I've been testing and using this unit for four months now; wanted to get a good sampling before writing a review.Initially, I was disappointed; the first few nights the monitor lost connection with the camera right when I needed to see what was going on. With my daughter, it's often hard to know if she's awake or simply experiencing a brief night terror. I wanted the monitor because opening the door risks waking her up if she's actually sleeping.
After the first few nights of lost connections, it's been fine. Not entirely sure why, but for the last three months it's not lost connection once. So I'm pleased with that. I'm also highly impressed with the battery life. Unlike the monitor system I owned before (Secure Coverage Digital Monitor 2 Parent Units), which had a crappy battery life to begin with that got worse with time, the Levana Astra uses a cell phone-like Li-Ion battery (1800 mAH), which holds a charge much longer (up to 10 hours). It is also removable, so you can potentially buy a replacement from Levana, but I didn't see an option to do so online.
Typically, I take the device downstairs with me at nighttime when my wife and daughter are sleeping. I use it for a few hours at a time, keeping the LCD off until I need to look in on my daughter--between the audio and flashing light, I can detect when I need to check the video feed without having it on all the time. It can go for days without having to recharge; and a battery indicator lets me know when it's getting low so there's no guesswork involved. When I go to bed, I shut off the device because I can hear my daughter in the room next door. It only takes a few seconds to turn the power back on, so there's no need to keep it going when within earshot.
The ability to move the camera view remotely is nice, but I find I rarely use it; I can see the entire bed with it in one position. The zoom feature is worthless; it's not a true zoom, the device simply crops the picture down and doubles the size of the pixels on the screen to give a false illusion of zoom (and, because the pixels are stretched, they are fuzzy and hard to see clearly). As far as the picture quality in general goes, it's OK. The contrast is washed out in night mode, but that's to be expected (note: Night Vision Distance is 15ft). What isn't expected is the amount of light required to get color initiated. In night mode, you only get black and white, but with a light on, you should get color, but the ceiling light (60-Watt frosted) isn't enough unless the unit is set closer to it. Still, color isn't necessary for functionality, it's just an aesthetics thing.
I love the ability to speak over the device remotely. When I'm downstairs and find my daughter is awake, I can press a button and ask her what's wrong. Or, if she's doing something she shouldn't, I can tell her to stop. But this only works so well. Firstly, my voice doesn't sound like my voice on the other end. It makes me sound more like a robot, which is why I tell my daughter the camera is a sort of robot. But when she's half awake and crying, a robotic voice doesn't really help; I end up having to walk upstairs and comfort her in person (which is probably best anyway).
There are a few features I feel the monitor is missing. First, there should be a belt clip to use (during naps) when my wife is working in the garden (or similar situation). There is a removable tab that lets you stand the unit upright, but no way to clip it to your clothing. Second, it should vibrate. There are times when I have headphones on and can't always hear (or am not always staring directly at) the device. If I stick it in my pocket (because there's no clip) it would be nice to feel it go off. And thirdly, give me a real zoom, not this worthless digital pixel stretching.
That said, I absolutely love this device. It works a bazillion times better than the Secure Coverage Digital Monitor 2 Parent Units. Because it makes things much easier for me at night, I feel it's definitely worth the price.
Our dogs hang downstairs and of course we cannot hang out with them all day even though one of us is usually home when the other is out sometimes we enjoy spending our time in other parts of the house leaving the pooches to rule the roost alone. Well this has presented problems for us in the past and we wanted some answers about our dogs. Who was the dominate when we were not around, who was peeing on the couch once in a while, and just a general amusement at watching our dogs sans the human factor.
Finding the proper place for the camera proved very easy and the set up only took mins, about 2. Literally out of the box the Astra Baby Video Monitor is ready to use and to be honest we did not even need to read the instructions so a big plus on their end for ease of set up and understanding of use. Once set up we took the monitor and started to check out the functions available. The camera does a nice job of being able to move up down side to side and zoom in to look at your focal point. I can only imagine if this is being used to watch a baby in a crib the camera won't even need to be moved at all once you've found the sweet spot but the option is there to change those angles and zoom if you need to and it does it quite well with the use of the monitor/controller.
Another feature which we found VERY useful was the micophone. We were able to say commands to our dogs via this useful option to curb bad behavior making them aware we were in the room with them even though we were not.
This all played in a role in finding out all our questions about the dogs that we had and of course a little comedy in between.
One other feature was the lullaby feature which plays tunes that I imagine would be quite soothing and useful for helping your baby fall asleep or sooth their anxiety.
