Update: (6/11/21)We have reached the 28 month mark of having this baby monitor and it has officially gotten to the point of having to buy a new monitor. The charging port on the monitor has been giving us issues for about two months now. I've been having to use a hair tie to keep the cable at just the right angle or it won't charge and finally as of yesterday even with two hair ties and lots of fiddling I could only get it to charge with one specific cable at just the right angle. (I know it's not the cables because I have charged other devices with those cables just fine.) We got the new monitor in today and it paired with the old camera just fine. The new one has a different charging port (not USB) so hopefully this one won't end up with the same problem that the last one had. Overall I would still highly recommend this monitor. It took a lot of abuse in the 28 months we used it and the monitor itself never got any cracks or visible damage the only issue was the charging port which will hopefully be resolved with the change that they made. I've included pictures of the old monitor and the new one so you can see how well the case has done over the 28 months of use.We have been using this monitor for fifteen months at this point and it is still going strong the only issue that I’ve had so far has been that the original rechargeable battery stopped holding a charge about a month ago. The good news is if this happens to you, you can replace the battery for a grand total of twelve dollars and some change after taxes.So, let’s get into it. Why do I and so many others love this baby monitor so much?Pros:Video QualityThe video quality on this monitor is amazing, both the night and daytime are high enough quality that if I focus in on my son’s stomach I can see him breathing while he sleeps even with the camera about a foot above the rail of his crib. The fact that the night vision quality is so good was a huge plus for me because the majority of the monitors use was and still is for when he’s sleeping which means the lights are off and it’s dark in his room.Signal RangeThe signal range is great. We have a two-story house and the master bedroom is on the ground floor while the other bedrooms are upstairs. This means that the camera is always upstairs while most of the time the monitor is downstairs. Our master is on the opposite corner of the house from our son’s room and we don’t lose signal when in the bedroom.Temperature Sensor With a two-story house the battle to keep the downstairs and the upstairs equally comfortable feels never ending. During the winter trying to keep the downstairs warm enough that we weren’t piled under blankets all day occasionally meant that the upstairs got a little warmer than intended. Being able to glance over at the monitor and see that it was getting warmer in our son’s room than would be comfortable even while we were downstairs meant we knew when to go upstairs and turn on his fan or close his vent to keep him from getting too hot.Battery LifeThe monitor comes with a rechargeable battery and we usually get four to five hours before we are down to one bar and need to start charging. We do get the ten hours that they claim it gets is if the video display is turned off because that’s about the length of time it has lasted on the nights I’ve forgotten to plug it in before going to sleep which is the only time we turn off the display when the monitor is on.DurabilityI’m going to be perfectly honest with y’all I’m a massive klutz, the trip on a completely flat surface kind of klutz and I have the bruises on my legs to prove it. On top of that I’m also a butter fingers (there’s a reason that every smart phone I’ve ever owned has always had a durable case) I drop things a lot. Including this monitor and even on two occasions the camera itself. The monitor has been dropped on carpet, tile and hardwood, it’s been knocked off counters and tables. It has survived fifteen months of my klutziness and still works just as well today as it did when I first turned it on. The camera has been knocked off of a foldable tray table twice onto a hard wood floor while vacationing at my parents house and has been knocked off of the crib by both me and my son onto the carpet on three occasions and still works just as well as it did when first turned on. Neither the monitor nor the camera has any dents or visible damage to them.Talk Back FunctionThis monitor lets you talk through it to whoever is in the room. Right now, we don’t really use this feature a lot unless my husband and I are trying to scare each other or be goofy. Despite living in a two-story house it’s pretty easy to just yell down and be heard by the other person plus if one of us is in the room the monitor is typically off. I do thing that as my son gets older and can communicate better we will probably make more use of this feature as it will be a great way to communicate with him without having to yell if we’re unable to get upstairs right away.Audio QualityThe audio quality on this is really good. Our sound machine is across the room from the crib and we never turn it up really loud but you can still hear it after turning the volume up to only two, which is typically where it stays for us. If you have the video display turned off the sound still comes through loud and clear and they even have light indicators on the side that light up green through red when noise is detected depending on the volume level detected.Low Battery and No Signal AlarmsThis monitor also features an alarm that you can turn off or on that will beep if the battery is critically low or the monitor loses signal. The alarm has a high and low setting, personally I find the low setting to be more than loud enough, it’s woken me up in the middle of the night to tell me that the battery was dying when I forgot to plug it in on several occasions.Remote Pan/TiltYou can pan and tilt the camera remotely with the monitor and the range is excellent. We currently have our camera mounted to the wall about a foot above the crib at the corner and the camera can pan and tilt to cover the entire crib, so our son is never out of sight.Cons:Signal InterferenceOne issue that I’ve noticed with this monitor is that you cannot have it next to a laptop or game controller