Looking for a small, rather inexpensive camera system to basically monitor the outside of my property at night I settled on this system. Only a few reviews here about it but it seemed to have all the features I was looking for which were for the most part a wireless system with night vision, and motion censor recording. I must say up until discovering this system's major flaw I was quite happy. Picture quality is very good, night vision quality is pretty much on par with lighted picture quality I really noticed no degradation. Audio quality is pretty good, and the wireless connection was very stable as well, I set a camera up at one end of the house and one in the garage, then went to the other end of the house and upstairs and had no trouble connecting to both cameras.Now the deal breaker, and I think it might be a deal breaker for a lot of people. The motion sensor capability is quite unless if you plan on using 2 or more cameras. In setting up a recording schedule with the provided software you are only allowed to use set one camera on motion sensor at a time for every given 2 hour period. Meaning unless your sitting in front of the screen manually switching through the cameras, the only camera you're going to get anything out of is the one that is scheduled to record at that time, and if you set the system to motion sensor only that one camera selected for that 2 hr time slot will be enabled with motion sensor, all the other cameras are as good as off and are basically useless (unless your sitting at your computer all night switching between cameras!). This really baffles me why Uniden didn't incorporate motion sensor capability to be enabled on all cameras at the same time, and automatically switch and record when motion is detected on any of the cameras, other systems of this same type and price range seem to have it. So if you have four cameras running on this system and it's set to motion sensor, you're going to have a 25% chance of recording any motion going on outside your house, that's not acceptable to me, and I don't consider that surveillance! So I'm sending this back and checking out the Lorex LW2702 which Costco sells for about $50 more, it includes automatic motion sensor switching between cameras and quite a few other bonuses.
My only grip is that the picture is not as clear as I would like. This system is great for monitoring your property but is not really suitable for facial identification purposes (i.e. criminal activity). I use it in conjunction with my driveway alarm. As soon as my driveway alarm rings I check the Uniden Monitor instead of getting up and rushing to the window. It is especially useful at night when you do not want to get out of bed every time you hear a noise. I live on a busy street with young hooligans and it has given me a little piece of mind.
The software is very easy to setup and use. Just load the included software and plug the monitor into your computer's USB port and your off (XP and Vista--NO Windows 7)! It has a terrific interface and it is simple to schedule it to automatically record. I purchased a little USB 500GB hard drive to record the video on. If you want to monitor your house remotely from work or when you are on vacation you can get something like PC Anywhere and leave you PC on and attached to the Uniden Monitor.
So if you are looking for a easy to use camera security system, this is the one. I have purchased many, and this is by far the best.
Buy Uniden UDW20055 Wireless Video Surveillance System, Black, One screen and Two cameras Now
After having this system up and running for a month, I finally broke down and wrote to customer service.here is the conversation:
Your Question :
Will there be a software update to allow the motion sensor to capture video on either (Or all) camera(s)?
Right now with V 5.0.0.302, I can schedule ONE camera to record movement, but if the other camera sees movement it will not record it.
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Updated 10/06/2010 03:41 PM:
So if the 2 cameras are placed to watch for theft, only one will ever be able to record if there is movement? Doesn't that seem less then useful?
Our Solution :
Thank you for using our system.
Unfortunately we have not been told of an update being planned or in the works to allow record any camera that get motion.
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Updated 10/06/2010 04:18 PM:
I apologize it does not do what you are looking for it to do. Unfortunately it is not designed to be able to do that kind of recording.
You can schedule 1 camera to record. That scheduled camera can either record constantly during its hour schedule, or can be set to motion capture. If camera 1, say at the front door is scheduled, and at camera 2 (back door) someone breaks in...Well, hopefully they leave by the front door. Camera 2 won't catch it.
And WHY would you want to buy _more_ cameras. Seems kind of pointless. You can't only motion capture the scheduled camera. I suppose I could put a sign up sheet for someone to steal from my home: Between the hours of 3 and 6AM please break in through the back door, between the hours of 7AM and 11AM please break in the front.
I'll probably use this unit to watch for ducks. I would not buy it again. I'll have to find a better system, not uniden this time.
