September 22, 2013I have had this monitor for almost one month and am finally using it. My son has been in his crib, my bedroom since he was born - he is now 3 1/2. Needless to say, I am very attached to my son (I love him AS BIG AS THE SKY ;-). He is very active, he has been ever since he started crawling! Honestly, he has never slowed down - he keeps getting faster! That is part of the long delay in moving him to his own room. I have been very nervous and anxious at the thought of my child being in his bedroom, by himself, with me sleeping in another room. There were two requirements that I had to complete before he could go into his own bedroom. 1) Attach all furniture to the walls (he is a climber) and 2) Purchase a great video monitor that had two way communication.Before purchasing a monitor, I read so many reviews on different brands & models that my brain was overloaded! My requirements were 1) video, 2) two way communication, 3) long range. Honestly, I didn't even know that this particular model existed until I saw it at a Walmart in Cordova, TN (my walmart didn't have it). The main thing that attracted me to this partiuclar model was the 1000 ft. range. It seems to be one of the few monitors on the market that has a range above 600 ft. After reading many reviews (good, okay, and the bad), I decided that this was the monitor for us. Now that I am finally using it, I can honestly say that it is a very good monitor. Here is my detailed review of the VTech Safe & Sound Video Monitor.1. The video quality is excellent for a baby monitor.2. Sound is excellent, not a lot of white noise.3. The two way communication is excellent. Although I do wish that as I am speaking, I could hear my son at the same time. But I know that this function works just like a walkie talkie, only one party can hear and the other speak at a time.4. Voice Activation is excellent, works just as the product description states. When there is not much noise in the room, the parent until will not transmit any sound. Once a sound is made in the room, the sound will transmit to the parent unit. It is very important for me to note that the sensitivity level for Voice Activation can be adjusted. I have it set to the lowest so that the parent unit will not constantly come one while I am sleeping (I am a very light sleeper). Please keep in mind that my son is 3 1/2, so he is going to make noise when he is awake. If I were using this for an infant, I would most likely have the sound activation set to the highest sensitivity. I am still having to get accustomed to not hearing my son every minute. I really didn't think I would like this feature at all, but is actually really good. I am not sure if I could handle having constant white noise from a baby monitor while trying to sleep. This feature is honestly helping me learn to trust him a little, especially when he is really sleeping ;-)5. Sleep mode is excellent! The parent unit can be put into sleep mode for the video! This is a great feature for me personally. I can not stand any bright light in the room while I am sleeping, whether sunlight or light from any electronic device. (I can handle my alarm clock, I have had it for 21 years). By pressing and holding the "View" button on the parent unit, it will turn off the video. The video will come back on when a sound is transmitted from the monitor. And I can personally tell you that this does indeed 100% work! My husband closed our front door really loud one morning, the sound transmitted and the video came back on immediately and I woke to see that my son was still sound asleep in his bed. Of course, if you are like me - you will want to check in one your child once in a while - maybe even awake from sleep just to check in. Just press and hold the "View" button again to see the video again.6. Zoom is great, but wish it could pan zoom (move left to right from the parent unit). I have the monitor aimed right at my son's bed and I have it set to zoom in right where he lays down in the bed. With the zoom feature, you will loose a few megapixel's - but not much at all. I can still see my son clearly.Overall, I am really glad that I purchased this monitor. I did own a older Summer infant video monitor at one time, that did not have two way communicaiton. I can honestly say that I am beyond pleased so far with the VTech. I plan to update my review at a later time to share my experience after a long period of use.This has been the best monitor! I've owned it for over 8 years and it's "watched" 4 children. It has been dropped more times than I'd care to admit and has been packed up and moved (also dropped) a ton. The antenna has been re-glued 3x on the monitor, and the camera's antenna is currently hanging by a thread.My point of saying this is that the vtec monitor system has been very heavily used and abused and continues to work amazingly well. The range of this is also shocking. We have 5 acres and it works all the way in the back of the property. I have been handed down other cameras, but nothing works like this so I've continued to pass them on.I have two cameras set up and I love the option to switch back and forth between sleeping children. I also appreciate the temperature control alarm when we're camping. The camera is clear, the speaker is clear (over time it's become difficult to hear on the camera end what we are saying, but it worked great for about 6 years). I came on Amazon to see if I could just buy another monitor, but looks like I'll have to buy the set. I am pleased they still make this camera and that the price is very reasonable. I will be purchasing this same set. If you want a monitor with amazing range and longevity, this is the one for you!This is my second video monitoring system, the first being a Summer Infant Day and Night that we purchased in 2010 when our first child was born. The Summer Infant model was (and still is) excellent. The picture and sound quality are both great, and reliable. But, as luck has it, that model is not expandable, and we're expecting our