When I got our first video monitor, I wondered if it would be useful, or just a gimmick, or one more way to worry about the baby! We've found it very useful. There are just some things that an audio monitor can't tell you. And being able to check on your child without the disturbance of going into her room can save a lot of trouble, especially in the transition times in the evening and in the morning, when little disturbances can lead to bigger ones.The video was especially useful when our child was a little older and moving around more, and we had left her to settle herself which sometimes can seem like crying herself to sleep! :-( We used the video monitor to see if she was just unsettled (so we very much did not want to go into the room, or she wouldn't learn to settle herself) or had gotten into a spot she couldn't get out of (stuck in the bars of the crib, or lost her lovey, so we needed to go in and set things right). Video monitors are also useful to see when a child is awake, and how awake sitting, standing, lying down or trying to climb out of bed! or on her way to sleep, or not. And they can be lots of fun, too, to watch and listen!
Our other monitor is analog, and once in a while we'd hear our neighbor talking on their cordless phone which no doubt means they hear us sometimes! A digital monitor, like the Levana, should be private and static-free.
So, I really wanted to like this product. Plus, I really needed it when a new baby arrived. But while it has an attractive design and some interesting features, the Levana Babyview monitor doesn't seem especially workable or useful for us.
The main issue, of course, is the video and audio quality. Both are problematic on the Levana BabyView:
Video: The video quality seems barely adequate. The resolution on the baby's face is OK, but just. The frame rate seems too low you don't get anything like continuous motion. Every several seconds, the video freezes. From time to time, it freezes for a much longer time. The video compression used results in a blocky, low resolution quality, though luckily that primarily affects low-contrast areas. Overall it's tolerable but not especially enjoyable to use, and lower quality most of the time than our analog monitor.
Audio: The audio had a persistent high pitched background whine when it was on. Also, it's apparently set to switch off and on at low volumes, so the audio is intermittent with lots of clicks, which is less than useful and more than irritating. The tiny microphone is in an odd location on the camera, it almost seems like an afterthought, perhaps that's part of the problem. Overall, much lower quality than our analog monitor.
Further, the user should be able to better control the audio have a microphone that picks up even low level sounds, and have a volume control on the handset that you can adjust; then the user can decide what to hear. Good quality audio can add a lot of information to how the child is doing. You don't want to lose audio quality to get video a monitor like this should have good quality audio and video.
Some aspects of the Babyview are well done:
The design is fairly attractive and compact. (Handset is 5.8" H with the antenna x 1" deep without the clip x 2.5" wide.)
The 2.3" screen is reasonably large.
The auto-switching between regular light and night vision seems to happen quickly and effectively.
The lithium ion battery in the handset is the best battery technology, in terms of power for the weight. (It's what's used in digital cameras and cell phones.) They claim over 4 hours of battery life.
The power adapters work at US or international voltages.
The included clamp for the camera is well made and seems likely to work well in a variety of setups.
Other features are good ideas that don't work well in practice:
The voice activation feature, which leaves the screen and the sound off until it picks up some sound, helps conserve battery and perhaps parents' nerves and sleep. But it needs too much noise to switch on it's either set to too low a level, or the microphone isn't sensitive enough. And again, this is something that the user should be able to adjust.
The little curved base is clever, but doesn't work that well at the optimum focal range of 5 feet. When placed on a dresser next to the crib with the camera is tilted down enough to see the baby, the base blocks a big part of the image. In addition, when the camera is in the base, the camera starts to tilt due to the heavy filter on the power supply wire (a biggish black cylindrical part on the wire). So for both those reasons, the cute clever magnetic base isn't much use in practice.
Some of the features seem potentially nice but I'm not sure I'd use them such as the nightlight and the music. I almost wonder if they added them to distinguish this product from their security cameras.
Finally, there are a couple elements of the design that aren't so great. Having a bright green power LED on the front of the camera is thoughtless on a baby monitor, though luckily it's easy enough to tape over (and there are so many lovely colors of electrical tape these days). And the glowing red night vision lights seem to have too much potential for distracting or even upsetting a child.
The wireless frequency is 2.4ghz, the same as wireless internet and some cordless phones. The Levana has enough channels (32, with auto signal hopping) that intereference shouldn't be a major problem, but I can't definitely evaluate that at this point.
The company's website is , though there's very little info there. Their parent company is SVAT Electronics, which makes security cameras and the like. So even though this is a new product from an unknown brand, they do have experience with this sort of thing. Perhaps their next generation of this product will have some of the wrinkles ironed out.
The most important factor about these devices are not having any dropped receptions, etc. Carrying a video signal wirelessly seems like a pretty hefty task. The Levana Babyview20 *INTERFERENCE FREE* Digital Wireless Video Monitor does a good job carrying a consistent signal; I haven't experienced any major freezes or losing video signal. However, I did notice some very brief pause when there's fast motion during night vision, but it is very brief.
The night vision works very well. The camera contains 9 infrared lights. In the dark, you can actually see it glowing red, but it is pretty dim (the green power LED is brighter); hopefully, that's not something that would scare the baby at night. You can see the actual infrared lights during the video I've uploaded, but it is actually not that bright; that is how the digital camera sees it -not to the human eye. But from the video, you can just get an idea of how much infrared lights are in there. According to Levana, the infrared lights are 100% safe to the baby.
There is a VOX (Voice Operated eXchange) feature, which allows the monitor to be off and only turns on when there is sound detected (for example when the baby starts crying) on the camera. This is a nice feature, but it would have been nice to be able to adjust the sound sensitivity to even detect lower sounds.
