#LOGITECH ALERT COMMANDER REVIEWS SOFTWARE#
#LOGITECH ALERT COMMANDER REVIEWS PC#
#LOGITECH ALERT COMMANDER REVIEWS MAC#
#LOGITECH ALERT COMMANDER REVIEWS WINDOWS#

Alerts can also be created from the desktop app, photos sent via e-mail whenever motion is detected, which is a handy feature if you can get that motion sensitivity dialed in right.īut, by far the most useful that we found were the suite of mobile apps, one each for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry. Pay $80 a year and you step up to the Mobile Commander level, which allows you to view any footage still stored on your cameras remotely, configure their sensitivity, and modify alerts. But, there's also a website that serves a live view of whatever is happening on any of your cameras.

#LOGITECH ALERT COMMANDER REVIEWS PC#

Naturally there's the PC client which allows you to view live and recorded footage. One thing Alert does right - when everything is working properly - is providing access to your footage. You can't even schedule sensitivity changes based on the time of day. They can't tell a swaying branch from a burglar or a shadow from a vicious dog, and sadly there's no fuzzy logic or AI that allows you to train them on right and wrong. Ultimately, the cameras are pretty dumb about movement. Many insects are just as attracted to IR as light that mere humans can see, meaning our 700e would spend all evening recording the futile mating attempts of various country moths - or maybe they're rod-shaped alien spacecraft. The 700e provides good looking night imagery, but that's aided by dual IR emitters. Add a gentle breeze and you have cameras detecting motion constantly.Īt night the situation is worse. Even when we created small hot-spots that included zero shrubberies, as the day wore on inevitably their shadows would cross those zones. This worked well in confined areas with static backgrounds, but we found it impossible to get reliable results in situations with trees or plants that move in the wind.

#LOGITECH ALERT COMMANDER REVIEWS SOFTWARE#

The software also lets you set the motion sensitivity of each camera, creating hot-spots where the camera will look and dead zones that it will ignore.

#LOGITECH ALERT COMMANDER REVIEWS WINDOWS#

This may seem like a minor problem, but if you have a Windows Home Server box or the like sitting in the corner that you want to act as your security clearing house, you're out of luck here - unless you add a keyboard and monitor to it. One of the biggest problems with this software is that it is PC-only, and even then won't work when connected to via a remote desktop connection. When a computer running the Commander app connects it automatically starts to pull down all that footage, freeing up the memory for another night's worth of attempted break-ins. Each camera writes to microSD storage (2GB is provided) whenever it detects motion. In general the software acts as a sort of DVR and repository for the cameras. Sadly, though, older WiLife cameras cannot be integrated with the new Logitech Alert software, which at this point is not perfect. Users of WiLife systems will probably be getting some deja vu by now, because that's basically what this is - WiLife with upgraded hardware.

#LOGITECH ALERT COMMANDER REVIEWS MAC#

(Up to six cameras can be connected in a single instance.) After installing the software on your PC (no Mac support yet) you're well on your way to living like a prisoner in your own home. This acts as the receiver, providing the camera's access with computers on your network and indeed with the internet at large. Plug each camera into an outlet, hang it on the wall however you like, and then plug another HomePlug adapter into your network router. Each camera comes with a HomePlug adapter that it is connected to via a skinny Ethernet cable, providing connectivity as well as power. Setting up the cameras is about as easy as it gets. However, neither can be moved remotely, so make sure you point them where you want them. Both cameras offer good but not great quality through their wide lenses, footage looking a bit blurry but, in general, far better than your average VGA security cam.

However, those IR headlights cause some issues, attracting insects that buzz around and trip the motion detector constantly. But, with a good bit of moonlight or even a small streetlight that range is far extended. This model adds night vision to the mix, able to see in IR and boosted by a pair of IR emitters that, on a pitch-black night, give it an effective range of about 30 feet in our testing.

The outdoor-ready 700e, however, is a very different beast, looking rather more like a security camera and, with its metal construction, feeling beefy and weatherproof.

Logitech alert commander reviews