UPDATED! Need to decide on a video baby monitor this week...Which one to buy?

[bisous]

I'm torn between the highly reviewed Motorola and the Angel Care 4 in 1. I think I will like the motion monitoring aspect of the Angel Care but I'm worried that because it is an "all in one" it will not work great for video. Which would you buy? My parents are buying for me and I don't want to waste their money.

Thank you!

Updated in post 18!

[bostonsmama]

I have a junky Summer video monitor that has broken twice (once under extended warranty, which *I* would buy again), and I also had the simple Angel Care monitor that was either too sensitive or not sensitive enough and gave us a few really annoying false alarms and couldn't be used with a ceiling fan (b/c it detected it as motion even if the baby was taken out of the crib). IIWY, I'd wait as close as possible to baby's due date and buy then. Most take all of 5 minutes to unpack and set up, but your warranty starts ticking the minute you buy it. With our first Summer unit, we received it as an early gift from my dad, but by the time DD was 6 months old, it was almost out of warranty. It inevitably broke when she was 9 months old, and they didn't do squat b/c the 1-year warranty was expired as far as receipt's purchase date. We bought a nicer Summer with a warranty, and it, too, broke after 7 months, but we got a new one mailed within 3 weeks (ugh, that was awful waiting). This new one has been working perfectly ever since and DD is ~3. So, that's my experience.

[MSWR0319]

We have the Motorola MBP36 I think and love it!

[georgiegirl]

I have a samsung in that's similar to the Motorola one. I love it. My sis has the Motorola one, and the talk-back voice feature is clearer on mine.

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SEW-30...g+baby+monitor

[barkley1]

I wouldn't have been aBle to sleep without the Angelcare. So, that would have made the decision for me. But, just a idea...we use two different monitors. At the time, Angelcare wasn't available w video (probably couldn't have afforded it if it did!), so we used Angelcare for monitoring/sound (it's the best sound wise we've had, better than Sony babycall), and a separate Summer video monitor for video, with the sound off. It has horrible sound quality, don't know how anyone uses it for both. Anyway, I picked up the videos cheap off Craigslist, And even found another one when we had DD that we used with it. You can see them both, just have to switch channels.

[AngB]

We have had great luck with our angel care, no false alarms unless ds1 has been in there and loosens the plug, we usually have the fan and it doesn't pick tht up for movement for us (i can take him out with the fan on and it goes off), I would love the video monitor one, personally.

[bisous]

I wouldn't have been aBle to sleep without the Angelcare. So, that would have made the decision for me. But, just a idea...we use two different monitors. At the time, Angelcare wasn't available w video (probably couldn't have afforded it if it did!), so we used Angelcare for monitoring/sound (it's the best sound wise we've had, better than Sony babycall), and a separate Summer video monitor for video, with the sound off. It has horrible sound quality, don't know how anyone uses it for both. Anyway, I picked up the videos cheap off Craigslist, And even found another one when we had DD that we used with it. You can see them both, just have to switch channels.

That sounds like a great solution! After reading some accounts here, I really, really wanted the angelcare monitor. BUT I think the video component would be so great too. It seems from reading reviews on Amazon that the video monitoring portion of the angelcare is not that great...

I've looked on our craigslist. There are no video monitors right now but loads of cheap angelcare monitors. Any reason I shouldn't pick up one of those used and have my parents buy the video monitor?

[bisous]

We have had great luck with our angel care, no false alarms unless ds1 has been in there and loosens the plug, we usually have the fan and it doesn't pick tht up for movement for us (i can take him out with the fan on and it goes off), I would love the video monitor one, personally.

And my other idea is to just go with the Angelcare 4 in 1 and deal with "crappy" video. Especially since I have nothing to compare it to. It has got to be better than nothing, right?

[specialp]

I would buy the separate units which is what we do. However, I am a big believer in buying one thing that does its intended job well over something else that does 4 different things not so well. Learned from kitchen appliances, but carried over into everything else.

[daniele_ut]

I had 2 NICU babies and never used a movement monitor but I did consider buying one with the second. Not to confuse you more, but if I were buying one today I'd probably buy the Snuza over the Angelcare.

http://www.amazon.com/Snuza-Halo-Bab.../dp/B002ITOC7S

We also haven't used a video monitor before but I have a climber on my hands and I'm worried he's going to be climbing out of his crib. I really don't want to spend $200+ on a dedicated video monitor for him so I've been thinking about using a Foscam wi-fi camera and an iPhone app, as detailed here:

http://teachmeios.com/audio-video-ba...ni-ipod-touch/