4 ms·

This is great and all, but it has to be 100% utterly completely reliable with no false-negatives. If it doesn't tell you (i.e. false negative) even once, then

This is great and all, but it has to be 100% utterly completely reliable with no false-negatives. If it doesn't tell you (i.e. false negative) even once, then you can guarantee that it will never be trusted ever again, especially by the birth parent. We've gone through a range of frankly awful monitors and cameras that simply were not reliable. E.g. cameras that would regularly go offline for maintenance between 3am & 4am (precisely when you need it...), or cameras that would freeze and show you a sweetly sleeping silent baby that turned out to be simply a frozen frame from 45 minutes previously etc and the live stream had failed, cameras that would lose wifi for no reason that required intricate sequences of button-holding-down-for-x-seconds-then-tapping-then-releasing-etc (not great when you've had about 30 minutes of sleep over the past 36 hours), app-connected things with awful apps that crash or don't quite work right unless you do things in the exact right order etc. We even ended up with a digital clock in-frame for a while so when we looked at the video we could tell if it was "live" or not... this is how unreliable a lot of baby monitors you find on amazon or high street retail. Once these things fail you once, they cannot be trusted again. Ever. Perhaps me and my wife are just ultra neurotic, but there you go. We ended up with a fairly reliable set up for multiple redundancy that seems to work: - a DECT-based monitor from BT that actually does detect cries (you can entirely mute the intercom but it will audibly-beep and flash a warning if it hears a cry - also does temperature read outs and alerts). 100% ultra bullet-proof reliability so far. - a Google Nest camera (only camera we found that has been acceptable in terms of reliability & non-shonky app - it does mysteriously "go offline" from time to time, but it sends a notification & and email as well as the app being clear it is offline, and usually recovers on its own fairly quickly). Expensive compared to other options (and not specifically a "baby monitor") but worth it I think (we do not pay for the subscription though) - an "Owlet" heart-rate and oxygen sensor (although this has poor hardware reliability - the charging port physically crumbles and the "sock" that the sensor goes into is easily moved to a bad position by the baby squirming around.... although the fail-safe there is that it will alert if this happens).

david-gpu 6y ago
Have you considered therapy? Not just to provide support for your mental health, but also the (future) mental health of your child. I mean this from a place of kindness and compassion. As a father of two, I can't imagine going through multiple baby monitors and eventually settling on a three-device redundant sensor array that sounds like it belongs more in a NICU rather than in a home.
- mattlondon 6y ago
  This is with therapy! :) Everyone's scenario is different. We have our (private & personal) reasons why this level of monitoring is something we need for our baby.
  - david-gpu 6y ago
    I hope all is well. I did not consider the possibility of pre-existing conditions. I'm sorry.
    - charliebreslau 6y ago
      Well. No offence but you are such a... moron... Imagine you know your baby has potential heart precondition. Imagine you had a huge argument with neonata cardiologist explaining to you how unresponsible it was to get pregnant (37y with lupus). I would pay every money to monitor my baby. I would throw out anything that would fail once. Sorry. Have to go. Have to feed my 4 weeks son.
kiseleon 6y ago
We used a Summer Infant video monitor for a while, but eventually the receiver broke. Then we used a Yi Dome camera for a while, but it craps out of a few seconds occasionally and when it does the app mutes the feed when it resumes, making it useless at being a baby monitor. Also, privacy concerns since you had to access it via the internet. We ended up going with a generic IP camera - Amcrest's 1080p wifi camera, to be specific (would have to go look up the model number if people want to know EDIT: IP2M-841B). You can change just about anything about the settings you could want to (such as adding a timestamp so you can verify it hasn't crashed), including disabling access from the internet so you can only access the monitor from the LAN. It's been rock solid for ages - there is a setting that will reboot the camera once a week, but you can set the time, so I set mine to reboot about an hour after the kids normally get up so it never bothers us. We just have the feed pulled up on an Amazon Fire HD8 tablet that we got for $60, lets us get a 1080p video stream with an ONVIF-capable camera. The Amcrest app isn't terrible either, only downside is that there's an option for 1, 4, 9, or 16 cameras - but I only have 2, so I have to waste half my screen (and the app will only play audio from one stream at a time). And if you don't want to use their app, once it is set up and connected to the network (which you probably don't even need the app for if you are hardwiring with ethernet) you can connect to it via IP address with any RTSP/ONVIF app or even via VLC, or once the firmware is upgraded you can view the stream in the browser. It has motion sensor capabilities but I haven't experimented with them.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
srtjstjsj 6y ago
Did you know that billions of babies were reared before video monitors were even invented?
- BeetleB 6y ago
  Yes, and I also know that the parents of those billions of babies knew there wasn't a monitoring system.
omgwtfbyobbq 6y ago
The V3 Owlet has magnetic charging instead of the port, which will hopefully be more durable.
krzyk 6y ago
I think you put too much trust in technology. I have used baby monitor for a short time, but I have never ever walked out of the house with one - if my baby cries I want to be able to go to it as fast as I can - so even if my baby monitor is not working I will hear the baby, just a bit later maybe. So the devices described in the article is great, it can show me that baby is crying, not only using sound, but also I can use it to ping me in a visual way - which I always missed from any baby monitor.

