Compro IP 70 Network Camera Review
by Ganesh T S on July 28, 2011 11:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Gadgets
- IP cameras
- camera
- camcorder
The Compro IP 70 was very easy to setup and configure over the web browser. However, Compro did realize the need to make the day-to-day operation more consumer friendly in both the home and business markets.
For consumers, they have tied up with Seedonk, a platform for viewing, managing and sharing cameras over the Internet. In the Dropcam Echo review, we noted that the live feed of the stream could be viewed by logging into the Dropcam website. Seedonk provides a similar service for the Compro IP 70.
Managing multiple cameras in a business setting is quite cumbersome when using the web interface. Compro has developed ComproView, a software meant to handle streams from multiple cameras. Cameron covered the features of the ComproView software in the IP 540 review, so I won't go into the intricate details here.
In order to install the Seedonk service and ComproView, the installation CD had to be used.
The Seedonk PC client is just like any other IM program. It can be downloaded from the Seedonk website for free. The user needs to either register for an account through the installation program in the CD or sign up on the website.
One can link multiple cameras to a Seedonk account, and set the viewing permissions appropriately. Cameras can also be shared with selected people (provided they also have a Seedonk account). In this respect, the Seedonk service could see some improvement (similar to how Dropcam enables users to share their cameras with other people by just providing the email ID).
The PC client provides support for recording the IP camera stream to the local disk as a WMV file. It also provides an interface to configure the various aspects of the IP camera itself (such as the properties of the video streams, IR lighting configuration etc.)
Seedonk also provides Android and iOS apps for viewing the feed from the cameras linked to the account. The gallery below provides some screenshots of the Android app in action.
The app replicates most of the features of the PC client (even the two way audio feature). However, the recording time on the Android app is limited to 2 minutes (there are no limits in the PC client).
An interesting aspect of the Android app is that it appears to try and establish a direct P2P connection between the viewer and the camera. If this succeeds, the video stream can be watched for an unlimited duration. Sometimes, however, the P2P connection doesn't materialize. In this case, the video goes to the Seedonk servers and then to the client app. The app helpfully flashes the message that the video stream might timeout in 5 minutes.
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dac7nco - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
That picture with the banana, altoids, calculators and dolls is the creepiest image I've ever seen in a tech review. Congratulations!Daimon
GridConnect - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
I am from Grid Connect and we are a re-seller of this product. You can find it on our website here:http://www.gridconnect.com/ip70fixedipcamera.html
I believe as the posting of this article we have the lowest price on this device available, its a very nice cameras as the review said and definitely worth checking out.
If this comment is read by the author we would appreciate it if you could update the post and put in the link to the product by our name.
ArtShapiro - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
Why would a technical review of a product promote one particular vendor of said product?GridConnect - Friday, July 29, 2011 - link
They have linked to vendors in previous reviews that tell you where to buy it. If they dont want to thats fine, I was just trying to save people a step from having to Google our name, find the product, etc.Hrel - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
Only use I see for these things is security surveillance. Image quality looks WAY above minimum needed for that. Set it up to only record when it detects movement to save space and back it up to hard drives for later review. Still, I've seen whole systems for 200 bucks that include a DVR and 8 cameras. 1 Camera for that price is insane.Maybe there's another niche use for networked cameras I haven't imagined? Probably, people do crazy stuff with camera's and tech.
GridConnect - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
Actually for these types of cameras with comparable features these are very affordable. Most cameras with all of these features would cost you 3-4x that. The types of systems you are speaking of dont have things like email notifications, movement detection, and monitoring via cell phone just to name a few things.sc3252 - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
Those $200 systems suck! As someone who has setup these cameras you do not want to go cheap, it just means they will fail or something else will go wrong. As they say, "time is money" you will find this out fast if you cheap out on security cameras, you will constantly be driving to and from the place of work to reset the camera or to make sure they are working, and good luck getting a usable picture in court...PS: $200 is cheap for a security camera, the cheapest you really want to spend is around $400, going up to $2000 per camera...
bobbozzo - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
There seems to be a word or two missing on page 5:"so this is something we are not entirely about with the Compro IP 70"
ganeshts - Friday, July 29, 2011 - link
Thanks! fixed :) It was something we were not entirely happy about with the Compro IP 70Nihility - Friday, July 29, 2011 - link
Is the feed encrypted?