TRENDnet SecurView Internet Surveillance Camera Server with 2-Way Audio TV-IP212
May 2, 2010 by BPELforum · 5 Comments
- Product Type – Internet Camera
- Sensor Resolution – 640 x 480 pixels
- Lens Aperture – f: 4.6mm, F: 2.8 (IR Lens)
- – High quality MPEG-4 and MJPEG video recording with up to 30 frames per second
- – Supports 3GPP live video viewing via 3G mobile phone
Product Description
The 2-Way Audio Internet Camera transmits real-time high quality video and audio over the Internet. See, hear and talk to people, in your camera s viewing area from any Internet connection. Complimentary SecurView camera management software allows you to monitor what you value most at home or at work.
TRENDnet SecurView Internet Surveillance Camera Server with 2-Way Audio TV-IP212
…but that’s what customer support is for. To make a long story short, after finally getting a hold of someone that spoke english, I was told to call ATT and then call them back. After calling back with ATT’s instructions and still not getting any results, I was finally told by these “extremely helpful” individuals that “oh yeah” you have an ATT modem and yo cannot get a static IP address with them, I would have to purchase a static IP address from ATT if they would sell me one (which he doubted they would). Considering that not many people have ATT DSL lines (yes, I am being sarcastic) that should not be a problem and they obviously don’t see a need to warn consumers. If you want to lose your shipping charges and waste three hours of your life go for it and buy the camera. P.S. If you have a case number assigned, such as when you call back a second time, be prepared to wait much longer for assistance.
Rating: 1 / 5
First off let me say that the video quality was very good (as good as these types of camera’s get anyway).
Network setup was about average, documentation was terrible. If you have setup your own home network before, then setting this up will give you no trouble.
Problems:
1) Camera & software useless for automatic recording of events. Takes too long to start video capturerecording.
I wanted to use the camera to monitor my front driveway, setting the camera’s software to record video whenever there was motion in the cameras view.
What I discovered was that it takes the camera & software about 5 seconds before recording will begin! What this means is that, say someone walks up the driveway, camera triggers recording about 5 seconds later, but by then the person has since left the cameras field of view and so the camera records an empty driveway!
Same with the person (or car or whtever) leaving. By the time the camerasoftware starts recording, the object has long since moved out of camera range!
I have a very fast PC, tons of memory and a fast hard drive, so it’s not a PC caused limitation.
I contacted TrendNet and they said that the 5 second delay in automatic recording mode was a limitation of the camera and it could not be adjusted.
2) Video files created with the included camera security software keep generating errors & freezing when attempting video playback. Completely unwatchable.
Conclusion: If you want to setup any type of automated video surveillance or security, don’t get this camera (or any other in this wireless TrendNet camera series).
Rating: 1 / 5
The appearances of this camera looks very nice, however, it’s a bit difficult to install. It is viewed thru an IP address that you have to setup manually and their technical support isn’t much help either if anything goes wrong.
Don’t get your hopes up with the quality of the image because it’s no better than a good ol’ fashion $30 webcam. I had to return it because of too much hassle to install and very dissapointed at the image quality. The frame by frame isn’t that fast also.
Rating: 1 / 5
Video quality is great in well light areas. However the camera often requires re-connecting power to work again after changing certain settings. It also not working well with RTSP 3GPP streaming to 3G mobile phone. Trendnet needs to fix these bugs before selling this camera.
Rating: 1 / 5
TRENDnet TV-IP212W Wireless Internet Camera Server with 2-Way Audio
The package came quick, everything was accounted for. The initial set up of this camera was a different story. If you are not familiar with dealing with wireless routers, setting up port forwarding, and assigning MAC addresses, find someone who is. Tech support is in India, the technicians speak fast and for the most part its hard to understand what they are saying, but on a good note, at least they were polite.
The camera works great, audio works great (listening), I haven’t set up a speaker for outbound audio. Picture is “ok” and acceptable for what its intended for (doggie cam). Two very critical things to remember when setting up the event server for ftp and email. 1) FTP hostname needs to be the numeric IP value, not the text name, and 2) The SMTP server needs to be the numeric IP value of the ISP that is providing the email service for your connection. You could use an outside SMTP source, but it can get a little complicated. To get the numeric IP of your ISP’s smtp use “cmd” in the start button/ run textbox and type “ping smtp.yourisp.net”, without the quotes and ONE space between ping and smtp in the command prompt.
One warning about activating motion sensor and using event configurations, pay attention to the settings or else you will flood your email account with a constant flow of emails every 20 secs (default setting enabled), and risk getting your email locked out for unusual activity.
Out of the box and installed, took me about 6 hours, 5 hours longer than I thought it should have taken (event server being a big issue) and router conflicts being the second aggravation (using Comcast cable modem). Once you hook it up and hardwire it for setting up configurations, go to trendnet.com and download any updated firmware for that product FIRST (critical). When you are done setting it up and have made all the changes, go to tools and save a backup copy.cfg (important).
On your router admin page, the first step in getting the camera recognized by the router is to set up a MAC address for the camera, but let the router assign an IP address for it first. Do that before making any IP changes or setting up port forwarding.
Frankly, the guide and instructions that came with the camera were not enough information to get my wireless set up working right, right off the bat. Two tech support calls later, there was still some missing information. Hopefully on Monday, I’ll have it all resolved with Comcast, regarding open ports, etc. I’ll repost when the problem is fixed.
Edit: March 30th, 2009. After a little digging on the Internet regarding port forwarding connectivity issues, your WAN IP is the address needed (not the Router IP) when trying to access the camera remotely, not the IP assigned to it by your wireless router. [...]. I hope this helps someone.
Rating: 4 / 5