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Helheim

Help with Baby Cam

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Hello,

 

I've been looking around for baby monitoring solution for awhile but there is just so much out there I'm not sure what would work best for me. I'm looking for a solution that meets the following criteria:

 

Must have

1. Day/Night operation without glowing red LEDs

2. Ability to watch and listen on a TV (I have a 2 channel modulator if necessary)

3. Descent video & audio quality

 

Nice to have

4. Ability to watch and listen on a computer

5. PoE

 

I was thinking about an IP camera with an analog out as well but I'm not sure how that would work for getting sound on the TV? Also I’m looking at spending less than $1000 for everything I need. Please, advise me of some appropriate solutions.

 

Thanks.

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Handy little looking gadget that, lots of uses, but the marketing worries me.... Imagine the hubby installing the cam on the wall, problem would be with such a tiny screen you would not be able to make out any details of how the baby is doing, so I can imagine some mother looking at the image on the tiny screen and complaining to the hubby, saying the babies face is not filling the screen like on the advert - make it do so. So the poor hubby ends up mounting the camera about a foot over the babies head (which is what I guess it would take if its a ultra wide angle lens) to get the same sort of results as shown on the advert.

 

Great, the missus is satisfied, nice clear pic of babies head. So they go to bed, and turn the lights out in the babies room.

 

IR illuminators on the camera come on, and the baby ends up staring nice and close at the 6 ir leds about 1 foot away from its face all night. By morning babies eyes are probably damaged for life (they may not be, but there is no way I would stare at 6 bright leds from a close distance for any length of time).

 

Marketing at its best

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Handy little looking gadget that, lots of uses, but the marketing worries me.... Imagine the hubby installing the cam on the wall, problem would be with such a tiny screen you would not be able to make out any details of how the baby is doing, so I can imagine some mother looking at the image on the tiny screen and complaining to the hubby, saying the babies face is not filling the screen like on the advert - make it do so. So the poor hubby ends up mounting the camera about a foot over the babies head (which is what I guess it would take if its a ultra wide angle lens) to get the same sort of results as shown on the advert.

 

Great, the missus is satisfied, nice clear pic of babies head. So they go to bed, and turn the lights out in the babies room.

 

IR illuminators on the camera come on, and the baby ends up staring nice and close at the 6 ir leds about 1 foot away from its face all night. By morning babies eyes are probably damaged for life (they may not be, but there is no way I would stare at 6 bright leds from a close distance for any length of time).

 

Marketing at its best

 

Dont rule out that IR issue with the eyes .. my eyes are still hurting from all that IR I setup a while back .. course other things could be making me blind, the sun, TV, etc, but anyway just make sure the baby wears a pair of shades .. i had to do that in the end ..

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Right you were asking about glowing LEDs, thats actually a good thing in this case. With invisable IR light you will have no blink reflex you'll go snow blind before you realize you are having a problem.

 

 

 

But you can use a night light (christmas lights on ceiling???) and a low light CCTV camera, you can run it directly to your TV or your modulator just a BNC>RCA adapter.

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I have a cheap ebay b&w camera with sound that I wired from the baby's room direct to the TV downstairs. Total cost $50. The camera is wired to one of the "line in" inputs on the tv and I can use the remore control to switch over and look at the nursery.

 

No IR, just a night-light and a very sensitive camera

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Well I ended up buying a Covi EVQ-1000 and Panasonic WV-CP484, not sure which one I'm going to use yet buy hopefully one of them will work good in low light. Now I just need something for audio and maybe a DVR card with TV out as well.

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