This post is sponsored by Vimtag. I am being compensated for helping spread the word about the camera, but everyone knows Scratchings and Sniffings only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers. Vimtag is not responsible for the content of this article.
Hey, it's Tom again. Not sure if you followed any of our holiday travel saga, but I did get a chance to log in and play with the camera again. If you missed my previous posts covering the basics of setting up and using the camera, you might want to start there, First Take and Take 2.
Recorded while traveling far, far away . . .
Keep in mind that we were in upstate New York, controlling the camera in our house over 1,500 miles away.
This time around, I've gone back and edited the raw video captured by the camera, to overcome two main problems: boredom and potential liability for deafness from the audio track.
It's the models' fault
We tried to get them to look alive, really we did! The raw video was over 5 minutes long. And not much happened. During the live recording, I would have sworn I saw Olive's ear flick once or twice, seemingly in response to my voice. But I couldn't find it in the recording.
In this clip, you should be able to see Emily move her front paws a couple of times. To be honest, she does that often while chasing rabbits in her dreams, too, so I can't be certain that she actually heard me through the camera's speaker.
Zoom, zoom?
The camera and the app-based monitoring software enable you to zoom in and out, if you are using a device with a touch screen, like a smart phone, tablet, or my Samsung Windows 8 laptop. I played with it quite a bit during this session and it works great in real time. However, when I looked at the recording on the SD Card, the zooms were not captured. Why that happened is beyond my tech knowledge.
So the zooming in that you see in the clip above, I added during the editing using Camtasia Studio 8. I actually like that better, because it gives me much more precise control over when the zoom should begin and end.
Two-way audio not great for noisy environments
The only part that I'm less than satisfied with so far is the audio quality when I turn on the microphone and try to talk to the pets through the camera.
Now, the audio you hear when you just turn on the sound from the room where the camera sits is pretty good. You can hear Olive's clicking toenails on the floor and Yvonne's and my voices quite clearly in the Take 2 video.
But when I turned on the microphone to enable talking back to the pets through the camera, the audio quality went way down. We could (barely) hear and understand it during the live session, but in the recording there is so much background noise that my words were almost unintelligible. I removed as much of the noise as I could, but finally had to dub over to give you a sense of what was going on.
Very little, as it turned out! ;-D
I'm not sure how much of the two-way audio issues might have been caused by using my laptop's built-in microphone with the speakers turned on, possibly creating a feedback loop, along with being in a room with two holiday-crazed kids and the adults trying to keep up!
I plan to try again, using my phone, our Galaxy tablet, and maybe a headset when I get a chance, so I'll let you know if I learn anything new.
But wait, there's more!
So much more, that if you're thinking about getting a camera for pet safety or general security, I urge you to find out even more about the Vimtag IP Video Camera VT-361.
Here are some of the additional features that I haven't mentioned specifically or had a chance to review:
- Motion Detection with Snap Shots and Alerts,
- Scheduling times for recording,
- 12 IR LEDs for Night Vision Up to 10 meters,
- HD Video Quality 1280 x 720p,
- 320 degree x 120 degree panning range
- Ability to connect, monitor, and control multiple cameras from the app
- Web apps for iOS and Android devices, as well as PCs
Of course, the system has may possible uses (besides pet monitoring): Nanny Cam, Business Monitoring, Vacation Home Monitoring, Senior Monitoring, Remote Live Video Streaming, to name a few. All in all, this video camera system has been easy and fun to use and the video quality is exceptional for a surveillance tool. What do you think?
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