Review by D. Blankenship : WORKS FOR ME. CAN BE USED FOR MORE THAN MONITORING BABIES.

To begin with, I have to admit that we do not use this unit to monitor babies as we have none...having gone through that `baby thing' years and years ago. No, we use this unit to monitor dogs! Now before you go off on me, keep in mind that our dogs are treated far, far better than many babies and children we see around us today. Our dogs are part of our family and treated as such.

As to this unit: It was everything we wanted in such a device and actually works for us better than we anticipated.

Set up was such that even a very low tech person such as myself had absolutely no problems what so every. The instructions were well written, very precise and I had absolutely no problems understanding them...a rarity for me. I was able to understand how to operate this contraption will little effort. Yes, it took a bit of figuring out, but that was a rather painless process.

We found the sound quality to be quite good for our needs. When the new Boston Terrier pup starts rearranging the kitchen trash when we are not in the room, we hear it instantly. Our bedroom is quite far from the kitchen so we were please with the range.

I love the ability to take snapshot with this unit! While the quality of the picture certainly is not that of my old Nikon FA or that of my wife's fancy digital that I had to take out a second mortgage for, it is acceptable and we are able to get many candid shots that we simply could get not other way.

The night vision on this unit works quite well and very little light is needed for it to be effective.

The camera portion of the unit is a bit top heavy and you have to take care how you set it or it will tip over. For our purpose the mounting bracket was not applicable. I got around this by using strips of removable Velcro on the surface the camera was to be attached and on the bottom of the camera. This works out well.

I was quite happy with the two-way communication device. A sharp voice command such NO! and or BAD DOG! was quite effective.

Overall, I am quite satisfied with this product. If I were to use it to monitor babies, I feel I would like is for that function too. Could this device be better? Of course it could. In looking at the reviews here and on other such devices offered, it seems that there are flaws in all of them and different folks have different needs; indeed, different tolerance levels.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

Review by C. Duncan : No Perfect Baby Monitor

We have owned this monitor for about 48 hours now and wanted to provide our first impressions quickly.

First, we have previously owned a Summer Infant video baby monitor with our first child two years ago. We were not happy with it. The sound wasn't great and the video eventually went out on it after about a year of use. With our second kid we decided to get another video baby monitor and looked for one that supported more than one camera. Let's just say that there isn't a high quality video baby monitor out there that I have found. I'll start with the pros.

Pros:
- Video quality is as good as its peers. It won't wow you, but it serves its purpose. At night it has pretty good range and is more than adequate.
- Little interference. We have cell phones, wi-fi, cordless phones, an audio baby monitor and many other wireless devices and we have not had any interference.
- Range. Pretty good. We had the camera at the front of the house and were able to get a signal at the back. It was probably 35 feet away and had 4 - 5 walls in between.
- Usability. The buttons are laid out well and intuitive. We like the form factor - kind of like an old school candy-bar-style cell phone.
- Two-way communication. It works when you can get the 'up' button to work (see cons).

Cons:
- Build quality is subpar. The plastic is kind of cheap. The buttons are not responsive. The menu button and the up/talk button take multiple attempts to activate. It is as if the plastic buttons do not align properly. It can take 4-5 attempts to activate the menu at times. Very annoying. When scrolling through the menu the down button works perfectly but the up button works erratically. Often I just end up scrolling through the entire list using the down button. The other buttons, 1-4, left/right, power don't seem to have a problem so it may just be this particular unit. It makes me wonder if we will get a full year of use out of the monitor before it goes belly up, though.
- VOX does not work. The monitor has a setting called VOX that only turns the monitor on after it detects a noise. It doesn't work on ours. We have power save off as the instructions indicate. We have put it in an empty room (i.e. quiet) and turned on the VOX to its lowest sensitivity (highest noise required to activate) and it just cycles on almost immediately after turning off. It just cycles on/off continuously. When setting it to its highest sensitivity we see no difference. We have turned VOX off and just use the power save feature (video turns off after a preset amount of time).
- Audio. It is ok. Without VOX there is a constant light hum since the audio is always on. It doesn't get super loud either (not a big deal for us). No interference in the audio is a plus, though. The speaker is placed on the back of the unit. When you don't have the receiver in the cradle, the speaker can be muffled when you set it down. It will not stand up on end, so you either set the monitor down on the speaker or on the lcd screen.
- Cradle. The cradle is a little annoying. The cradle has a male end of a mini-usb that the unit plugs into to charge. The slot the unit slides into on the cradle isn't really tight so it takes a little finesse to get the mini-usb to line up on the unit. Not a big deal but isn't as easy as we would like when checking out the monitor late at night.


