Motorola MBP36 Remote Wireless Video Baby Monitor withColor LCD Screen

The Minutiae of 2 Monitors: Motorola MBP36 & Summer Infant Touch Motorola Digital Video Baby Monitor with 3.5 Inch Color LCD Screen Summer Infant Baby Touch Digital Color Video Monitor This review discusses the minutiae, good and bad, of both monitors. (Same review under both products).Summary: Motorola: 4 stars, SI: 4.5 stars. Both monitors are great and fit the bill for a pan/tilt monitor. It's the little details and personal preference that will determine the best monitor for you. FYI, we come from a history of owning the Summer Infant BestView-pre2011. We would have just added a 2nd camera to our unit if it were still available. Where applicable, we noted where SI has improved some things from the BestView to the Touch.Both monitors have a 3.5" screen. The pictures in both daytime and night vision are very good. The sound and talk back on both units is good. The pan/tilt is quiet overall on both cameras. The biggest difference is how to access the features you feel are most important to you. Below are some notable differences between the two units.Overall layout (see labeled pictures):Video On/Off: external button on bothVolume: in menu on Motorola, dedicated top toggle on SIPan/Tilt: external (Left) buttons on Motorola, in a menu with touch arrows on SIZoom: in a menu on bothScan: external button on Motorola, in a menu on SIButtons: SI wins this hands down. Unless you are awake every time you use the monitor, you cannot easily find and press the correct button, one-handed, in a dark room/semi-sleep state. For us, this design difference is what sealed the deal for SI over Motorola. We can easily find the Video On/Off and volume with tactile sense. We would have resorted to making a raised surface on the 3rd button if we chose to keep the Motorola.SI touch screen: Many people commented that you can brush up against the screen anywhere and turn the menu on/select items. This doesn't seem to be totally the case. You not only have to have the video ON, but you also have to press on the very right or bottom strip of the picture/screen to bring up the menu. A random touch anywhere on the screen will not bring the menu up. Also of note, accessing the main functions (Video On/Off and Volume) does not require the touch menu since these buttons are located on the OUTSIDE of the unit. We are fine with going into a menu for less-common functions such as pan/zoom/scan because we will not be doing this nearly as often as turning the video on/off and adjusting volume. (And the SI volume toggle does NOT activate the touch screen so the monitor can stay dark while you adjust volume.)Interference: we had problems with our old SI (BestView) and wireless interference. The Motorola had much less interference than the SI Touch, the SI Touch seemed to have the same interference as the SI BestView. We opted to upgrade/change routers to solve this problem instead of compromising on any monitors. A router is a cheaper electronic piece to swap out than a monitor system (esp with multiple cameras).Camera range: we placed each camera on the same peg over the bed. The SI showed ¾ of the bed, the Motorola showed a little less than ½. For us that meant HAVING TO pan the Motorola each time to see where baby rolled. We have the camera at the max height on the wall. The camera could easily be placed at a different angle relative to the bed to avoid panning. This is just to compare how the video outputs differ relative to each other. (The specs are undoubtedly written in the manuals somewhere describing the camera lens type.)Night vision LEDs: both the Motorola and SI Touch have 'invisible' LED lights to provide night vision. On the monitors, this looks like a spotlight with darker edges that look like they're `in the shade.' This is subtle and not really noticeable except at the lowest screen brightness setting. For reference, the old SI BestView had a circle of red LED lights around the lens that resulted in a more evenly-lit monitor picture.Speaker: located in the back of the unit on the Motorola. The SI speaker is redesigned but still on the front of the monitor. Both units have an 8-level sound bar and each level between the 2 brands seems about equal. Several have been concerned that the volume does NOT go to zero on the Motorola. However, the speaker is on the back of the unit and makes the lowest setting almost equivalent to a mute setting. In testing it, we found that the rear speaker placement helped block the background rustling/movement that we didn't want to hear, but did not hinder us hearing the louder baby noises that we did want to hear. (Also for comparison's sake, the Motorola and SI Touch level 4 is equivalent to SI BestView level 2 so there is improved ability to adjust the lower/quieter sound levels; the quiet