SVAT GX5201 Wireless Portable Video Monitor (Color) Review

This unit will pick up interference from any number of householdelectrical items. In my case, this was seen by a rolling line on the screen - maybe once a second or so. Annoying when using the night vision mode, and also when you want to use the sound from the camera too - with each roll of the line, you get a clicking sound.

I was able to, largely, get rid of this interference by slapping on a ferrite core noise suppressor to both the camera power line and the monitor power line. FERRITE CORE 1/4" CORD NOISE SUPPRESSOR well worth the couple of dollars.... Though why on earth the manufacturer didn't work this little gem out and do it already is beyond me.

I have a set of wireless speakers in the housePodz Wireless Rechargeable Speakers, I use a 2.4GHz wireless router (same frequency as this camera) and was able to prevent interference by using ONLY channels 1 and 2. Using channel 3 blocked my router completely. Cordless telephones were unaffected.

The power adapter input for the monitor IS inside the battery compartment which is a royal pain if you plan on going truly wireless with rechargeable batteries. You have to pull out the batteries and leave the battery compartment cover off to use.

The metal kickstand is alright, it works, it doesn't fold over and droop as I expected.

The 'scan' function works surprisingly well - this allows you to set the monitor to come on whenever sound is detected (baby crying, or door opening etc). You can even set the level at which the thing activates, which is actually quite sensitive.

In 'auto' mode the monitor will track between however many cameras are connected - flicking between views every 10 - 20 seconds or so, which again is rather handy. I will be putting one camera at each end of our basement so I can see what the kids are up to.

The camera mount will move if you even so much as think about looking at it, so place or mount it carefully unless you want to be for ever re-adjusting the thing.

The IR LED night vision... other reviewers put the useful range at about 6 foot - that's generous, but it really depends what you need to see. Still, it's good enough to see what our infant is doing in his crib at night. I dare say you could improve this by using another IR source in the room though (to see what I mean, play around with your TV remote, you will see the flashes...).

The selection switches for camera input are wicked small DIP switches (3 pin) that are secreted away at the bottom of the monitor unit. Still, I suppose that once they are set you don't need to be changing them all too often. I am shocked that the manufacturer did not hide them behind the power adapter input or somewhere even more inaccessible.

Oh! And you can plug this into your TV if you really need to. The picture quality is alright, you can even plug in the sound too.



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Digital Camera Labels: SVAT GX5201 Wireless Portable Video Monitor with 2.5-Inch LCD &amp,Night Vision Security Camera (Color),SVAT Electronics,GX5201