Review: AVTECH AVN304 IP Camera

**Simo1122** · 14-02-11, 05:06 PM

Hello All,

Haven't been round in a while and I thought I'd put up a review of this nifty IP Camera I recently received to review from AVTECH. The AVN304 is a real time IP Camera designed for real time viewing for many situations, such as pets, babies, children, elderly etc.

Note: I'd put the other images in but Austech limit's to 8 per post so they are just links

All opinions in this review are my own and not influenced by AVTECH.

Specifications:

Lets start with an overview of the camera's specs.

1.3 Megapixel IP Camera
Multi-Platform Remote Surveillance
720P 16:9
Supports Mac / Windows /iPhone / iPad / Android / Blackberry + More
Easy Setup Wizard
360 Degree Mounting
Extremely Bright LED
Recording (Windows Only, Via Included Software)
Digital PTZ
Email, FTP or SMS Notification
Multi-Language
Panasonic Uniphier DSP
Panasonic Live MOS Sensor
Digital PTZ
Digital Smart Zoom
White LED
Face Detection & Tracking
VideoViewer Software (Windows)

The Package:

The unit comes in a relatively small box and is packed with the AVN304 unit, power supply, instruction manual (Very easy to understand, good translation), mini-disc (for Windows software), mounting bracket and screws.

As you can see, it has come with an EU plug but Australian ones will be soon available.

After taking the camera out of it's wrapping, you can instantly see and feel that it has been well made, very elegant and has a neat design, like our lovely Apple computers.

Front:

Features the bright LED, microphone, twist manual focus lens and two blue status LED's for power and connectivity.

Rear:

It has two plugs on the back, Ethernet and power and a reset button.

Upon power up, the blue lights will come on and flash accordingly to the type of network connectivity (All explained in the manual). Since I had mine plugged into my network, it was very happy and gave me two solid blue lights.

Setup:

Once plugged in, the unit is accessible by 192.168.1.10 or can be found in the network panel in Windows. - No need for windows software!. This may differ depending on your network setup, but logging into your modem should show the device and it's IP.

After accessing the unit, you are prompted with a login screen. Default username/password is 'admin'.

Then you are presented with an easy to use setup wizard. Click 'Do not show wizard at login' and hit next (or the wizard will come up next time!)

Then you can change the access details (Recommended)

Next, Date and Time

Now comes network. This part can be a little tricky depending on what you want to do with the unit (Such as local or remote viewing). As you can see, I've changed the port from 80 to 8889 and then I changed the Static IP - I did this as I needed remote viewing capabilities. Port 80 is often blocked by ISP's, so another is generally needed. If you are going to setup remote viewing, depending on your method, you may want to take note of the Static IP you have chosen, Port and the MAC address of the device. These can be accessed later if need.

There is also the option to setup DynamicDNS, I have not done this as my dynamic IP is updated to DynDns.org via the Modem (Billion 7800N - highly recommended unit).

I am not going to go into how to setup DDNS from your modem etc, as there is load of guides on the web. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll try help.

Next, we can change the video settings on the camera.

I suggest you leave everything except the two last options, being ADSL upload speed and environment. Again everything can be changed later if needed.

Finally, a confirmation screen and you're done!

Now it's going to reload the home page (at the new IP/Port if you changed it, if it doesn't just enter it into your browser as ipaddress : port (E.g ) and it ask for your username and password. Put them in and login.

It will bring you to a Quicktime page on Mac and an ActiveX page in windows, it's going to ask you for the same details again.

Here's an illustration showing what can be configured from where:

Video:

Voila! The camera is bringing back video at a 1 - 4 second delay (varies between platforms, network speeds, systems etc)

- Note video feed is SXGA - 720P (below) is much better!

@ 720P Viewing

There is a range of different qualities and formats to choose from depending on your circumstances. E.g 720P probably won't work well over the internet, as I'm pulling down 250kb/s from the camera (LAN) but my modem can only push out 100kb/s if I was to access over the web.

Within the same area, you can change the settings from the camera and there is hundreds of things you can do - such as set times for the LED to turn on, camera settings, notification settings, trigger settings and so much more.

To the iPhone!

Head over to the AppStore and download EagleEyes (by AVTECH) (The free version will do, although I have the Pro version as I have multiple units). Differences in features is stated on the AppStore.

Open it up and edit the camera configuration (Hit the pencil down the bottom and click the default camera) - enter your local IP address or DDNS address (if you have it setup), the port and username/password. Hit 'Get Type' and it should bring back something like what is below. If it fails, your details are wrong! Give it your own label and make sure the audio is on.

Save the settings and exit, and click the unit. It should load and now you have viewing on your iPhone!

Landscape Orientation:

From the iPhone you can control loads of things, like DPTZ (Digital Pan Tilt Zoom), control the LED brightness and more. It also displays the resolution, frame rate and online users.

As you can see the quality is not the greatest, as it uses a different format altogether

The image below is showing use of the DPTZ functions.

The Night LED:

The onboard LED is very, very bright and works well with the cameras extremely low light sensitive sensor.

In the images below you can still easily see the object at the very end of the corridor (dark, wooden bar) which is 12m away. Anything within around 7 - 8m is easily lit up by the unit.

For control purposes, here is a shot from my iPhone (Using the AVTECH unit for light, no iPhone flash) - there is no other light sources.

Just the LED on:

LED + Downlights at 12m

Just Downlights at 12m - As you can see it is slightly washed out, a factor with most CCTV systems.

Final Verdict:

The AVN304 by AVTECH is a great unit, feature packed and most of all mac compatible. I own two other products from AVTECH being a 4CH and 16CH DVR unit for home and work monitoring and both are also mac compatible. This is a huge advantage compared to products from DickSmith Electronics such as Swann, which do not support mac.

Even though AVTECH is one of the only companies that supports mac, I hate to say it but it runs better in ActiveX in windows - I get better frame rates and slightly better quality in ActiveX in Internet Explorer when emulated in windows on my mac. It's almost exactly real time too. This is pretty much out of AVTECH's hands, as Quicktime plugin for mac is very, very out of date (thanks Apple) and is filled with issues with newer technology. There is also a few more features on live view for windows (such as snapshot and rotate)

The good news? AVTECH are actually working on a Mac version of VideoViewer, I've seen it myself. It is coming and this should help with all aspects.

The AVTECH AVN304 is no exception to their terrific product line, producing crisp, clear video feeds for whatever your need. The unit get's warm but easily touchable. Perhaps the ability to add an SD card for a few hours of recording would be a bonus in a future model.

The RRP for the unit is US$199 - 220.

Things that need improving:

Video Delay Time

Can be up to 4 seconds behind on computer, although is nearly instant on the iPhone

Sound Delay Time / Sync

The audio is delayed on both computer and iPhone, and is not in sync at all on the iPhone (4 seconds behind)

Loading Errors

I sometimes get an issue where the video feed does not load correctly (happens more with some formats) and it looks like the image below - I have noticed that I think this is more of an issue with Quicktime, especially considering how old the Safari version is. Reloading the page fixes this problem every time. Yet to see it happen in windows.

Remember Password Option