Aiptek 2000C Video Phone

Rating:
Summary: 4'' LCD limitation
Review: Great picture, but rather small LCD of approx 4 inches only. Pretty decent frame rate of 15pfs.

Rating:
Summary: Great ProductValue
Review: I purchased this product so that distant grandparents in NY can see their new granddaughter. After researching and testing all of the vendors (Starview, Motion Media, Metaeye, Infoview and Aiptek) I purchased this product. It is extremely easy to use and my computer illiterate parents had no trouble getting this hooked up. Here is the scoop on picture quality: All of the competing products are going to display the video at about the same speed. Since a standard telephone line is used for 2-way communication with video, a 33.6Kbps modem is all that is needed. Don't get fooled by the marketing gimmicks of 56K modems since they can only transmit at this speed in one direction and this is too much bandwidth for a standard telephone line. Picture quality of a TV broadcast is around 30 frames per second (fps). All of the products I tested broadcast at 15fps maximum and this quality looks good and is very clear (I was surprised!!). I could easily see my parents and the delay was only very slight. The key with this is, if you use the smallest picture size the video will transfer very fast and you wont notice any delay. I use the middle size and it works fine. Although the screen is 4" in diameter, you really can see a lot. Of all of the products I tried, the AIPTEK was the easiest to use and again picture quality was great for all of these products. Cost for AIPTEK was lower than some of the other units.
Bottom line: This product and concept is amazing and it makes my parents feel so much better when they can see their kids and grandkids 3000miles away on the videophone versus just a phone call. I was a skeptic at first but now I am sold and will be buying more

Rating:
Summary: Problem solver
Review: I've used this easy to operate videophone (paired with an Aiptek 2000S) with highly satisfactory results in several applications. It allowed an elderly relative to stay in her home after she became forgetful about taking her medication. A slow speed, high quality setting allowed remote verification that she actually was taking her pills. After she moved into a nursing home, I used the system briefly in a business surveillance application. Now it's used by our elderly relative and a favorite niece to keep in touch via long distance. The system delivers surprisingly good image quality, given its POTS modem speed, which averages 28.8kbps (some wonder why it's not faster...33.6kbps is the fastest you can get in a dialup connection without an ISP). The unit's camera works in low light conditions, but in dim light the pictures tend to be noisy and lack color saturation. A little attention to room lighting produces surprisingly good, colorful pictures. Aiptek also includes a "PC" videophone mode, which allows the device to work modem-to-modem with some PC videophones (depends on the PC modem, which can't be a "winmodem", and the PC camera software). The system is indeed easy to operate: we purposely selected the 2000C unit with integrated screen, which requires no adjustment of operating controls at all, for our elderly relative. With new concerns about airline travel, now may be a good time to consider this product.