Home > Consumer Reviews > Linksys WVC54GCA Webcam 640x480 802.11G Wireless Internet Home Monitoring Camera
Linksys WVC54GCA Webcam 640x480 802.11G Wireless Internet Home Monitoring Camera
See it at Amazon.com for $98.99Average Customer Rating
(3.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Monitoring software wont detect camera
(3 out of 5) by L. Green on Mar 1, 2009 (Fort Lauderdale, Florida United States)The camera features and quality are good.
However the monitroing utility software wont detect the camera, and for some silly reason, Linksys doesn't allow you to enter the IP address of the camera in the software setup - go figure.
However the monitroing utility software wont detect the camera, and for some silly reason, Linksys doesn't allow you to enter the IP address of the camera in the software setup - go figure.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Great Value for IP Cam
(4 out of 5) by John Styler on Feb 12, 2009Great IP Cam. Easy to setup, with great features for low price. Definitely recommend it to others.
I would, however, like to see some third party upgrades, similar to DD-WRT for the Linksys WRT54G routers.
I would, however, like to see some third party upgrades, similar to DD-WRT for the Linksys WRT54G routers.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Good product but needs work!
(4 out of 5) by Nestor Delgado on Jan 30, 2009 (Brooklyn, NY)Bought this camera last year and thinks it's an excellent product. However, the software for it is VERY lacking.
The hardware part works flawlessly but bundled app that comes with it wasn't designed to run on Vista. However, it does run but just doesn't seem 100% compatible.
The set up was relatively easy on Windows. You don't need to know MAC addresses or anything like that. It's fully PnP and the network explorer finds it pretty fast so you can log into the web app built inside the cam. From there you can set it up.
What I have a gripe with is the audio codec it uses doesn't seem to play on anything except the web app you're to log into when you want to view the cam. I say this in that it is mentioned on the instuction booklet that it has ability to stream to a cellphone and even has some "mobile" set up parameters.
Unfortunatly, the instuctiosn don't fully explain how to use the mobile mode and therefore you cannot set it up the way I think it was designed to run. Instead I had to develop an ad-hoc way to do this but I'm not getting sound from it using the "rtsp" mode. I can get sound using the "asf" mode but then no picture! So annoying. If LinkSys would pay M$ to utilize their WMA/WMV codecs these problems would go away. Or, if they want it be more cross platform friendly, they would stream in mp3 instead of whatever they are using. For picture however it uses standard mpeg2 so any player can see the picture.
[...]
Then you forward that port in your router to your cam's ip and you can then stream to your phone without the need of the web app.
The only problem then is that it won't play in Media Player mobile. You have to buy the CorePlayer for Windows Mobile and open that URL. It's well worth it though. The picture is clear as a bell (after you've tweaked the settings to stream to your phone).
Took me about a month to figure all this out and I am an IT pro!!! I could imagine folks that don't have the same experience trying to get this thing to work.
But if you just want the web app and picture and sound using a remote comeputer, this is pertty easy to set up. You just need to be familiar with port forwarding from your router and or making exceptions in your router's firewall.
Even with all the headaches of initial set up, it was well worth it. I can check my doggy and front door anytime even if I'm not near a PC! I just dial it up on my MotoQ and I'm there :)
The hardware part works flawlessly but bundled app that comes with it wasn't designed to run on Vista. However, it does run but just doesn't seem 100% compatible.
The set up was relatively easy on Windows. You don't need to know MAC addresses or anything like that. It's fully PnP and the network explorer finds it pretty fast so you can log into the web app built inside the cam. From there you can set it up.
What I have a gripe with is the audio codec it uses doesn't seem to play on anything except the web app you're to log into when you want to view the cam. I say this in that it is mentioned on the instuction booklet that it has ability to stream to a cellphone and even has some "mobile" set up parameters.
Unfortunatly, the instuctiosn don't fully explain how to use the mobile mode and therefore you cannot set it up the way I think it was designed to run. Instead I had to develop an ad-hoc way to do this but I'm not getting sound from it using the "rtsp" mode. I can get sound using the "asf" mode but then no picture! So annoying. If LinkSys would pay M$ to utilize their WMA/WMV codecs these problems would go away. Or, if they want it be more cross platform friendly, they would stream in mp3 instead of whatever they are using. For picture however it uses standard mpeg2 so any player can see the picture.
[...]
Then you forward that port in your router to your cam's ip and you can then stream to your phone without the need of the web app.
The only problem then is that it won't play in Media Player mobile. You have to buy the CorePlayer for Windows Mobile and open that URL. It's well worth it though. The picture is clear as a bell (after you've tweaked the settings to stream to your phone).
Took me about a month to figure all this out and I am an IT pro!!! I could imagine folks that don't have the same experience trying to get this thing to work.
But if you just want the web app and picture and sound using a remote comeputer, this is pertty easy to set up. You just need to be familiar with port forwarding from your router and or making exceptions in your router's firewall.
Even with all the headaches of initial set up, it was well worth it. I can check my doggy and front door anytime even if I'm not near a PC! I just dial it up on my MotoQ and I'm there :)
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Worked exactly how I expected
(5 out of 5) by Arcanumy on Jan 26, 2009 (Massachusetts)This unit is a solid wi-fi web cam for under $100. It took about 10 minutes to set up using the supplied disc and the video quality is good even in low light. It is a shame they don't provide software for a Mac but that is easy to work around using the instructions provided in another review here on Amazon.
Definitely recommended. I'm buying a few more.
Definitely recommended. I'm buying a few more.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Ended up returning it for a refund
(2 out of 5) by TigerDave on Jan 21, 2009 (Temecula, CA United States)For starters, the camera is larger than I realized. But that's my own fault for not paying attention to the dimensions listed. And as mentioned before, the swivel base is very flimsy in design.
It works OK in bright light, but not so well in the evening. Didn't get around to testing the motion capture because there's no way I can set-up the device to send clips to my NetGear ReadyNAS Duo only when motion is detected. The motion detection feature requires that you use the included software which means you need a PC or notebook on 24/7, which I do not.
Seems to me that this shortcoming could be resolved if they just added that feature into the camera's built in configuration.
Oh well. Still looking for a wi-fi cam that will capture video directly to a NAS without the use of software.
It works OK in bright light, but not so well in the evening. Didn't get around to testing the motion capture because there's no way I can set-up the device to send clips to my NetGear ReadyNAS Duo only when motion is detected. The motion detection feature requires that you use the included software which means you need a PC or notebook on 24/7, which I do not.
Seems to me that this shortcoming could be resolved if they just added that feature into the camera's built in configuration.
Oh well. Still looking for a wi-fi cam that will capture video directly to a NAS without the use of software.