sounds are quieter and loud sounds (above level 4) are still loud. ...a great change for SI fans.Cameras: The Motorola has nice rubber feet at the base that keep the camera from sliding where placed. The SI has a light plastic feel and the base is so light it feels like the camera will topple over. (But it doesn't.) We put ours on the wall (not on a shelf) since that's the best way for us to use the pan/tilt, so the padded bottom is a non-issue (although the SI vibration against the wall was loud until we placed a felt pad sticker on it).Monitors: The Motorola monitor also has the nice rubber grips on the bottom. It stays in place on a tabletop making it easier for you to grab. And you WILL need to grab it...with BOTH hands...in order to press the correct button(s) to activate any function. The SI comes with a little saucer-like magnetic recharging base. It's so light and plastic-y that it hangs on to the monitor when trying to break the magnetic connection. Because you need adequate pressure for the touch screen, you'll need to get your hands on the monitor to work the touch screen functions. Put the fancy saucer base in the trash and just use the charger port on the left side of the monitor unit itself. Overall, the Motorola is a niiiice monitor to hold. It's thick and chunky, like a portable game unit (think psp), and you can thumb the left and right buttons very, very easily. The SI is thinner and more sleek (fake chrome cover) and less comfortable to hold. And because you need to hold it length-wise (buttons on the top of the unit get in the way...), it's a little harder to balance than a touch phone that you may be used to holding.The SI comes with a cordless click-on base for the camera. It takes 4 AA batteries, advertising a 10hr battery life. The batteries do NOT come with the unit and we think that you CANNOT use the power cord to charge the base, eg rechargeable batteries need to be taken out of the unit to be recharged. This is different than stated on the Amazon description. We have not tested this, but it's directly from the manufacturer info.Motorola has a temp gauge. Never had it before and it's a nice feature to have. The temp of the Motorola is accurate since the camera doesn't run hot (goes up a few degrees temporarily when you move the camera) unlike reviews of other brands.Motorola has an audible beep when the battery is low. Most people like this. We do not. A flashing light is adequate. We'd be pissed if this woke us up in the night, so any monitor stays plugged in during the overnight hours for this reason. (Plus the manufacturer recommends running the battery down during the day and charging at night to keep the battery life optimal.)SI turns the video off in 3min if not plugged in. Motorola takes longer by about 1-1.5min.Again, both units are great for a pan/tilt multi-camera setup. What you're used to in a monitor and what makes life easier for you in daily use will tip your scales one way or the other. But you cannot go wrong with either of these choices. We hope these little itty bitty details of these two units help someone.*UPDATE* 11/10/11 We really wanted to like the Motorola because it had a more compact and nicer camera and the monitor design was superior to SI and had a great feel to it, but the accessibility of some features won out on the SI vs the Motorola. We've had the SI monitor for a month now and everything is still behaving. The only thing to add to the above information for the SI is that the touch screen is a little better than expected. As stated above, it is activated only if you push the menu button on the right side of the unit (very inconvenient location for one-handed use) or tap along the bottom/right of the touchscreen (like old-school digital picture frames). The nice thing is that once activated, the screen is very responsive to one-handed touch when sitting upright (eg on a nightstand). It's very easy to reach over and adjust brightness or use the arrow buttons with one finger and not knock it over. The only negative is in selecting items. Once you select the menu item (eg Brightness or Camera), you need to use the arrow buttons in the popup menu to get to and highlight what you want. For example, under Brightness you cannot just tap a higher level and have it go from 2 to 7. Instead, you have to tap the arrow up incrementally. The menu items of Brightness, Scan, and Switch Camera do this. (FYI in comparison, the Motorola has the same menu system but instead of tapping on the initial menu icon you needed to arrow thru all the menu icons to get to what you want. As mentioned in the original review, the VOLUME was one of these embedded menu items so it took 3-4 button clicks to adjust volume once you pulled up the menu.) Too bad these two monitoring systems can't have a child and make the PERFECT user-friendly system.

