DXR-8

Update: (6/11/21)We have reached the 28 month mark of having this baby monitor and it has officially gotten to the point of having to buy a new monitor. The charging port on the monitor has been giving us issues for about two months now. I've been having to use a hair tie to keep the cable at just the right angle or it won't charge and finally as of yesterday even with two hair ties and lots of fiddling I could only get it to charge with one specific cable at just the right angle. (I know it's not the cables because I have charged other devices with those cables just fine.) We got the new monitor in today and it paired with the old camera just fine. The new one has a different charging port (not USB) so hopefully this one won't end up with the same problem that the last one had. Overall I would still highly recommend this monitor. It took a lot of abuse in the 28 months we used it and the monitor itself never got any cracks or visible damage the only issue was the charging port which will hopefully be resolved with the change that they made. I've included pictures of the old monitor and the new one so you can see how well the case has done over the 28 months of use.We have been using this monitor for fifteen months at this point and it is still going strong the only issue that I’ve had so far has been that the original rechargeable battery stopped holding a charge about a month ago. The good news is if this happens to you, you can replace the battery for a grand total of twelve dollars and some change after taxes.So, let’s get into it. Why do I and so many others love this baby monitor so much?Pros:Video QualityThe video quality on this monitor is amazing, both the night and daytime are high enough quality that if I focus in on my son’s stomach I can see him breathing while he sleeps even with the camera about a foot above the rail of his crib. The fact that the night vision quality is so good was a huge plus for me because the majority of the monitors use was and still is for when he’s sleeping which means the lights are off and it’s dark in his room.Signal RangeThe signal range is great. We have a two-story house and the master bedroom is on the ground floor while the other bedrooms are upstairs. This means that the camera is always upstairs while most of the time the monitor is downstairs. Our master is on the opposite corner of the house from our son’s room and we don’t lose signal when in the bedroom.Temperature SensorWith a two-story house the battle to keep the downstairs and the upstairs equally comfortable feels never ending. During the winter trying to keep the downstairs warm enough that we weren’t piled under blankets all day occasionally meant that the upstairs got a little warmer than intended. Being able to glance over at the monitor and see that it was getting warmer in our son’s room than would be comfortable even while we were downstairs meant we knew when to go upstairs and turn on his fan or close his vent to keep him from getting too hot.Battery LifeThe monitor comes with a rechargeable battery and we usually get four to five hours before we are down to one bar and need to start charging. We do get the ten hours that they claim it gets is if the video display is turned off because that’s about the length of time it has lasted on the nights I’ve forgotten to plug it in before going to sleep which is the only time we turn off the display when the monitor is on.DurabilityI’m going to be perfectly honest with y’all I’m a massive klutz, the trip on a completely flat surface kind of klutz and I have the bruises on my legs to prove it. On top of that I’m also a butter fingers (there’s a reason that every smart phone I’ve ever owned has always had a durable case) I drop things a lot. Including this monitor and even on two occasions the camera itself. The monitor has been dropped on carpet, tile and hardwood, it’s been knocked off counters and tables. It has survived fifteen months of my klutziness and still works just as well today as it did when I first turned it on. The camera has been knocked off of a foldable tray table twice onto a hard wood floor while vacationing at my parents house and has been knocked off of the crib by both me and my son onto the carpet on three occasions and still works just as well as it did when first turned on. Neither the monitor nor the camera has any dents or visible damage to them.Talk Back FunctionThis monitor lets you talk through it to whoever is in the room. Right now, we don’t really use this feature a lot unless my husband and I are trying to scare each other or be goofy. Despite living in a two-story house it’s pretty easy to just yell down and be heard by the other person plus if one of us is in the room the monitor is typically off. I do thing that as my son gets older and can communicate better we will probably make more use of this feature as it will be a great way to communicate with him without having to yell if we’re unable to get upstairs right away.Audio QualityThe audio quality on this is really good. Our sound machine is across the room from the crib and we never turn it up really loud but you can still hear it after turning the volume up to only two, which is typically where it stays for us. If you have the video display turned off the sound still comes through loud and clear and they even have light indicators on the side that light up green through red when noise is detected depending on the volume level detected.Low Battery and No Signal AlarmsThis monitor also features an alarm that you can turn off or on that will beep if the battery is critically low or the monitor loses signal. The alarm has a high and low setting, personally I find the low setting to be more than loud enough, it’s woken me up in the middle of the night to tell me that the battery was dying when I forgot to plug it in on several occasions.Remote Pan/TiltYou can pan and tilt the camera remotely with the monitor and the range is excellent. We currently have our camera mounted to the wall about a foot above the crib at the corner and the camera can pan and tilt to cover the entire crib, so our son is never out of sight.Cons:Signal InterferenceOne issue that I’ve noticed with this monitor is that you cannot have it next to a laptop or game controller without it losing the signal. If I’m on my laptop or playing a game I have to make sure that the monitor is on the side that is closest to my son’s room and it’s about a foot away from either electronic and the antenna is up or it constantly loses it’s signal. This is isn’t a major issue for me since the solution is as easy as never have a laptop or game controller between the camera and the monitor.Occasional Signal Loss in Master BedroomOur master bedroom is on the first floor catty corner to our son's room so it is the farthest location in our house from the camera which also makes it the place where we tend to have the weakest signal (typically three or four bars rather than five) and the occasional loss of signal. It doesn't happen very often and is usually fixed by simply raising the antenna and moving the monitor a little further away from my cell phone, which is charging on the nightstand near it. As I noted above laptops and game controllers can have an effect on the signal so it's possible that my phone is a part of the issue but it doesn't seem to affect the monitor at other times so I do think distance is the main factor. Again, this isn't a constant problem and has always been easily solved in the past so for me it's not a deal breaker.That’s it, that’s literally the only complaints I have about this monitor and I definitely plan on buying another camera to use for the next baby we eventually have.

