View the Top Ten Home Security Systems here
Hello there again! I’m sure you’ve heard of Logitech, they’ve been around for a while now and make very good quality products. They’ve recently expanded to security cameras and systems and that’s what they’ve sent me over to review for you. It’s the Alert 750i Master System, it comes with one camera and software to let you monitor from home or away on your computer or phone. The camera is basically an IP camera but it uses HomePlug or powerline which sends your ethernet or network signal over your homes power lines. This way you don’t have to worry about running wires or accessing your wireless network. The system is very nice actually, it’s very simple to set up and uses. The camera features pan, tilt and zoom so you’ll have full control over what you see. Anyway, read on to learn more…
Logitech Alert 750i Master System
Complete video security. Set it up yourself, count on it when you need it.
Peace of mind in a box
You get everything needed to help protect what’s important—smart cameras, powerful software, and free viewing online, on your mobile or on Google TV systems including Logitech Revue.
No new wires. No hassles.
Setup is simple, using your existing electrical outlets and wiring to connect your camera to your network and transmit video.
Stay aware on the go
Your system automatically records video when motion is detected and can send e-mail alerts by computer or mobile phone.
Complete digital video security system
You get everything you need to help protect what’s important to you: a smart camera, powerful PC software, and free viewing of live video from Internet-connected computers, anywhere in the world.
Simple 3-step setup
Just install the Logitech Alert software, connect to your network, and plug in your cameras.
HomePlug networking technology
Uses your existing outlets and electrical wiring to connect to your network and transmit video without new wires or networking hassles.
Commander software
You can easily configure your video security system, watch live video, store video on your PC and review recorded video.
Free viewing over the Web
Log in to our secure site and watch live camera feeds from an Internet-connected computer, anywhere in the world.
Free Mobile Viewer apps
iPhone, Android and BlackBerry users can use our free apps to watch live video from their cameras right on their mobile devices.
Free viewing on Google TV systems
From the next room or from across town, you can use the Google Chrome browser on your Google TV system, including Logitech Revue, to see what’s happening at your house.
Motion-triggered recording
The smart camera automatically records video when it detects motion.
Motion zones
For more precise motion detection, and to reduce false alarms, you can specify up to 16 motion-detection zones within the frame—such as doors and windows.
Motion-triggered alerts
If there is motion on your property, you can know about it in an instant. That’s because cameras can be set up to send notifications to your e-mail address and mobile phone.
HD video and wide-angle lens
High-quality video (960 x 720 @15fps) makes it easier to recognize people and other objects, so you can see more, more clearly.
View the Top Ten Home Security Systems here
Built-in microphone
You camera not only records video, but you can enable audio recording as well, using the built-in microphone.
Versatile mounting
Place your camera almost anywhere using the included desktop stand, wall mount or suction cup—attached to a window, pointed inside or out.
PC-free recording with microSD
Record up to a week of video on the included 2 GB card—even when your PC is turned off. Upgrade to a larger card for months of recording time.
Automatic PC backup
All video is backed up to your PC when it is connected to your network.
Easy expansion
No need to limit your security coverage to a single camera. Our system is designed to be easily expandable. Mix and match up to six cameras—indoors and out.
Remote management
Purchase optional premium services to manage your system remotely from Internet-connected computers.
Mobile management
Get Logitech Alert Mobile Commander for your iPhone, BlackBerry or Android device.
Price: 299.99
Ok, video unboxing first thing:
As you saw in the video it comes in a pretty standard looking Logitech ‘green’ box.
Inside you’ll find quite a bit:
The camera can be held in place with a desk stand, suction cup mount or wall/ceiling mount. Included in the kit is a microSD to SD card adapter, the microSD card comes pre-installed in the camera.
The 750i Alert System uses your own power lines for the internet or ethernet connection to your network. The system has been around for a while and I’ve had some experience with it, it works fairly well. The kit includes two power adapters and two cables to be used with them. One goes to your router or switch and the other goes to the camera. I like powerline, they’re innovative and creative but you can only use them directly with an outlet, no power strips or surge protectors of any kind can be used.
The camera itself is about average size I guess, or comparable to other IP cameras I own. It has two mounting holes on it, one on the front and one on the back. The camera also has a microphone built into it.
On the base is a little door that open to reveal the ethernet port and the microSD slot. There’s also an LED there as well.
Installation took about 15 minutes total, that’s with the hardware and software installation. The software tests to make sure the computer and network is up and running and then you can tell the software about your system, and it will search for cameras.
The next thing you’ll need to do is set up the storage, you can allocate as much as you think you need.
Then you can set up your web viewer, but you’ll need to create an account if you don’t already have one.
This is a nice idea of course but it’s very limited to only viewing on the web, which I guess is fine. The mobile application is the same way, you can only view and nothing else. You can subscribe to the service and get full access, but it costs money of course, $79.99 per year to be exact. Is it worth it? Maybe, but personally I don’t think so unless you’re away from home often I would think.
The included camera supposedly has pan-tilt-zoom features but when I first turned it on it wasn’t quite working correctly.
I exited out and restarted the program and everything was working as it should, you’ll notice now at the bottom right corner everything is activated. On the main display is the Live View on the left side and then control on the right for changing views, accessing the history, and accessing settings, then below that is the pan-tilt-zoom controls along with audio.
The view you see below is zoomed in, and the camera has a wide angle lens. When zoomed in, the viewer lets you still see what the camera would see were it zoomed out to normal view. This is nice actually I think.
Here’s one of those views zoomed in. It’s a bit pixelated when zoomed, but when zoomed out it’s very clear.
Low light coverage is ok, but like most cameras it needs a lot of light to get a good picture.
If you hover over the live view screen a menu icon will pop up and you can press it to see your menu options for Toggle Full View, Camera Settings, Motion Detection Settings, Print Current Frame, Save Current Frame, Change Camera Order and Remove Camera.
The choices are pretty self-explanatory and some are repeated again in the Settings.
Under Motion Detection you can set areas of detection or full screen detection.
You can have the program send emails to you if something happens and you can set up other security features.
In the history view you can see recorded video from dates and times.
I have an Android phone so I grabbed the Logitech Alert Android app for remote viewing.
The viewer does let you pause the stream, and it looks exactly like it does on your computer.
You can only view with the app though, to get more features you’ll have to pay sadly.
The Logitech Alert 750i is really a full fledged security system that has features of a professional system but at a lower cost. You can get more cameras from Logitech to expand your system to really get good coverage and make sure your property and families are protected. They have both indoor and outdoor cameras. Picture quality is very good with the included camera and the pan-tilt-zoom feature is very useful.
View the Top Ten Home Security Systems here
