Definition: Given an Amazon customer review, write a title for the review. The preferred titles are under fifteen words.
Input: This kit consists of an indoor camera/transmitter, a USB receiver for your PC and software. I'm a PC expert, but a security system novice. Here are my observations:<br /><br />Setup:<br /><br />Setup requires the following steps:<br />1) Find a place to mount the indoor camera. It must be within 10 feet of a power outlet, no exceptions. Mount the camera, plug it in the wall.<br />2) Load the software on your PC. The PC must be running Windows XP (any variety) or Vista. The installation is relatively painless.<br />3) Plug the receiver module into the wall and connect the receiver to your PC via USB.<br /><br />Comments:<br /><br />A) The requirement that the camera be within 10 feet of a wall outlet will create issues for some. It certainly did for me: There was no convenient outlet near the front door, which is where I would have preferred to mount the camera. (Remember that even if you have a convenient outlet, the cord is only 10 feet long, and you may not want the cord draped along the floor or whatever). As a result, I mounted the camera on the second floor to look down on the entryway porch--not my favorite choice, but good enough for now.<br />B) Because this system uses power-line ethernet (it uses the power lines in your home to do the networking), it is subject to the standard bugaboos of that approach, namely the connection can become flakey if you use certain appliances on your line (hair dryers are bad, for example), and the quality of the connection can also vary depending on where the transmitter and receiver are relative to the wiring.<br />C) The installation was relatively painless, but does require reboots and downloads to update the software.<br />D) You should plan for the PC to which you attach the receiver to be on 24/7, or at least at any time you want the camera system to work. If you expect to use this as a security monitoring system when you are gone, I would strongly recommend you put your PC on a good quality uninterruptable power supply (note that the receiver unit MUST be plugged directly into the wall, not the UPS, so if your power goes out, you will NOT get any camera feed until power is restored. But at least if your PC is on a UPS, transmission can start up again automatically when the power is restored).<br /><br />Use:<br /><br />Pros:<br />1) I was surprised at the good quality image I was getting from the camera, given the inexpensive nature of this kit and the relatively low light in the area to which it was pointed. Thumbs up.<br />2) The control software is relative easy to use. Thumbs up.<br /><br />Cons:<br />1) This kit promises you can view your camera's output remotely. To me, that was probably the coolest thing. You could be in another city and keep an eye on your home. HOWEVER, it turns out that the only thing you can do without spending more money is watch the camera real-time. You can adjust the camera, and you can't review the video that your camera has captured remotely without paying $80/year to unlock additional features. I hate hidden cost software unlocks that are required to obtain the full usefulness of a product. This, in my opinion, pushes this kit down a full star (at least) in usefulness.<br /><br />2) No sound. I am not sure why I expected this kit to capture sound, and I am not even sure if it matters, but it was disappointing to discover that the camera is video only. I consider this a minor nit.<br /><br />Overall, I found that this kit exceeded my expectations in terms of the quality of the video that it captures, but that the powerline networking (with the limitation of a 10 foot power cord for the camera) and the $80 unlocking fee before remote operation is useful considerably reduce my overall happiness with the device. If they were to introduce a camera that used standard 802.1g wireless networking (either battery operated or capable of using a longer power cord), that would considerably increase the usefulness of the camera. If they would also stop with the $80 fee and just include all the features with the package (even if the package was priced higher), that could address the second issue.hat could address the second issue.

Good product if you can live with the limitations; aggrevating $80/year extra charge for certain options