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D-Link DVC-1000 i2eye VideoPhone

D-Link DVC-1000 i2eye VideoPhone

List Price:
Your Price: $188.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great product which delivers what it promises
Review: I am using two of these devices between Cambridge, UK and Boston, USA over cable broadband at both ends. The NTSC video didn't phase my fairly modern TV (although the colour is, of course, rubbish) and the 110v power was easily adapted. If you live outside the USA you just need a friend in the USA to ship one to you...

Overall, I think this gadget is great, especially for the price. The GUI is good, the install Wizard is simple and the thing boots in seconds. A few things let down the ease of installation for me: (1) I needed to punch holes in the firewall/routers I was using at both ends to make it work, which was slightly harder than expected; (2) the audio leaves a lot to be desired without a phone plugged in. Other reviews suggest that this solves the problem, but I haven't tried it yet.

The good news is: It "does what it says on the tin", as we say in England. Grandma gets to see the kids and vice versa, although my bouncy 8yr-old moves around so much the poor old MPEG compressor has a hard time keeping up with him! But really, it's an absolute blast for domestic use.

I've also spent some time learning about MS NetMeeting and making it work with that as a client at one end, which it does without trouble or further configuration. This raises the prospect of serious business applications for the device, and I understand a higher-quality business grade successor is planned.

All in all I think D-Link should be congratulated on their product. It is hard to fault for the price and we have had more fun out of our $ than on a lot of other more expensive IT gadgets of the last few years. What are you waiting for?

Alex.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: We love it !
Review: I bought a pair of this vidoe phone and fall in love with it.

I am relocating to another city. Really missing my sons since we could not have the whole family moved until summer. So I decided to buy a pair of i2eye.

We ended up with turn them on whenever we have a chance. My 6 year old also loves it. Most time I call, he will shut down his cartoon TV and jump up and down for a few minutes. Compare to a regular phone, he would just talk with me one sentence.

Something nice to have (not in the set yet): autofocusing or remote focusing. S-Video output to TV set (so higher resolution).

We are in the process of buying more for my parents and my wife's parents...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Features and Good Quality
Review: I get a nice crisp picture on my TV when using this videophone. The setup of this was easier than setting up a computer to be on your network and configuring a video phone is a lot more exciting then a boring computer. I have some networking experience, but I feel confident that inexperienced people can set this up with little to no trouble as well.

I highly suggest connecting a phone to the back of this because the audio quality is way better than the speaker/mic portion of this device. Getting a good video frame rate is essential and depending on your Internet connection speed you can usually configure the i2eye unit to perform best in the setup wizard. I personally had to change the speed setting to get the best frame rate, but it only took a couple tries to get it right.

I am impressed with this little box and recommend that if you are thinking about getting one, or two, to just go ahead and do it. It is well worth it if you make a lot of calls and would love to see some video along with your call.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WARNING: AOL Broadband isn't the real Internet
Review: I have this product at my home and one at the office and it works both with my earthlink ADSL at home and the SDSL we have at work. The video quality is great, although not totally awesome, it is better than you expect. The audio is perfect with a phone plug into the back of this device. And amazon is wrong when it says; "Microphone required for sending audio." The i2eye comes with a built in mic, but it isn't the best of quality, that's why we use phones connected to them (cordless is preferred).

As far as AOL Broadband goes, yes this probably doesn't work with it. But either does XBox Live, some PS2 online games, and other devices like these. This is because AOL Broadband doesn't let you go online like everyone else. They keep you on their network so they can control advertisements, parental controls, and pop ups, etc. This is fine for regular web browsing, if being restricted on the Internet is fine with you, but for devices like that are gaining popularity, this is going to be a problem with AOL Broadband.
Technical Babble: AOL Broadband is basically software they make you use that "signs-in" to their internal network (VPN like) and you get a private IP like 10.x.x.x and everything you do goes through them and they can block any port or domain they want. Almost like they are a proxy you can't get rid of.

So the bottom line is that this product is great, but it isn't D-Link's fault AOL Broadband decided to go this route. So you can't blame this VideoPhone from D-Link for AOL's choices. If you really want to be able to do what you want on the Internet, get a real ISP, that gives you a real IP address, and doesn't make is mandatory you install their software.

