I try to keep up writing reviews for products I buy, especially the items that I myself do a lot of research on, before buying. So I'll break this down as best I can. I live in a 2-story, 2800 square foot home. And for the longest time, I've wanted a surveillance system to make me feel safe both when I am at home and away. The Logitech camera system and software does it right, with only a few minor issues, and I stress minor.
I have an Apple router but run Windows 7 on my PC; I'm also using the free application on my iPhone. I had zero problems with the software install, even when it came to Window's firewall. I'm currently running 2 indoor cameras and 1 outdoor camera...but, I actually plan on using nothing but outdoor cameras for my entire system (to include for inside surveillance). And that's about the only real issue I have with the system. The indoor camera works awesome and does what it should. It delivers good quality color video and even over the iPhone application or over the web (from Logitech's website), all of my friends all have said, "Wow, that looks awesome!" BUT, and it's a big BUT, once the sun goes down, the indoor cameras are very limited. Shy of the bad guy turning on all of the lights in my house, then committing his crime, the indoor camera is of little use during nighttime hours. And at first, I was okay with that because I'm home at night and it's actually the daytime when nobody is home. But then I bought the outdoor Logitech camera and WOW, what a difference because it holds the very same quality as the indoor camera, but also does a phenomenal job at night. So with that, I'm going to return the indoor cameras and use the outdoor cameras for outside as well as inside. But I still want to give my review on the indoor camera as I've been using it for about a month now.
Pros:
Color Quality. Again, great color quality. Even using the digital zoom, I was impressed at how good it looks. My wife being the glass half empty type of person commented that you can't see the face of the person all that well. But my reply was but you can sure as heck see his race, clothing description, weight, height, hair color and most importantly you can see if he is or isn't wearing gloves...hence, you could see clearly where he may have left evidence (fingerprints, DNA, etc).
Included 2GB media card. This is a great feature!! This means that if bad guy breaks in and thinks he's outsmarting you by stealing your computer (with the footage of him), you can still revert back to the camera itself to retrieve the footage saved to the media card. Another great thing about the camera media card is that your home computer does not need to be always on to be recording. For example, my computer goes into sleep mode after about an hour of inactivity. So if my computer is in hibernate mode for a full day, the cameras are still recording footage and will sync to my computer when it awakes. For it to work seamless, I just leave the Logitech software running in the task bar (background).
Software. Logitech did it right with the software. It was a very easy install, features are clear and I love that you can customize each camera you have on your network. For example, out of the 3 cameras I have, I only want 1 of them to send off text message alerts. Again, it's nice that the alerts are not just a system feature, but rather an individual camera setting. You can also adjust the duration of alerts to save yourself from getting thousand texts. For me, a 5 minute window is perfect, just as long as I get the initial text, I wouldn't be concerned about getting 20 more in under a 5 minute or however long of a window you choose. I also like the way the software saves all of the recorded video. With 3 cameras going, I've been getting a lot of recorded footage. The software not only allows you to use choose a given date and time to research, but if you were to search out for that file in Windows explorer, the software does a great job by saving the footage under the name of camera (for example "Living Room"), then the month (10 for October), then the day within that month. Being a police officer, I really like that if I had to turn over crucial footage (if my home was burglarized, etc), all of the footage would have clear a folder structure and time stamp that would make sense to any other investigating officer.
Alerts. This feature sealed the deal for me buying this system to begin with. You select a zone in which if motion occurs, an alert will be sent. For example, although my camera has a pretty wide shot of my living room to include front door, my only concern is if movement is picked up at the front door. Once motion is detected, a text message is sent to my phone. The alert text message is awesome; it says what camera picked up what motion and at what date and time...simple and efficient. BUT, I will mention alerts in the Cons section, so please read on.
Camera size. Again, I have both the indoor and outside camera and was very impressed by how small they were. I also lucked out that I have power sources on top of my potter shelves, so I was able to plug in the cameras without any wires being run down walls, etc. And because the cameras are small, I've actually told friends that I have the cameras and it still took them a while to actually figure out where.
