One of the greatest things I liked when I first purchased my Infant Optics DXR 8 was its excellent night vision images until they suddenly turned blurry. I had used it for about 9 months when the pictures appearing on the 3.5-inch screen started getting grainy at night.
I was using it then to monitor my twins after purchasing the $99 Infant Optics additional camera. Since Infant Optics does not support split-screen viewing, I realized that the images were darker and continued to get blurry within a week. The images on the screen were similar to the one shown below:
I could see good images from one camera and super grainy images from another camera. That’s when I realized the problem was with the camera and specifically the 8 inbuilt infrared LED lights not working as it should. Ideally, the white and black images should appear like this:
Let me first explain how night vision works in baby monitors and infrared cameras.
It may make the troubleshooting process easier and faster.
How Infrared Night Vision Works in Baby Monitors
Baby monitors with a night vision features are able to take pictures of your baby at night (in low light conditions) and relay the videos. Without this, you won’t be able to see your baby and may end up having to switch on the lights in your baby’s nursery.
When the visible light (which allows you to see) is low, night-vision baby monitors have an inbuilt near-visible infrared LED lights that illuminate on your baby enabling the camera to capture images/videos and stream them to the parent display unit or phone app.
Turning on or off Infant Optics Night vision
You should note that once Infant Optics night vision relays blurry or poor images you may think at first that the night vision feature/mode is not turned on.
However, Infant Optics DXR 8’s night vision mode is automatic as it has a low-light sensor that activates its infrared LED lights and does not require you to turn it on unlike other non-wifi baby monitors such as Eufy Spaceview.
Essentially, Infant Optics does not require any manual intervention to turn on or to turn off its night vision feature.
The suggested troubleshooting steps below may not fully recover or fix the grainy/blurry night vision images of your Infant Optics but it may assist to bring back some images which are better than dark screen.
Some fixes have worked with others and some have not. You can try any of the following suggestions and if you aren’t able to get any clearer night vision images, you should consider contacting Infant Optics Customer Care.
If you want an Infant Optics replacement screen or want to claim a warranty from Infant Optics, you should check out our tips on how to deal with Infant Optics Customer Care, but try the following fixes first.
You should, however, know that you can only get a replacement if your Infant Optics is still within the one-year warranty period. They also require you to ship the current unit in the original packaging with the original receipt.
It is also fair to mention here that some users did manage to claim the warranty even after they had run out of the allowable 1 year warranty period. You can read our full tips on how you should approach their support.
In addition to the company’s suggested fixes, we have gone through more than 600 ways that users have tried. We wanted to get the best answer to our users. There are several fixes that users have suggested.
Suggested Fix for Infant Optics Night Vision Not Working:
1. Use Default Lens
The default answer you’ll get from Infant Optics customer care will be to change the lenses from zoom or wide-angle to default lens. Specifically, if you are using a zoom lens, they’ll ask you to remove that and use the normal lens. This has worked for a number of users but even if it does not work, keep trying other suggested ways to fix it using the default lens.
2. Increase Brightness Level
Another way to fix the Infant Optics night vision, and which has worked for several users, is turning increasing the brightness levels using the parent control buttons. Make sure you’re using the default lens as you try this as well.
Adjust the brightness to the highest level and try to see if you are able to see any image. As you can see from Infant Optics screen below, you have 8 levels in which you can adjust the brightness of your Infant Optics screen. The highest level is 8th.
We suggest keeping it on the 8th level. While you do this or fix #1 above, make sure you move your camera to a dark area to ensure that the LED lights are activated.
3. Make sure the room has no surrounding light
The third way you can fix your Infant Optics night vision is to make sure the LED lights are activated. When Infrared LED lights sensing light when it should be sensing low-light condition at night, the LED lights do not get activated.
One of the main reason for LED lights not getting activated to illuminate the crib is too much light in the surrounding. Make sure the camera is not facing some array of light that may be preventing the low light sensor from activating the infrared LEDs.
4. Try using different batteries/power source
The problem of night vision can be caused by an unstable power supply and it may be that your Infant Optics batteries/power source are faulty or not placed correctly.
You can first do a battery reset by removing/unplugging the power source and putting the battery pack back after 5 to 10 minutes. You can also try using AC to see if it fixes it.
If your Infant Optics charging cord is not working correctly and it is out of warranty, you can get a replacement charger/power cord/adapter from Amazon using this link. As of this publication, it’d only cost you less than $20.
5. Reset Infant Optics to the default setting
If none of the suggested tips above fix the Infant Optics night vision problems, try resetting the Infant Optics camera to default settings.
6. Try external infrared LED lights
You can use any of the two external IRs lights below which you can get on Amazon for less than $30.
CMVision
Univivi U06R WideAngle Long Range
It is possible that your camera may have other issues that may need the intervention of Infant Optics Customer care. You should consider reaching out to them. We have some tips here that may save you money and time (or even a new camera).
A user named suggested this about reaching out to customer care:
“If you have had it for less than 12 months and manage to reach infant optics customer service, they will replace it for you. I had the same trouble and I got it replaced with no charge. “
Andrea
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Hi there! I am Ashley Davis, a mom of three kids and the editor here at Motherhoodhq.com. I have been a parent since 2011 and have been doing full-time consulting as a baby sleep expert since 2019. When I am not researching or testing the next baby gear hitting the market, you’ll find me teaching my toddlers a trick or two – especially over the last few months with the lockdown. I hope you’ll find my guides and reviews helpful as you make your next purchase decision. If you have any questions, you can reach me at ashley.d@motherhoodhq.com.
I tried all the five ways you suggest to fix the night vision of Infant Optics but I couldn’t get it to work when I first tried to fix it. A day after, the images were still blurry but better and I tried removing the battery and leaving it for about 10 minutes. That worked! Thought I’d leave this here for anyone who may want to try this method.