Top tier product. Extremely well thought out and designed. We have had ours for 6 months or so. I did a ton of research and review reading before we chose this monitor to include separate stand-alone video cameras and monitors with separate audio monitors. Here’s a summary of the best elements and why you would do well to buy this one.My brother bought a stand alone HD 1080p video quality camera to monitor his kids. However, you must have a WiFi connection to set it up on. They also needed a separate audio monitor solution with the setup they chose. Also, they have to monitor the camera with an app, which based on our real-life experience with the DXR-8 would no longer be a consideration for us.Having a self-contained system in the DXR-8 is absolutely the simplest and best option for a number of reasons in our opinion. Firstly, it is stand alone and does not require WiFi, it communicates directly from the camera to the monitor. Also, you don’t need to have an app on your phone which is soooo nice, because you can have the monitor up and listening to audio at all times and still have your phone free for all the things you do on there. Having this self-contained system is awesome, when we go to the Lakehouse or to a hotel when traveling the DXR-8 is small and a snap to pack up and set up in the new location - no trying to get WiFi access. It is - quite simply - effortless.Also, I cannot think of a practical need for a higher-resolution monitor (screen) for monitoring your baby while they sleep or play. The primary things we watch for is 1) are they breathing, 2) how are they positioned in the crib, 3) are they sleeping or fighting going to sleep. The resolution on the DXR-8 is more than adequate for all of those things. Plus, and one of the most exceptional feature - is the zoom feature. While they do have several different lenses you can put on the camera (which is awesome), we found that the standard lense works best for us BECAUSE OF THE ZOOM OPTION! So we can set the camera on the corner of the crib with some Gorilla tape underneath it to hold it in place, or we can set it across the room and zoom in and still see everything we need to see. Then of course you can pan left and right and tilt up and down, so you can do everything you can possibly conceive of with this system.Also, and we didn’t realize this being new parents when we bought this - most of the time, and throughout the night - audio cues are primarily what you will be paying attention to. You can flip on the camera anytime, and it has settings for staying on 3min or 5min before the screen blanks, or until you click the button again to turn the image off again. Having the camera off extends the battery life. If you need to keep the audio turned off, any sounds the baby makes will still register a color scale on the left side of the screen from red (low volume sounds) to green (high volume sounds) so you can still monitor audio activity without having the volume up. My spouse and I take turns having the monitor every other night, and if our son wakes us up initially with a sound, we can turn the volume off and continue to monitor the audio level with the led register.Also you can dim the screen, we have it on full dim at night so it doesn’t completely light up our bedroom in the middle of the night if we check on him. It brightens plenty to see it outside during the daytime as well.And I could write more great details on the night mode as well as day mode. Also, the camera pan and tilt is not noisy as I had read in one review. While it may not be completely silent, it it definitely not a significant source of sound and has never had an effect on our sleeping child.And on top of all that, their customer service is absolutely top-tier. Gladys has helped us twice since we’ve had the product. We have had a battery start to have issues with not holding a charge and they rapidly got the replacement process started the same day we reached out to them. I don’t know if you’ll get Gladys, but whoever you get will be as excellent as her I’m sure. There are real people in the support department and they treat you like a person; you’re not just another number feeling like getting real support help is more theoretical then it is practical with these guys.So, highly recommmend from A to Z. Don’t think you can go wrong with this! Also you can pair up to 4 cameras to the one monitor. We just move the camera around during the day, but you could install one in the nursery, on in the living room, and wherever else you like - and switch between them all with one monitor.Hope this has helped if you’re a research nerd like I am. I had to read multiple reviews in multiple different locations to make my final decision on what to buy. Hopefully this review has been thorough enough to help you learn all you need to know about the DXR-8. Maybe it’s not what your looking for, but I would be hard-pressed to imagine any scenario where another product could serve its purpose any better. As for us, we are happy, happy campers. :)