VTech Communications Safe & Sounds Full Color Video and Audio Monitor

We purchased this monitor several weeks ago because it seemed to be the best value and also seemed to be of good quality for the price. The monitor worked well overall. BUT, the voice-activation circuit drove us nuts. There is a feature that is setup so that if the monitor isn't picking up a certain level of sound, the parent unit goes completely silent -eliminating the 'white noise' sound usually heard from baby monitors.

Although this sounds great, in actual use it was awful. Regardless of what sensitivity setting we had the unit on, it still would turn on and off all night. If there was the slightest sound in the baby's room, the monitor would "wake up" and you would hear white noise. 2 seconds later, it would go silent. 2 seconds later again and it's making noise. On..off..on..off.

Unfortunately there is no way to turn this feature off -so we packed it up and sent it back. We then purchased a Motorola video baby monitor, which has worked well, and although never goes completely quiet, at least it doesn't keep turning on and off all night like the V-Tech did.

Pros: Video quality, ease of setup, battery backup in baby unit, front speaker and volume control, price.

Cons: No way to turn off VOX sensitivity.

If you are looking for a video monitor that allows you to monitor more than one child at night, DO NOT BUY THIS MONITOR! Although its described as a "Full Color Video and Audio Monitor" that "supports up to four cameras," audio does not work at all when using multiple cameras. Rather, if you're monitoring more than one child, you only have a split-screen view with no audio from any camera. Instead, if one of your children begins crying, the screen for the camera where the sound comes from merely turns green, but no warning sound is provided. So, if you're sleeping and one of your kids begins crying, you're not going to see the monitor light-up green to let you know (unless you sleep with your eyes open). After thoroughly reading through the instruction manual, I called Vtech support thinking that I had to be missing something, because not being able to hear your children cry on a baby monitor really defeats the whole purpose. To my chagrin, however, the Vtech support representative confirmed that there is no audio capabilities when in multicamera mode, and there is no audible notification available to at least let you know that sound is coming from one of the cameras. I told her that it blows my mind that a company can release a baby monitor without thinking through this feature (e.g., the Lorex monitor resolves the issue by automatically cycling through the audio for each camera every 15 seconds). She said that she would relay this information to their design team for future products. So if you EVER want to add a second monitor, DO NOT GET THIS Product.

If, however, you only have one child and never want to expand, this is actually a fantastic montior. It's got better range than all other products on the market, the screen is crystal clear, and the price is great. The actual cameras, however, are enormous, but still mount on the wall.

Update: The manufacturer's representative contacted me regarding the issues I pointed out, and did tell me that the monitor can be set to vibrate when sound is detected from one of the cameras. I tried it on these settings and the vibrations of the monitor while it sets on my nightstand were not sufficient (as I am a pretty heavy sleeper). If you're a light sleeper, it may work for you. But if your out on the patio or working around the house while the kids sleep, you're not likely to hear the vibration of the monitor. Hopefully, they'll resolve this issue with auto cycling function soon, and then, it will be one of the best values for video monitors on the market.

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I weighed the reviews of this and other comparably-priced video baby monitors very carefully, since my wife and I have limited financial means. I ultimately decided on the VTech monitor over the Motorola model, mostly because it supports multiple cameras and the screen is bigger. I wrote off the complaints about the camera's sound sensitivity, since my wife and I tend to keep the audio to our son's room running continuously, anyway.

Unfortunately, our experience was much, much worse. Sure enough, it was difficult to find a good sound sensitivity setting, but we settled on the highest one. For two weeks, we enjoyed being able to keep a video eye on our son while in his room. In fact, without this monitor, my wife would never have known that when our son goes down for his nap, he doesn't always sleep.

That was when it worked, which was approximately one week. Our problems began when the image on the parent unit started flickering like an old analog television set that needs to have its vertical hold adjusted. This continued to deteriorate until finally, the parent unit and camera refused to synch. Instead, the parent unit beeps and the camera power light blinks red and green while it makes an annoying clicking sound. No sound. No picture. After only two weeks of use.

Taking into account the previous review where the manufacturer admitted that the camera was bad (though we think our parent unit is bad, since the camera does not malfunction when the parent unit is turned off), this is obviously too high of a defect rate, so we are returning this item to Amazon for a refund.

Don't make the same mistake we did. Don't buy this unit!

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My husband and I chose this monitor after doing a ton of research on video monitors. It seems like each monitor has it's perks and flaws so eventually we decided on this one based on it's range of features and it's price. For around $120 you are getting a very good monitor with a nice size viewing screen! It has excellent range with zero interference. It has alarms for when the battery is low, is signal with the camera is lost, or if the temperature in baby's room gets too high or too low based on your specifications. The night vision is automatic and provides a clear enough pictures to see what our daughter is doing in the night. You can turn the screen on the parent unit off so that it will only turn on if sound is detected in baby's room. For what we paid we are 100% satisfied with this monitor.

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This is my second video monitoring system, the first being a Summer Infant Day and Night that we purchased in 2010 when our first child was born. The Summer Infant model was (and still is) excellent. The picture and sound quality are both great, and reliable. But, as luck has it, that model is not expandable, and we're expecting our second child, so we decided to switch to a model that supported multiple cameras. In terms of rave reviews and features, I should have gone with one of the Motorola models, but I was amazed by the bundle of features for the price with VTech, and took the bait. We bought this system and one extra camera, and went to work setting them up at home in the nursery, and in the toddler's room.

First, the picture quality is NOT GOOD. Compared to the Summer Infant, it's a joke, especially the night vision. Luckily my son has dark hair or I'd never be able to GUESS where he was in the picture. If you need crisp images, do not get this model. We're making do so far, as we can mostly tell where the toddler is in the picture, but it's terrible.

Second, the sound quality and reliability is NOT GOOD. The Summer Infant has crisp, continuous sound. The VTech sound is tinny at best, and interference interrupts it every couple of seconds, in no particular pattern. Moreover, the sound seems to turn itself OFF all the time. I've been able to jog it back on by using the "Talk" feature to say something over the intercom to my son, and then the sound kicks back on awaiting his response. Again, we're using it for him, but it's terrible.

We have not used this yet for a newborn, and it's quite likely that we won't. We still have our old Summer Infant, and unless the sound is continuous and the close-up picture is much better (the newborn camera will only be pointed at a crib, whereas the toddler camera is mounted up high for a (poor quality) view of the whole room) we'll probably use the Summer Infant for the newborn, as I'm not messing around with an unreliable system for a new baby. If we end up going that route, I'll mount the extra VTech camera in toddler's room for added viewer angles, as we can't see the whole room with one camera, and I'll just tote around both parent units, one for each child.

If I had known I was going to have to do that, I'd just have purchased another Summer Infant Day and Night.

Morale of the story: if I had this to do over, I wouldn't have made this choice. The product is trash compared to Motorola or Summer Infant. However, it does do the job (just badly), and it has a bundle of nice features (temperature monitoring, lullabies (that my son hates), zoom (but NOT pan! and the zoom just pixellates the already terrible picture quality), and multiple camera support. VTech seemed to try really hard to throw a lot into this for a low price, but forgot the two most important features: sound quality/reliability and picture quality.

Sadly, one and a half thumbs down.

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