Gadgetory

hi I'm Andrew Gebhardt for cnet today I am taking a look at the d-link pan and tilt day/night network camera this one hundred and twenty dollar Wi-Fi smart cam doesn't quite have the same resolution as its $200 competitors like the samsung smart cam HD pro the Dropcam pro or the piper it also has a smaller viewing angle but it costs significantly less has no monthly fees and still has plenty of competitive features so as the name suggests that big long name there you can remotely pan tilts left right up down this camera to look around whatever room it's in it will make a buzzing sound when it moves so if you're checking in on your family and you want to see what they're up to expect for them to hear that sound and be a little bit creeped out as that buzzing sort of follows them around still panning and tilting somewhat unique for a DIY security camera combine that with night vision a built-in mic customizable alerts for sound in motion and even a Wi-Fi extender so you can use the camera to extend your signal to previously dead areas of your home and this d-link looks pretty good especially for 120 bucks except so the whole idea of a smart security camera is that you want it to give you peace of mind when you hope to spy on your family check this thing can do that but you also want it to watch your home when you can't so it can let you know when something is up the automatic sound alerts motion alerts and automatic recordings should do that except in my testing they worked sporadically at best and downright failed a large number of times to top it off the recordings never functioned at all the push notifications barely so if you're going to get Rob do you want to make sure you have a very patient and understanding thief who will kindly wait until you check your email pull up the browser window login click on your camera confirm that you want to launch Java and wait for the lag to catch up then you can catch you're very polite and accommodating thief red-handed otherwise the dlink pen and tilts day/night network camera really isn't the smart cam you're looking for if all you want is live monitoring sure the single function just fine but rest assured that there are many other DIY security cameras out there that will prove much more competent at actually helping you secure your home for cnet I'm Andrew gebhardt and for my full review and all of our other smart home coverage be sure to check out cnet you