Video Settings and Features

Resolution and color adjustments are made in the Video Settings window (Figure 10). Resolution can be set to 640x480, 320x240 (default), or 160x120 with your choice of Normal, High or Very High Image Quality . The camera frequency can be set to compensate for 50 or 60 Hz flourescent lighting and you can toggle audio in the last check box.

Figure 10: Video settings
(click on image to enlarge)

One major weakness of the product is that you cannot take snapshots or record video using the built-in admin capabilities. Actiontec provides a separate viewer / recorder utility (Figure 11) to do this, but it is a Windows-only application. Single OS support aside, I think this is a big disadvantage. Let's say you are viewing video through the webpage and you see an intruder walk by. If you wanted to record the moment, you would have to start the viewer / recorder utility and then finally be able to record.

Figure 11: Viewer / Recorder Utility

Locations for your snapshots and recordings can be set in the Preferences menu of the Viewer / Recorder Utility (Figure 12). A maximum recording time can also be set.

Figure 12: Viewer / Recorder Utility File Location Preferences

Recording can also be scheduled in advance for one time only, daily, or on specific days such as Monday only (Figure 13). Starting times and duration can also be set. Of course since the utility tells the camera when to start recording, and stores the recorded material, you will need to keep your computer on.

Figure 13: Viewer / Recorder Utility scheduling

You can judge for yourself if the video quality meets your needs via a short video I captured using the Actiontec Viewer / Recorder program. The quality is acceptable, possibly on par with some webcams, but does not come close to Axis' cameras (which to be fair are much more expensive).

Video (.ASF - 25 Seconds - 1.5 MB - zip format)

Note: Some versions of Windows Media Player may require you to download a codec from this page to play this file.