The monitor comes with a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery. According to Levana, it takes 3 hours to fully charge; blue LED means it is charging and when it goes off, it means fully charged. The camera requires four AAA batteries (not included) if you don't connect it to an AC adapter. Levana claims the camera can operate for 4.5 continuous hours with AAA batteries. (and about half if you use the night light) So obviously, it's best to have an outlet nearby the camera to use the AC instead or be sure to buy some rechargeable AAA batteries.
On the left side of the monitor, it has a PLAY/STOP, NEXT, and VOX button.
On the right side of the monitor, it has ON/OFF dial (which also controls the volume), and BRIGHTNESS UP/DOWN button above it. The power adapter jack is also on the right side bottom.
Below the LCD screen, it shows the POWER/LINK/VOX/MUSIC indicator; there's also an audio level indicator between them with green LEDs. And of course, there's the speaker below it.
That's all it is. It is really basic and simple.
* Takes about 3 seconds for the monitor to turn on
* There's four levels of brightness.
* 3 lullabies can be played on the camera. You can play/stop/next from the monitor.
* There is a Night Light switch on the camera, which just turns on three star-shaped lights on the camera.
* The camera comes with two mounts. One is for clamping on a crib and the other is a magnetic cradle. The cradle is actually pretty nice, which will allow you to rotate the camera in many directions freely with ease.
Careful with the magnetic cradle! The magnet is pretty strong, so you'll want to keep sensitive electronics, especially hard drives away from it.
Sure, in today's HD world, it'd be nice to have everything in great quality. However, higher quality videos will obviously take higher bandwidth to transmit and more battery power. The video quality is pretty much what one would expect with low-end/average webcam. It's not horrible, but you have to be realistic. Overall, it's decent since you can still tell what you're looking at.
Pros:
Good range for around the house (100-150ft)
Have not lost any reception.
Design is fit for a baby's room.
Pretty close to real-time (about approx 0.5 second delay not a major big deal)
Night Vision works great.
Night light
Monitor can be clipped on to your belt or as a stand
Comes with two AC adapters for powering camera or charging monitor
Basic, very simple to use.
Cons
No color adjustments; you get what you get. (webcam quality)
Could use wider lens to see surroundings. (perhaps have an add-on to attach easily to screw on to the lens)
There should be a button on the monitor to turn on/off the night light.
The camera could use rechargeable lithium batteries like the monitor.
Should be able to adjust sound sensitivity for VOX
Would be really nice to have an automatic panning/zooming capability
Sound can echo.
I give this product a 3 1/2 stars, but will be a bit lenient and give it a 4, since I have not tested other baby monitors. The Levana Babyview20 is definitely not a unique idea, but the way its been implemented could be considered unique. How many of us want to see and listed to our babies? My wife just recently had our second child, so testing out this product was easy.
In addition to being just a regular video monitor, the Babyview20 offers music, a night light, night vision, and nearly static-free audio (overall, not bad). Both the monitor and the camera can run off of batteries, although power adapters are included.
When we first setup the unit and tested it out, we were quite pleased with the quality. Since our daughter is so young, we simply placed the camera in her bassinet. If your child is older, you can use the included attachment to attach the camera to a crib-side. Overall, quality was good, we could hear her breathe, and all was well. Setup was definitely a breeze.
During subsequent uses, however, we ran into some issues. The monitor started to lose its connection to the camera. Flipping off the monitor and turning it back on, powering the monitor with the power adapater, and even switching batteries in the camera didn't make a difference. I was forced to call Levana, which offered very friendly customer support. I was told to simply hold the "VOX" button (which is a mode that will only turn the monitor on if audio comes from the camera) and hold down the night vision button on the camera. After doing this, lo and behold, things started working again. Either way, if you run into the issue, hopefully this can help prove to be useful.
In the end, a great product that was executed very well. It's not perfect by any means (the music could sound better, for one), but, considering this appears to be Levana's second product, I think they've, hands down, got a winner.
UPDATE: After about a week of writing this review, I've had nothing but trouble with the camera and monitor. It keeps loosing its connection, and, despite the advice they gave me above, I haven't been able to get it to work. Also, before, there wasn't much static coming through the monitor, now it has a constant noise coming through it despite my daughter sleeping.I bought this product first because 1) price 2) lullaby 3) supposed to be interference free.
Then I bought summer infant best view 2.5' display one for my mom's house. OMG what a difference.
this Levana monitor 1) it does interference with my wireless online, 2) color on monitor sucks, 3) sound sucks. only good things about this monitor was the lullaby, which I didn't really need because I had electronic mobile. and the picture comes on when he makes sound.
the color in the monitor is like blue and white. even with the lights on.
the sound is delay. and it cuts off and on. really junk. it's like listening to broken radio.
the summer infant best view has 1) clear image 2) good sounds , 3) interference free, 4) zoom up and 5) controllable monitor.
it's really convenient to be able to use the monitor handset to zoom up and control the monitor. so when your baby is sleeping and turning, you can make sure that he has good airway. and when he wakes up and go into the corner of the crib, you can control the monitor on the handset to find him without going into the room.
I hope this info was helpful...
although the bestview's image goes on sleep mode automatically (and you can wake it up by just pressing one big button), I still think that one is alot better than the levana.
I loved this baby monitor until it stopped working. Now the monitor inverts the colors and it looks like I'm looking at my son through night goggles. Levana won't fix it because I've owned it over a year.
That's very poor customer service. A product that is this expensive should last over a year!
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