Customer Reviews:
 Doesn't work on WiFi July 26, 2008
Perhaps I just got a bad one, but after six hours of trying, I could never get it working on WiFi. Wired is fine. Not WiFi. Yet I have several other IP Cams (Toshiba, D-Link) plus many other devices (PC, MacBook, Nokia phone, several laptops, Nokia tablet, iPhone, etc) working on the wireless.
Panasonic's support FAQ doesn't even have a single hit for the BL-C131A. But since I do this type of stuff every day, I either got a bad unit or they have some serious compatibility woes. Buyer beware.
 Almost useful July 25, 2008
This camera has decent quality components for adequate image quality, and capable motion sensing that includes versatile scheduling options, but it is hobbled with several usability omissions.
While it includes the ability to schedule motion detection, which the Linksys WVC200 sorely lacks, and does allow ftp transfers of video when triggered, it surprisingly omits an option to email a video file, only allowing email of a single image, (not even several images per email). That falls short of the WVC200, which can email an MPEG-4 clip when triggered. Another seemingly obvious oversight is the inability to turn off all activity lights. While there's an option to turn off the power light, it completely ignores control of the light that blinks when it is supposed to inconspicuously detect motion.
As another reviewer wrote, the author of the manual is clearly not a native English speaker, which prompts the question of why a company the size of Panasonic couldn't run it by anyone state side, who would have immediately caught things like: "Encryption is a help to avoid being read the data within wireless LAN by others." and more. Finally the bundled software only includes a Web based monitor, (which seems to require repeated installations of the ActiveX applets for MPEG-4 and MJPEG players), while the Linksys supplies a fully functional desktop monitor application, with recording schedules and archive playback, (but no scheduled motion detection), although only for a PC.
Non-PC users might find this among their better options as it does function, (without audio), in non-IE browsers, including Safari, and Panasonic has far better tech support than Linksys, but PC users might find a better interface in the Linksys.
Wireless doesn't work well July 25, 2008
The whole reason why I bought these were to set up a wireless system around my house... I have yet to get the wireless portion to work any further than 5ft away from the router. Instead I've had to hardwire everything, which works great, but defeats the whole purpose of having wireless. Pan and tilt function is good, allowing you to move camera postion from a web browser... anywhere online! Bad low light res... if you want a night camera, don't get this one. All-in-all, if you're looking for something to keep an eye on things around the house, indoors... with the lights on, then this is a good camera to have.
 A very useful device July 18, 2008
I like the camera, it's the kind of appliance that you buy, install, and use. It doesn't come back bothering you with trouble shooting or re-installation.
I like the built-in HTTP server, the website service provided by Panasonic seemed to be discontinued, but it was relative easy for me to change its port number and use port forwarding on my router.
It's a little pricey, but the quality is good, my installation was mostly smooth, except a minor delay because of a typo I made in my wireless network name.
 Works Great and Smooth Setup July 15, 2008
Was a little skeptical when I bought this just because I have not had very good experiences with "networked" hardware except for the basic wireless access setup. But to my surprise and relief, this was a very well designed product paired with smart software. It took me about 1hr to get it fully setup and ready to play. It has an ok internal memory buffer (think it holds only about 100 or so images at 640x480), I do wish it had a little more memory. But I setup an ftp server on my PC and it now just sends the images continuously back to my PC so I can either archive them or make them into a movie! This experience has definitely put Panasonic on my "must consider" list for consumer electronic products.
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