The "wow" factor. I'll admit it, I'm that guy who loves his tech toys, who loves showing off new technology and how I make it work for my family's safety. The first day when I showed all of my police friends the system, everyone was amazed. I should get a kick back from Logitech on all of the potential customers I made for them. Being able to open the iPhone app and show my friends that I have 24/7 surveillance of my home, felt very cool. The iPhone app also works very well over 3g cell service (not just wi-fi).
Cons:
Price. Well I mentioned the "wow" factor when I showed off the system to my friends. Well, I got the same expression when I told them how much. For me to get 6 cameras, all of them being the outdoor cameras, is a bit pricey. But, I will say that the software being free is nice. It's also nice to know that each camera comes with that 2GB media card (another plus that make the high costs seem understandable). And although I'm not that interested in audio, again, if you're going to pay the big bucks for a camera, at least it gives you color and audio as an option.
Night time quality. Again, if all you care about is crystal clear footage in the daytime, then the indoor camera is for you. But for me, I began to get frustrated that for so much money, I was only getting daytime footage. For a bit more money per camera, I feel that it was well worth it, to be able to see what's going on in my home 24/7.
Logitech server. This is a tough one to explain, but I'll do my best. When you install the cameras and software, the alert system is dependent on Logitech's servers / service. In the month that I've been using the camera, I only had 1 time that their servers went down. In that time, the cameras in my home were recording as they should BUT the alert notification system will not work if Logitech's service is down or disrupted. Although it was only down for a few hours, I was still very unpleased given the fact that the alert system is what it's all about. I don't want to come home to find my house has been burglarized and didn't get a text because the servers were down. Instead, I want to get a text message telling me someone is there, that way I can call the police and increase my chances of getting the suspect while he is still in the residence. The alert service has only been disrupted once, but makes me nervous for what's to come down the road as these cameras begin to sell.
Alerts. Again, read my Pros section about the alert function. Where I had a problem is how long it can take to get the alert text message. I've done some very extensive testing and it ranges between 40 seconds to 4 minutes from when my phone gets the alert text message. Now 4 minutes may not seem like a long time, but a skilled criminal can do A LOT in just a few minutes. I'm not too happy about the variations on alert times, especially since there appears to be no rhyme or reason as to why sometimes I get the notification in under a minute, but other times over 3 minutes. Clearly, it has to do with Logitech servers.
Plug outlet requirements. Although I get why you have to plug in your unit to the actual wall, it doesn't mean I have to like it. It's been a little bit of a challenge with some of my cameras to find a good discreet location coupled with having an available outlet there. I'm guessing that at some point, Logitech will begin selling overpriced extension cords or power bars that allow the cameras to work even without being directly plugged into the wall. I believe a read few reviews from people that have done this though; I would live to get their reply or feedback in this review thread.
Thanks for reading!
I've been trying to set up a remote monitoring system for a while now, and have experimented with a few different solutions including webcams and other stand-alone cameras. The same problems problems occur over and over:
When the router gets rebooted, invariably you can't connect to the camera without going back and fixing some part of the configuration.
Remote viewing through dynamic IP addresses is flaky, and many DDNS solutions don't work very well. And do you really want a static IP address just for this?
You need a computer switched on near the camera, or a web-server that the camera can stream to. That's somewhat awkward.
The image quality is so-so, and tends to be good enough to see a person entering a room, but hard to identify who it is.
I'm pleased to say that the Logitech Alert system beats any of the others I've tried hands-down, and it's clearly designed with absolute simplicity in mind, together with the need to connect with the camera system remotely without a degree in network engineering.
Everything is provided in the box, including various mounts, network cables and software. It took more time to individually unwrap each component than connect it together the whole system was live in under 5 minutes. The software updates itself in seconds, and even setting up user accounts on their website took no time at all. In terms of positioning the camera, it's possible to place it on a stand, screwed to a wall, or attached to a window using the suction cup provided.
This package does several things (very) well:
The software is extremely simple to use, yet offers some bells and whistles such as motion alerts by email, live recording and playback, and basic controls such as zoom. It's also written in English, and you'd be surprised how many other systems are not.