without it losing the signal. If I’m on my laptop or playing a game I have to make sure that the monitor is on the side that is closest to my son’s room and it’s about a foot away from either electronic and the antenna is up or it constantly loses it’s signal. This is isn’t a major issue for me since the solution is as easy as never have a laptop or game controller between the camera and the monitor.Occasional Signal Loss in Master BedroomOur master bedroom is on the first floor catty corner to our son's room so it is the farthest location in our house from the camera which also makes it the place where we tend to have the weakest signal (typically three or four bars rather than five) and the occasional loss of signal. It doesn't happen very often and is usually fixed by simply raising the antenna and moving the monitor a little further away from my cell phone, which is charging on the nightstand near it. As I noted above laptops and game controllers can have an effect on the signal so it's possible that my phone is a part of the issue but it doesn't seem to affect the monitor at other times so I do think distance is the main factor. Again, this isn't a constant problem and has always been easily solved in the past so for me it's not a deal breaker.That’s it, that’s literally the only complaints I have about this monitor and I definitely plan on buying another camera to use for the next baby we eventually have.InfantOptics is one of the best manufacturers of baby monitors. This is the second InfantOptics system I've owned, and I've been reasonably pleased with both the DXR-5 and now this DXR-8. That's not to say that they are perfect (hence, this not being a five-star review), but I believe they generally meet the needs of most parents with babies and young children around.Let's start with what this system is. The InfantOptics DXR-8 is a closed, standalone color video baby monitoring system. The default package comes with one camera and a dedicated receiver. When you unpack the system, you plug in both the camera and the receiver to pair them. This is a pretty straightforward process. If you bought additional cameras, those can be paired now or at a later time, as needed. From there, you can view a specific camera or rotate through them in a loop, spending a few seconds on each camera before moving on.The receiver UI is pretty easy to use, but there are a couple of shortcuts called out in the manual that make certain functions faster/easier than paging through the menus (e.g. changing the volume).The color reproduction is reasonable in well-lit conditions, but don't expect an HD picture. Then again, it's not like you're watching TV on this thing. You just want to be able to see whether Junior is sleeping or playing, and hopefully not climbing up the furniture. There's also a night-vision IR mode enabled by default which provides a grayscale image when it's dark. Any motion will be a bit jerky regardless, as the frame-rate isn't terribly high.The volume can get pretty loud for noisier situations, and is controlled by the receiver globally--not for each camera, which is a good thing. For those coming from the DXR-5, you may miss the "Vox" feature, where the receiver would auto-mute the audio when it was below a certain decibel. That feature is not available on the DXR-8. I found it a bit annoying at first, especially since I had the camera plugged in near a sound machine, so there was constant sound coming over the speaker. I got used to it eventually, but it's still what I would call a minor annoyance.One change in the DXR-8 line that I did appreciate was the ability to separately control the "alert" volume for events like "low battery" and "lost camera signal." The DXR-5 would emit highly alarming beeps when those events occurred, which were rather startling. The DXR-8 allows you to disable those beeps altogether, or set them to either a low or high volume level, which is much more palatable. The beeps themselves are somehow more pleasant as well and not quite as jarring.I haven't used the interchangeable lens feature of these cameras beyond playing with it a bit upon setting things up for the first time. I didn't need the included zoom lens. There is an additional wide-angle lens available for purchase, which would've been nice in my case where I had two children sharing a room, but I didn't care to spend the extra cash to purchase it. Since the cameras support panning and tilting, I just focused the camera on the child I primarily wanted to see and then just spun the camera around if I wanted to see something else. I do wish the lens supported zoom rather than needing to physically attach the desired type, but I'm sure that wasn't included in order to keep costs at a reasonable level.The DXR-8 cameras also have temperature sensors included, which is nice so you can ensure your children aren't freezing during the winter. You can view the temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit, but switching between them is another one of those special shortcuts you'll need to know. (IIRC, you hold the "OK" button to switch temperature units.)As I said, I'm quite happy with this system and would generally recommend it to other parents. I was upgrading from the DXR-5, and I did research other options in both the "baby monitor" and "home surveillance" (e.g. Nest, Arlo, etc) categories before deciding on the DXR-8.I will also say that the InfantOptics customer service is excellent--second to none. Any time I've called them, I generally get a human that picks up within seconds. I can't ever remember waiting. I haven't needed to call often either--the systems have been very reliable overall. In one instance, my DXR-8 receiver stopped working suddenly. I was well outside the warranty period of my purchase, and the company offered me a one-time courtesy replacement free of charge! I was not expecting this when I called, even though I knew there might be a hardware issue. I appreciate a customer support team that wants to ensure their customers are totally satisfied with the product.I do want to point out a few caveats (and the reasons that I only give this four stars vs. five).First, let's talk about connectivity. The system uses a closed-loop signal that does not connect to WiFi. That's an important