Logitech Alert 750n Indoor Master System

Logitech's latest set of home-surveillance cameras build admirably on the existing Alert 750e Outdoor Master System??($349.99, 4 stars). The major difference is that the new Alert 750n Indoor Master System ($299.99 list) is, if you can't guess, for indoor use. The camera lacks weather-proofing, but costs $50 less. Plus, the indoor and outdoor systems are entirely compatible on the software end, so you can mix and match them, with up to six cameras on one network. ?Overall, the system offers an easy way to see what's going on at home when you're not there, even in the dark of night, and is our new Editors' Choice for surveillance cameras.

Design and Software
Thanks to the included mounting accessory hardware, which even includes a suction cup option, you can put the cameras just about anywhere, from wall to ceiling. However, Alert cameras use HomePlug to access your home network, so a nearby open AC outlet is required. And you can't plug into a power strip or a UPS?they prevent network signals from reaching your interior wiring and using the power lines like Ethernet cables.

Note: You also need to connect your router to the power lines, for the camera to be seen by computers as well as for any Internet functions (like watching live video on a mobile phone). So make sure your home router also has a spare outlet nearby.

The Alert camera is somewhat bulky, measuring 2.8 by 4.4 by 1.8 inches (HWD). If you don't mount it or suction it to a window, it sits in a cradle that doesn't allow position adjustment?there's no tilt, for example. But the wide-angle lens easily encompasses an entire room's width, so this isn't a huge problem. The HomePlug adapter for each camera is almost the same size. Both sport an array of LEDs to provide insight on network traffic. (You can turn them off for added stealth.)

In a nice touch, each Alert camera has a microSD card inside which stores up to 2GB of video. According to Logitech, that's enough for one week of recordings in a typical home. The company also claims a free Dropbox?account, with 2GB of free online storage, could also hold a week's worth of data from one camera. If you go over the 2GB on the camera, you can use your PC's hard drive for additional storage. You can specify in the Alert Commander software how much disk space to use.

All of this is in contrast to the Wi-Fi-based Dropcam HD?($149 direct, 4 stars), which stores all video data in the cloud. The only free option for cloud storage with Logitech Alert is to follow Logitech's directions to backup video to DropBox.

You could pay for the Logitech Alert cameras and that's it?local DVR recordings cost you nothing. ?If you're mobile, using an Android, iOS, or BlackBerry device, real-time viewing is always free with an app download, but that's it. However, you can subscribe to the optional Logitech Web and Mobile Commander service for $80 a year to watch recorded video on your phone or a remote PC. You can also manage the entire system this way, or even share clips and control multiple sites that have the Alert software installed.?

Features and Performance
The heart of the system is the Logitech Alert Commander software, which runs on a Windows system on your network. There's no Mac version. You can control up to six Alert cameras at a time. (Additional interior cameras, Alert 700n models, identical to the 750n ?but sans the dongle for your router are $229.99 each.)The video you record from each camera is stored locally on the camera or your hard drive. Playback is very good, with no buffering problems. However, it's only 960-by-720-pixel video running at 15 frames per second?not exactly full motion, but sufficient nonetheless.

Email alerts can be sent by the software whenever motion is detected. Luckily, you can throttle down both the sensitivity and the timing, so you're not inundated with messages. You can also set up zones of view to monitor for motion, so you don't get an alert just because a ceiling fan is spinning. In this case, only motion video is captured, which saves on disk space. You can also sit and watch the real-time video feed, or use Playback mode to skip through to the captured sections whenever motion was detected. Fortunately, you can fast forward at up to 8x speed if there's a lot to see. In comparison, the Dropcam HD features great motion capture, but doesn't have a fast forward for playback; the Avaak VueZone System?($199.95, 4 stars) actually makes you pay a bit extra for cameras that have motion detection capability.

The 750n camera, like the outdoor-focused 750e ?and competitor Dropcam HD, sees very well in the dark. Even in what humans would think is pure inky blackness, the lens can witness plenty. There's a microphone on the camera so you can listen to what you see, but no speaker, so there's no talking back to whoever you're spying on. That is a feature unique to the Dropcam HD.

I tested with an AT&T iPhone 4 and the app worked flawlessly. I saw a nice 640-by-480-pixel video that is essentially streaming from the camera to the router and out to the Internet. That said, the video was subject to a lot of buffering delay when the handset wasn't on Wi-Fi.

Unlike with Dropcam's mobile app, you can't watch stored video on the phone. That's for the Windows PC on the network only, unless you upgrade to the Alert Web and Mobile Commander service mentioned earlier; then you can watch recorded video anywhere.

Conclusions
The Alert system's cameras are bigger than the Dropcam HD's little puck, but both require a holder, so the size issue may be moot for all but the most stealthy of installations. And the use of HomePlug rather than Wi-Fi makes camera placement less flexible, but the Logitech Alert cameras use the power lines incredibly well and feature a quick, slick setup procedure.?Adding Wi-Fi to a future generation of Alert cameras will only make the line better.?Logitech addresses cloud storage with the Dropbox solution, but that could cost you if you're not careful. That's still less expensive than the optional $80 Web and Mobile Commander service, but not as versatile. The truly security conscious should make the upgrade.?All of that said, the Logitech 750n Indoor Master System and 700n add-on cameras are worthy siblings to the 750e Outdoor system, and share our Editors' Choice award designation.

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