VTech Audio/Video Doorbell Answering System (IS7121-2)

Pros Quick installation. Clear phone communications. Handsets double as walkie-talkies.

Cons No pan or tilt controls. Washed out picture. Poor low light image quality. Bottom Line The VTech Video Doorbell is a cordless phone system that doubles as a front door video surveillance system. It's a cool concept that's fairly easy to install but its usefulness is limited by its low-res camera and lack of pan or tilt controls.

By John R. Delaney

There are few things more annoying than having to stop what you're doing to answer the doorbell only to find it's either a pushy salesman or yet another visit from the folks down at the Kingdom Hall. Knowing who is ringing that buzzer can not only save you the hassle of dealing with door-to-door solicitors, it can help prevent a worst case scenario, such as a home intrusion. If you don't have the finances for a decent multi-camera home surveillance system like Dropcam Pro, there are alternatives.

The folks at VTech, best known for their affordable home phone systems, have recently introduced the Audio/Video Doorbell Answering System IS7121-2 ($119.95 list), a hybrid cordless phone system that includes two telephone handsets and a doorbell unit with a built-in camera and microphone. Billed as caller ID for your front porch, the IS71721-2 provides a live video feed from your front door and takes a snapshot of whomever has come a-calling, but the use of a low-end camera limits what you'll see when the bell rings and the camera angle is too narrow. On the plus side, it's a snap to install and functions flawlessly as a cordless phone system.

Design and Features
The IS7121-2 contains two handsets, a base receiver, a charger for the second handset, a doorbell with a built-in video camera and microphone, alkaline batteries, an AC transformer for the camera, rechargeable batteries for the handsets, and mounting hardware. The doorbell measures 4.7 by 1.9 by 1.5 inches (HWD) and is black with a silver doorbell button in the center of the faceplate. Above the button are a camera, two night vision infrared LEDs, and an LED indicator that lights up when the doorbell has been rung. To the right of the doorbell button is a small embedded microphone and below the button are a speaker and a silver VTech logo.

The back panel of the doorbell unit contains a gasket to keep the internal compartment dry. Here is where you can install two AA batteries to power the doorbell. You can opt to attach the transformer wires if you want to power the unit from an AC outlet, but it just complicates an otherwise easy install process and requires drilling holes and running wire to the doorbell from an outlet inside the home. The only advantage to this option is having the ability to initiate a video session via a handset (while operating on batteries, only ringing the doorbell can initiate a video session). You can also use existing doorbell wiring to have both the VTech doorbell and your existing doorbell ring simultaneously.

A lever in the rear compartment lets you manually adjust the camera lens angle up, down, left, or right. This is fine if everybody who rings the doorbell is the same height, but since you only get an 18-inch vertical viewing angle from the lens you'll only see the top of shorter people's heads or the chest area of taller people (depending on how you set the camera angle). For example, I was able to see my six-foot-tall neighbor's face when he rang the bell, but my shorter 10 year old had to jump up to be seen. Having the ability to change the lens angle remotely is a must for this camera to be truly effective.

The base station cradle offers all of the features you'd expect from a typical home phone system including digital message recording (up to 14 minutes), caller ID, call waiting, speakerphone, and speed dial. You can store up to 50 entries in the Directory and use the remote message retrieval feature to play messages from the road.

The handset is 7.5 inches long and has a rounded back and a glossy black faceplate with silver trim. There's a 1.1 by 1.4 inch color LCD screen at the top, two soft keys below the screen, five buttons in the middle (view, volume up/down, talk, off), and a number pad on the bottom with mute, speakerphone, and redial buttons. On the right side is a PTT (push-to-talk) button that also takes a snapshot while the handset is in video mode. The number pad offers blue LED backlighting.

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Avira Rescue System

Pros Bootable rescue system scans and removes malware even when you can't boot Windows. To avoid causing problems, scanner doesn't meddle with essential Windows files. System includes browser, Registry editor, file manager, and Linux terminal.

Cons Full scan completely disabled one test system. Tech support not available to help recover disabled system. So-so cleanup scores. Bottom Line The bootable Avira Rescue System will scan and clean malware even when you can't boot Windows, though I expected a more thorough cleanup than I got. Beware; if its cleanup disables your computer, as it did one of my test computers, you'll have to fix the problem yourself.

By Neil J. Rubenking

When malware has taken over your computer and barred you from its resources, it's a little late to start thinking about installing an antivirus utility. Even in less extreme cases, entrenched malware may interfere with antivirus installation or scanning. The free, cleanup-only Avira Rescue System has no problem with Windows-centric malware, because it boots into a custom Ubuntu distro in order to perform its scan. The product does have some limitations, though, and its "repair" rendered one system unusable.

