If you keep in mind that you get what you pay for then you won't be terribly disappointed. I've had fun with these and have several places I might put them to use. Don't be in a hurry to get in on their latest deal though because there will be a new one in it's place the next day. I got the 3 camera "scan power" deal for $99. It's now $169 but comes packaged with some different extras. Actually, I paid $30 more to get the "X-Ray Vision" upgrade, which is basically just a video to USB adapter for the computer. The software is available on their web site. I had trouble finding out how all these different components they offer really work or how they work together, so this review will be a little more in the "how it works" realm than the other reviews have been.

The web site is big on sales-pitch info, but not so big on explaining how they actually work, so here are the basics:
The info I'm giving is for the standard cameras with addressable power supplies.

CAMERAS:
- The cameras are small, fixed focus cameras. They need a lot of light
- There is no adjustment for the image, so there will be backlight problems when pointed at a window
- Each camera has to plug into an electrical outlet. The cord is not too long, but not too bad either - probably 10 feet long. It has an "addressable power supply" that plugs into the wall (more on that later)
- An audio and color video signal is sent to the receiver unit via 2.4 Ghz wireless signal. I've had them up to about 50 feet away successfully. I didn't try beyond that. Other reviewers have said that they can get close to the advertised 100 feet.
- 2.4Ghz is an unlicensed band, so other wireless products use it, like cordless phones and wireless networks! So if you have any 802.11b wireless nearby, you'll need to find a channel that won't interfere. The default setting knocked out my wireless connection. The documentation is scattered and it took awhile to find out how to choose a channel. There are four to choose from (A-D). You set the switch on the bottom of the receiver (easy to find) but for the cameras, you have to pop off a small rubber pad on the top and slide an unlabeled switch under it.
- At my office, there's a pretty good bit of interference, so the picture tends to get fuzzy off and on, but it's generally not too bad. This is nothing you'd want to use for making home videos or anything, but for surveillance video, or a fun web-cam project where the web cam doesn't need to be within 10 feet of the computer, as most other do, then it's not too bad.

RECEIVER:
So what does the receiver have on it? Well, it's pretty basic: You plug it into the wall outlet and raise and adjust a little antenna to receive the signal. It has RCA jacks for audio and video output as well as a co-ax connection for hooking to a cable input. It can be set for channel 3 or 4. As mentioned above, you can set if for one of four wireless frequencies, A-D.

ADDRESSABLE POWER SUPPLIES, "SCAN POWER", TRANCIEVER,
So what about switching between multiple cameras? Well, here's where the technology gets strange and why the cost is so low. ALL CAMERAS TRANSMIT ON THE SAME FREQUENCY. So if more than one is powered on at a given time, they will interfere with each other. Probably the one closest to your receiver will win out. So it's not like you'd expect from the ads or from having seen a typical security camera suite where all cameras are on and you choose which one to monitor at a given time. The way to switch between these cameras it to actually power off all but one at a time. The way they accomplish this is by transmitting a signal through the electrical wiring of your home or office to the "addressable" power supply of each camera. So to do this, the kit had to come with a transceiver - a small white box that plugs into an electrical outlet and has an antenna to receive a signal from a remote control to tell it which units to send a "power on" signal to and which ones to "power off". The transceiver receives it's commands from a remote control (one came with my kit) or from the a PC interface called the Firecracker module (one of these came with my kit too). And THAT signal is an RF signal.

It's sort of a hodge-podge of inexpensive technologies to get it to work. So switching cameras involves
1) RF from your remote control or firecracker to the transceiver
2) A signal through your electrical wiring from the transceiver to each camera's power supply to tell all but one camera to turn off so that only one is "broadcasting"
3) 2.4Ghz wireless signal for audio and video to go from the "on" camera back to the receiver
4) Audio/Video or RF over cable from the receiver to your VCR/TV or computer

As a last step, you might want have the video signal go to your computer instead of a TV/VCR or monitor. In that case, you'll need the USB kit (mine was with the kit) but that's usually what's included if you order a kit with "X-Ray Vision" or order the x-ray vision kit separately. The "kit" is really just a Video to USB adapter. You download the free X-Ray Vision software from their site.

