Thursday, October 3, 2013

VideoSecu Mini DVR Motion Detector Digital Video Recorder for Audio CCTV Security Camera Home Surve

VideoSecu Mini DVR Motion Detector Digital Video Recorder for Audio CCTV Security Camera Home Surveillance 1UAThis product was purchased to replace an old floppy disk system for capturing video still images. The unit is easy to install; with remote control, cables, and connector adaptors included. An extra bonus not mentioned in the advertising is that it comes with a nice USB SD card reader. The still image and video quality is very good. The set up is all done on screen using the remote and the buttons on the top of the unit. The only down side is that the instruction manual is very basic, it could use a few additional pages covering how to shut off the motion sensor, for example. Over all we're very satisfied with our purchase.

1) The SD card goes is UPSIDE DOWN .. with the unit on the table and buttons on top, the SD Card contacts face upwards.

2) One of my top console buttons was "stuck in" upon unboxing .. it made initial navigation of menus impossible .. then I realized that there was a button stuck down .. i wiggled it a bit and it released.

3) The buttons themselves feel cheap and often require firm deliberate push to depress.

4) My SanDisk Ultra Red microSD in its native SD adapter was NOT fast enough to record D1 at 30fps ..

5) My SanDisk Pro Extreme standard SD card managed to record D1 @ 30fps.

6) There is quite a bit of ghosting at D1/30fps. I have quality set on H. (FYI, D1 with my Everfocus EHD730 camera came out to be 704x480)

7) Functionally, it's easy and straightforward. I didn't bother reading the manual, I managed to figure it all out. (It was alot easier when I released the button stuck down)

8) Would not power-up until it had incoming video source.

If I were to compare it to the other unit I got in yesterday ... http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A0JMY8C/ Mini Security DVR Micro SD Card Recording, Metal

1) this has slightly more functionality, i.e. ability to set schedules for recording modes, ability to set up motion masks, ability to record D1 vs. 640x480 highest res of the other product.

2) this is twice as expensive.

3) this is about twice the size, but still compact

4) certainly more buttons on this one .. the single button/wheel of the other product would have worked just fine on this product and I like that form-factor design.

5) Playback quality worse at D1/30fps vs. other product 640x480@30fps.

6) Other product able to write no problem 640x480@30fps to SanDisk Ultra Red MicroSD, this product unable to do so (perhaps due to adapter with this product, other product is native MicroSD)

7) Had I not gotten this product, I would have been completely happy with the other product. However, since I got this product, I'm probably going to use it a bit more than the other.

8) Unless you see needs with this product that the other product doesn't have, I'd say to save your money and go with the other product.

4-stars on this one since it came a bit awry, there is no clear indication on SD car direction and there is SIGNIFICANT video ghosting when recording D1@30fps Quality:H

Buy VideoSecu Mini DVR Motion Detector Digital Video Recorder for Audio CCTV Security Camera Home Surve Now

This mini DVR is a great little security device. It has only one set of input and output connections for the video & audio so you can record audio & video with a security camera that has a built in microphone or just use a regular security camera ( no audio) for area recording.

This DVR has all the features of a full size security DVR in a small size. Manual is a little hard to follow at first but after using the features a few times you will get the feel of how things work. Adding a video signal splitter box to add more cameras makes this mini DVR into a full security system. The video and audio produced are of good quality. Uses SD memory cards up to 32mb and recording can be viewed using function buttons on DVR connected to a monitor or TV using RCA plug convert adapter (supplied) or the SD card can be removed and view on any computer with a USB port and windows media player, and the supplied SD card reader. Also includes two sets of RCA audio video cables.

Been using Mini DVR for several months for home security; works great. Can be used in small stores as a backup to a video tape system, or record lonely hallways activity, etc.

Read Best Reviews of VideoSecu Mini DVR Motion Detector Digital Video Recorder for Audio CCTV Security Camera Home Surve Here

Bought this a month ago and it's perfect for what I want.

I record motion-detected segments to see who did what and when. the box has an internal clock and timestamps each segment. I can save or erase each segment or copy it to my computer. The recording starts before the motion is actually detected!

