Comments on: Swann Digital Private Eye

By: Birdeye

Birdeye — Sun, 01 May 2011 03:47:24 +0000

I Bought the product thinking it would be a great deal. I now realize it was an over-priced piece of garbage. When I hooked up the 9V Battery to the AC Adapter, the cord melted. Yeah, It melted. I cannot believe someone would sell such a no good product to anyone. This is terrible and I hope no one else has the misfortune of buying this.

By: Julie

Julie — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:20:12 +0000

canino:

No one from the company commented on my review and the time/date stamp issue.

I'm currently looking for another security system to try out...

By: canino

canino — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:04:44 +0000

Julie: Did you have any luck getting a solution response from the company? I bought The Swann Digital Private Eye and was surprised that the files are not properly date-time-stamped.

[Edited at March 17, 2008 13:11:55 PM.]

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:37:34 +0000

mjd1969:

Wow, great neighbors you have there!!! Your webcam idea sounds like a good one. The Swann Digital Private Eye could be a lot better with several tweaks…

By: mjd1969

mjd1969 — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 14:51:07 +0000

Nice idea, but badly implemented and over priced. You can connect a battery, but it dangles outside the case? Really poor execution considering you can do the same thing with any PC, webcam, and free software.

We were having a problem with medication disappearing on days when my wife went to her part time job. It had to be someone with a key since there was no sign of forced entry and it had been happening over the course of a couple of months. A couple of our neighbors have a key for when they watch our house when we’re gone, but I couldn’t accuse anyone without proof. I set up two laptops and a desktop with webcams. I used Dorgem software (google it) on each. The software starts up your webcam and can be used to detect motion. I set it to save a file every second when motion was detected and to email me at work. I shoved the laptops underneath a bed and behind a couch. I ran the webcams out to where they had a view and disguised them so they weren’t obvious. At the end of the day I checked the pictures to discover two things: 1. my cats have ADD and spend way too much time scurrying around the house, and 2. my next door neighbor likes my meds. I got decent shots of her coming in the front door, going upstairs, and rifling through our bathrom drawers. When confronted, she denied everything and said we were being terrible friends. That’s when we pulled out the photos. Nothing beats getting caught on camera! It was all done using webcams I already had and free software. The $145 the Swann camera would have cost went towards getting new locks instead.