Spying on Your Pets Made Easy with the Samsung PetCam

Have you ever wondered what your pets do when you are away? Samsung recently contacted me and asked If I would be interested in reviewing the Samsung PetCam IP Camera.  Of course I said YES, and they sent me one for free.  To avoid any confusion, the Samsung PetCam and the SmartCam are the same camera, just packaged in different boxes- they are both  SNH-1011.

The Samsung SmartCam is winner of both the 2012 Design & Engineering showcase honors from Innovations International CES, and the RedDot design award.

With the Samsung PetCam Camera, you can monitor anytime and from anywhere. Download an app on your Iphone or Android Smartphone, Use your Ipad or Android Tablet, or monitor online on your MAC or PC. With all these choices, you can keep a watchful eye on your pets or children when you are away.  Not going to be home for a few days?  Own a business? This is also a great camera to use for security purposes when you are away!

It says that You can use this PetCam with a push of a button.

With the use of WPS technology, all you have to do with push a button on your camera and push a button on your router. No need for install  or download any software. To monitor your camera, register at www.samsungsmartcam.com. It’s simple as that.

I couldn’t get the camera and the router to connect that way and was having trouble figuring out what to do next since there were not any other instructions.  I searched online and realized the full user manual was  available online .   I had to have the camera wired to my router, set up everything online for wired use, then switch all the settings online to wireless.  Next I disconnected my camera from the router. Then I hit the WPS button on my router and the camera was finally able to connect wirelessly.

When I moved the camera from the living room to the kitchen, I accidentally hit the reset button and had to go through the entire process all over again.   One time the cats knocked it down and when I picked it up, I again, accidentally hit the reset button.  So yet again I had to do the whole set up process over.  Now I am VERY careful when I touch the PetCam.   I really think they should have the button recessed  or smaller so it is harder to accidentally hit!

I have the Samsung PetCam app set to send me push notifications anytime it senses motion. I have different schedules set for different days, so I don’t get notified when I know I am going to be home.  You can only set up the alert  schedule online, but you can turn the alerts on or off right from your phone. You are able to set the camera up so that it  sends you push notifications , email notifications,  tweets you or alerts you on google talk. The camera can take photos or videos. The photos are uploaded to your Google account, and your videos are uploaded to your youtube account.  Both the photos and videos are uploaded as private so nobody else can see them unless you manually go in to the picture(s) or video(s) and make them public.   You can view the photos and videos directly from the app, or website. The video resolution is 640×480 and the frame rate is 30fps

I have tried playing around with the sensitivity setting for alerts on the camera and it can either send me a notification for every little thing (like a speck of dust floating by) or it is so sensitive that the cat has to be RIGHT in front of the camera for it to notice. Right now I have it set in the middle, but I still get the occasional false positives.

One feature that I love is the Built-in Mic and Speaker for Two way talk.  It took me a while to figure out how to get the 2 way talk feature to work on my phone. I had to look it up online since the camera did not come with any instructions, except a brief summary on how to set it up. The full manual is available online in .PDF form. All you have to do is press, and hold the microphone icon within the SmartCam app on your phone and your voice will be transmitted through the camera. Since our cats seem to be going on the counters when we are asleep, I haven’t had the chance to yell at them yet via the camera but trust me, I will catch them Live one of these days.

I also love that it has built-in IR LED Lamps for Night vision. Obviously when we are not home, the lights are off and it can get pretty dark.  Also once we moved the camera to the basement, near the litter boxes, it uses the night vision all the time, since that corner tends to be dark, even with the light on.

Here is a short compliation video of some of the things the cats did when we had the camera in the living room:

Here is what the kitties did in the kitchen:

We were very disappointed in how mean Jewel was to Oliver when we weren’t around:

 

After seeing the videos of Jewel being mean to Oliver we decided to move the Samsung PetCam to the basement to see how often he was going to the bathroom.  She usually only gets THAT mean when he has a Urinary Tract Infection, or crystals in his urine.  She somehow senses it and guards the stairs so he can’t get down to the litter boxes – which means he has an accident somewhere else in the house.

We soon realized, thanks to the camera,  he was going to the bathroom normally, but was only going when we were in the basement.  When we were around, Jewel rarely gave him a hard time. My computer, the elliptical, and our man cave are all in the basement so we are down there pretty frequently.   Jewel was just being litter box aggressive and didn’t want him using any off them. She tried to stop Harley once, and he slapped her so hard with his paw that she never tried to stop him again. We now make sure we go downstairs with just Oliver before breakfast, and before dinner since that seems to be when he has to go most often.  We started giving Jewel more attention and we bought calming cat plug-in diffusers and sprays and now she seems to have settled down.

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