Panasonic - Connected Home Video Baby Monitor with 3.5" Screen - Black/White

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• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Full Featured Baby Monitor

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 100 Contributor

  I want to start this out by saying I have a 5 year old and a 3 year old. They are older kids, but they still get up in the middle of the night needing to go to the bathroom or have nightmares. I am a heavy sleeper, so I need the monitor or else I wouldn't hear them. I have used this monitor for a few nights now, and I have been really happy with its performance and its features. I am replacing a 6 year old video monitor that is on its last legs, but I was able to use them side by side for the last few nights to see how they stack up to each other. I am pretty impressed by the breadth of features and settings available on this monitor. I came from a simple 1.5" screen monitor (it was a top pick 6 years ago), that has a stationary camera and 1-way sound. The Panasonic immediately outshines my old monitor with a 3.5" color screen, tilt/pan/zoom camera, and 2-way sound. That just scratches the surface for the capabilities of this monitor. Additional features of the monitor include motion and sound detection, nightvision, lullabies/white noise, and temperature probe. What the monitor does with these features is pretty cool. You can set lullabies/white noise to play automatically if your child is getting restless and triggers either the motion or sound detectors. You can also set a run time for the lullabies to play - up to 2 hours. The temperature probe can also alert you if your child's room gets too hot or cold based on a range that you set. The motion and sound triggers also light up the display with either a green or amber light. I found this helpful when I was playing games with my headset on, and my daughter woke up needing to go to the bathroom. I didn't hear her call out, but the monitor lighting up really caught my attention. Depending on your needs you can disable the lights or the alerts altogether if you don't need them. I found this adjustability really beneficial. I can adjust the motion and sound sensitivity up or down. Since, I have older kids, I knocked the sensitivity down, but someone with a newborn would probably push it the other direction. Either way this system really delivers a lot of peace of mind, and for new parents that is truly beneficial. Right now, I am really liking the lullaby and the 2-way microphone. I use the mic to wake my kids up in the morning, and the lullaby to persistently annoy them until they get out of bed. This has made the last few mornings start a little easier. The display is a pretty well-built little unit. The button layout is easy to follow, and it's easy to operate with one hand. It has a kickstand, and when lying flat it has little feet that prop up the underside to keep the speaker from being muffled. The antenna folds seamlessly out of the way when you don't need it. All of the settings are managed from the display unit. The menus are pretty nicely laid out, which helps manage the range of features and settings for the system. I definitely recommend drilling down through each menu item to get a feel for its layout process. I did this once, or twice, and I am confident in my ability to easily navigate its menus now. Overall, it's a pretty good design with 2 small caveats (for me at least). I would have liked to see the kickstand extend a little further out for a little better stability. I also would have opted for a different location for the microphone opening. It is really easy to cover that opening when pressing the mic button. The manual does state that you need to avoid this, so they are aware that it can happen. Overall not a big deal, so I can live with it. The camera is a neat little design. It reminds me of Eve from Wall-e. It looks perfectly in place in my kids' room. The camera feels really well built, and the tilt/pan functions work great. The motors are pretty quiet, so you don't have to worry about waking up a sleeping baby if you want to take a look around the room. The wall mount is a cool feature - I didn't use it because I had a good spot to stand the monitor. It is pretty easy to to install. Basically if you can hang a picture, you can put this mount up. I would recommend hitting a stud with one of the mounting screws/nails that you use. This way your child can't yank on the cord in the and rip it off the wall. The last thing I tested was the range of the display. This system uses DECT vs. 2.4GHz that is commonly found in these monitors. This gives it much greater range and signal stability. Since most houses are blanketed with 2.4/5GHz WiFi signals, most monitors experience some interference with their signal. My old monitor was this way. I couldn't have my old display unit and my phone on the same nightstand without causing connection issues. With the Panasonic, no such issues have presented themselves. I did a range check tonight, and I was able to walk down my street for about 600 feet before I lost my connection. My old monitor lost connection at about 250 ft, which I would consider to be pretty OK. 600 ft isn't the advertised 1500, but I would need direct line of sight and live in an area with far fewer points of signal interference. Overall, I'm really happy with the range. I can be on any part of my property and still have signal. This is a great baby monitor. Its amazing how far these things have come in the last few years. I really like the features and the customization of the settings. I only had a few small issues with the overall design, but otherwise this system is very easy to operate. I have no problem putting my trusty old monitor out to pasture because its replacement is so much better.