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EDIT: I added notes from the last message from Uniden, and lowed the rating I had put for this product. I would now rate it at "Buy something else"
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Second Edit: After the THIRD time of not getting a good picture/video of the people breaking into my cars I'm really sick of this camera's software. I can't set how long it records after it hits an alarm. Being able to keep recording for 30 to 60 seconds after it hits an alarm would be useful. The sensitivity is 0 to 100, but you can't change it other then using the buttons. So it either records everything (including the shadows of birds), or doesn't notice someone moving. The picture at 25' at night is poor, but it's night so what can you do.
I would rate it now at: "Don't buy it."We purchased this for our toddler's bedroom, from Amazon's partner woot! it was a cheaper alternative to the baby monitors, and gave us the ability to achieve multiple angles with the multiple cameras.
Number of Cameras Capability: 4 Total, depending on the set/model either comes with 2 or 3 cameras. You can purchase extras, we purchased the UDWC23 to complement our system, which is a portable camera and a rechargeable battery system, I'll review additionally on it's own page.
Picture Quality/Daytime: The Product does produce a very clear Daylight or lighted Picture, however not as clear as the manufacturer suggests or places on the packaging or in their ads, kind of like the nummy food on the menu always looks better than it does when they serve it at a restaurant. It's not too far off, but something you should be aware of if you are looking for crystal clarity as a must.
The Range: is perfect for our 2500 sq ft home, however it is all about what obstructions you encounter so be sure to check out the placement and the signal before committing to that spot you'd like to monitor.
The "Zoom, pan and tilt" feature: is a little misleading, it actually does zoom and it does pan and tilt, however only within the range of the actual STILL CAMERA; meaning, the camera is looking at a single area, you press ZOOM and you can tilt and pan around that zoomed area only, the camera doesn't move to another area of the field. What you couldn't see outside of the original location of the camera you aren't going to be able to see without manually moving the camera.
Night Vision: This works great, the clarity is better than our first version camera that we owned, however the quality is degraded and you can't make out features of say a person's face unless they are very close to the camera. You will be able to make out generalities and it will be on the most part clear, but even on zoom you couldn't see if a person's eyes are opened or closed, small features on their face may not be discernible.
The Remote: is an absolute must to use all the zoom, pan and tilt features, otherwise you must use the software to plugin and utilize these features, in case you lost the remote. Outside of the Zoom features on the remote it handles all the main features the 7" Monitor has on the face.
7 INCH Monitor: The Monitor is a great little gadget, however it is not a sturdy thing and tips over easily so we decided to invest in a TV/Monitor Mount made for 10" to 27" TVs, we purchased it from Amazon (I have reviewed this item separately as well) We purchased the VideoSecu Computer Monitor Wall mount bracket for most 10" to 27 " TV LCD and Display VESA100/75 ML40B B05. With the bracket we did have to make some minor adjustments because the Uniden Monitor is 7" and the minimum the bracket is setup for is 10". There was no drilling involved, I purchased a few 3M Command Adhesive 17040 Sawtooth Picture Hanger brackets to be able to fit the back of the monitor and some velcro for the bottom to ensure it stays on there, and can be removed when I want to take it to another room.
The PC Program: The quality on the PC is slightly more degraded than the monitor, but you can record, it will record in intervals, and also has motion sensor capabilities that will set off alarms if you want, for us, we record cute moments our kiddo is playing in her room for later.. we don't use it for a security system.
Hope this was helpful, for the price this product can't be beaten & with a few accessories you can have yourself quite a little system for less than $250
Hope that helps you with your purchasing decision.
Thanks for reading!
Want Uniden UDW20055 Wireless Video Surveillance System, Black, One screen and Two cameras Discount?
A quick rundown:NOT 64 bit compatable!!!
Not a true home security solution...however...
IR Distance was about 60 feet for me slightly less with heavy rain (maybe 40) and worked well, excellent definition...
Build and picture quality was excellent and it was a breeze to set up on a recieve both sound and video to the portable monitor.
Computer use however was a pain, does not wotk at all with 64bit and uniden support was a joke, website is even worse.
Packaging and manuals were easy to understand and walk you through the easy setup...except for the computer set up...it was not clear or helpful. I did try the software on an older laptop that was running xp and it was ok...as others noted recording is limited as is trigger functions.
So for a door monitor or pool or such its perfect....keep an eye on the kids or driveway this is an excellent day night solution at a very reasonable price. For true home security it leaves a lot off the table and I would keep looking
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