I bought this unit almost 2 months ago after having someone take a lot of stuff from our small business. A few years ago I had bought one little wireless camera that took FOREVER to set up and it was very hard to use so I was nervous about trying to set this up. I finally pulled it all out of the box and started the process and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to set up.DVR: The DVR already has the hard drive installed in this unit. I really think I could have been able to do that myself but I'm glad I didn't have to. I pulled out my old 20" computer monitor from my desktop and started hooking it up. The DVR came with easy to read set-up guide and also a manual. I haven't tried to set it up wirelessly yet because I don't think that is something we will be using very often. There are no buttons on the front but that is probably better since we have a 4 year old around.
CAMERAS: My unit did not come with any instructions for setting up the cameras so I searched for Zmodo surveillance camera set up on youtube and got help with that. Real easy to set up. I set the system up in my living room to test everything out before trying to install the cameras. They appear to have a pretty good radius and take very good video in dark lighting. I have read other reviews and they talked about how you could not read a cars tag and that's probably true.. However, for us this is just perfect. It's a good picture at a great price. If I wanted Blue Ray quality I would have spent a LOT more on the system.
If you need a basic system with a lot of cameras at a low price this is a great system. If you are looking for lots of options, great camera detail and higher prices then get something else.
I hope this helps!great system, but the support sucks. Been waiting for days to ask questions. No response. Had to download a web chat app and no one is on the other end!Great, i used it to install it in a friends house, very pleased with item, no flaws, night vision, water resistantOk, so this thing has all the bells and whistles, and everything works right? Well it's very impressive, I like that it's Linux based, supports 8 cameras, and comes with the 500GB HD.
So here is where it went wrong. First of all it may sound strange but the cords for the cameras were wrapped a strange way that made them tangle when pulling the cords out, If they were wraped in circles like the extension cords I got that would be great !!!, and sense the cords are made cheaply, if you hammer a staple on them too hard it easily destroys the cord, or may even cut it in two. At least they can keep the cost down, although I don't know why wrapping it right would. So next was the Networking issue. Subnets are a bad idea. I connected it to a repeater bridge (dd-wrt) because I don't want to string a cable to another building I use for security. So after getting everything set up correctly according to the directions it wouldn't work at all. I have Android phones, Linux PCs, and even tried a Windows PC. Then I found out that you have to manually allow each IP to access the DVR. Not everyone out there is even going to know how to do that.
Here is a contradiction. It's a Linux DVR that doesn't work with Linux PCs. Why is this? They provide software to view it and manage it on Windows, and view it on Android and iphone, but why can't you at least view it on Linux? Internet says that you have to modify an existing program some how, and then set up the settings just right, and that if you do all that on Linux the video feed will cut out every now and then.
For some reason using two ANDROID phones to view 4 cameras at the same time seems to be too much for the system. But tonight it seems to work.
The Hard Drive was defective. I hope the vendor sends me a new one ASAP sense I need this item desperately to protect a rape victim, while I'm at work. Good thing I bought extension cords, or I'd be short because of the one that doesn't work.
Anyway it is a good item, it does what you need it to do, I'm just sad it's made in China, and that they had to cut so many corners in order to keep the cost down.I was surprised by how resonable priced the 8 camera system was. running the wires took planning, it was easy to get up and running, love the infa red night vision lets you see in the dark planning on purchasing more as my freinds and family want one installed on their home/bussines I have purched other security cameras-dvr systems in the past I will be checking on my home when I will be in jamacia via the internet-smartphone


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