Linksys WVC80N IP Camera Review
Wireless-N Internet Home Monitoring Camera
The next generation Linksys IP camera hit the streets this weekend and we wanted to be the first to give you the full scoop on what’s new and improved in this latest model – the Linksys WVC80N. From first looks the newer WVC80N looks identical to its little brother, the Linksys WVC54GCA, but it has many improvements that will send you running to the store to get your hands on one. In this review we will mainly cover new features of the WVC80N. If you are not familiar with the functions of the Linskys Home Monitoring cameras and want to review some of the basic functions of the camera please see the older Linksys WVC54GCA review.
Improved Setup – It just works!
The first major improvement is in the setup of the camera. The setup CD offered the easiest setup of a IP camera that we have seen with simple instructions and diagrams to walk you through each step. The setup of remote access, powered by TZO.COM was also brain-dead easy and performed all the steps to enable remote viewing directly from the CD wizard. (For a walkthrough see the TZO tutorial) The wizard asked us if we wanted to enable remote access for remote viewing and then walked us through selecting our free MyLinksysCam.com domain name for 90-days free.
The WVC80N has an improved setup wizard making it super easy to
setup one or more cams at your home or small business
Once we selected our domain, the wizard performed all the network configuration on our network and camera AUTOMATICALLY. Behind the scenes the wizard signed up our TZO domain, set our camera to a Static LAN IP on our network, detected our router and configured static port mappings to the camera on TCP port 1025. It then configured the camera with the TZO account and updated our domain name to our WAN IP within a few seconds of exiting the wizard. This is a big advancement in remote access and is sure to ease the pain of tech support when it comes to camera setup. This simple setup and remote viewing is sure to get these cameras into the hands of the mom and pop crowd to watch over the dog or cat when away. It would be great if Linksys added in the option to setup users in the wizard, since the Linksys camera is open to all viewers by default. There are some people out there using these cameras that have no idea that ANYONE can watch at anytime. We highly urge you to configure the users section and set the camera viewing permissions to “only users in database”.
Improved Image and Low Light
The WVC80N also has a slightly larger field of view as well as an improved image sensor and low light sensitivity. In order to help you make that decision yourself we took a bunch of test shots with both models in the exact same spot with identical light levels. As you can see, the WVC80N provided a better looking image and has decent low light sensitivity.
Older WVC54GCA Snapshots, Bright Light and Low Light Scenarios
Newer WVC80N Snapshots, Bright Light and Low Light Scenarios
Improved Wireless-N Connectivity
The WVC80N also has an improved radio with the addition of the latest wireless N. The Wireless-N offers up to four times the coverage vs. Wireless-G and offers much more bandwidth for streaming video and 2-way audio. The camera still works with your older Wireless-B and Wireless-G router, but if you have a Wireless-N router you will get better performance and range from the camera according to Linksys.
The Camera can record video to your Home Server or NAS
Probably the best new feature is the direct avi file creation directly from the camera. You can configure an option in the camera to record AVI files directly to a shared folder on your network – very cool! We also like it since it’s a “green” feature, saving electricity if you want to record your video from your camera. How is this Green? In order to record streams from older Linksys cameras from required a PC and camera software in order to record. With the WVC80N you can shut down your clunky desktop and use a low energy NAS drive or Home Server like the Cisco MediaHub, Iomega StorCenter, HP MediaSmart and others. These little devices use much less energy than a full size desktop PC and are there to serve up video, audio, photos and other important files in your home or small business. You can setup a quick shared folder called “security”, add a few terabytes of extra storage and configure your WVC80N cameras to record directly to that folder. You can then instantly go to the shared drive and browse through time-stamped AVI files of each camera making it easy to review the video clip you are looking for. We expect this setup to be widely used DIY security setup in many homes and small businesses – it’s simple and low cost.
Have a NAS or Home Server? The Camera can write an AVI video directly!
Stream live video from the Camera to your Browser or Cell Phone
Another feature that we absolutely love is the ability to view live video on our cell phone. We can flip our phone open and enter in our domain name for remote access using the RTSP protocol and see a 160×120 screen with full motion video. The image isn’t amazing, but you can no doubt see whats going on. It’s all that much better with a bigger screen and makes watching over your home or office super quick and easy. You can also use this protocl for internal viewing when you are home. You can install Real Player, VLC Media Player or Quicktime and make shortcuts to your RTSP feeds on each camera. One click and you can see who’s at the door without getting off the couch.
Setting up RTSP Streaming is easy, forward ports and view live video on your cell phone!
Howto on Setting up Mobile Streaming with RTSP
Setting up RTSP is easy, but it’s not something the CD Wizard can do for you. To get this working you first must have a compatible device like a newer Blackberry, or updated cell phone and provider that can do RTSP such as Verizon.
- In your router forward port 554 TCP and port 5000 UDP to the Static LAN IP of your WVC80N camera.
- In the camera’s IMAGE section, Enable mobile streaming, Set quality to Low, Frame rate of six or less and set an access code like 12345
- In your browser of the cell phone or mobile device enter: RTSP://YourDomain.MyLinksysCam.com/12345 – thats it!
You’ll get at least 15 seconds of streaming video. Adjust the quality settings once you connect, in our tests we were unable to connect when we set the quality and framerate too high. You can also use RealPlayer Quicktime and VLC Player to stream RTSP and make shortcuts on your desktop or laptop for quick and easy viewing. More info on RTSP streaming can be found by viewing our setup guide on RTSP and Mobile Video
The Linksys WVC80N is a great IP camera that is super easy to use
You can’t go wrong with this camera if you want to add a level of security to your home or small business. We did have some issues with recording AVI’s to our NAS drive if they were over 20 minutes and not sure what the exact issues were. The videos were broken into small chunks and were unplayable. When we setup the default video record time for 20 minutes the problem went away.
Linksys really has a winner here with the WVC80N – The improved image sensor, remote viewing via almost any browser or cell phone offers and the video recording directly to a NAS or Home Server is simply awesome. This latest offering from Linksys is a great deal, snatch a few up today!
Linksys Wireless-N Internet Home Monitoring Camera
Model WVC80N
Suggested Retail Price: $139.99
BUY NOW – Linksys WVC80N Wireless-N IP Camera
Linksys WVC80N Product page
See our Linksys WVC80N Slideshow and Screenshot Gallery
WVC80N Download Page for Manuals, DataSheet, Setup CD
TZO WVC80N Remote access Tutorial
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