Robot Reviews

TRENDnet TV-IP422W Wireless Day/Night Pan/Tilt Internet Camera Server with 2-Way Audio Review

Un-boxing the camera:
The camera was packaged up nicely. Amazon put the box in a little larger box which it was able to rattle around a little bit. The main box was free from drops (No corners dented in).

Package Contents:
You get the IP camera, a package containing the Owner’s manual, CD-ROM, quick start guide, A/C adapter which they are boasting is Energy Star compliant, and a package of the rubber feet and connector to hook up an alarm if needed. If you want to place it on a wall/ceiling, that adapter is sold separately.

Owner’s Manual/Quick Start Guide:
There is no Owner's Manual. Just a Quick Start Guide, and the CD-ROM with the Drivers and software. It touches in how to hook up the camera to your network. If you choose to run your camera wirelessly, you will want to run the camera wired to upgrade the firmware and switch back to wireless after that.


Features:
• Compatible with wireless G and B devices.
• Advanced encryption modes include WEP, WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK
• Pan 330º side-to-side and tilt 105º up-and-down from any Internet connection
• High quality MPEG-4 and MJPEG video recording with up to 30 frames per second
• Hear and talk to people in your camera’s viewing area through your computer
• Built-in USB port allows you to store still images directly onto a USB flash or hard drive*
• Infrared lens enables day and night vision (night visibility up to 5 m)
• Supports TCP/IP networking, SMTP Email, HTTP, Samba and other Internet protocols
• Record streaming video to your computer and network storage devices
• Sends image snapshots to FTP, email and flash drives
• Motion detection email alerts
• Two adjustable motion detection windows with just-in-time snapshot and time stamp overlay
• Quick Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) installation
• Complimentary SecurView™ software: view and record up to 16 cameras simultaneously **
• 3-year limited warranty
* USB port supports up to 500mA power device with FAT16/32 format
** Monitoring multiple cameras may require a high performance CPU


Placement of the camera:
Placement of the camera was pretty easy. At first I just set it on top of my firewall which is high due to the better reception to my wireless device. There is a wall/ceiling attachment one needs to purchase separately. While it was placed flat on my firewall, I noticed that the tilt wasn’t going as far down as I wanted to, so I moved it to the ceiling where it had better range.


Navigation Screen:
The navigation screen is very well thought out. If you use Firefox, you won’t have access to most of the buttons that require Active-X. You will have to have administrative privileges on the computer to install the Active-X files. Once you install the files, the other buttons show up on the main page which comes in handy. As you can see by the screen shots, you can note the differences.

Firefox screen shot. Notice the top where the zoom buttons are missing as well as other buttons:

IE screen shot. Notice the zoom levels and other buttons are visible via Active-X:

IP Camera sending snapshots to the FTP, Email, or Network Storage:
I could get my FTP server configured and when I hit the test button, it works (It places a .txt file in the folder). When I configure the camera to send a snapshot when it detects motion, the log file says it fails. When I try to configure the email and test it, it says it fails to send it. I know I have the right settings, due to my Outlook needing them as well. I have opened up a case with the company and haven’t heard back from them for a while.

My NAS supports security cameras, which it works great with this camera. The NAS has built-in detection software with scheduling capability which I have been using until TrendNET fixes these bugs and come out with a firmware update. My NAS emails/txt's me when it detects movement. It's pretty much taking up where the IP Camera has left off for now..


Setting up the camera for Wireless connection via WPA-2:
I have been having an issue with connecting via wirelessly. I have been receiving an error from my firewall: “Wireless station event: Station 0014d1f0b99b WPA2 authentication MIC check failed, SSID: ~~~~~~~~~”
It basically means they need to support management Frame Protection (MFP). MFP adds security to the MAC management layer of the 802.11 connectivity by cryptographically hashing the management frames and generating a Message Integrity Check (MIC) during network connection.


I have waited a couple of business days which I received no answer. So, I decided to give them a call. They asked for the case #, which I gave them the one that I was given. They said that they didn’t recognize that number and to open up a new case. I gave them all of the information and started troubleshooting with their tech person. I explained all of my issues I came across, which they wanted to start out with the wireless issue. Basically going through nonsense for about 15 minutes, I asked to escalate this to their higher tier. After 3 minutes, I was talking to another tech.. We went through quite a few steps again to verify that it doesn’t work. He then wanted to drop my security down to WEP. I explained to him that I will try for troubleshooting purposes, but I will not compromise my security to accommodate this device, when it’s supposed to support WPA-2. After an hour on the phone, he finally gave up and said that he will note the case and someone should contact me soon regarding this. It has been 1 day and no contact.
It turns out that the passphrase has to be less than 12 characters long to get this to work. I am running a passphrase with 10 characters long and it connects just fine via WPA-2.


Operating the camera via Ad-Hoc:
The camera handles well via ad-hoc. You have all access to the camera, just like running in Infrastructure mode.


Operating the camera via internally:
The camera runs nicely internally. I have all of the video settings turned up (VGA, Quality set to Highest, and frame rate is set to 30). The audio (listening/talking) is running as well. The screen looks very good. It keeps up with the frames. Every once in a while it will drop a frame but is un-noticeable. Panning the camera is very fluid like. Every once in a while the video pauses for a second and catches up to the panning, but overall it keeps up with you moving it around. The audio is about a second behind which is fine. It doesn't break up or sound awful. The mic is sensitive to where you can pick up sounds about 20 feet away. You will want to place the speaker far away so you don't get any feedback. You will need a speaker system due to the camera only having a built-in mic.


Operating the camera via externally:
Operating the camera via externally is about the same as viewing the camera internally. When you are listening to the camera, every once in a while the audio drops out but recovers quickly. I am very pleased with the response to the video/audio/panning. I went out of town for vacation and it worked flawlessly for the whole time I was gome.




Operating the camera via Windows Mobile 6 phone running Mobile IE:
When I tried logging into the camera with my Mobile Windows 6.1 phone, I was greeted with the login prompt. Once I logged in, it only showed the buttons and no video. No go for mobile IE users at this time. Hopefully they are working on a firmware fix.



Nightmode vision:
Generally when someone claims that their product supports nightmode vision, I am skeptical at first. I am the type of person that needs to see it to believe it. I have to say that their claim is true. They claim to be able to see up to about 5m(16.4ft). They are correct!! As you can see in the pictures, it's pitch black in my place. You can barely see my firewall/cable modem in the distance. That is about 17 feet away from the camera. When you turn on the Nightmode, you can easily see all of my devices! Very impressive!

Screen Shot of Nightmode turned off while place is completely pitch black:

Screen shot of Nightmode turned on (No lights were turned 'on' to help:

Overall, this IP security Camera is a good-buy. It does almost everything it claims to do. The items that doesn't work, can easily be fixed with a firmare update. The audio/video quality is very good. Streaming the audeo/video over the internet is very fluid and not choppy. I really wished that WowWee's Rovio could have been somewhat like this with the night time mode. Unfortunately Rovio was limited with the select few angles of the camera. If you are needing a wireless security camera, this camera is for you. It is rock solid staying connected to your network, and delivers sharp, crisp video/audio.

This review is also posted in the Review Forum, located here:

http://www.robotreviews.com/chat/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=11998