david-gpu 6y ago

Have you considered therapy? Not just to provide support for your mental health, but also the (future) mental health of your child. I mean this from a place of kindness and compassion. As a father of two, I can't imagine going through multiple baby monitors and eventually settling on a three-device redundant sensor array that sounds like it belongs more in a NICU rather than in a home.

mattlondon 6y ago
This is with therapy! :) Everyone's scenario is different. We have our (private & personal) reasons why this level of monitoring is something we need for our baby.
- david-gpu 6y ago
  I hope all is well. I did not consider the possibility of pre-existing conditions. I'm sorry.
  - charliebreslau 6y ago
    Well. No offence but you are such a... moron... Imagine you know your baby has potential heart precondition. Imagine you had a huge argument with neonata cardiologist explaining to you how unresponsible it was to get pregnant (37y with lupus). I would pay every money to monitor my baby. I would throw out anything that would fail once. Sorry. Have to go. Have to feed my 4 weeks son.

kiseleon 6y ago

We used a Summer Infant video monitor for a while, but eventually the receiver broke. Then we used a Yi Dome camera for a while, but it craps out of a few seconds occasionally and when it does the app mutes the feed when it resumes, making it useless at being a baby monitor. Also, privacy concerns since you had to access it via the internet. We ended up going with a generic IP camera - Amcrest's 1080p wifi camera, to be specific (would have to go look up the model number if people want to know EDIT: IP2M-841B). You can change just about anything about the settings you could want to (such as adding a timestamp so you can verify it hasn't crashed), including disabling access from the internet so you can only access the monitor from the LAN. It's been rock solid for ages - there is a setting that will reboot the camera once a week, but you can set the time, so I set mine to reboot about an hour after the kids normally get up so it never bothers us. We just have the feed pulled up on an Amazon Fire HD8 tablet that we got for $60, lets us get a 1080p video stream with an ONVIF-capable camera. The Amcrest app isn't terrible either, only downside is that there's an option for 1, 4, 9, or 16 cameras - but I only have 2, so I have to waste half my screen (and the app will only play audio from one stream at a time). And if you don't want to use their app, once it is set up and connected to the network (which you probably don't even need the app for if you are hardwiring with ethernet) you can connect to it via IP address with any RTSP/ONVIF app or even via VLC, or once the firmware is upgraded you can view the stream in the browser. It has motion sensor capabilities but I haven't experimented with them.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

srtjstjsj 6y ago

Did you know that billions of babies were reared before video monitors were even invented?

BeetleB 6y ago
Yes, and I also know that the parents of those billions of babies knew there wasn't a monitoring system.

omgwtfbyobbq 6y ago

The V3 Owlet has magnetic charging instead of the port, which will hopefully be more durable.

krzyk 6y ago

I think you put too much trust in technology. I have used baby monitor for a short time, but I have never ever walked out of the house with one - if my baby cries I want to be able to go to it as fast as I can - so even if my baby monitor is not working I will hear the baby, just a bit later maybe. So the devices described in the article is great, it can show me that baby is crying, not only using sound, but also I can use it to ping me in a visual way - which I always missed from any baby monitor.