What it boiled down to for me, besides the reviews and specs, was that this video monitor was made by a company who specializes in making electronics, unlike other baby monitors out there who are made by baby gadget generating companies who don't specialize in electronics and quite frankly don't know very much about it (especially in comparison to a company like Motorola). That was a key component for me.I'll start with the downsides, since that's what I usually like to cut to the chase to. They're very minimal, but worth knowing.DOWNSIDES:-When plugged into the wall, the video stays on, unless you specifically press a button to put it to sleep (screen goes black, audio stays on), but when unplugged, the screen goes to sleep after a minute or two to conserve battery (audio stays on). I found this extremely annoying, because I constantly wanted to see him, but didn't always want it plugged in, or couldn't always have it plugged in, depending on where I was in the room, and I didn't want to always unplug the cord and drag it around the house with me. I think they should have made it an option you can toggle on and off, knowing you'll drain the battery faster, or at the very least, made the sleep mode time adjustable.-It doesn't mute, just gets very low in volume, which is annoying at times, say if the room you're in is quiet, or you're watching a movie, and you have a white noise machine on in the bedroom with the baby, you can hear that shhhhhhhh sound in the monitor and can't do anything about it. Again, another thing I think they could have made an option. I'm sure they made it that way as a safety precaution, in case you unplug it and the video goes to sleep, you can still hear, but the easy solution is they could have made it so that it can be muted as long as it's plugged in and the video is on, but as soon as it unplugs, the mute option becomes moot (ha).-I wish it displayed the time!!UPSIDESAs far as this monitor goes here's what it does, and well:- Big color screen, which makes it exceptionally easy to see your baby, and switches to infrared (black and white) automatically when the light is low.Infrared night vision has spectacular clarity! (I can actually see my baby's chest moving up and down while he sleeps in the middle of the night in a completely pitch black room).-Camera pans, tilts, and zooms in every direction, pretty close to 300* side to side and 160* up and down (which is amazing for chasing a very rolly-polly baby around the bed and will be even more amazing once they're grown and I'm using this thing for monitoring their play in another room, or while outside, etc if I'm not in there with them).-You can connect up to 4 cameras to one handheld device and toggle between them (again, once your family continues to grow and you have multiple children in different rooms).-It shows the temperature in the room and alerts you if it's too warm.-Obviously it has audio, and you can control the volume and see the noise level with a string of lights displayed at the top of the handheld-Also has a mic on the handheld piece so you can talk to your baby (which I have found especially useful when I'm out back, or on vacation outside.. if I have an unusually long way to get back to the room, I can just press the button and talk to him and tell him I'm coming, which immediately calms him).-...650 ft range (alerts you when you're out of range)-Clearly can be wireless, or can be left plugged in (super long cord, although the wireless battery doesn't last as long as I think it should).-You can mount the camera on the wall, or leave it sitting on a shelf, or bed, or floor, or anywhere you have a few inches (it's a very sturdy little sucker, but not a big base, so you have plenty of options for placement).-Can play a few different lullaby songs through the camera piece in the room with your baby, which you can control from the handheld (I think this is silly, especially since you can't control the volume level, but some people may find it useful).-Handheld has an alarm you can set for 2, 4, or 6 hours, which alerts you if you're one of those moms who needs to wake your baby or feed them on a schedule of your own.-It's pretty, so doesn't look bad sitting on your table (has a leg you can flip out to stand on its own, like a picture frame, and an antenna you can flip up if you need an extra boost if you're getting close to out of range)------------UPDATE (2yrs later):Still love this monitor(!), however, I am about to be on my 3rd one. The first I purchased in Sept 2011 and by July 2012 the screen had gone so dark I could barely see my baby in it anymore, so I sent back for a new one and here we are again May 2013 and it's happened AGAIN-- the screen has gone so dark I can barely see my child. The screen brightness is up all the way as well, so the only time I can actually see much besides a faint outline is if it's daylight. So I'm sending in again for a new one. I'm really hoping this was simply terrible luck and not how the product happens to act, over and over. Anyone else out there experience the same? As a side, the newer model now has the ability to be completely muted by turning the volume all the way down until it's silent. This is a fantastic update, as I now have to use it while I put my toddler to bed in the other room and can still see my infant on the screen while she sleeps, yet can keep it muted in the event she makes noise.------UPDATE (3yrs later):here we are in february 2014 and although i still love the monitor, i've downgraded to 4 stars because unfortunately the cameras can't seem to stay functioning at the capacity it initially arrives at. it starts off excellent, but as you can see above, it eventually goes out. over and over and over. i'm ready for my 4th return/exchange/repurchase of another camera, although it seems these last two have arrived in pretty poor form-- one of my cameras is EXCELLENT. bright, crisp. the other camera (and another one yet that i replaced, but the new one wasn't any better) is TERRIBLE. very dim, even when on the highest contrast, it's hard to see. it's almost like a spotlight flashlight, illuminating just one small area and needing to pan to see other things in the room besides that little spot, vs the other camera, which acts as if a ceiling light is on and lights up the entire room. wish they were better lasting. until now i was lucky enough to still be within amazon's return window, but this time it expired a month ago, so i'm going to attempt to get this issue resolved through motorola directly.