It handles Internet disconnection gracefully with an on-board SD card, and doesn't need any user action to help it 'remember' any IP settings.
Talking of IP settings, these are all under the hood so you can be blissfully unaware of how it works which is such a major benefit that I'd buy this package for this alone.
Viewing remotely through a desktop browser in another location is as simple as visiting the website and logging in.
Viewing from a smartphone is even better. I used their free Android app, and the speed and quality surpassed my expectations.
The audio broadcast is very clear.
Adding additional cameras is straightforward, although you have to make sure your Internet bandwidth is capable of supporting the number of cameras you need.
You can switch off the LED lights that might give away the location of the unit what a nice touch.
But this package is NOT:
A completely wireless solution: the camera connects to an outlet unit and communicates to your router with another outlet unit. Although wiring is really minimal, there is always the one cable needed on the camera side.
A replacement for a multi-camera professional system though it comes close, and for a fraction of the price might suffice for some commercial users.
A way to spy on your neighbor's license plates across the road why would you anyway?
Still, even with those caveats it's a remarkably good solution if you want to view a location remotely with a minimum of hassle.
Buy Logitech Alert 750i Indoor Master - HD-Quality Security System Now
I moved from the WiLife system to the Alert about 3 weeks ago and could not be happier. The enhancements and improvements make the system what I have been looking for. Video quality is much better and now you can zoom and pan without paying extra. Installation did take only about 5 minutes with no problems. So far the Iphone app has worked with no issues. We will see how the system holds up over time.
Read Best Reviews of Logitech Alert 750i Indoor Master - HD-Quality Security System Here
UPDATE 4/25/13 Decided not to renew the $80/yr service since I couldnt justify the cost of the service since I only had to use the features it a few times a year which basically meant I was paying approximately $4/use which is exhorbitantly expensive especially considering the high initial investment into the system. I went back to my old system of remoting into my main computer to administer the cameras and unfortunately there has been little evolution in the poorly designed desktop software.
Besides being ugly and not scaling its text and menus properly therefore if you are using this on a htpc and have text scaled at larger than small the software is less functional because you cant access a lot of the items. The one "upgrade" they added was scheduled alerts, which is a nice addition but unfortunately on this windows 7 box as of this past feb update the scheduler component is terribly broken. Cant assign to cameras and doesnt list the schedules you have made, so in effect you cant even toggle alerts to individual cameras.
Scheduled alerts is nice but should be a subset of more basic functionality that this system lacks which is separate motion zones for recording and separate for alerts. I would imagine the most common scenario is someone has a camera capturing the front of the house and would want the camera to record anything that occurs on camera for more than 10 seconds but doenst necessarily want to get an email alert. But if someone comes up the driveway aor approaches the house, they would want to mark that zone for an alert to their email as most likely that is activity they want to know about. For example... They want to record every car that comes down the street but be alerted only when one enters their driveway.
Currently if you want to record all activity then you will get an alert for every recording therefore you literally end up with THOUSANDS of extra unecessary emails a year. You do however have the option to only send one alert during a specified period of time. I have it set to no more than once every 15 min so I am not bombarded with emails, but this is actually worse because basically I get an email about every 15 mins of a movement event and miss all the other events for the next 15 mins for a total of 4 emails in an hour instead of getting around 360 emails an hour to catch the one important moment that an intruder may be entering my home. Even though there is a good 15-45 second delay in the system, on a gigabit network with a 50Mbs internet connection, so even if it properly alerted by the time you got it you're probably already being raped or killed...
a superset of scheduled alerts should even be snoozed alerts. i.e. say you are going to be out front playing with the kids for an hour. You pull out your smartphone click the front camera and click the snooze dropdown and click 1 hour then you wont get emails for one hour and once expired the alert turns back on so you dont have to remember you turned it off.
After those basic features then add scheduled alerts..... I just have to believe that for the few years this system has already been out that Logitech engineers just don't use their own products.
