What is a Nanny Cam?

Did you hire juvenile daycare to watch over your baby while you and your spouse are out on the town?Do you not get comfortable with her yet?  Perhaps you want to know what is going on with your babysitter while you are away.  A nanny cam is a perfect tool to use to keep a close, watchful eye on her.

A nanny cam is simply a hidden camera.  In general, the camera is hidden behind a dark class plate or plastic face plate of a stereo boom box or alarm clock.You can place this camera anywhere in your house, and usually the stereo will work normally in case the babysitter wants to turn it on.

The stereo boom box is advantageous in that is can operate on batteries with no direct connection to an outlet.  The disadvantage of it is that they do not have a video cassette recorder (VCR) hooked up to it.  In order to record using a nanny cam, one must connect a transmitter to the video output of the camera to a VCR.  If hiding the cable between the two machines is not possible, then you must use what is known as a wireless transmitter to transmit the signal to the VCR.

One can purchase them on the internet for less that $400.  These cameras can be positioned in just about any household item.  Nanny cams come available in smoke detectors, wall clocks, alarm clocks, and VCR’s.

If you choose to hook up a nanny cam to a VCR, keep in mind that the VCR can record no more than six hours at “super long playing” or SLP as it is called in electronics lingo.

With increasing sales of digital video recorders (DVR’s), VCR’s are taking a backseat not only to providing entertainment but also for recording your favorite TV shows.  DVR’s are better than VCR’s in that DVR’s contain more memory with which to making a recording using the nanny cam.  Those six hour time frames that VCR’s have are obsolescent as DVR’s take digital recording with nanny cams to new heights.