I like this product and will recommend it to anyone, even if they have AOL Broadband, because this alone is a reason to switch ISPs. That's what AIM is for.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Do Not Buy The DVC-1100!
Review: I have to admit, the main reason I purchased (2) of these DVC-1100's was because of the stellar reviews posted here on Amazon. I bought one for my in-laws and on for my wife and I so that they could watch our children grow up over long distance. Great idea, bad solution. The main problem I had was that the camera lens is fixed, and does NOT focus. I waited 1 hour on the line with D-LINK tech support only to learn that the lenses on these cameras are designed to be fixed and only focus when you are approximately 6 - 8 feet away from the camera. Unfortunately, the ones I got did not focus at all, and the video quality was absolutely terrible (washed out color and bad contrast). Please listen to me, save your money and do not buy the DVC-1100. This device is cheaply made, and just not there yet...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Video Quality and Simple to Use
Review: I like calling my family a lot more now that I can actually see and hear them. Plus all it costs to call my family across the state is my normal broadband internet bill. All I have to do now is select another video source with my tv remote, pick up the i2eye remote and speed dial my family. They pick up and suddenly I can see them live and on TV. It's amazing! I talk on the phone a lot anyhow, so I have my own wireless headset phone so I can wonder around the house and talk on the phone. Well i just plug in my wireless headset and suddenly I am talking with my family just like on the phone, but they also appear on my TV. I can't get over how cool this is for me. I get to see my little brothers and sisters a lot more often now.
Words can't describe how useful and worth the price this videophone is. bottom line is that this is fun to use, easy to use, and the quality of it makes it worth the price.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Very Very Unhappy
Review: My daughter bought this for me so I could see my grand children who live in other states. I have spent 6 days and almost $450 trying to get it to work. I even hired a computer repairman who charged me $184 and could not get it working. If it was not a gift I would send it back to get my money back. I called the help line, lots of times and usually got someone who didn't speak English very well. They would end up telling me it was a problem with the router. Then I would call the router and they would tell me it is a problem with the D-Link. No one wants to take responsibility for getting it working. I even went on the support page on the internet and read pages of things that could be wrong. Tried them all in six days and I still don't have it working and has cost me alot of time and "money". Good Luck if you buy it you will need it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Video Quality, Impresses all my friends
Review: The video quality is a big issue with us since it is video conferencing and the whole point is to see the other person in good quality and full motion. This product was very easy to setup because of the setup wizard and the documentaion that comes with it. After the couple minutes of setup I was ready to make a call to my friend who has one as well. The first call was a complete eye opener.

I was able to see and hear him so very clearly (with cordless phone attached to the unit) and it was almost too good to be true. I could see him so well it was almost like I was there in his living room. well not exactly, but it was like there was a TV camera in his living room and I was watching him talk to me. One of the best parts about this whole thing was that this call was totally free to make. Except for of course the initial cost of the unit and the monthy broadband bill, but I was paying that bill every month anyways.

When friends/company would come over they would see this little box on top of my 26 inch TV and ask what it was. So I'd call my friend and show them. They would instantly want one once they saw it in action. I've probably influenced about 3-4 people who eventually bought one of these and now we have a little network of people who we know that we can call and who can call us.

This little box that sits on our TV and only needs a remote to use it a beautiful thing. Once everyone gets one, or at least all the people I call, I believe that this will replace our regular phones (at least when calling each other), long distance, or local, its all the same.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Poor performer
Review: This little D-link box is reasonably simple to configure and use. Even using fast broadband service at both ends, audio quality was rather poor (I suspect the microphone is not very good) and the video was awful mainly because of the camera's extremely poor quality. I wonder what possessed D-Link to fit such a device with a camera that's about the same level of quality as a $15 USB webcam. Under ordinary interior lighting conditions, it is impossible to get a clear, naturally colored picture: all you will get is a noisy, muddy mess. Of course the lens quality matches the image sensor: it's awful.
This is a real shame, because D-Link almost made a pretty good product here. The user interface and configuration are reasonably simple and well explained in the manual, and the performance passable. Unfortunately, the built-in microphone and camera are so bad they make an otherwise fairly decent product unusable.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It exceeds my expectation
Review: This product is amazing. I used to use MSN messenger. I now switch to D-link. The best feature is that both side can talk at the same time, works just as good as the phone + more (video feature). Not only that, when you hook the phone to this machine, you basically has a dedicated phone line (it will ring through the phone and through the machine. And all calls are free.

The video quality is adequate/good, way better the webcam. The new machines now has microphone input. But I found pluggin your own phone is way better.

The setup is extremely easy and quick. If you have a firewall, you do need to open that port. I did have to make a call to technical support who was quite helpful and I was able to open the port without any problem.

I would highly recommand this product just like the others


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