Wisenet SmartCam Reviews

Setting this camera is ridiculously poor and I’m a computer tech/teacher. Setting up/or resetting the camera is a huge problem.

First when calling the Samsung phone number that is listed on their website, the person answering does not understand what you’re asking about and repeatedly saying the wrong product. (I was on a landline.) Next, the tech “support” finally told me to call a different number for the security cameras. Of course that number is “closed” and to call back during “normal” business hours. I’ve tried all different hours to no one ever answering!!! Calling tech support is just about impossible. I’ve never found a time when it’s open but never tells you anything about when to call or what time zone except to “call back during normal business hours” whenever that is is a guess. Nada.
This is very, very, very poor service. Don’t buy one of these cameras!!!!
When it was working, its use was marginally acceptable with many glitches.

I had the previous version of SmartCam from Costco and decided to add one more to the mix (to view our backyard). We also own two Arlo cameras. In purchasing the newer version camera, we were also forced to update the software/app required to view recordings. What a mistake that was! I wish I could downgrade back to the previous software. I am seriously considering returning the new one and dong just that!
Issues:
1. Cannot stream video remotely (previously this was not an issue)
2. Interface is cumbersome and takes time to navigate. When I get a motion detection alert at 2am, a want to be taken straight to the live video, not click around signing in and choosing which camera and answering questions
3. I can't figure out easily how to set the motion detect zone (was very easy in previous version)
4. I can't figure out how to record live video (previous version was just clicking s record button)

Why did Samsung put the screws to loyal customers by forcing them to upgrade to inferior user interface?

My advice to people who have an a previous revision camera is to keep the previous version software, and only run the new camera with the new software (run them as separate apps)

I have 6 of these cameras. I can never load the notification and watch them live on my IPhone 7. I have to constantly resort to logging in and watching it on my husbands Samsung galaxy. Very frustrating especially when we are not together, I have to call him to log in and see what's going on. When I spoke to the customer service they did nothing about it. Uninstalling and reinstalling WisenetSmartCam doesn't do it either. When is this going to be fixed?????

UPDATE: it’s May of 2018 and they have not made any changes and not willing to help. If I’m not connected to WiFi I can NOT VIEW a recorded event at my front door or garage. On my I phone 7. On my husbands Galaxy works flawlessly

WisenetSmartCam has horrid navigation, things are scattered all over the place.

You can’t log onto the website from an iOS device without downloading a plugin which of course won’t plugin, all I wanted to do was read some FAQS in support and see if I can get playback of events to work. I was getting rather confusing error message about concurrent connections which had me concerned that someone was logged into my account. It turns out that the MicroSD was toast, I couldn’t reformat it in the camera, my Mac, or any other device.

In the meantime I bought a D-Link that works with Homekit. Not completely with home kit, you need to use their app to review recorded video; their app too is confusing to use. Anyway, I had to buy a MicroSD card for this camera, my purchase came as a 2 pack. I put the 2nd card into the Samsung camera and it worked, I could review events!

These security camera apps need to be written, or at least designed, by people with good communication skills. People who can design easy to use navigation and write sensical error messages.

I have 2 cameras that were working great using their app. All of a sudden, they stopped working. WisenetSmartCam was not recognizing them and said that they were off line. Both cameras have power. Attempted to remove and re-install them. I did this for over an hour. WisenetSmartCam will not configure them to work.

Started doing some reading and found out that WisenetSmartCam has not been supported ever since they removed the cloud service. Not too sure if they’re getting out of the security camera business or just don’t care about taking care of their customers who supported them by buying their products.

Do yourself a favor. Go elsewhere and stay away from Samsung Smartcam’s and WisenetSmartCam.

**** Update**** Still having the same issues with viewing clips on my cam. I don’t save my videos to the cloud so why would it have to go through their servers and then back to me when I have a 128GB sd card inserted and set to overwrite. I’ve tried countless times to view videos throughout the day with no luck. It comes back with the error “failed to play due to concurrent access or network instability. Please check the network status of your camera and terminal.” I’ve moved the camera close to my router and still said the same thing. I have an older Samsung camera and that works just fine with me being able to viewed stored videos on my sd card.... junk!

