Dropcam HD Reviewed

Features

Once you've completed your install, when you hit the Dropcam website you'll be automatically redirected to log in. When you do, you are presented with a live view of your camera. The screenshot below is Dropcam's SF Transbay Terminal HD demo camera that you can view from its Public Dropcams page.

Dropcam HD GUI

The interface is attractive and intuitive, with the DVR timeline integrated right into the bottom of the view. In the screenshot above, the DVR function is disabled, as it will be for you until you buy one of Dropcam's DVR plans shown below.

Dropcam DVR plans

I think $10/month for a minimum 7 day recording plan is twice what it should be. The jump from $10 to $30 a month for 30 days of recording is also too much. Perhaps Dropcam will come out with more affordable plans is they don't get enough sign-ups. Unfortunately, if you just go with the free plan, you don't get any recording time. So I'd like to see one day of recording bundled into the basic plan, or at least a 30 day trial of one of the DVR plans!

In the web interface, selecting a motion event is as easy as mousing over the indicators marked on the timeline. Depending on the time scale, you may get a cluster of events, which are presented as shown in the screenshot below. Clicking on a thumbnail brings up that motion event.

Selecting a motion event

Each motion event generates an alert email, which you can disable. You can also generate alerts on sound events.

Motion alert email

You also get alerts when the camera has been offline for 30 minutes. You don't, however, get a similar alert when the camera comes back online.

Settings are accessed from the web view. You can find shots of each page in the the gallery below, but here is a summary of what's available:

• Camera on/off
• Status light on/off
• Night vision auto/on/off
• Audio on/off
• Mic sensitivity
• Pan/zoom control
• Alert control
• Sharing control
• Public access control

Image Gallery