Periscope Pro App Reviews

Works often but not always. Sometimes you will get a frame freeze that will only be discovered until you stop recording. 20+ hours of a single frozen frame recorded. Also file sizes are so random. Sometimes you will get one unbroken file that is 50gb, other times you will get 100+ 5-100mb files. Can’t be trusted as a reliable security tool.

Looked good but wasnt able to make it work with my FI8620

This app is pretty good. The only problem is that it makes false positives for me -- lots of saved videos where nothing really happens. However, now that old videos are automatically pruned, I dont have to look at all the generated videos unless I actually get burgled.

I have two problems. If I leave it on CONTINUOUS recording it works great but it does not let me change the folder that the clips are saved to. The program reverts back to the original folder on every restart. If I leave it on MOTION CAPTURE, the program crashes after a few hours. I cant figure out any reason why it would happen. Oh yeah…one more problem….Contacting support about any of these issues gets you NO RESPONSE AT ALL. Either on the message board or email or the contact us button on their site. If my issues are resolved I’ll update my review. If this review is not updated…nothing has been resolved.

Sorry to say that no matter how low i set the sensivity of my camera, PeriscopePro will still think that motion is going on when nothing is moving at all and start recording. PeriscopePro is not usable in this mode ...

This is a gimmicky snap and post app. Its pretty much like Apples PhotoBooth app . Any app of this kind, especially branded, as this one is, to help you catch a thief, etc would have to have remote console where you could turn it on or off while away from the computer or take remote pictures or video. The only way this thing can help you catch a thief is if you keep it turned on forever, taking pictures everyday and wiping out your dropbox account in no time. I would suppose that Activate on Login will work on a Guest login which the thief will use until he erases the computer … since he/she doesnt know my password. You dont want to shell out so much money and buy an app you will never really use.

Theres often times I get that feeling someone has been through my apartment, but I havent had any way to know for sure until now. Periscope Pro is an easy way to monitor an area using your Mac and a webcam. Settings and adjustments are straightforward--youll be up and running within minutes of installing the software. Syncing video clips to your DropBox makes for a secure off-site record of any action Periscope Pro catches. If I have any complaint with the software, it is that it is too sensitive, recording clips when there isnt any real motion. To be fair, this is more likely due to the type of webcam I am using combined with positioning of the webcam. With some trial and adjustments Im sure I will get this in control as well. I had no installation problems with my Mac Mini (set up as a HTPC), but did have issues with my mid-2012 Retina MacBook Pro. The developer was prompt and helpful in responding to my support request regarding the MacBook Pro, and we were able to find a working solution. If you arent sure about committing to the $19.99 price tag, check out the developers web site where a version with a trial option is available. But really, for this price you have nothing to lose and peace of mind to gain.

I love that this is motion activated. Its way more advanced and easy to use than other stand-alone units that cost so much and dont even include sound recording. The quality is as you would expect from a Mac, which is so much more than any other company.

I wish I found this earlier! Its too bad that amazing app that are actually useful get drowned out by pointless ones. Everyone should get this. Trust me $19.99 is not much to spend when you consider the cost of a robbery or an accident. Its motion activated too so you dont need to worry about draining your hard-drive.

Its great to spy on your cat. Just to make sure he isnt plotting anything while you are asleep. Really great app though. If you are worried about this working throughout the night, dont! I have plenty of cat videos to prove it.

I thought of an app like this, but these guys did a much better job than I could have thought of. They even thought to have dropbox sync.

I use an iMac for a cash register. I just turn it on when we close and feel so much better knowing there is some sort of security system. Periscope pro = $19.99. Ease of mind = priceless.

Wont stay on for a long time... cant leave it on for more than 24 hours w/o crashing... :P its ok when it works... but you want to leave it on for extended period of time...

It seems pricey, but when you think about how much an actual surveillance system would cost, its amazingly cheap! It works really well an meets all my security needs. Definitely recommend you get this.

UPDATED REVIEW: Having now tried the new 1.4 version, I am happy to say the motion detection is working how it should. Also great to see Periscope Pro will now keep working if your screen goes to sleep. Would love to see an alerting function (email to your phone), then it would be 5*. Version 1.1 review: Motion detection just doesnt work. It stays idle for about 2 seconds and starts recording again. If you are synching the files to Dropbox, its going to eat up your mobile data if you have Dropbox on your phone. There is no alert system so you have no idea if the camera is recording or not (just assume it is). The timing of each clip is over ridden by the file size selection. for example, if you select maximum 10 seconds and 5 MB, it will just record until it hits 5MB, even if it takes 1 or 2 minutes to do it. Not really worth the money.