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  Posted 7 years ago by DaveW

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Like a Two Way Radio of Video Monitors!

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  In this day and age where everything is become Smart Home connected, its nice to see there are still some purpose-built, affordable options out there that just get it done without much setup, fuss or management. The Panasonic Home Video Baby Monitor is such a device that creates a point-to-point camera and display that requires 0 set-up out of the box. There are a number of customizable options that let you tweak the main capabilities, but for the most part this unit is plug and play. Here's the Pros of the Unit: +Motion Detection and Sound Detection work very well. The Sound detection probably works a little too well, so we disabled the chime and only set it to Lit. The motion detection works well during both day and night so we keep the chime on for that notification. For both sound and motion detection you can choose Chime + Screen Lit, one or none. +Effortless set-up and easy to navigate controls. The camera paired to the monitor unit automatically when I plugged in the battery and power on the camera. The controls are intuitive and easy to use if you have ever used a video came controller or printer set-up menu. +Excellent range. My house isn't huge, but its a split level and this monitor still gave excellent connectivity from the top floor to the basement (4 split levels). You can easily take the monitor with you around the house and it has good range and battery life. +Adjustable camera. You can toggle the camera using the Dpad to pan around the room with a pretty solid range of motion. +Good quality video and latency. There's about .5s lag between the camera and monitor, so when you change the camera it is pretty responsive. Quality is maybe 720p which is good enough to see what's going on. +Battery life is solid and you can charge the monitor portion using any MicroUSB cable or charger. I leave the monitor plugged in our bedroom and then take it with us around the house as we move around. +Easy to turn the monitor on/off using the top power button. Off is instant, On takes about 2 seconds. +A number of audio features including microphone/speaker, lullaby, tunes etc. Its not all super positive, just a few minor annoyances: -The sound detection is way too aggressive, so we turned the chime off. The motion detection can also be a bit ambitious, for example, right now it is chiming frequently because the wind is blowing tree branches and causing shadows to move in the baby nursery. -Another annoyance is after a motion detection event, you have to hit the OK button before the Microphone works. -The kickstand does not lock, so it can kind of slide back closed which is annoying. -The battery did not come installed and requires a screwdriver to install. Overall we are very happy with this unit. We have Cloud cams as backup, but its nice to have a simple point-to-point camera and monitor that is no fuss, no muss and just works without opening apps and waiting for things to come online.

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  Posted 7 years ago by TechBuyer

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Solid build good camera quality but

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  • Top 1000 Contributor

  This panisonic smart camera (baby monitor) works very well with a nice Selectio of features/options. First the camera quality is very clear when lights are on. And only good with lights on aka night vision. But that is night vision as a whole and this is only a baby monitor system. So it’s ok. The wireless monitor itself is great large screen, fairly clear and definitely solidly built. So if you drop it,I think it will hold up. The camera unit itself does have a solid feel as well. With the head being able to swivel a bit.motion/ detection is cool. It’s not the widest angle lens.wish it was wider for sure.But it’s supposed to be set at your kids crib or toddlers bed anyhow. This set comes with sound monitoring which actual works well enough. The monitor tho has the ability to talk to the kids through the camera if they are getting up and playing. Funny honestly. Works kinda like a two way. I like that. You can even monitor and set a min-max temperature warning. That is probably the surprise feature. We all want our kids to be comfortable while they sleep. It’s hard enough having to worry that someone were to happen. That’s just me tho. The camera has to be connected to the included power plug and that wire is maybe 10 feet long. Works perfect for our baby monitor placement. And the wireless hand held has its own charger with rechargeable battery. Me and my wife are happy with it. Only downside is the camera doesn’t have a wider angle lens so we can maybe see the whole room.

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  Posted 7 years ago by BestbuyGuy210