Summer Infant Deluxe Day and Night Handheld Color Video Monitor with 2.5" Screen, Blue
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 Deluxe Day and Night Handheld Color Video Monitor with 2.5" Screen, Blue
Customer Review: Peace of mind is worth the money
Summary: 5 Stars
This has been one of my favorite and most valued baby products. It allows me to keep a constant eye on my son, which is great for a first time mom! I worry less about SIDS because I can check often to make sure he is ok, and can even see and hear that he is breathing. It was great to have this when sleep training because I wouldn't have to tiptoe in his room and wake him up. Also, sometimes I would lay on the floor next to his crib watching him until I knew he was asleep. Otherwise, he would cry if he knew I was leaving. I like the compactness and it's not so bright that it keeps us up at night, which are complaints that I have heard about the other monitors that have the mini tv's. The range is good, it only gets fuzzy when at the farthest edge of our yard. Sometimes I get a little static when moving my hand in front of it, but it's not a problem. The battery lasts a long time. I have also dropped this many times and splashed it while doing dishes, and it still sees to be fine.
The only problem I've had is that sometimes it has a bit of a connection problem when I insert the plug to recharge it. The power will shut of and get a little funky, but I just jiggle the cord around a bit, and then it works. That could just be a problem with my individual monitor, though. It is still definitely worth it, and I plan to buy another one for my next baby, because I think I'll use this one to keep an eye on my son for a long time, maybe until he goes away to college!
Customer Review: Upgrade to a video monitor! This one is the BEST!
Summary: 5 Stars
Being able to hear your child when they need you is a necessity. Being able to actually SEE what's going on is an absolute LUXURY! I can't tell you how many times we've been able to stay in bed because we can SEE that our son is just rolling over or changing positions... rather than waking up. It was especially useful during his night-terrors. We can tell if he's actually awake, or just having a nightmare. We can also make sure he's not harming himself without going in, turning on the light, and waking him out of his deep sleep. (which is apparently NOT a good idea!) We tried several competitor's models to save a buck, but were not impressed with their feature set. The video is all pretty much the same, the night vision is grainy but c'mon, you can see in the dark! This one has a much larger screen, good range, rechargeable batteries, auto screen-saver, two channels (you can add a camera for a second room!) and the best part? VIDEO OUT! I've got some great home video of him talking himself to sleep, waking up, and keeping himself entertained in the morning before he calls for us. It automatically adjusts to daylight and turns into a color image. The bigger screen and complete feature set are worth the extra money. If I were to make ONE suggestion to Summer to make this the PERFECT monitor: Add VOX! Our old audio monitor has voice activation, so unless your child is noisy, you hear NOTHING, rather than the background noise or static typical with other monitors.Customer Review: Average performance and subpar durability
Summary: 2 Stars
The device did its job overall but there are a few annoyances and disappointments worth noting:
1) The rechargeable battery within it was useless. After a few months the battery no longer served its purpose, essentially hold zero charge
2) AC connector to the TV monitor unit degrades over time. Even though the AC adapter plug into the portable TV unit was left stationary and no stress was applied to the wire or connection point, the contact between the plug and the recepticle (inside the TV monitor unit) degraded so you would have to always jiggle the plug around to ensure power was fed.
3) Live in a townhouse community so we would regularly conflict with signals from neighbouring units and end up listening and watching other kids inadvertently. Since there are only two channels to choose from you can only hope that your signal is strong enough to burn through any neighbouring units.
4) Over time the signal reception degraded and there would be increasing levels of noise and static into the audio and video feed. This was annoying particularly at night whe it is sometimes loud enough to disturb your sleep.
Note that the unit has only been in continuous use for 1.5 years. One would expect this to be more durable considering the pricetag.
When none of the above problems appeared, i.e., when the unit was new, the performance was acceptable.
Customer Review: I love this thing
Summary: 5 Stars
I wish I had gotten this from the very beginning of my daughter's birth. She is currently 8 months. We just got it recently because we have been doing some sleep training with her where we were letting her cry for a while. The video monitor makes the training so much easier to handle as a mother. I also enjoy just watching my baby sleep which was something that I was able to do when she was a newborn when nothing could wake her up, but now I am too scared to wake her up with any slight noise I make if I went in her room. It is also nice for babysitters so they feel more assured by noises they may hear from the baby's room. The grandparents feel like they got to see her even though she is only sleeping.
I definitely recommend this if you can afford the splurge. This particular model the screen is nice and big but I've also tried the 1.8" one and it was fine too. Actually the 1.8" one had slightly better video quality. The color does not work on either one unless the room is very brightly lit (the manual notes this too), so unless you have a baby who doesn't mind sleeping in a bright room, you won't ever see color.
One function I find lacking is a screen brightness option. It is really bright and hard on the eyes when you flip it on in the middle of the night to see what is going on with the baby. But other than that, I don't have any complaints.
Customer Review: these are keepers...
Summary: 4 Stars
We have twins and have two monitors. Originally we bought the new monitor with the widescreen color display but we soon discovered that the sound is what we use 90% of the time. We really only turn the screen on when we hear the babies fussing, then we want to see what they are doing. We bought a second unit similar to the small screen monitor with the intention of having two handhelds plus one big monitor. Then we found out the big screen monitor system is not compatible with other cameras. We returned the wide screen unit and the other unit and bought two of the 2.5" color screen units. This screen is big enough for me to see arms or legs flailing. The 1.8" screen was too small to see enough to keep me from dashing upstairs when I heard the babies fussing. The widescreen adds detail but we used the handheld much more often. Now we have the ability to focus one camera on each baby and have one monitor for upstairs, one for downstairs, or one for mom, one for dad.
I did not give the units 5 stars because the units get a little interference and I wish the camera's angle was a little wider so they could be placed closer to the babies.
UPDATE: after 5 months of good operation the static has increased to the point now where the cameras are almost unusable. I will likely return these for another product on a different frequency.