work or some such thing. Turns out, on the camera there is a tiny green power light. I could see that that light MIGHT catch a child's interest, if so just put a tiny (1 inch by 1 inch) piece of duct-tape over the green power light. Problem solved.
So far, after 9 months of continual "on" mode, both cameras and monitors are working great. For GREAT peace of mind, I feel comfortable recommending this product to new parents.
Customer Review: This Summer handheld video monitor is better than the Graco handheld video monitor
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought both the Graco hand-held color video monitor and the Summer Infant Day & Night Handheld Color video hand-held monitor 1.8". I had to test each one alone (not both running at the same time, because they interfered with each other's reception). The Summer worked better as described below: They booth worked pretty well, but the Graco was not really showing the color, even in broad daylight next to a sunny window with bright colors on my test subject (my husband), whereas the Summer had great color. Also I asked him to take some deep breaths: Graco didn't show the movement in his chest, but the Summer monitor did. I walked across our house, out the garage, down the driveway, across the street, and into our neighbor's driveway with each hand-held monitor. The Graco lost reception at the garage door of our house (about half a soccer field length away). The Summer still had reception at our neighbor's drive way (about one soccer field away from the video monitor). We have wireless internet and 5.8 GHz phones and had no interception problems with either monitor. I would not have been unsatisfied with the Graco, but the Summer was much better. I didn't give the Summer a 5 star rating because always, even in the room just below the video monitor, the sound quality was like white noise, rather than quiet, AND because occasionally there is a split second "blip" of the screen, but not often. I gave the Graco a 3 star rating and the Summer a 4 star rating. I was content with either one, but much preferred the Summer (though it too was not perfect).
Note: our house is new and has lots of wires in the walls. My friend brought her video monitor over to try (one that she loves in her much older but also quite big house) and I had absolutely no reception with it, even in the room just below the monitor. So, I think my house has lots of obstacles to get through, for these monitors, and it's a 5K sq. ft. house. Her video monitor has no name brand on it anywhere, so we don't know what brand it is, but it's about 4 years old in Nov. 2008.
Customer Review: Great monitor for the money. May need minimal maintenance.
Summary: 4 Stars
I registered for this monitor when I was pregnant with my first child and got it as a shower gift. It worked flawlessly for just over 1 year and then we started having some problems which were completely solveable. Problems and solutions are listed below.
1. The video on/off button was no longer working and I suspected that it was because we had dropped it. My husband opened it up and noticed that the button wasn't sitting right and popped it back into place. It worked just fine from there.
2. We then noticed the sound would cut in and out and would only really work when the monitor volume is turned to the max. We dealt with this for several months until I finally checked the Summer Infant website and found a troubleshooting tip, [...]. Long story short, the volume control can have dust on it which interferes with the sound. I opened up the monitor and used a can of compressed air to blow off the dust. I put the unit back together and the sound works just like the day we got it.
3. The Summer Infant site states that the battery lasts only 12-18 months and we're pretty much past that point. The battery no longer holds a charge so I ordered a replacement battery, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003MSF3T0/ref=oss_product. This is an after-market extended battery. It's also nimh rather than nicad which is a better battery because nicads need to be entirely run down before they can be recharged otherwise, they dont last. This is likely why the original one didnt last in the first place. Nimh can be recharged at any time. I have yet to receive the replacement so I'm not sure how effective it will be so i'll update again once I receive it.
I'm now expecting baby #2 which was the motivation to fix this monitor rather than buy a new one. Plus, the camera we have still works perfectly so my goal is to get this monitor working well and purchase an extra camera for the new baby's room so that we dont have two seperate monitors floating around.
Customer Review: Summer Infant Monitor
Summary: 4 Stars
While I have only used this monitor for about a week now, it works great. I was worried the screen might be too small however it's perfect. It is in color during the day and black and white at night. I can see my baby clearly throughout his whole crib. We have it sitting on his bookcase which is fairly close and he moves around alot.
I haven't used the sound on it yet because I can hear him without the monitor. It does have some static but I've used other video monitors and they had static as well. For me, this was good to have so that I could see him when he did start crying to see if I needed to go into his room. My baby is 15 months old and sometimes he wakes up crying and will put himself back to sleep but if I go into his room, then he doesn't want to go to sleep. This monitor just gives me the reassurance to make sure everything is okay. We also have a trailer and will find this very handy when he is in there having his day nap because I can walk outside of the trailer and just clip the monitor onto my pants and still know when he wakes up. We live in a apartment condo and have had no interference even though when I had read the reviews, that was something that was mentioned. I like how the screen shuts off after a short period to save the battery and all you have to do is push the button on top to make it come back on again. Probably the only thing I'm not crazy about is the green light on the camera only because it's a little bright at night. My baby is used to sleeping in complete darkness but this is really a minor thing. This is our 3rd video monitor. The previous two were those TV-like screens...very large...not portable and they both "died". The biggest test for this monitor will be how long it works for. If it never breaks down as long as I need it, then I will give it 5 stars! Price was excellent and I'm very, very happy with this purchase.
Customer Review: This is the one to get!
Summary: 5 Stars
We have been using this monitor for about a year now.
It has been absolutely fantastic for us. We have the camera mounted high up on the wall and looking straight down to give a bird's eye view of the crib. It has saved us countless trips into the baby's room to see what was going on in there. I really believe that using this monitor has helped us train our daughter to sleep well because we didn't open her door every time time she cried out or we needed to investigate a noise. Very, very helpful.
For those of you who are considering buying this monitor, I will try to set your expectations so you understand what you are getting.
First, you have to understand that the video clarity isn't on par with high definition TV. However, it is plenty usable to see what a child is doing. The night vision is basically black and white, but it is amazing how well you can see in a completely dark room. I think that having the camera mounted to look straight down into the crib helps with night vision.
Second, the reception and range depends a lot on the electrical interference you have in your house. This is the kind of product that you just have to buy and try to see if it works for you. It might not work if there are significant sources of electrical interference in your house. We do get an occassional static buzz but nothing serious. Repositioing the monitor normally fixes that.
We did have a problem when the monitor fell off a table and hit the floor. The little plastic stand on the back broke. We called customer service and the sent out a new part right away at no charge. Can't beat that.
I'd recommend this to anyone. Just make sure to try it out in the areas you are likely to need it.