What are the main differences between the two systems?
The main difference is that Micasaverde works!! I have had a few issues and either going to the forums or submitting a trouble ticket will get me an answer from tech support usually within 12 hours. I still have Verizon (going on 8 months now) because I was not sure how Micasaverde would work but I am 100% happy with my uptime on the system and the support received. I ordered Verizons pan and tilt camera and it did not work on Micasaverde and I put in a trouble ticket and they wrote a program for it and it worked and get this, they emailed me and asked me to check it and let them know if I was satisfied. How's that for customer service!! (Verizon, take note)
I tried the MiCasaVerde system. It was nice and it avoided the $9.99 monthly fee. Unfortunately the Verizon cameras wouldn't work in wireless mode on it. The Remote also didn't work properly. Their Tech Support was helpful but the heavy accents made communication difficult. They were very good about taking it back within the 30 day trial period.
Overall Verizon is just as good a system. If they would make their upgrades a little quicker and straighten out the problems with the web site monitoring and notifications they would get a lot more business. I don't know why they can't create a separate web site to manage this as I'm sure it would run cleaner than the mess here on the total Verizon site.
In general if I was starting from scratch I'd probably go with MiCasa Verde and buy their recommended equipment. It would cost a little more initially but you would save money in the long run by avoiding the monthly fee.
Not sure what happened to PMD and not doubting his overall analysis of MiCasaVerde but I am using all of the equipment that I purchased from Verizon on my MiCasaVerde system except for the door sensor (couldn't get that configured. Other than that everything else i was able to get running by myself or submitting an onlne help ticket and I always got a response and they usually were able to configure the device remotely.
I have never had a 'server busy' message from MiCasaVerde. Seems to be a very stable system so far.
bobh002
I was able to connect the camera to MiCasaVerde (I had a Vera Lite) but when I wanted to switch it over to wireless it asked for the Camera Name and Password. Their tech support said I had to get it from the manufacturer. Sercomm (who makes the camera) said it was Name: Administrator, Password was blank. That didn't work so they said Verizon must have put one in. Verizon's tech support first claimed they wouldn't give it out as it was against their policy. I then escalated it to a supervisor who said they don't put in a name and password so it was Sercomm's problem. Resetting the camera didn't help. I read on a forum that you possibly could update the firmware to correct it but it was more trouble than I was willing to go through.
MiCasaVerde doesn't list it as a supported device so I couldn't blame them and they did their best to solve it. Possibly the Vera device (rather than Vera Lite) would have done it as that has wireless built into it and the Vera Lite does not.
I'm curious how you got around that so if you could leave another post it might help others. Thanks for your help.
I'm using Vera3 which has built in wi-fi. Like I said, all Verizon cameras hooked up to it with ease. I bought a Foscam pan/tilt recently on a half off Groupon buy and that was a real pain to get set up. I'll buy a Sercomm before a Foscam next time.. I thought I would have a problem transferring my Verizon purchased camera and other units to Vera but did not.
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.
