NETGEAR VueZone Wire-free Video Monitoring System (VZSM2200-100NAS)

My coolest technology purchase EVER! Have had a pair of cameras for over a month now. We bought to use as a baby monitor, but this system totally over-delivers. The baby monitors on the market, for the same price, do NOT come close to how usable and cool this system is.Pros:- Set it up to my router in less than 10 mins.- No wires for cameras!- Your smart phone or tablet or laptop, using their free app, monitors the cameras (no additional monitor necessary).- Cameras are the size of a golf ball. Easy to place on a shelf or use one tiny nail to hang the magnetic holder.- Each camera's battery strength shows up on app or computer monitor, so little chance of losing power when you most need it.- Great video quality.- FREE (global) monitoring with 2 or fewer cams. 3 or more incurs nominal monitoring cost, I think $5 per month, total.- Easy to swipe between camera views.- Base and cameras are good looking.- Motion activation, zoom, recording, and 'notification of activity' options - I don't use these, yet. They incur small fee.- This is a bit silly, but our friends (even techie friends) are amazed at how cool, cheap, and easy to use this is.Cons (these are not really cons, but maybe I need to temper my enthusiasm a bit!):- No audio (I don't think any comparable model has audio).- The infrared lamp necessary for night vision is a tad bulky and requires wired power (not much of a way around this for the price).We, obviously, highly recommend this product!UPDATE 5/11/2014Still thrilled with these, but there is a drawback if it is security you want:-Coolest feature, which I use all the time when I travel, is looking in on the house, wife, and baby. It always works, is super fast, great pic, and all else I said above.-As many other reviewers mention, the motion activation is so delayed (a few seconds) that the still capture usually shows nothing. So if I wanted to see a burglar, chances are great he/she would be off camera by the time the pic was taken.Update July 2015They have totally fixed the lag that used to exist. These are tops!

I wish to point out I'm not finished trying to make this work, but thought I should record my startup experience:1) Out of the box very slick, very easy. Plugged everything in turned everything on, and all the indicators were good. Internet connect solid, connecting with camera solid.2) Registered the product -- flawless, seamless procedure.3) Went to my account -- nothing on the camera screen. I fussed for about a half hour and discovered the links are not aligned with the icons -- finally found a way to align the settings so my camera is showing. At this point I could take snapshots or record a video.4) Went to the Vuezone Library to view the videos and snapshots -- ok! Now we're getting somewhere.5) Downloaded the app for my Galaxy SIII. App downloaded and connected to Vuezone. "Problem playing video" error message.6) Vuezone emailed me four messages saying motion detector was tripped -- click here to view the images. Clicked. Nothing. No picture at all.7) Went online to check with Live chat support. Been waiting for about 20 minutes with no response. I'm going to give them an hour after which time this is going back into the box and back to Amazon. God Bless Jeff Bezos -- if I had to deal directly with folks who deliver bad product and won't support it I'd take 20 years off my life over the stress.Because Amazon has real clout with its immense buying power, consumers have a chance to touch companies like Vuezone/Netgear where it hurts -- in the wallet.I will update this review in the next two days only if I get a customer service response and can make this work the way it is supposed to work. Otherwise you will know I've returned it.I have said so in this forum before, but Netgear should realize just how badly these unfavorable reviews affect their sales. I bypassed several different sellers of video surveillance equipment before choosing this one because it has received a four star average rating. Now here I am wasting time attempting to make it work.If this won't work, I'll be waiting for Canary -- a new product due out in spring.Regards, allReggieUpdate:I have increased my rating from two to three stars. The increase because it started working spontaneously two days after I installed it. I should also note that Netgear responded to my first interview with an offer to help. That's a very good sign. They followed up with a personal emailed offer to help -- a very, very good sign. I let them know the product had started working.So why only three stars? Because the system is not run by a motion detector, but by a temperature detector. That means when someone walks by, the sensor detects a temperature change and the system sends a ten second video to my email address. What I'm still working with is how to point the camera where it will be close enough to detect the temp change, and be pointing where the source will be when the camera starts recording. That means I won't be getting many faces, but lots of backs. That will have to do until the Canary (a new product) is available next spring. Every breeze changes the temp, so I get a few false alarms as well, but that's ok -- it only takes a few seconds to scroll through the "hits" and watch the ones I want and discard the others. I would also mention that I think the fact this system sends a ten second video to my email address is an important advantage -- no recording device that an intruder can destroy.

Initial review: I wasn't expecting crystal clear picture quality, but I did expect to be able to recognize faces. Unfortunately you can't with this product. If you only need to be able to monitor your home for basic purposes (check on pet, etc.), it's probably fine, but if you plan to use it for video surveillance, then it's probably not a good pick.Updated review: All statements above about the quality of the product still apply, plus the fact that it requires specific angles for the motion detection to work and does not work through window due to glare; however, the reason for the update is due to the poor customer service. I signed up for the "premier" service, which is a monthly charge for recorded data. Because I could never get the camera to work as intended, I wanted to cancel the monthly charge (did not select mutli-month option) but there is no online option to cancel the service, the chat service never worked, they never responded to my email, there is no option on the phone system and no one was able to direct me to the correct department (plus terrible voice connection every time I called). I had to call Amex and ask them to block future charges. So buyer beware.