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JasonSlater.co.uk Technology News Blog | September 15, 2013

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Review: HomeMonitor Indoor Internet Security Camera

Review: HomeMonitor Indoor Internet Security Camera
Jason Slater
  • On Wednesday, 19 June 2013
  • https://jasonslater.co.uk
Review of:
Product By:
Y-Cam
Price:
£149.99

Reviewed by:
Rating:
4
On Wednesday, 19 June 2013
Last modified:Wednesday, 19 June 2013

Summary:

For the features and price the HomeMonitor Indoor is a good solution.

In Operation: HomeMonitor Indoor

Y-Cam HomeMonitorThe HomeMonitor is wireless, once configured, but needs a wired network connection for the initial installation. Y-Cam recommend the HomeMonitor is directly attached to a spare network port on your home router but it also seems to work from a hub. Once the camera is connected and powered up you need to setup an online account at the Y-Cam HomeMonitor website.

For the online account you will set a username, password, valid email address, Camera ID (from the back of the camera), and you will need to provide agreement to the lengthy terms and conditions (which covers things like acceptable use, confidentiality, and user submitted content).

Y-Cam HomeMonitorOnce an account is configured the online configuration process starts which walks you through, step-by-step, each part of the set-up process.

The first step is to ensure you have connected up the camera to the router, whilst the next step tries to establish communication with the camera and allows you to give the camera a more friendly name – we like friendly names.

Step three allows you to configure wireless access on the camera by searching for available Wi-Fi networks on your home network. If you are using the camera using a wired connection you can skip this step. Wi-Fi is additionally secured utilising WEP (64/128 bit), WPA-PSK (TKIP), or WPA2-PSK (AES).

Step four gets you to physically install the camera and tells you to remove both the network and power cables from the camera in order to save it’s settings. After this you can power the camera back up and it should spring happily into life.

The final steps of installation are to adjust the camera and configure motion detection zones. For the motion detection there is quite a bit of help provided with guidance on avoiding problematic zones, configuring motion sensitivity from small to large movement, and defining schedules for motion detection. It may seem like a lot of steps but the hand-holding approach should see you get the basic setup up and running pretty smoothly – other things can be configured later.

Y-Cam HomeMonitorOnce setup you will most likely head to the web based dashboard which is very neatly laid out and provides quick access to many of the customisable features including Motion Recording, Alert Notification, and Settings.

There are six primary areas to the web platform: the main dashboard, a live view (approximately 5 second delay), video archive (depending on the plan you choose), user manager (for notifications), camera manager (multiple cameras can be managed from the single interface), and a support area with a number of frequently asked questions.

HomeMonitor from Y-Cam SolutionsCaptured recordings can be played back using the browser and can also be downloaded locally for storage and access online. Cloud based recordings can be downloaded locally in MP4 format – a typical five second clip takes around 150-200 KB though this largely depends on what is happening in the individual clip.

You can also access the live view of the camera remotely and a clever five second Smart Buffer decides when to stream which ultimately saves bandwidth when the view changes little. This can be a bandwidth life saver if you value every last drop of bandwidth (as we do).

On the right of this article is a screen capture of the camera in action (click on the image to get the full size image) and as you can see the image clarity is very reasonable.

Email notifications can be configured to prompt you when motion has been detected and these emails include links to quickly access the video feed.

I’m often surprised by email notifications for security cameras that they never seem to include a snapped image of what’s going on. This isn’t just Y-Cam though – none of the other vendors seem to include this either.

Y-Cam HomeMonitor AppHomeMonitor Mobile App

A mobile App is available for the HomeMonitor, as a free download, which echoes some of the features of the website and provides very handy access to the video, video archive, and includes the ability to start a recording remotely.

The current version of the app only includes a few of the more basic features, as mentioned above, but it is neatly laid out and fairly intuitive in use. For example, tapping on the video clip brings up the latest captured video and rotating the phone to landscape fills the screen (tested on an iPhone 5) with the date and time overlaid over the image. Tapping the record icon begins a capture session whilst tapping it again stops the current recording.

For the features and price the HomeMonitor Indoor is a good solution.
  • £149.99
  • 4
    editor rating
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