I have used Panasonic Network Cameras (C131A and C230A) for years with generally good results, and when my C131A unit failed, I purchased this one, as Amazon referenced this product as a newer version of the C230A. As any users of these Panasonic Network Camera's know, it is not a trivial process to get these cameras up and running with all the port forwarding, and wireless configuration settings, but after a few hours, I did get it functioning with my PC. Turns out though, that unlike the previous Panasonic Network Camera's, this one (BL-VT164W) requires viewer software to be installed on your PC, and to view the picture through this software. Contrary to the package that states "Remote Viewing from any computer or smartphone" no picture can be seen on a MAC, iPhone, or iPad. When you use any non-PC device, it asks to download viewing software, but of course there is no viewing software for any device other than a PC. Panasonic Technical Support verified that this product does not work on a MAC or mobile devices. Waste of time, as this product clearly is not as advertised. Will return.
Contrary to popular belief on these Amazon comments, you can view the camera image in ANY browser, using the . So these pains are onl related to configuring the camera and using some of the advance features. Furthermore, this camera is onvif compliant, so MANY iPhone, Android, OSX, Windows, Linux, and so forth, software supporting onvif will allow you to view the image, pan and tilt, zoom, change resolution, and so forth.
**The One big feature I could not get to work is, two way audio. The methods listed above for viewing video all work well and as far as I could tell miss only one feature, besides configuration tweaks. I could not figure out how to 'speak into the camera' from any iPhone App or non-IE browser. You can hear the sound, but you can not talk back, which is a shame, because using IE Plugin as a client you can speak with the person on the other end, without any additional hardware, which is rad!
So this bring me to this frustration point. I took a leap of faith ordering this camera, having never seen or used a panasonic Ip camera of its class. I was hoping it would look as good as it does on the photos. It looks way better! Its a very well designed piece of hardware. The features are amazing, it has 3 pairs of dry contacts, so you can make it work with ANY standard home automation system, door strike relay, alarm panel, and so forth. The image is good., It not only supports two way audio (with IE only -see above), but the microphone and speaker are built in. It has a well functioning motion and heat sensor. Its is cute to boot! And I think the value is hard to argue with. I could not find many alternatives for IP Cams that cost around $250...this is a VGA price range today. Add the extra features above and and you can hardly find any alternative. The closest maybe Axis M1054, which has no wifi, no pan and tilt, and costs $100 more!
So, yes all this considered, its frustrating that in todays age of so many options interbrowser/interplatform options, some fool at Panasonic decided that the way to go is make this camera fully usable and fully configurable ONLY with the use of an IE plugin and limit their market share to not just window users, but those willing to figure out the plugin install and security tweaks. Its a foolish move, and doubly disappointing when the hardware is so sweet and well thought out. Also it seems that previous version of panasonic cameras have a universal webadmin interface, so this was a conscious change for the worst.
I will keep my camera, because for the price, I am willing to deal with IE only admin panel, and no 2 way sound through iPhone, but I think most people would take the easier route and get an Axis or similar competition camera for more money. So I hope Panasonic reads these little reviews and makes so software changes quick, before this awesome product goes the way of Palm or Motorola. i.e.: companies with amazing hardware, but frustrating as hell UI experience.
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Bought this camera as a replacement for a BL-C131 that died. I have owned Panasonic cameras from the BL-C30, C131, C230 and now this VT164WP. This is not an improved BL-C230 camera it is an entirely new camera with very little in common. Some improvements, a few steps backward.It connects to your network much like the older Panasonic cameras. You need to have a working knowledge of IP addresses, port forwarding, and MAC address filtering to set this camera up just like with the older Panasonics. I have my camera connected via a LAN cable to my router. The older cameras had two MACs, one for the hard wired connection, and a seoncd MAC for the wireless interface that was one digit higher than the wired interface MAC. I THINK this camera gets away with one MAC, but I haven't explored that thoroughly. At any rate, the wireless MAC address can be easily viewed under the "Wireless", "Status" menu.
Once you get it on the net, you will find an entirely new user interface when viewing through your web browser. No more PTZ "joystick" type controls in the left control pane. The PTZ controls are below the picture. The presets must be selected from a drop down menu (not the preselect position numbers 1 thru 8), and then you must click a "Go" button. Not nearly as handy as the old interface.
The new sensor provides a clearer picture. The panning range is about the same as the 230 series cameras, but the tilt range is less. The sensitivity in low light situations is improved due to the ability to set sensor shutter speed and thus lengthen the exposure. You will trade off sensitivity for blurry motion, but it does work well and I found a balance between acceptable sharpness with good exposure in dark locations. I rate this feature as an improvement over the older cameras.
