We have a relatively large home (~4000sq ft), and the nursery is unfortunately on one end of the second floor, while the family room is basically on the completely opposite side of first floor of the house. We tried several other monitors that simply couldn't provide a strong enough signal to broadcast from the nursery to the family room (probably about 100ft) without significant interference/static/etc. After several disappointments, we caved in and bought the rather pricy Safety 1st High-Def Digital Video Monitor as it was reputed to have a much stronger range than comparable monitors on the market. While we have not tried every brand, I can verify that this works flawlessly not only inside every single room of our house (including the far corner of the basement), but even around the outside of the property when we're doing gardening or washing the car.
The good:
1) Excellent Range, as noted above.
2) Clear picture - When the "night vision" is being used, the picture is clear enough for me to see the pattern on our son's sheets, and easily clear enough to tell whether he is sucking on his pacifier or has dropped it off the bed.
3) Terrific Sound Quality - Even when we have the monitor on its lowest volume setting, we can hear everything in the room, from the lullaby music playing in the background to the sounds of our son rolling over or sucking on his pacifier. It's even sensitive enough to pick up the sound of him lightly snoring!
4) Compact Monitor - If you do decide to take this outside, you're only carrying around something slightly larger (and about the same weight) as the average cell phone.
5) No interference with our wireless phones or internet.
The bad:
1) Small Screen - this is the compromise for having a compact monitor. The screen is definitely smaller than you would want if you were using it to watch all the time, but as mentioned above, it is more than clear enough to show you EVERYTHING you might want to see. To be honest, if I can't see it on this screen, I probably wouldn't see it on one that was any larger, and I would also probably be going upstairs to check anyways.
2) Battery Life - Several reviewers had commented on the battery life. It's not as bad as one might expect - we normally plug the monitor in during the day, and run it off batteries from about 7PM until sometime around 11-11:30PM. By around 12PM or so, it usually starts giving the low battery warning. During the night, we leave it plugged in on our nightstand and have never had a problem. Obviously the battery runs out faster if you spend all of your time checking the monitor, but I personally think that the way to be using a device like this is to basically have the audio on (which we do), and check the video when you hear something to see what's going on upstairs. We also make a point to keep the monitor plugged in when he's not asleep in the nursery so that we're always working with a full charge whenever we take the monitor downstairs.
I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking to get a video monitor with good range and signal quality.
| Power Source | Battery Powered |
|---|---|
| Connectivity Protocol | Wi-Fi |
| Mounting Type | Ceiling Mount |
| Number of Items | 1 |
| Wireless Communication Technology | Wi-Fi |
| Form Factor | Dome |
| Item dimensions L x W x H | 3.25 x 9.25 x 11.25 inches |
| Batteries Required? | Yes |
| Item Weight | 0.01 Ounces |
| Low light technology | Night Color |
| Zoom Type | Digital Zoom |
| Alert Type | out_of_range, low_battery |
| Room Type | Nursery |
| Video Capture Format | MPEG-4 |
| Unit Count | 1 Count |
| Control Method | Remote |
| Product Dimensions | 3.25 x 9.25 x 11.25 inches |
| Item model number | 8280 |
| Batteries | 3 AAA batteries required. (included) |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Additional product features | video |
| Sensor technology | nightvision |
| Item Weight | 0.01 ounces |
