Review: Peak Mpeg4 Pan/Tilt Internet Camera

A low-cost way to monitor your home via the internet

If you're planning a few trips away over the festive period, being able to check up on your home may sound like a tempting proposal.

Network cameras, unlike standard web cams, provide you with live video footage and are accessible from any internet-connected PC without the need for your home PC to be switched on.

The rather unimaginatively named Mpeg4 Pan/Tilt Internet Camera from Peak (available in the UK through Spot On UK) is a relatively cheap network camera, but one that comes with a decent set of features.

With an Apple-white design, the camera looks pretty slick and will hook up to your router either via a standard Ethernet cable or a wireless connection. Unlike many other similarly priced network cameras, it also has the ability to pan its lens 170° horizontally and 135° vertically, giving you a decent field of view.

We gave both the wired Ethernet and wireless connections a go and didn't experience any problems getting it to talk to the router. The software interface, accessed via a standard web browser, is reasonably uncluttered with the live video window taking up the majority of the home page.

Settings such as camera angle, brightness, audio and zoom sitting on the right, while the various menu shortcuts are placed along the top of the screen; hovering over one brings up further options, which can be a pain if you've got an over-sensitive mouse.

Video quality, in general, is acceptable but doesn't compare well against the quality offered by more expensive network cameras such as the Axis 212 PTZ. Although a zoom option is available from the main window, this isn't an optical zoom function so basically just increases the pixel size. Indeed, zooming in even a small amount vastly reduces picture quality, making it a rather pointless feature and not one we see many people making use of.

The lens can be shifted either using the horizontal and vertical navigation bars or by simply clicking on an area of the live video to centre on. The camera is quick to respond to movement requests, but the motor is rather noisy so if you’re keeping tabs on an intruder they’ll soon know the game's up.

While on the subject of noise, it’s worth noting the camera houses an internal microphone. But the audio we experienced was of a very poor quality and frequently cut out altogether.

If you plan to use the camera to monitor for intrusions, you can designate up to three motion-detection zones. If movement is detected in any of these zones the alarm will be triggered; all other movement will be ignored.

A schedule can be set up to only activate the detection at certain times and on specific days of the week. Video or snapshot files (various resolutions are available) can be emailed or transferred to a network folder but, unlike most other network cameras, uploading to an ftp site isn’t supported.

The main problem we have with this internet camera is the interface. For example, setting up email notifications when movement is detected proved a real task, and one that wasn’t helped by the lack of an error logging system or even a simple error code database. Other limitations, such as the lack of ftp support, are disappointing.

That said, if you're after a cheap network camera, the pan and tilt lens of this Peak model will no doubt appeal.

Also consider:
Axis 212 PTZ
Monitor large areas with this fish-eye network camera

Panasonic BL-C30
A network camera with a pan and tilt lens but no microphone

D-Link DCS-2100G
A relatively expensive option, but easy to set up and use

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