distinction of which potential buyers should be aware. On the one hand, that means your camera setup isn't internet-accessible, so it can't be hacked and accessed by someone halfway around the world. If anyone were to gain access (which is highly unlikely), they'd pretty much have to be sitting in your driveway. On the other hand, that means you personally need the dedicated receiver in order to see your child. Personally, I wish that InfantOptics had chosen to use WiFi as the connectivity medium so that the cameras could be accessed via PC or mobile app in addition to their dedicated receivers. Again--this is probably a cost / complexity tradeoff, so I get why they didn't. But...it would be nice.There are a few issues with the hardware. For one, the firmware on the units doesn't seem to be user upgradable, so if bugs are found after you receive the unit, there's no way to apply fixes. I've run into a few bugs with my unit (both the old DXR-5 as well as this DXR-8). There have been occasions where the system froze and needed to be recycled (e.g. battery pulled). There've also been times when the receiver wouldn't turn on while being plugged in, and needed to be unplugged before starting up. Weird stuff like that. Nothing that would be a deal-breaker by any means, but definitely things that probably got fixed by the firmware team at InfantOptics and I would've loved to install.The receiver also feels a bit sluggish when switching cameras or navigating through menus, etc. I don't know whether that's a software performance problem or just limitations of the hardware. Again--it doesn't really bother me, but is just something to be aware of.In terms of power, the DXR-8 cameras use a round, semi-proprietary connector. If you bought the system prior to 2019, the receiver used a Micro-USB cable for its power, which was fairly nice, because many people have plenty of Micro-USB cables lying around. In 2019, InfantOptics changed the receiver to also use the round connector. I really don't understand this, given the recent spread of USB-C as the universal standard for charging and connectivity. In my opinion, moving everything to USB-C is a no-brainer.Overall, there are few minor annoyances: the UX isn't as polished/refined as it could be, there's no zoom option beyond manually swapping lenses, there's no auto-mute option for audio, and there's no internet connectivity (which may be a plus, depending on your perspective).In conclusion, the DXR-8 system is very good, but might not be for everyone. I hope this review will help you make the right purchase. I can't imagine anyone being unhappy with the InfantOptics system, but just be aware of the limitations.Happy monitoring!The monitor itself came quickly and on time, was easy to set up and works very well. The range is excellent and that was one of the main reasons we decided on this monitor. The only issue I would like to flag is that if you buy this in Canada, the warranty is not done by Infant Optics, even though you register it with them. I contacted them after the screen went faulty and was told to send it back to them, this was after sending them the receipt which clearly stated I was a customer based in Canada, but once it got to organising the new unit to be sent I was told they can not under any circumstances ship Internationally........ Apparently it does state this in the Warranty, so that is my fault for not reading all of that but to be honest I normally check how long the Warranty is for and that's it..I'm unsure what the repair and return process is for Canada, it might work through a 3rd party but just wanted you to beware that it is not with Infant Optics and therefore you might want to factor this into your buying decision. I'm now 2 weeks into this and been without the monitor for this period of time which is not good, I'm now at the point of having a new one shipped to a friend who will then ship this on to me.To conclude though, we were impressed with this product until this point, the screen has broken within 10 months and the hassle of getting exchanged means I would struggle to recommend this product anymore.Used this monitor through 2 under 2, with two cameras in each room. Battery life was good, screen resolution was good and I could talk through it if I needed to. What's better is that it does not go through wifi so it won't go in and out (we had the Nest cam and holy crap it was a headache and waste of time). It also tells you the temperature of the room, which was very important to me one summer when we didn't have AC installed yet.These two monitor were in our budget, so we bought them both to try out. The volume is nearly twice as loud on the Infant Optics. When it comes to monitoring a baby and NOT as a security camera, audio is much more important than video. We need to be alerted when our baby cries, and no one looks at the screen 24-7 but we do LISTEN to our baby 24-7. If we have the TV on, we would barely hear our baby scream on the VAVA unless the monitor was right next to us. The Infant Optics wins by a far margin on this one.Another reason why I would choose the DXR-8 over the VAVA is because of signal connection. Using both side by side, we haven’t had any dropouts on the DXR-8, but we have had nights where the VAVA would ‘lose signal’ for no reason.We don’t need a big screen to watch over our child. This isn’t to serve as an 9” iPad where we watch 4K movies or play mobile games on. We just need to make sure our baby is OK, and the DXR-8 does just the job in a nice little package.This one is a keeper!We absolutely love this camera and monitor. Controls are simple to use, picture and sound is great. Able to move camera to many angles. We are looking forward to purchasing a second camera to use when we have our next child and will use the scan feature to be able to watch both together. Highly Recommend!I was hesitant to buy this due to the warranty not being valid in Canada (for once I purchased the separate amazon warranty) but I'm glad we did as we are very happy with it. Our overall impression is of a very premium product. We were impressed with the little touches like the extra charger. It's easy to use and does what it is supposed to. We haven't had any use for the wide angle lens as many people have said.