The monitor is ok. Not great. I wish there was a high quality video monitor out there. I would definitely pay up for one instead of going through a new one every year.

Review by Stephanie : Great video monitor

We have had this monitor for about a week and I love it. I bought it to replace our Summer video monitor that we have been using for our almost 3 year old son since his birth. We had gotten so used to the defects that we had with the Summer monitor that we really had no idea what we were missing! The Summer had started losing sound a lot or only having static unless the volume dial was turned to exactly the right spot and had to be turned on and off sometimes to get the video to come back on. We had been sleeping to a lot of interference and static every night. We bought this monitor because of the split screen option with the second camera since we have another baby on the way. The Lorex monitor seems to be just what we were looking for! No interence or static - which has been soooooo nice. I love that it has a docking station. The video is good quality - a step up from our old monitor. It beeps if you get out of range which is nice too (I tested it while letting the dog out) and is better than the increasing level of static I got with the other monitor. The feature that I am most surprised to like is the intercom feature. I didn't think we would use it and was scared that if I did my voice would sound like Darth Vader and scare the mess out of my son. Well the other night he was supposed to be in bed and he got up and turned on his light and I decided to try it. You have to talk softly because it is sensitive to volume - but my voice came thru clear as a bell and he jumped back in bed. Yeah - maybe it's a little "big brother"-ish but I really like this monitor. I can't wait to see how it does with two cameras.
Oh - the one con and the reason I didn't give it five stars - I wish it had more volume levels. It only has four volume levels and it would be nice for a baby monitor to have more.

Review by Dennis : Recommended; not sure about tech support though

So far I like this baby video monitor.

- The video quality is great
- Night vision works well
- It works even with my WiFi 802.11g, 2.4 GHz cordless phone, 2.4 GHz wireless speakers and a microwave oven.
- Battery life is good. I've had the receiver on for 5 hours and the battery indicator is down to 33%. This is with VOX and Power Save both off.
- I dropped this 2x on our (hard) floor and it still works (phew).
- I expecially like the 2-way communication. I don't use it a lot to talk to our baby. I found it to be useful when my wife is with our baby and needs to tell me something. Not only can I hear her through the handheld monitor but I could reply! It's like having a video walkie-talkie.
- Uses a micro-USB (I think) connector for power. This is the same connector used by some electronics (like my old Garmin nuvi 350, my Logitech Harmony 550 remote, etc). If you want an extra charger in another room you could likely use one you already have that came with another product.
- The camera has a rechargeable internal battery. I find this convenient when I want to temporarily move the camera (i.e., to keep an eye on our baby when in her swing) without fussing about power cords. I don't know how long the battery lasts as I only use it like this for a few tens of minutes.

Wish list:

- Support multiple handheld receivers (so more than one parent can monitor the baby). I have not seen any digital video baby monitors support this.
- It would be nice if the camera can be mounted on a tripod to make it more portable (i.e., bring it to my home office when bring the baby's bassinet there, etc).
- I wish the handheld had a flip-out stand so I can prop it up while away from the charging base. This would be nice to have but not that critical for me.

What I don't like:

- The plastic looks and feels cheap
- The silver logo (not red and black as shown in product pictures) looks even cheaper -- sort of like it was just spray painted on it (like an engineering project or a cheap Chinese knockoff... heck those even look better sometimes). I know this is less important than the technical features but still, appearance does matter. The monitor gives off a cheap vibe in my opinion.
- Volume on the handheld monitor is kinda low
- A crib mounting bracket would be nice to have. I considered mounting the camera on the wall but it was too far from our baby (and she does not typically face the wall!). Instead, I strapped it onto the crib myself but will have to move it once the child gets older and can reach it.

