Panasonic BB-HCM371A Outdoor Wireless Network Camera
by Home Alarm Expert on May 25, 2010
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User Reviews
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| Panasonic BB-HCM371A Outdoor Wireless Network Camera |
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| Manufacturer: Panasonic |
| Customer Rating: |
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| List Price: $849.00 |
| Sale Price: $617.57 |
| Availibility: Usually ships in 24 hours |
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Product Description |
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Outdoor Wireless Network Camera with 2-Way Audio
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Product Details |
- Two-Way Voice Communication
- CCD Sensor for Enhanced Image Expression
- SD Memory Card Recording
- Simple Ethernet Connection - No PC Required
- One Year Warranty
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Video Reviews |
 No video reviews found for this product.
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Customer Reviews |
 Excellent video webcam |
| Review Date: February 19, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Nathaniel Gildersleeve, Lakeshore, California United States |
I looked for a long time for a remote camera to keep an eye on a vacation residence. Reviews of other similar cameras like the Toshiba IK-WB11A were spotty at best especially when using in wireless mode. Panasonic cameras seemed to get good reliability reviews, so when an outdoor wireless-G came out I decided to give it a try. I had some difficulty getting the ports forwarded through my router. The directions are pretty sparse when it comes to setting up your router. I guess there is a fair variability in how each different router is set up. Once that problem was solved it has been rock solid. In the 4 months I have had it running, I only had to reset it once, after a 3 day power failure. Actually, I think it was the router, not the camera that needed to be reset, but I reset everything. It does everything it is advertised to do although I don't use the audio feature. The motion detection feature works better than other webcam security software that I have tried.
Addendum:
I have now had this installed over 4 years and it continues to function as good as the day I bought it. As it is in a vacation home and I am frequently gone, I have had some problems with loss access via the internet. It appears that this is secondary to flaky DSL router. I finally purchased a simple timer at the hardware store. It turns off the router every night at midnight and then turns it back on a minute later, effectively resetting the router each day. Since then no problems. It doesn't require a computer to be running so both the router and the camera boot back up following a power failure. |
Excellent high-quality outdoor web cam
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| Review Date: March 31, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Daphne L., Winter Park, FL |
| I had first purchased a couple of Panasonic BL-30C wireless web cams to keep an eye on a vacation house that is far away from us. I wanted to put one outside too and decided to give this one a try against the weather. It was a bit harder to set up than the BL-30c, but after a few trial and errors and some persistence, I managed to get this one going too. The picture quality is very impressive and the audio is a nice optional feature! Very clear viewing in the daytime, and good night mode too. It has been reliable, and I am very pleased I bought it. |
Excellent webcam
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| Review Date: July 27, 2008 |
| Reviewer: John Schoeneck, Christiansburg, VA |
| The BB-HCM371A is easy to setup if your router supports Universal Plug'n'Play (I'm using a late model Linksys 54G). If you're using several other cameras in addition to this one, you may have do some manual configuration of the router ports. Panasonic's setup instructions are adequate but clearly they've been translated from Japanese. Picture quality is good for a camera in this price range. Camera is best mounted out of direct sunlight... underneath a roof overhang is ideal. |
Best Wifi Web Server Camera Out There
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| Review Date: August 11, 2009 |
| Reviewer: LaLoca, Florida |
I purchased this camera to keep an eye on my house while away. So far it has delivered for over a year. Also has helped to finger those who don't pick up after their dogs!!!
Setup was straight forward, until it came to the part of connecting over the WAN (for viewing from work). Don't know why anyone would think that WIRELESS means not having to run wires for power. Oh yeah, that guy who gave it 2 stars :)
This camera is not for the meek if you to go through more than 1 router. You need to understand quite a bit about networking to get this to happen.
All that said, customer support was excellent and they put me on the right track. I am going to buy another for the back and I tried to see if I could find something less expensive, but you give up a lot. So here's my list in order of importance:
Pros:
- Free DNS Account (this would cost you otherwise)
- Totally browser based so can be viewed from iMac, PC or Linux box
- Alarm I/O, which I use to trigger the camera to preset view area
- On-board storage via SandDisc
- email alerting
- motion detection
Cons:
- Clumsy playback!!! when on frame 244/1000 and you hit play, it starts from 1.
Should be able to take a date and time and find the frame for you
- No optical zoom. At 640x480, having 10x Digital Zoom just gives grainy video.
I'll take 2x optical zoom and give up 10x digital
- Cannot zoom on a preset |
Great camera for our sailboat
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| Review Date: October 13, 2009 |
| Reviewer: D. Cook, Hawaii USA |
I was looking for a camera we could put on our sailboat so we could watch the boat remotely. I wanted it to be weatherproof and wireless.
I own the other panasonic wireless models and while they work well, they don't have audio that works on Apple computers (no codex).
I was very surprised when THIS camera's audio worked! Not only that, but when I added my other cameras to the MULTI menu of THIS camera, their audio suddenly worked as well (that is because THIS camera has the codex in a little plugin that it installs when the webpage comes up - so as long as THIS cameras software is running, if you look at other cameras in MULTI mode they get to use the codex as well).
Anyway - great camera, FANTASTIC color and good motion. Good audio. Works very well! |
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Related Information
Tagged as:
bbhcm371a,
camera,
network,
outdoor,
panasonic,
wireless
