Not happy with the Linksys WVC54GC

Well, I decided somewhat on the spur of the moment to get a wireless webcam for a monitoring application, and I must say, I’m overall pretty disappointed with the Linksys WVC54GC. First of all, it’s a sucky webcam. It is simply nightblind: it can’t take a decent picture in illumination which is even slightly dim. My home office is virtually invisible. It’s like those old first generation camera phones that are thankfully becoming a thing of the past. The idea that this could be a security device is laughable, unless the crooks trying to gain entry are careful enough to bring a couple of flood lights to illuminate their faces.

But the really disappointing thing is the software: it’s simply not designed to interface with anything except a Windows PC. It downloads an ActiveX control to watch the video. Bleh. No, more than bleh. BLEH. Luckily, I found out that you can actually watch the video stream using VLC. Down below is an image capture from VLC running on my MacBook.

The WVC54GC Basically Sucks.

Save your money. Don’t buy this webcam. There must be better ones out there. I’m gonna sleep on whether to return this camera tomorrow. It’s simply that bad.

One thought on “Not happy with the Linksys WVC54GC

  1. willc2

    Try the Axis 207, it has pretty good night vision and it’s a standalone web device. About $270 for the ethernet wired version and $300 for the wireless version.

    I initially balked at the price, but I’m done wasting money on cheap cameras. Life’s too short.

    I see that NewEgg has a sale on the wired one.
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16881121022R

    See live samples:
    http://www.regnatarajan.com/Webcams/webcamWallCentre.aspx

    Here is a generic google search string to find these cams:
    inurl:”axis-cgi/mjpg”

    I have one but it’s not pointing anywhere interesting right now.

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