So basically I feel like I spent $1500 for a 4 camera system, two that cant even see in the dark, and that it is really only an after the fact documentary system definitely not an effective ALERT, system. Also that Logitech is FALSE advertising because to take advantage of their advertised features you have to get the $80/yr service. With their service you can go to any previous recording and view it fairly quickly. The desktop system if you want to view a time from yesterday. you have to go to the timeline click on the timeframe and then the system has to download all of the footage from now all the way back to then, so if you have 4 cameras it literally takes hours if not a day till it downloads the small clip. To me that is almost negligent. Why not only download immediately the clip selected, the only way you can do it is use the $80/yr service.
CURRENT RECOMMENDATION: only consider this system if you are ok with the additional $80/yr cost and potentially tens of thousands of emails you must get to be able to have full recording of movement events and alerts when someone is entering your most important zones. Until they separate alerts and recording zones this system should not be marketed as an Alert system.
Update 2/2/12 for the past few days my email alerts are taking about 3 hours to deliver. Logitech has made several updates to software firmware and iPhone apps to "increase performance" which is great but performance has not improved and seems to just keep getting worse.
Update 5/9/11
Still happy with the system overall. There have been several updates (although I haven't noticed any features added, but assume functionality locally is improved)but I have noticed over the last month or two that the alert lag time has gotten quite a bit longer. I used to get an alert as soon as a car was coming up the drive, where now the alert almost always comes many minutes after i.e. before if the UPS guy was walking up the drive you would get an alert and could catch him before he got back in the truck, now he'll be long gone. Alerts need to get faster as the system improves.... When I make CC purchases with my Paypal card I get an email alert before I have left the counter, literally within seconds of the swipe. This system should be faster especially if they are charging a premium price and especially if they charge a yearly subscription, maybe they could give premium priority to subscribers. i.e. If you are not a subscriber your alerts could be 1-5 minutes like it is now btu a subscribers traffic should be prioritized to guarantee a 30 sec or less response time..
I'm running 2 cameras and might get another but am unsure of which one.. The low light sensitivity of the indoor cameras is not that great so basically they are good for 50% of 24 hours. The outdoor can definitely see awesome over 24 hours due to night vision but is bulky and often gets so hot you can barely handle it, whereas the indoor camera is compact, easy to mount and only gets slightly warm.
So overall I'm still happy and plan to expand but I get a bit of a sinking feeling as the live performance and alerts begin to get more laggy since it is tied to the logitech's online service for functionality and lthough it seems like Logitech is supporting the system with firmware and software updates I feel like they have a history of abandoning their premium quality/priced products too early. Come on Logitech exceed our expectations!
Update 1/8/11
Continues to improve as logitech continues to update the firmware. Many of my issues still exist but I still am irritated by the lack of remote alert control. When checking out the upgrade I see it has the ability to hard toggle alerts globally, which made me consider buying it, but when you drill through to the purchase page the info along the way is scarce at best. The item lists remote commander as a product purchase but nowhere along the way does it tell you if it is a 1 time purchase or a subscription. a 1 time purchase for $80 to get the ability to remotely toggle annoying alerts is expensive, per year is exhorbitant, not listing it as a reoccuring subscription is absurd at best. For a premium product the text/email alert logic should be more robust in the included comander then i could iTeleport/remote access easily on the iPhone to change the settings. I have to drop my rating until the info is listed more clearly that the upgrade is a one time purchase or subscription.
Update 10/27
I must say historically I have loved Logitech products but felt they were a company who put out products close to cuting edge but would abandon them not long after release. So far after the first month the Alert team has put out several software and firmware updates. Now I have ben able to connect through the iphone to remotely view, quickly with no errors.
I am close to pulling the trigger on several add on cameras but am still a litle hesitant. Things I want to see fixed or added:
The PC interface does not scale. I use it on my HTPC and Windows 7 allows you to make text more readable for this type of setup. With the text larger it causes many of the option dialogs unable to be accessed because no scrollbar or window sizing is available, so that is a UI design flaw.