second child, so we decided to switch to a model that supported multiple cameras. In terms of rave reviews and features, I should have gone with one of the Motorola models, but I was amazed by the bundle of features for the price with VTech, and took the bait. We bought this system and one extra camera, and went to work setting them up at home in the nursery, and in the toddler's room.First, the picture quality is NOT GOOD. Compared to the Summer Infant, it's a joke, especially the night vision. Luckily my son has dark hair or I'd never be able to GUESS where he was in the picture. If you need crisp images, do not get this model. We're making do so far, as we can mostly tell where the toddler is in the picture, but it's terrible.Second, the sound quality and reliability is NOT GOOD. The Summer Infant has crisp, continuous sound. The VTech sound is tinny at best, and interference interrupts it every couple of seconds, in no particular pattern. Moreover, the sound seems to turn itself OFF all the time. I've been able to jog it back on by using the "Talk" feature to say something over the intercom to my son, and then the sound kicks back on awaiting his response. Again, we're using it for him, but it's terrible.We have not used this yet for a newborn, and it's quite likely that we won't. We still have our old Summer Infant, and unless the sound is continuous and the close-up picture is much better (the newborn camera will only be pointed at a crib, whereas the toddler camera is mounted up high for a (poor quality) view of the whole room) we'll probably use the Summer Infant for the newborn, as I'm not messing around with an unreliable system for a new baby. If we end up going that route, I'll mount the extra VTech camera in toddler's room for added viewer angles, as we can't see the whole room with one camera, and I'll just tote around both parent units, one for each child.If I had known I was going to have to do that, I'd just have purchased another Summer Infant Day and Night.Morale of the story: if I had this to do over, I wouldn't have made this choice. The product is trash compared to Motorola or Summer Infant. However, it does do the job (just badly), and it has a bundle of nice features (temperature monitoring, lullabies (that my son hates), zoom (but NOT pan! and the zoom just pixellates the already terrible picture quality), and multiple camera support. VTech seemed to try really hard to throw a lot into this for a low price, but forgot the two most important features: sound quality/reliability and picture quality.Sadly, one and a half thumbs down.EDIT: June, 2013 - Well, my dissatisfaction turned quickly into disgust. Other reviewers have lamented the nonexistent customer service at Vtech: HEED THEM. Our second wasn't born until April, and has been in our room, so we haven't really needed to USE this system until very recently. We had set it up and ensured the camera angles were appropriate prior to her birth, but hadn't used the system. Even so, somehow, this camera inexplicably broke. The transformer (the box-part of the plug) has evidently blown: instead of having subpar video and audio, it now has ZERO video and audio. The parent unit doesn't read the camera at all, instead eternally waiting for connection. And the camera unit makes a loud popping noise from the camera itself every three seconds if it is powered on. It cannot be powered off anymore without unplugging it -- the power button now only works one way: to turn on. So, to recap: with LESS THAN A DAY OF USE, the camera unit does not transmit video, does not transmit audio, does not turn off, and makes loud noises. In other words, this is worse than zero stars. This is negative stars. They should be paying US for housing these annoying products.BUT IT GETS BETTER (read: worse). I contacted VTech, stumbled through their ridiculous online contact template (that doesn't seem to even anticipate receiving product failure communications) and filed my concern, asking for a refund, a replacement, an extra part (the camera itself doesn't need replacing, only the power cord...with a new power cord it would be back to functioning as a less than mediocre piece of 1990s video equipment, but it would at least WORK). VTech's website assured me I would be contacted within two days.That was almost four weeks ago. That's right. Four weeks of radio silence. I'm about to contact them for the THIRD time, but this company goes beyond all other bad reviews I've ever read, ever. It's not that they refuse to accept responsibility, don't warrant the product, charge the customer shipping. They might do all those things. But who knows? The company seems to collectively hide under the table whenever the phone rings, and, without being able to reach them, the consumer is completely up a creek.I've written many reviews. I've NEVER had to write one like this.Buyer beware.On kid number three and for our last two we used a Vtech sound only monitor, 5 years in and it’s still running great. Our daughter is a little more wild and our oldest so I decided I wanted a video monitor. Saw this one on sale and since we love vtech we went for it. We live in the country so our internet can be spotty, I was glad it’s not required! I wish it zoomed in a little more but overall happyMe atrajo a este producto las buenas reseñas que tenía de otros usuarios. Sin embargo, estoy decepcionada. La imagen es buena. La batería del monitor está bien... no dura muchísimo, pero lo suficiente. Lo que me decepciona enormemente es el alcance de la señal - dice creo que 300 metros. Esto es un engaño. En el departamento se me cae la señal, y no vivo en una mansión. Quise darle una oportunidad a este monitor porque pensé que era bueno por todas las opiniones positivas, y desafortunadamente se me pasó el tiempo que tenía para devolverlo. No lo compraría de nuevo.American product with no Australian power connection. Don’t buyExcelente producto, además llego en tiempo antes de lo esperado muy buen articulo funciona bien muy bien gracias y buena calidad