Worth it.........must have for every parent.........we have been using this for quite a while around 6 months....i think and it works for fine.....before this we had audio one.... but we used to disturb the baby even when we hear small noises...but with video ...we came sometimes they make some sounds and get back to sleep..........if u r cooking or watching tv in the next room........this is must have......there were lot of latest companies ...but i went with moto........works quite well at night vision......quality product from moto!..FYI: the camera doesnt have a battery so it power source where the monitor has a small rechargeable battery which lasts around 2 hrs roughly which is good as we can charge and watch in the same time

I was fed up of sitting in the room while my baby slept. I couldn't get anything done and had to move around the room with ninja like stealth so as not to wake her up. This monitor has saved me. I have hung it from a nail in the wall, just above her cot. It pans left and right silently, so I can keep an eye on her if she moves around in her sleep and can even scan the entire room if I want. The best part is the audio, which is loud enough for me to hear even if I take I'm watching TV in the next room. The battery lasts about 3 hours, which is fine because I never need to carry it around for more than that. If it stays plugged into the charger then it stays on permanently, till you shut it off. The only drawback is the terrible range. It doesnt work as well through the cement walls and I suspect it was made with wooden walled houses in mind. None the less, I am now free to live my life while my little one naps and honestly could not be happier. I see this coming in use for years to come and it has multiple purposes. You can use it to keep a watchful eye on a pet or house help or any number of surveillance uses.

Very expensive unit and does not last very long. We have already had trouble with one of the parent units that was replaced by the manufacturer. Now the replacement is going after a little over a year. In our case it is the on and off switch. It hardly works.Some issues thatI have with this device:- wish it were a touch screen- silly that it doesn't have much battery life before having to be plugged in- volume should really be accessible without having to turn on the screen and go through the menu options- infrared does not work well in some roomsPros:- Scanning and (pathetic but glad to have even the slightest) zooming function- volume can be turned up loud enough that you can even hear kids breathing- love that you can have multiple cameras (we have 2 currently)Part of me wishes that I'd just gone with something for my smart phone, but we got this a few years ago.

We used this product for just about a year until it suddenly stopped functioning! Just like that! And right around when the warranty period expired. We have read similar reviews on multiple portals.It is an overpriced item for the kind of picture quality you get. And if you need to make a fresh purchase every year, it's just not worth it. We tried buying only the camera - but it's almost the same cost as the entire package. And Motorola service is virtually non-existent.We definitely liked the fact that-the camera can be remotely controlled-we could speak thru the monitor to our little oneWe did not like-the picture quality (extremely grainy and broken)-average build and plastic quality of the monitor-loads of unnecessary functions that were never used (such as the option to play music that your child can hear in the room)-frequently required functions such a brightness and volume are not immediately accessible-range is ok-the screen on the monitor gets scratched very easilyOverall, it's not such a great product for the price and definitely not if its life span is just one year!!!

Reading all the reviews I bought this monitor, so I was expecting battery to be poor, but Honestly it’s battery life is awful. You have to plug in the monitor constantly. Other than that rest of the features are spot on . Enjoy the motion sensor flash light, it’s very accurate. I like the product as it’s functional for home use. Keep in mind to keep the monitor next to a power source