You should be able to prioritize bandwidth (like google's free picasa does) where you can check a box to say conserve bandwidth, so when files are transferring they take a lower priority. Wehn the commander software first comes up it automatically transfers all the videos since last launched, or if active. This eats up your badwidth so all of your primary badwidth on the network like video streaming/recording or transfers become choppy or slow until the videos complete transfer, where you should be able to easily prioritize that.
The iphone/remote interface needs to have an alert snooze button for the times you are workin in the yard or you know there is known activity that you dont mind being recorded but you dont want 1,000 emails flooding your inbox to needlessly alert you. Just click snooze and a preset interval 5min, 1 min, 30 etc etc
Feature that would be nice to have:
Alert zones and record zones. I should be able to easily set rules that i can select zones that I dont mind recording. Scenario: Record activity like my yard and my neighbors yard, or any motion at all in the neighborhood, but only be alerted to my zone that I mark as my driveway or better yet if my zone gets triggred then email me and my wife and if my neighbors is triggered email to their email....
SO far I can definitely recommend this product for overall quality and ease of installation a hearty recoomendation remains to be seen but with Amazons awesome return policy it is definitely worth a try.
OLD Review
Was definitely easy to set up. Camera quality is decent but definitely not a good quality HD no way you'd be able to read a license plate. The Software looks to be the wilife software and not as robust as it should be for a company as big as Logitech who has had this type of product for years. The alerts and motion detection should have rules and more flexibility. When you log in from the remote apps you should be able to turn alerts on or off for each account and camera. Motion detection is sketchy and connecting to live view remotely often gives a C5-3 error. Support has said that the initial setups have strained the system causing the errors but this is a terrible excuse. a security system should always have 0 downtime. Murphy's law says that the events you need recorded will happen during a malfunction or server downtime and there are too many motion detection misses and inability to remote view that the percentage is high. You'll get 10 alerts in an hour where nothing passes through your detect zone and then your kids walk by or the UPS guy walks by and no recording because the motion detect didn't work. This should be fault proof. An innovative company like logitech really needs to have a product like this with truly impressive advancements.....
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I have already purchased 2 indoor and 9 outdoor Logitech Alert cameras to keep an eye on the house. Created 2 site profiles (indoor and outdoor) to view the 11 cameras. Since I was extremely pleased with the IR "night vision" capabilities of the outdoor camera, 3 of the outdoor cameras are installed indoors to capture things that may bump in the dark. Only cautionary note the Alert system will only support up to 6 cameras to a single site profile that is registered to a single computer designated to download the recordings from the microSD card located in the camera. Did I say that one really does not need to have a computer to record the video? The 2Gb microSD card in the camera will perform all the necessary recordings and once full, it will override on a FIFO (first in first out) basis. You can also upgrade up to 16Gb of microSD card capacity for longer record times. Turning on your computer will provide the convenience of online live viewing and at the same time, downloading the data in the microSD card to that computer.
All the cameras are connected via 3 TrendNet PoE switches which have been tested to support up to 4 cameras with no drop in power or video quality. The Alert Commander software is still in its infancy (sufficient for me) and I am certain Logitech will provide improvements in the future including the ability to customize an alert schedule instead of a simple turn on/turn off mode. The motion sensor is still being tested for its sensitivity and reliability but the ability to create zones of the viewing area is a nice touch. Audio feature is also nice but not available with the iPhone/Android viewing.
Love the ability to view over the web as well as with the Android app on my smartphone. For longer viewing time over the web or on your mobile (Android, iPhone and soon to be released Blackberry), one can subscribed to the $79 annual fee. Otherwise, one needs to click on the refresh button every 90 seconds to continue viewing remotely. Both web access and smartphone access can view both my site profiles with a click of a button. Very clear (not clear to view the license plate as advertised by Logitech) when using the Alert Commander software on the computer.
Overall, very pleased with this out the door solution after researching multiple vendor surveillance websites as this solution takes advantage of my home's existing Ethernet network.
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I was hoping to find some other reviews on here. Maybe I'm the only one who was duped into buying this?!