To get started, you download the ISO image and burn it to CD on a clean computer. Then simply boot the problem computer from the CD. The Rescue System loads quickly and its Welcome page immediately offers to scan for problems. Just pick which partitions to scan (typically you'll choose all of them) and set the scan running.

Success, or Not
The antivirus scan takes care of problems as it finds them, so, once it's finished, it's finished. I did note that on almost half of my test systems it reported "The wizard was not finished successfully," and advised checking the scan report. From the report I gathered that the scanner doesn't meddle with malware-infected Windows files, or with files in certain sensitive areas. That does makes some sense, as too-aggressive "fixing" can disable Windows altogether.

For testing purposes, I saved a copy of the scan report to the actual C: drive. I did need to do a little Linux research to figure out where I'd find access to the computer's actual file system. After noting which malware samples were found and saving the report, I rebooted each system back to normal Windows.

Permanent Collateral Damage
Despite the product's attempts to avoid damaging important files, the scan rendered one test system unbootable. Similar to what happened with Panda Cloud Cleaner, the test system went into an loop, logging on and logging off again endlessly.

I booted back into Avira Rescue System and checked my tech support options. There's a very nice built-in support system that includes a variety of access choices; I opted for live chat.

The support agent was very polite, but made it clear that only licensed users of Avira products are entitled to tech support. The agent suggested I install a trial of one of the products; that would get me into the system. Of course, with no ability to boot into Windows I couldn't install anything.

In the end the agent confirmed that even though Avira Rescue System trashed my test PC, the company wouldn't take responsibility for solving the problem. Perhaps I should have read the very first screen more closely; it did say "repairing a system might lead to data loss or damage."

Scanning and cleaning a computer with the Rescue System was wonderfully quick and easy. Under other circumstances, that would have been a five-star installation experience. However, when a product kills your PC in order to cure it, that's a really poor experience. Like Panda Cloud Cleaner, Avira Rescue System earns no stars at all in this category.

Not Directly Lab-Tested
My own tests offer real-world hands on experience, but the big independent testing labs perform a broader range of tests than I can manage. Note, though, that while most of the labs test Avira's technology, they're not testing the Rescue System product itself, so the results aren't directly applicable.

ICSA Labs certifies Avira's technology for virus detection and cleaning; Avira doesn't participate with West Coast Labs. In all of the recent tests by Virus Bulletin, Avira has received VB100 certification.

AV-Comparatives awarded Avira its highest rating, ADVANCED+, in both a simple on-demand scanning test and a retrospective test that attempts to measure detection of zero-day malware. In the company's real-world dynamic test, Avira rated ADVANCED. As for the threefold evaluation performed by AV-Test, Avira scored 12.5 of a possible 18 in the last two tests. That's a bit low. Bitdefender got 17 points both times, and Kaspersky averaged 15.8.

For a more in-depth description of the labs and the tests they perform, see How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.

Avira Rescue System lab tests chart

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Tivoli Music System BT

Pros Slick, retro-infused design. Smooth, punchy, and airy sound quality. Dual independent alarms. Plenty of source options for listening to music.

Cons Very expensive. Sound quality, while quite good, is well off-pace given the high price tag. Flimsy-feeling remote. Distorts at high volumes on tracks with deep bass. Bottom Line The Tivoli Music System BT is a decent wireless speaker for the well-heeled vintage stereo enthusiast, and it's certainly well designed, but you can get significantly better sound for $700.

By Jamie Lendino

Tivoli has been making good-looking audio products for years now. The Music System BT ($699.99 direct) continues that tradition, as it echoes a decades-old tabletop radio with built-in stereo speakers. It's also modernized, thanks to its oversized blue LED display, Bluetooth capability, and integrated, downward-firing subwoofer driver. If you're not super-picky about sound quality, the Music System BT could be all the stereo system you need. But while it sounds quite good, it's simply way overpriced.

Design, Setup, and Features
The Music System BT is based on an earlier Tivoli design from the mid-2000s, except now with Bluetooth capability. It's pretty substantial, measuring 5.38 by 14.13 by 9.5 inches (HWD) and weighing 13 pounds. You can get it in walnut with a beige faceplate, cherry with a metallic taupe faceplate (like our review unit), or black ash with a silver faceplate. Our test unit was well crafted, but not any more so than Tivoli's venerable $150 Model One radio.

There are plenty of controls on the speaker. Above the oversized display is a slot-loading CD player that works with CDs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs, MP3 CDs, and WMA CDs. Surrounding the display are Clock and Sleep buttons on the left, and Alarm 1 and Alarm 2 buttons on the right. Below that is a multi-mode plastic dial that clicks nicely as you turn it in either direction. To the left of the knob are Source, Display, and six radio preset buttons. To the right are Audio, Power, Play/Pause, Track Skip, Track Seek, and Stop buttons.

