Panasonic BL-C131A Network Camera Wireless 802.11 |  | Brand: Panasonic
Category: CE
List Price: $299.00
Buy New: $229.00
as of 11/25/2009 05:32 CST details
You Save: $70.00 (23%)
New (27) Refurbished (3) from $178.75
Seller: jusvr
Rating:  216 reviews
Format: CD
Platform: Windows
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Operating System: N/A
Native Resolution: 320 x 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 2.9 x 2.9 x 3.9
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: BL-C131A
Model: BL-C131A
UPC: 037988845156
EAN: 0037988845156
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Place anywhere you'd like to keep an eye on things, with no PC required at the location | | • | View and control from a standard web browser, video display, or compatible cell phone or PDA | | • | Point the camera where you want with eight shooting position presets | | • | Built-in heat sensor allows record and/or notify by email when someone enters the room | | • | Connect wirelessly with standard 802.11b/g devices, SSID filtering and 40/64/128-bit WEP encryption |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Place this plug-and-play camera in your home, office, vacation home, or almost anywhere else you'd like to keep an eye on things, with no PC required at the location. The camera can be viewed and controlled from a standard Web browser, video display, or even a compatible cell phone or PDA, with no additional software required. All of the other required software is already inside the camera.With the built-in heat sensor, the camera can be set to record and/ or notify you by email when someone enters the room. It can even automatically move to a preset location when triggered, just in case someone was viewing a different part of the room.With the built-in Privacy mode, your privacy is protected by simply pressing a button. An indicator on the front of the camera turns red, and you know at a glance that the camera is now only accessible by you. The camera can also be set up to show a green light when the camera is being accessed.The camera can be set to automatically record video at certain times and certain speeds. In addition, with optional, external sensors attached to the camera, it's possible for the camera to email or record when triggered by motion, sound, light, timer, or even a push button. These convenient functions eliminate your need to constantly check the image.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 216
Missing Mac Feature November 23, 2009
Evelyn (San Francisco)
i love this camera except if you have a mac, you don't get the audio feature. you also have to call customer support to set up the camera as the setup disc does not work on a mac.
 Good when it worked November 19, 2009
Eric Bischof (Connecticut, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I used this web camera for 25 days (as a baby and pet cam) before sending it back to Amazon. It seemed like a nice camera with good features but I just wasn't happy with it's reliability. I have a Mac and found the other Mac reviews here very helpful as far as setup. It was pretty easy to get set up. I was able to get the camera on my wireless network (apple airport extreme), configured the DDNS (Panasonic's viewnetcam.com service), add users and configure settings. I was able to pull up the video on my iPod Touch. Other users could log in and view the video stream and use the pan/tilt/zoom tools, but overall it just wasn't stable.
The major issues which caused me to return it were:
1. It would be working one minute and then 2 or 3 mins later stop working (light would turn from green to yellow). I'd unplug the camera and then plug it back in and and it would get back on the network. Sometimes it would stay up longer and work OK, other times it would be completely unresponsive from the onset. I just never felt like I could rely on it being up and working, no matter the platform (Mac, Windows, iPod, mobile phone...i tried them all)
2. Audio only works on IE (I guess it uses Active-X controls?). I have a mac and i use Firefox and Safari, so this was annoying. I never tried to get the sound to work on a windows PC.
3. I never got the camera to work properly with my mobile phone (LG Decoy) or my wife's (Blackberry 8300?).
I will note that Panasonic's instructions don't mention anything about setting up with a Mac. The instructions in the Amazon reviews were all I needed though. I never did reach out to customer service (I usually don't for anything unless there are no other options). I'm going to try another web camera--maybe even another Panasonic. I consider myself pretty tech savvy, but this one just wasn't a good fit for me.
 Great camera, easy to set up (mostly) November 14, 2009
Eric (Dallas, TX)
We got this camera and immediately got to work on setting it up. The setup software is easy to use and network setup is easy. (Just remember to wait until the light on the front is solid green before searching for the camera on the network.
What was easy:
-Finding the camera wired on the network was quick. I connected it, turned it on, and popped in the CD. Two clicks later, the guided setup was humming along.
-Getting the router set up. It configured universal plug and play on its own, although I wish it could have forwarded port 80 to the one it chose automatically so that I don't have to add the port to the URL it provides to access it from the web.
-Video and audio work in a computer browser perfectly.
-iPhone browser even shows video in the default format from the camera nicely.
-Multiple user accounts were a snap to add.
Snags in setup:
I'm not a typical user, so I had some difficulties...
-If you're a Verizon FIOS user, the router they provide will NOT automatically configure universal plug and play. You must turn it on yourself.
-If you have a router plugged into a router, like you might with Verizon because their router is quite possibly the worst one I have ever used in my entire life, the Verizon router will block the incoming request to use the camera from the internet. You'll just get the Verizon router login instead of the camera.
-If you have a Verizon FIOS router, don't even try to use it wirelessly unless you have no encryption, or WEP only. WPA or WPA2 don't work, but you may know this about Verizon routers from your laptop or really ANY other wireless device you've tried to connect to it.
-Connecting to the internet required 2 steps, setting up the "Internet" section, and then setting up the "DNS" in Setup. If these were combined, it would be a bit easier to configure, but it still wasn't hard and you only have to do it once. (in theory)
The free access to it from the web for life is a great feature and was the tipping point for me to buy this product. You don't even have to do anything with the website. Just set up the camera, and it will be done along the way.
 Not Ready for Primetime November 13, 2009
H. Warren (Washington, DC)
The Panasonic BL-C131A performs as advertised but the setup requires a good understanding of IP networking. It does not allow login via Safari browser on a Mac for me but works well with IE and Chrome in Windows environment. Overall I am pleased with the device.
It's the best network camera... once you can configurate it November 11, 2009
C. Alfaro (Chile)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As many people have said, It is much difficult to make this camera to be seen from Internet when you don't know about the configuration of your Wireless router.
If you're a normal person who know some about networks and computers, be sure that you will have to read the html manual which comes in the CD, and then, when your are working on setting up, to call to Panasonic support. Be patience, because finally you will reach the goal.
When camera will be working you will realize that all efforts worth. I think this camera is the best network camera in the market (less than $300,00). I watch it from work, I can say that it have a very good image, a very few lags, a good pan and tilt, an outstanding microphone, and you have the chance to choose a free host other than Panasonic's. I've monitored with my camera from other computers (and networks), always I been able to make it work without any problem.
If you have not even a moderate computing knowledge, then be sure to find someone who can help you on setting up internet conection.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 216
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