Without notice, two days ago I received this notice on my SmartCam+ app (in the frame where the camera video feed used to appear): “The service is no longer supported for this model” Internet searches show WisenetSmartCam auto update in IOS disabled support for my three cameras, effectively killing them. I tried the SmartCam 800 number and an old school answering machine type recording says we’re discontinuing service in the U.S. Samsung’s website lists the cameras but has no articles in its support database, so chat help is empty. No 800 number to call is listed. I learned online the term for this. We’ve been “bricked,” the cameras we bought are now inoperable. Forever. They took our money and ran.

Set up was lengthy but easy. I created my account and could see the cameras from anywhere with wifi or enough data coverage. No problem. I knew this was a cheaper product if compared with D-link, and as such, I wasn’t expecting much. It worked well the first three days, and suddenly, my account showed no cameras registered. Ok, something went wrong. I went through the same set up and pairing process again and could see the cameras back on my iPhone X. Then we went out on vacations. Sure enough, after three days WisenetSmartCam didn’t work again. I logged in my account and couldn’t find any cameras linked to it. Very frustrating.

Update to smartcam+ 2.0 from 1.1.2 is awful: 1) App starts streaming Live View as soon as you open a camera menu. This is a serious data hog now. 2) Event timeline numbers are too small I can't read them on my retina iPad. 3) App no longer shows a list of Event icons, you now need to manually scrub (flick) the extremely long timeline to track down an event and hope you can line it up to play from the beginning. I'm using SNH-V6431BN camera. Samsung support just told me this is how it works now.

UPDATE: Three smartcam+ updates released in 5 days 2.0, 2.01 and 2.02. Software still streams Live automatically ... despite what Samsung tech support 'experts' told me, Event icons are still included with version 2x. The icons became accessible when I turned my iPad vertical. I'm not sure how that escaped the 'experts' why they said the icons were not included in v2.

Overall the system works -- v2 lost some intuitiveness that do not make much sense.

After four months, the camera still works, but WisenetSmartCam fails to recognize the camera. We did the logical thing and deleted and reloaded the Wisenet Smartcam+ app. So far so good, but entering my user name and password triggered a warning that it does not recognize me. Next move is to click the link to send an e-mail so I can create a new password. They never send an e-mail no matter have many times I’ve tried that link. Very frustrating. Next move of desperation is to attempt to log on
as a new customer and create a new set of user ID/password. Ironically, they said “that e-mail address is already registered, select a different one”. Now if they know my e-mail, why can’t they send a reply to me the first time that I requested to create a new password? Unless Samsung comes up with a revised app, my camera is essentially worthless. I now wish we had purchased some other brand.

Smartcam + has some improvements over Smartcam. 1) you can copy recorded video to your phone. Before you had to physically take the sdcard out 2) playback searching is easier - continuous and event recordings are displayed together in a timeline. (Wish there was a way to fast forward at 10x)
Main dislikes: 1) Connectivity is still bad with constant drops on a stable and robust WiFi system. 2) I moved a camera today and it refused to reconnect to the WiFi. I went through the WiFi setup 6 times with no luck. Then I reset the camera (insert paper clip in small hole on side) and tried again. That worked finally. 3). Event alarms are nonstop while someone is in a room. Wish there was a way to be notified once every X mins instead.

I’d NOT recommend this camera/app. I’ve used the camera/app for a year now.

WisenetSmartCam is unstable and frequently, to more often always, crashes when I try to open it to view a recent notification when I’m away from home. It’ll simply abruptly close for no reason.

Also, I’ll click on a video segment of reported activity and it’ll not only not play, but closes.

Additionally, sometimes the camera reports it’s offline/disabled; no idea why as it’s clearly connected in every way that matters.

An annoyance is it picks up movements from outside, which is a floor below and across a courtyard. Bc of this Ive to close all my blinds before leaving; when I forget I get a significant amount of notifications and photos of more/less nothing.

Another failing is the features, one being using the mic or when away, aren’t remotely accessible.

Overall, I don’t feel it’s reliable. It offers very little comfort in regards to security.

Aside from the camera/apps shortcomings, the “security” camera could easily be disabled by unplugging my internet access from the outside junction or my modem. I hadn’t considered this during the time of purchase.

Mostly, a waste of money.

iPhone X & iPad Pro.