X-RAY VISION KIT
I just described the kit above, but want to make a few additional notes.
The USB adapter is cool because it takes any standard video input signal. So you don't have to hook it to your xcam kit. You can plug in a VCR or Camcorder. When I hooked up my camcorder, which, of course, had much better lenses, optics, etc. than the cheap plastic cameras and not interference due to wireless transmissions, the picture was beautiful! The drivers for x-ray vision set up the USB adapter to be seen as a regular video source to Windows, so you can use other "web cam" or video software. So with the USB adapter you can use these other programs with a good camera directly hooked to it, or with the xcam wireless setup so you don't have keep the camera within cord length of the computer. I tried several web cam programs I downloaded from download.com. I liked inetcam the best, but the trial was only 3 days. I may buy it. It allows you to run streaming video from your setup.

The software: Strange software! The help file is terrible. The FAQ's and "tech support" documents on their web site are not much better and were very much an afterthought. The help buttons throughout the software are NOT context sensitive. You can watch the cameras in a live, full-motion preview screen only on the computer that has the receiver/USB adapter attached. The free X-Ray Vision software does not provide streaming video.

The software lets you save an image to a database every X number of seconds. It lets you upload pictures from the database to an FTP site and created a simple HTML page. It's tough to configure. The snap shots you take don't really line up with the upload interval. The upload interval can't be set for less than one minute, although that upload session can upload multiple pictures that were taken over the previous minute. The html page will display them in order down the screen with the date and time stamp. It's not very elegant. I'd recommend looking for other software if you only plan to use it with one camera. Unfortunately, to have it switch between cameras, you'll probably need to use the x-ray vision software are their new streaming software ($20) which is not in beta (yes, you'll still pay $20 even for the beta version). Supposedly you can stream video but still have remote Web access to control the firecracker unit that will send the signal to the transceiver to switch the cameras off and on and let you view different cams. Whew!

Oh there is one other way to access the images other than FTP. You can set the X-Ray vision software to be a "server" making its image database available to remote users. Remote users can download and install the X-Ray Vision Remote version and attach to the server's database via the IP address, port number, and a password. The remote can then download images from the server. Again, it's not streaming video. The remote program can also send X10 commands, which the server will pass on to the transceiver (like to turn cameras off or on). The transceiver, by the way, also has an electrical outlet on it, which can turn a lamp or something off or on. They want you to start to consider their other similar home automation products I suppose.

All in all, it's been fun. It's a sort of rinky-dink system, but it didn't cost that much either. I have several projects I might use it for and it wouldn't be bad for a low-end security or monitoring camera system. If there's anything around the house or office (or outside) that you'd like to keep an eye on when you're at your computer or TV (or remotely via Internet) you might enjoy this little system. The inetcam software I previewed had some very nice features you might want to look at too.

UPDATE: I've ordered an extra receiver. One advantage of this system over a wired one is that you can just add another receiver at any time. It just receives the same wireless transmissions and allows the audio/video to be viewed at another location. With a wired system you'd probably have to split the signal and possibly even amplify it to run it to multiple receivers/monitors.

Want an additional $15 off your x10 purchase? Link to their site from http://hosted.SurpassSoftware.com/x10.htm and we both get a credit!

UPDATE: July 2001 - I've added a few sample shots from both the regular and the wide angle (actually "fish eye") cameras to my web site. Check it out by using the link above.

UPDATE: March 2003 - I tried their DVD Anywhere solution - or whatever the new name is. I use it to broadcast audio and video from my PC to my television and stereo. Maybe it's just my environment, but I can't get clear sound or video. I thought it might be nice even just for MP3's but it stinks. I wouldn't recommend them.


Recommended: Yes