The only things that bothered me (why 4 stars and not 5) were I wish the camera had the ability to be used when not at home where we would be able to log in to a server and access our camera on our smartphones. I'd love to see this feature added in on future models and if this is an option I am unaware of and someone from the company is reading this or another customer owns this, please inform me and how to set that up since I found nothing listed in the instructions and I'd be glad to throw this 5 stars.
All in a well made product hat did exactly what it said that it does and I am sure would be the perfect peace of mind option that parents are looking for to monitor their children or in our case if you have a pooch palace monitor your dogs.
Buy Levana Astra 3.5" PTZ Digital Baby Video Monitor with Talk to Baby Intercom 32006 (White) Now
Pros:1) You do not have to point the camera to the exact point you are trying to view; you can move it in to position. This is especially useful when you have a baby or older kid that moves around because you can re-adjust the camera as many times as you need to without having to go in to their room. You just have to make sure that you select the pan button when you are setting the view; it is the small middle button located to the right side of the screen, and then use the big round bottom button to set it in place.
2) For older kids or babies who like to hear their parents' voice, there is a microphone feature that you can use. It sounds pretty clear so the little one on the other side of the camera should be able to recognize the person speaking to them.
3) The third button on the monitor is the picture of a house; you select the house button than use the big round button to set it to your needs. This button gives you a variety of choices, seven settings to be exact.
a) You can play music through the camera, all you do is press the house button then use the big button to select the melody sign then go up & down (you have 4 settings one is the off button & the other 3 have different choices of melodies).
b) There is also a setting to select the brightness of the picture on the monitor so it is visible during the day or night.
c) The receiver battery is rechargeable & holds the charge for a couple of weeks (this is using the monitor @ 2hrs daily).
d) It gives you the choice to hook the receiver up to 3 additional, which I have not done so I can't say if it is easy, hard, works well or if it has poor reception.
e) It also has a customer service button that I have not used yet.
4) In the center of the selection button (the big round button) it has a + sign & it allows you to zoom in or out the picture.
5) The camera & the receiver both have an antenna, which in my case is very useful because I get terrible reception at home.
Cons:
1) I have found that when I use the pan button and try to point it too far up or down, or to either side, the picture will start flashing.
2) You have to use the volume button on the lowest setting (which is the big round button without pressing any other buttons) because is very loud & it picks up all other little noises in the room such as fans, humidifiers, noise makers, etc, even if they are not in the camera's path.
So far I will give the monitor a 4 because for the price of the monitor I expected better on the settings that I do use every day. When I have to set it too far either up, down, left or right, which is almost every time because my baby moves a lot, it is constantly flashing. This is very annoying & also, even at the lowest volume, the receiver sounds like static the entire time the monitor is on. This really is just about the easiest thing to set up that I've ever encountered. The camera works like a charm, allowing my wife to feel one hundred percent confident that our grandson is safe when she's doing her chores.
The night vision is pretty good too, though we don't need it, because our grandson is really still a wee one (four months) so he's been sleeping with us when we watch him, which is about two days a week. But soon I hope my better half will feel reassured enough, so that he'll be sleeping the night away in his own room, yes our grandson has a room at our house, and I'm sure this little monitor will help in that regard. Digital and color video monitors have come a long way from when I first bought a video monitor. This one is easy to set-up, the power bricks are interchangeable (a welcomed feature for sure), the interface is easy, it has a color receiver which is phone sized and it can run on a battery. The picture really isn't bad, and a lot better than the first color monitors I'd seen, but the resolution still reminds me of a pre-iPhone smartphone, sure you can watch a video on it, but it's not a joy to watch. If I had to guess I'd say it was 320x240, passable on a 3.5" screen, but my old tube based black and white video monitors are much sharper (but to be fair... they suffered from interference, static, and a general lack of features). Where this one starts to win me over is the easy menu driven interface that lets you play music, talk to the baby, or pan/tilt around the room. It does have a 2x digital zoom, but it lowers the quality of the image even more so it's useful for an occasional check, but it would give you a migraine to use the zoom all the time. The only problem I could invent was bringing the monitor into close proximity of the camera, which would give feedback noise as expected. Finally, the low-light night mode works just as well as the daytime mode.
PROS:
+ Easy setup
+ Thoughtful design and layout
+ Can re-position the camera remotely.
+ Good quality video and sound.
+ Can add on cameras (up to 3)
+ Lights that indicate sound
CONS:
Zoom is digital
Video display is good for this product type, but is still short of modern consumer electronics screens.
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