What I hate:

- Sales and customer service is a joke! I have never seen live sales chat active and I've been checking for a month or longer. I sent an e-mail to customer support and nobody replied. I also left a voice mail for sales support and again no reply.

Recommended?

Sure! I still recommend the product but all bets are off if you need technical support.

Review by stayathomemami "mami" : Cannot live without this monitor-everything we need all in one!

LOVE this monitor. I have two boys ages 6 and 5 that share a room. They were misbehaving at night and had to be separated to different rooms. I told my husband I wished a baby monitor was made that I can see my boys, talk to my boys and they could talk back to me. This is an answer to my prayers! There is night vision on this unit as well. I am thinking about getting an add on camera for my baby. You can add on 3 additional cameras if you want. It is a must have for children of all ages that you need to keep a closer eye on. Amazon has this priced lower than ANYONE else so don't hesitate..buy today!

Update-had a problem with the charger and the manufacturer replaced the whole unit right away! We still love this after several months and just bought the add on camera for another room! LOVE THIS!!

Review by B Vaughn : Love It!

We upgraded our single camera monitor recently because we are expecting another baby soon. Unfortunately when we were buying our first one this monitor was way too expensive. However, we just got a great deal on Cyber Monday purchasing this monitor for less than our old one (without the extra camera).

That being said, I LOVE this monitor. Our previous monitor was a Lorex as well but this has improved many of it's flaws.

What I love: 1. The VOX function, many monitors didn't have this function and I love that I don't have to hear constant static in the background. We have a sound machine running and it only comes on when my child is actually talking or crying. I also love that you can adjust the sensitivity, I have a feeling we will be making it more sensitive when there is a newborn sleeping in the nursery. 2. Clear picture even in night mode my sleeping child is easy to see. Big improvement from older model. 3. Two-way communication. I kind of made fun of this one, but I have to say when I am moving my just turned two-year-old into a big bed in a month, I can see this being a great feature if he wonders out of bed. 4. Split-screen to view both cameras at the same time. 5. No bright LED lights on the hand held. This was a big issue with the older model as well. 6. Light weight hand held. 7. Easy set up. 8. Knowing it is secure. 9. Absolutely no feedback from cell phones or other wireless devices!

What isn't so great: 1. It is hard to get the hand held just right into the cradle. 2. There is no way to set the hand held upright without cradle. However, I didn't love my last monitor's option either, I always felt like I was going to break it off and it wouldn't lay flat. I think I would rather have this monitor that lays flat than one that can't stand unless you plug it in. 3. I think the camera function is kind of pointless. I don't really know why you would want it but the camera isn't good enough for something like this anyway.

Why we stuck with a Lorex: We loved the VOX feature. Secure monitors. No cell phone feedback.

Review by JOEKC "JKC" : Good coverage, great portability, but not "snapshot" camera

Length:: 5:24 MinsLorex LW2003 LIVE 'snap' Video Baby Monitor

Since the video review is not very detailed, I want to add a few more comments. First, I absolutely recommend this monitor. I've listed some specific strengths and weaknesses below.

What I liked:

1. Good range. In my two story house I got decent coverage throughout. The signal was a little weak when I stretched it to its furthest possible range, but I never lost the picture.

2. On the small screen the picture is crisp, with good color. You will never have to wonder what you're seeing. Look carefully at the image on the video I took of the outdoors and you'll see a crisp blue autumn sky with colorful foliage.

3. I think the portability is a key feature. The monitor can be removed from its base and slipped into a pocket as you move around your house. Very nice!

4. You can add cameras, all of which show up on the monitor. You can then select which camera you want to "zoom" to on the screen. Hopefully you won't be monitoring four babies at once, but the capability is there.