Works as it says, good quality, easy. Id say its worth the price. Nuff said.

one feature dont work in 1.4. "automatically start at login" which affects "activate at launch". the second one works if you do it manually, but if the first one would work, the second one might be able to automatically kick in. this would be useful if the computer restarts, like in a power outage, so that periscope would restart as well. next feature is just not very useful for me. "synchronize video clip folder with drop box" works well, but under one condition-you have to manually stop the application, THEN it uploads your video. if youre away for awhile, you could have 10 incidents recorded but youll never know because it doesnt upload until the app stops. even in idle mode, it wont upload until someone manually presses "stop recording". this is a huge problem for security use. also, if someone steals the computer running the app, then the video may NEVER be uploaded to dropbox and youll potentially never get it, unless the thieves connect to the internet without wiping the computer first. a feature id like to see is some sort of notification when it detects motion/starts recording. theres no mobile app that im aware of, so a text or email alert. drop box doesnt have one either, so you just have to randomly check drop box, but then again, something will only be there if someone has stopped the app. it would also be nice to be able to view the live feed remotely, and right there on the computer running it. you cant do either. its helpful to be able to aim the camera while you look at the feed. other apps offer this, although theyre more complicated to use. otherwise, its very simple to set up and use. if you dont mind any of the above conditons in this version and will be operating it manually, then it will be a solid app for you.

Just installed this app, and after nabbing a video of my sister poking into my room within a half hour, I feel safe saying it works. I’ve read reviews saying the motion detection was broken in earlier versions; if this was the case, I’m happy to say it works perfectly now, and the adjustible sensitivity is marvellous. The DropBox syncing functionality is truly amazing, and with the lowest clip resolution (which is all you really need to nab a portrait of an intruder) I’ve yet to see a test clip come in over 1MB, hardly something that you need to worry about cluttering up your DropBox. Clean it out once a month, and you’ll be fine. A few notes/suggestions though, since there are a few areas that could use improvement: 1) There needs to be an option to disable recording when the computer is awake/unlocked. It seems pointless to store recordings of me sitting at my own computer for hours on end, since I’m fairly active at my desk and trigger the capture quite frequently. 2) In lieu or replacement of the above, perhaps an option to automatically turn it on when the computer is put to sleep. 3) DropBox users should know that if your computer is asleep, the clip won’t be uploaded to the cloud until your computer wakes up. To change this, go into System Preferences -> Energy Saver and set the Computer Sleep timer to Never (the Display Sleep can still be set). This will use more power, but it will prevent the computer from going completely to sleep and terminating network connections.

As I state in the title, Periscope Pro is a very good app. I have only two small quibbles with it: (1) that the motion-detection works ONLY on the full-frame rather than allowing the user to select a small portion of the visible frame to focus on and (2) the Dropbox-sync assumes that the user has their Dropbox folder ONLY in the root of their user folder rather than acknowledging that some users may have placed the Dropbox folder WITHIN the Documents folder (to ensure it picks up the Documents folder’s security permissions). The second quibble re: Dropbox-sync is more minor to me because I’ll point it to a folder within my Dropbox instead. The first quibble, though, is more significant. The field-of-view, based on where my webcam is placed covers approximately 15’ across, from edge-to-edge. In the middle of the frame is a door, which is all I would like the webcam to focus on as opposed to having it monitor motion-detection for the entire field-of-view. I know there are simple three-year-old Windows apps similar to Periscope Pro that allow the selection of a smaller segment to focus on for motion-detection, so would think the same thing should be possible here. Because I have windows opposite the area being monitored, I get a lot of false positives because of moving sunshine and sun-reflections… being able to select just a smaller subset of the full-frame for monitoring, just part of a door for example, would give me all the motion-detection region that’s truly necessary. Users should be able to decide whether they want full-frame motion-detection or just partial-frame motion-detection. I was originally going to post this review about two months ago, a month after I purchased it, but decided against it as I would try going through their customer support instead. I filled out their form and submitted it. I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt AND the opportunity to make it right. However, sadly, I never got a reply from their customer service (and put their email domain in my email’s white-list). Generally, this is a very good app, but these two quibbles keep it from being a truly great app. If and when they either respond or update the app with these improvements, I’ll be glad to post another review.

This app is completely useless. It turns the camera led on when it records so everybody will immediately know that you record him. The app also requires you to be logged in as a user. The settings are very limited and for $20 I would expect a lot more. This is a complete rip-off.