I bought 5 SmartCam Pan and Tilt cameras. My Wi-Fi is phenomenal and all my smart devices work almost seamlessly. On the positive side, I get notifications with good sensitivity settings. The negatives, however are that these cameras have reliability issues. I often have to open WisenetSmartCam 3 or 4 times to get to see the camera footage. If I am watching live, it usually times out after a few minutes. Also, the cameras do not consider my mesh network to be one internet connection and I get four different Wi-Fi selections inside my house instead of one w
Wi-Fi.

Yes, the camera works. The apps, however, are not well designed. My password has been...for years...11 digits long. With the last app update, the length was changed to limit the passwords to 8 digits.... The outcome? On this trip, I cannot access my camera because my previously working password no longer works....I can't even change the password because it requires the old password...which it no longer accepts. There is no "email-linked" way to change the password. I am now forced to create a new account which....because I am on a trip...I cannot do because doing so requires physical access to the camera. So now, for this trip, my house is unprotected because I cannot access the video feed without a password.... Dumb, dumb, design.

Camera works good on iPhone 8 with app, but tried to add app to iPad and had trouble getting it to work. Called support and after waiting on hold for a while, the representative was less than helpful and even sounded like I had bothered him by calling. He tells me I don’t know my password when I just had to reset the camera and app with a new router. He tells me I need to start over. I tried to do what he told me to do after I got off the phone, but it didn’t work. Don’t think it’s worth calling back because I’m not sure he would work through the issue with me. If you are a techie, this might be good for you but as a novice, this isn’t worth the hassle. Good luck!

If you have only one camera, it’s fine.

As other users have pointed out, the cameras lose connection often; a minor annoyance requiring the user to attempt to log back in. 90% of the time you can reset the video session remotely using WisenetSmartCam . But 10% of the time, it requires that I physically go reset the camera by unplugging/replugging. Very occasionally (every few months), I have to run back through the entire camera setup, which is a major annoyance.

WisenetSmartCam is incapable of displaying multiple cameras at once. It’s a major downside for anyone installing these for security, or for monitoring children as they play and run throughout the house. By the time you close out of one camera and log into another to follow the activity, the event is over or the kids have moved on. This renders a multi-camera setup virtually useless for real-time monitoring.

It’s 2020; I should be able to passively monitor all of the cameras at once, instead of having to constantly switch camera to camera in an attempt to keep up.

Overall, meh.

1) Why does the SDRAM data have to go through a Samsung server? It should go from my camera to my phone - period!
2) I wish they would fix the Event Schedule function so that it actually works.
3) I'm really tired of getting frequent and various error responses when I try to view a camera (camera disconnected, bad network connection (it's not), concurrent use, etc.).
4) I receive numerous event notifications, in spite of only having a small event zone and the least sensitive trip level. That's why I need the Event Schedule to work; I'm sick of the numerous false alarms at certain times of day.

I have 7 cameras, both outdoor and indoor, in houses in two different countries and this system works generally well. Ability to download video recently added works well, quality is excellent. My major complaints are 1. that there is no ability to reboot a camera using WisenetSmartCam (once in a while I need to unplug and reply manually, but this is rare)and 2. The streaming is very slow specifically on T-mobile cellular networks. Fine on WiFi. After some troubleshooting, it turns out that the ports used by WisenetSmartCam for streaming are specifically blocked by T-Mobile. Speaking to them they admit this and say it is a security issue and say to switch to AT&T. I set up a VPN into my home router and that completely fixed the problem. Now it streams fine over cellular.

Attention Samsung - maybe each camera should have its own app. Instead of having one app that supports multiple cams. WisenetSmartCam would be the same because t just different name to accommodate each model. Cause this low rating must be coming from other cams and not the one I’m using. I’ve used many cams and this one is superior. I’ve had foscam, Amaryllo, iSmartAlarm,insteon. I’m using the $200 pan & tilt SNH-V6410PN. I have cox cable internet 15mb speeds. I have the cameras in the same room as my router. And I have extenders at my house for WiFi dead spots thus I could move these cams anywhere in the house. These cameras are great and seems so under rated. The price is not high or low considering other manufacturers prices.

The camera and app will ONLY WORK IF YOU USE THE INCLUDED 2 AMP plug. So don’t think because your phone connector is the same you can use that to quick test .. If you use the proper items included ... It works A+

I’m sure half of these issues are due to laziness .... everything works over my phones hotspot And the home WiFi in case I want to take it to a hotel room to check in.

So this may not be the Perfect App, but everything works. And works better than most cameras at this price range such as two way talk and motion.