What I would like to see improved:

1. Customer service! I always try to test this during a review, since it tends to be the "Achilles Heel" of modern commerce. I first let the customer service rep (Asian, but very understandable) know I was writing a review and had a specific problem I needed solved (see below). It became clear immediately that the rep was not familiar with the product. After about 20 minutes he admitted he could not solve my problem, but he promised I would receive a return call or email within a couple of hours. After ten days I have heard nothing. Unacceptable!

2. The monitor is promoted as a camera which can take snapshots of your baby, and the advertisements feature beautifully lit photos of babies. This is bogus. The camera has a whopping .3 megapixels. This is perfectly fine for the small monitor screen, but trying to use it as a camera to photograph your baby will result in a blurry, pixelated photo if you try to even print it 4x6. It puzzles me that Lorex even included a microSD card and adapter for you to transfer your pictures to a computer. You wouldn't really try to photograph your beautiful baby with a .3 MP camera, would you? Which brings me to another point . . .

3. The reason I called customer service was the image from the camera when I took a snapshot was not only rotated (easily fixed) but reversed. For instance, any printing would look backwards. I'm not sure if this is peculiar to the sample I received, but it's annoying to be sure. Yes you can fix this in a photo editor, but you shouldn't have to. I have no idea what's going on, and neither did customer service. The image is fine on the monitor screen, and the problem only shows up when you transfer a picture, which you are unlikely to do anyway given the poor resolution.

So let's sum up: I really like the Lorex Baby Monitor and I would definitely buy it. I take off one star for the failure of customer service to respond to my problem and the misleading pictures which imply the monitor can be used to take good quality pictures. If you purchase it with the idea that you are only monitoring your baby (pets, etc) and not capturing lifetime memories, you'll be very happy.

Review by 4 stars : Good product

I got the two monitor version of this as I am expecting a second child soon. My first child is 11 and autistic. He just recently had surgery on both legs and we needed to be able to see and hear him as well as talk to him. This product is great. The VOX setting ranges from sensitive to only registering loader yells. It worked well when he came back from the hospital because we had it set so low that we could ear him if he turned over in his sleep. Since he has a tendency to sleep walk, which would be disastrous for his feet, this was very helpful. We were able to catch him twice right before he got out of bed. Now we have a guard rail up so we have the setting set higher so it doesn't turn on every time he moves. We have the second camera hooked up and it scans well between the two rooms, but we haven't yet used it to monitor two kids so I will need to update this when the second arrives. I am wondering how the VOX will work with two monitors if you need different sensitivity levels.

Pros: good range so far as we have one room in the basement and other monitors have had issues. Haven't had any interference or rnage problems. Haven't yet tried it to see if it works outside since it is still winter. VOX. I love this function. My son has a fan that goes all night and wears a CPap machine and this twill works great on the second of five sensitivity levels. The color and night picture are really good quality and everything I would expect for a night vision camera. Some people have left reviews saying that they couldnt hear when the receiver was out of the charger because you have to sit it with the speaker on the table. My version has a little ridge that allows the sound to be heard even if it is on the table. I see no difference in the sound laying onn the table versus in the charger. Set up with the two cameras was easy as they were already linked together before we got them. You just have to charge them for eight hours and then they are ready to go.

Cons: the volume control isn't the greatest and it can be hard to hear exactly what my son is saying. Even when my husband speaks it is sometimes hard to hear. We had it originally about 7 feet from the bed and we couldn't hear him talk. We could only hear that he was eier talking or yelling. It might be just fine with an infant since you dont have to hear what they are saying. Even now it is only one to two feet away and it is difficult to understand him. One of the cameras has a constant ringing noise that is annoying. I am going to call Lorex and see if they have a solution or if they can send a new one. It isn't so bad if you have it only come n when there is a noise, but if I had to listen to it all the time it would drive me crazy. I tried shutting off all background noise and it was still there. The other camera doesn't have this problem and I haven't tried to switch rooms yet to see if it is due to interference.

I would highly recommend this product to anyone who needs to monitor two children and even talk to older children. The few cons are more than outweighed by the rest of the product.