The motion detection and controls are all new too. WIth the older cameras you set motion sensitivity and threshold once, it it applied to all positions and the entire viewing screen. Simple, but could be a problem when you had shadows of trees setting off the motion detector needlessly. This new camera has a differeint approach. You set motion sensitivity and threshold separately for each preset position (Home, Far Upper Left, etc.) AND within each preset position you have up to 4 motion zones you can select (by drawing a rectangle on your screen) and set the sensitivity and threshold separate for each zone. What does all this mean? First, if you set the motion for say the Home preset position, then at a later time move the camera once or two clicks to the left or right (or up or down) off of the Home position, your camera will not catch motion it is not in its Home position. You need to set motion detection up for each and every preset postion you have set if you want it to trigger on motion for those positions. This can be a pain, but it does give you much more control over what is captured. Second, for each preset position, you can set up to 4 different zones of motion detection each with a different (or same) sensitivity and threshold. So say you're in your Home position, you could set a zone on the left side to catch all motion with a high sensitivity and low threshold, and on the right side where you have problems with tree shadows moving, you could set a 2nd zone with a lower sensitivity and higher threshold. Again, you can define up to 4 different zones for each position, but you don't have to. For most of my positions I just set one zone to capture the whole viewed area and set the sensitivity and threshold to balance desired captured motion vs false triggers. These new controls can be a bit daunting, and the instruction manual does a very poor job of explaining them in English (nothing new here), but once you experiment with them you'll get the hang of it and have a lot of control over motion detection. Most of the time you'll just set one zone for the entire viewed video area.
And there are additional features new to this camera. A Privacy Zone control where you can select up to two zones that you do not want the camera to display, and backlight compensation where you can set zones that provide very bright illumination and compensate for it. I have not tried these features yet.
Unlike previous Panasonic cameras this camera has no internal memory to capture motion detection and review later. You have to set up email or FTP forwarding to capture triggered motion. I consider this a big disadvantage for my purposes. I really depended on the internal memory to review captured motion. Now I have set the camera to forward all motion to my email address, and I have to perform a lot of email management.
Sidenote: I have no trouble viewing and hearing audio over my Android phone using the IP Cam Viewer app. And I can view the video on my new PC running Windows 7. But I have yet to get audio to come through on my Windows 7 PC. The camera defaults to G.726 audio, and Windows 7 does not natively support the G.726 codec. I downloaded the Sharp G.726 codec to my Win7 laptop and got it to receive the camera's audio, but I have yet to crack the code and get a codec that will work on my new Win7 PC. I'm sure it's me and just a matter of time until I get it working. The camera does allow you to change the audio coding to G.711, and when I do that I receive the audio thru my new PC just fine. But that causes other problems with my Android phones, so I'm gong to stay with the G.726 setting and work through the problems on my new PC. Just a "heads-up."
All in all, this is a new camera, with a new viewer interface and a new control and setup interface. It will take you time to get used to. There are some nice features they added, but they can bog you down at times. There are some mis-steps as well: No internal memory, smaller tilt range, a somewhat confusing interface that is not as nimble as the previous interface. I wish Panasonic had stayted with their previous interface and added the new functionality and setup menus as needed. They just had to go and change things. I doubt I'll be ordering any more of these VT164WP cameras unless Panasonc provides a software/firmware update to the camera that offers going back to their previous interface.
Update 11/8/2012: I finally figured out how to get the audio to come through my new Windows 7 PC. I needed to download and install a new version of Java. After that the G.726 audio comes through fine. I still am mnot happy with the new User Interface. This camera and its interface was obviously designed by "geeks" who play with drivers, ports, and security settings all day. An internet camera for the public should not have to be this difficult to set up and use.
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Excellent image quality, alarm functionality, and remote access. But, no internal storage of images associated with timers or alarm. Must externally record, FTP to server, or e-mail images in order to subsequently review images associated with alarms. These little cameras continue to work well inside and, if protected from rain, outside down to 15 below zero F.Want BL-VT164WP HD - H.264 Wireless Pan-tilt Network Camera, (White) Discount?
Almost all IP cameras are a pain to configure and setup and the Panasonic BL-VT164 WP is no different. If your lucky your efforts to setup port forwarding will be successful. Once setup though this camera has better than average image quality in well lighted areas.I use this camera to remotely monitor and I don't record or require notifications so I can't comment on those features.
Despite other what other reviews say, I was able to view on my iPhone and iPad without the need of an app or other software.
Simply type your external ip address with the port forwarded to and add /cam.
Ex: 62.257.140.9:80/cam
Viewing on Internet with Internet Explorer will require a small download for audio and video control software.
Unfortunately IP cameras are not yet user friendly so expect to do some research and understanding of router setup and port forwarding.
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