The dual independent alarms work with the top-mounted Snooze button, which is easy to find by feel and also doubles as a Mute button. A 3.5mm headphone jack sits at the bottom left corner of the front panel. On the back is a large knob that controls the built-in subwoofer level, plus 3.5mm Aux In, Mix In, and Rec Out ports, plus connections for the included AM and FM antennas, and a switch that lets you hook in an external FM antenna.

The remote is a flat, dark gray slab with a large number of membrane buttons. In addition to the usual controls, you can also set the alarms and sleep modes, adjust the audio and display, and snooze from the remote control. A costly system like this should come with a more substantial remote.

Before you get started, you must also insert the two included AA batteries into the small compartment on the back panel of the speaker; they power a memory function for the clock, alarms, radio presets, and other settings in case the power goes out.

Since this is a Bluetooth speaker, you can pair it with any phone, tablet, or otherwise compatible device and listen to your music collection. You can also fire up an app like Pandora, Slacker, or Spotify and listen to Internet radio and streaming music. Still, I would have liked to see an integrated streaming radio capability of some kind. Also, there's no AirPlay support, which is becoming less of a deal-breaker these days but still surprising on such an expensive system. Pairing took two tries, but otherwise, I had no problem streaming music from an iPhone 5.

Performance and Conclusions
The speaker contains three drivers: two front-firing, 3-inch full-range cones, and a downward-firing 5-inch woofer. As is typical for the company, Tivoli doesn't disclose much in the way of specifications, such as how powerful the amplifiers are or the system's frequency response with plus or minus decibel figures.

Overall, the Music System BT sounds pleasant, airy, and detailed with all kinds of music. It's a nice sound that's easy to listen to, and with the illusion of more stereo separation than you would expect once you engage its SpacePhase Wide mode. In my tests, Muse's "Resistance" sounded smooth and powerful, especially with the rear bass knob turned up a notch. Ani DiFranco's acoustic guitar work in "Knuckle Down" was powerful and energetic, and you get a good sense of the wood body and the space she recorded in through the Music System BT. Depeche Mode's "Suffer Well" had plenty of punch, if not quite enough low-end extension.

On our standard bass test track, The Knife's "Silent Shout," the Music System BT distorted a bit at high volumes, but generally sounded clean once I backed off a bit. It also delivered a nice, tight, punchy kick that was well separated from the bass synth, despite the fact that the two inhabit nearly the same frequency ranges. Thanks to the separate subwoofer driver, once the high arpeggiated synthesizer kicked in, it was smooth and clear at that volume even with the pulsing kick.

Aside from the remote, using the system itself is a pleasure. The display and controls are easy to understand once you get the hang of what each one does. The Display button, for example, toggles RDS scrolling text for radio stations, and CD scrolling text for CDs in the appropriate Source mode. The tuner works well and sounds clear and full. To adjust treble, you press the center knob. To set each alarm, you hold the appropriate Alarm button in for a few seconds, then set the time and the source it's going to play. The display updates slowly—you can see it "paint" the numbers and letters as it refreshes each time—but I got used to it quickly.

The single largest problem with this system is its cost. At $700, Tivoli is asking several hundred dollars more than Bose's tabletop radio, and Bose isn't known for its budget pricing to begin with. In terms of pure sound quality, at this price, there are plenty options that deliver more detail, punch, volume, and sheer transparency. Two favorites immediately come to mind: The Bluetooth-and-AirPlay-compatible Cambridge Audio Minx Air 200 delivers thunderous bass and smoothly detailed sound compared to the Tivoli, and for $100 less, while the AirPlay-only Bowers & Wilkins A7 is also much more powerful and detailed-sounding.

With either the Minx Air 200 or the A7, you don't get the Tivoli's AM/FM tuner, slot-loading CD player, or dual alarm clocks. But you can get all of those things with a separate iHome or Philips product for under $100, and you get a much better-sounding system otherwise. Finally, on the lower end, our Editors' Choice Bluetooth speaker remains the portable, well-designed Bose SoundLink Bluetooth Mobile Speaker II, which offers roughly equivalent sound and punch, if slightly less bass extension and left-right dispersion, for less than half the price.

I wanted to really like the Music System BT, because the vintage aesthetic appeals to me, and because I suspect many more people still listen to CDs and AM/FM radio than the tech press realizes. At $400, I'd have little reservation recommending it. At $700, though, it's way too expensive for what is otherwise a pleasant-sounding and attractive tabletop radio.

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