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4XEM WPT Pan/Tilt IP Network Camera
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| 4XEM WPT Pan/Tilt IP Network Camera |
| Part Number: IPCAMWPT |
| This product is discontinued |
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| Reviews: 4 |
| Average Review: 0.0 / 10 |
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Reviewed by
Design: 0.0 / 10
Image Quality: 0.0 / 10
Easy of Use: 0.0 / 10
Connectivity: 0.0 / 10
Other Features: 0.0 / 10
Strengths
Weaknesses
Summary
This is a wonderful 30FPS full motion MPEG4 ethernet (aka TCP/IP) camera with integrated webserver plus security features, bundled with the camera is software to allow recording on a single PC of up to 16 concurrent IP cameras. The streams are stored on hard drive, and can be viewed by a supplied viewer while recording continues, they may also recycle based either on file size or length of time. Thus you may record literally weeks or months of video on a server dedicated for this purpose. This recording is independent of the security features discussed below.
Setup is easy, default is via DHCP, usually your router can tell you where it is on initial startup. After that, I prefer static IP addresses for ethernet appliances. Picture quality is great, you do get full motion in a large 352x240 pixel image due mostly to the MPEG4 compression. There are user selectable adjustments affecting bandwidth or picture quality, you can prioritize based on which is more important. At the low end, the camera can send smooth 30fps MPEG4 motion (but a bit fuzzy in the detail department) over 256KB lines, it can be bumped up to 1.2MB for highest quality image. The 352x240 image at 30fps is achieved via pixel doubling, true 352x240 is also available but only at 10fps, the limitation apparently isn't ethernet but the hardware. Autobrightness works well even when looking out to blinding snow. The camera has an integrated microphone and sound IS synchronized to the MPEG4 stream. Having the camera focus on me in a test, I was able to clap and view / listen, there is about a 1 second delay between event and the event being on my screen using this device locally. It is not a night camera, but is sensitive down to 1LUX, lower light sensitivity seems helps slightly by deactivating color (a video option in the webpage).
Pan, tilt, covers 120 degrees and about 70 degrees respectively. Camera motion control can be disabled on a per user basis, assignment of up to 10 users is permitted. Control permits operation via pan or patrol buttons. Pan sweeps the camera 120 degrees at it's current tilt, patrol moves through user defined stations in a user defined order (stations may repeat). However continuous automatic pan or patrol is not implemented. Camera location may also be changed by clicking on the image (if your userid has privilege to pan / tilt). Thus you can see something and focus on it. There is a built in 10x digital zoom, however it's mostly useless. The more expensive version of this camera with real 10x optical zoom may be preferable, however it's about double or so the price.
In addition to the above, the camera comes equipped with security hook ups, allowing it to interact with an alarm system (being armed and what not), you can setup via a motion detection page various security options and areas. On motion detection, the camera may either raise an alarm flag to your home security controller, and / or concurrently send out an email or ftp stream to a selected server (which may be remote or local). I have discovered that using my Treo 600 phone, and yourcellphonenumber@mms.mycingular.com I'm able to get an mms within a minute or two of a motion detection. This is a push message system and not passive, it also works even if I'm concurrently talking on my phone. I can also report, sadly, that with 384KB upload and this camera you can push out about 60 mms messages per second (DO NOT TRY THIS, I accidentally set all my detection settings to high and my delays to 0 while tinkering). IF you enable this technology, be sure you can get in and turn it off, or have it pace at least a couple of minutes between alerts. Assuming you have a video recording server set up, this would mean any breaking would be video taped provided your camera was well placed. Police may find it interesting :-) On motion detection the camera can also send a video stream to an FTP server, for a period of time after the event which you specify. For mail, mms, and ftp the camera is configured with userid, url, password and what not, it automatically does a signon with the specs you've given it.
While this is an indoor camera, 4XEM recently announced a heated outdoor dome for their entire line of cameras.
Downsides; this camera only works with Internet Explorer for streamed video, other browsers can get snapshots in jpg format, but not motion. This as the video stream software is implemented as an Activex control (which you must also install on your PC). It can be annoying :( It should be written in Java, however it isn't.
Auto or timed patrolling would also be nice. This currently isn't implemented. While you can define 3 motion detection areas for the camera to be sensitive to, and while you can adjust sensitivity by both speed and size, you cannot set the location for the motion detection, even pan or patrol will cause the motion detection to fire off repeatedly. Thus applying a named station which is used to patrol with a motion detection "frame" (area of the image which is sensitive to detection) would be nice.
Finally support isn't toll free, and is in Canada, for those in the US this can cause surprisingly large phone bills if they don't have a Canada plan.
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