I'm very pleased with my new toy.

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*** UPDATE HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE END OF THIS REVIEW, ADDRESSING COMMENTS MADE (marked "###") ***

Just to be clear, this is a review of the product, not the seller. However, it is their choice to sell garbage or not.

PROS:

It does record video and audio

Very easy to navigate the functions just by touch alone (without looking at the unit). I have mine tucked way back into my entertainment system and can't read the button labeling. Within just a few minutes, I could easily feel my way around the buttons and perform every function I needed without looking.

Comes with RCA-to-BNC adapters and power supply

CONS:

As others have posted, the manual is a poor excuse of English translation. Example: "Please insert SD card before turning DVR up, and don't put SD card out when it is working in case of causing DVR halted". Couldn't they hire a 5th grader to proofread it???

As bad as the manual is, even the on-screen menu has a spelling error. In the "System Settings", one selection says: "Alam Period". It doesn't even match the screen shots in the manual.

### The picture quality is absolutely terrible, even at the highest setting. I can't understand why other reviewers said it was great. The playback picture is horribly "blocky"...an artifact of digital compression. There is no possible way you could identify a face at a distance, or much less a license plate. For the record, I'm using a 16gb Class 4 card, and there are no class recommendations in the manual.

### Perhaps (and I'm being sarcastic here), I'm reading the quality settings wrong. Maybe "H" means "Horrible", "M" means "Medium", and "L" means "Lovely". Sorry...too lazy to play a silly game of assuming this could be true.

### Talk about lousy recording time! At 5 frames-per-second (the lowest setting of 30, 15, & 5), the total record time is about 3 hours short of two days (again, with a 16gb card). My opinion that this is lousy is based on the use of the same size cards in my Sharx Security camera's (Sharx Security VIPcella-IR SCNC2700W Wifi Wireless b/g/n IP network camera with MicroSD DVR and True Day/Night vision), set to 7.5fps. I get 5 days of *excellent* quality out of them.

Recording stops when playing back (unlike my camera's). Granted it cost much less, but it's only a DVR (no lens, camera, or mounting bracket to add to the cost). Is that too much to ask?

Normally, I would return a product who's playback quality is so inferior to it's "pass-through" quality. Like a VCR, you can expect a bit of loss from live TV when compared to playback, but "terrible" and "unrecognizable image" is far from reasonable.

The only reason I'm keeping it (and giving it 2 stars instead of 1), is because it does time-stamp events that are obvious. What time did UPS come? What pet-owner let their dog poop on my lawn? When in the early AM is someone picking through my trash? Most of this information is only slightly useful, as I can't identify the hypothetical pet owner, and certainly can't recognize the face of the trash picker. But, with the time-stamp, I can at least watch for the same individuals tomorrow.

But, the camera only records for 2 days (4 if I purchased a 32gb card), so I hope it's not a weekly event (like trash day), because even a larger card won't help.

BOTTOM LINE:

If you're looking for something to record when specific events occur (like me), the product works OK. But don't even consider it as a serious surveillance DVR.

########################## REVIEW UPDATED ##########################

1. Minor but relevant point; the files stored on the SD Card are ASF, not AVI as the description states (not negative or positive, just different).

2. Total continuous recording time (16gb card), when left alone, is closer to 2 days and 6 hours, not "3 hours short of two days" as stated above (a tiny improvement, but in fairness an improvement). Apparently if you stop recording during the two days (like to review an earlier event), the DVR looses space. I can't explain why, but my hypothesis is that video is recorded in fixed blocks, so though you might have only recorded 2 seconds of a 15-minute block, the memory is taken regardless. Many Operating Systems work this way, so it wouldn't be fair to call this "negative".

3. While my opinion regarding playback quality stands (playing from the DVR itself), viewing the files on a PC is *significantly* better...and I agree with other reviewers that the quality is very good. I can't explain this either, but no longer feel that this is a serious issue. If one sees something questionable during playback, pop the card out and look at it closer on your PC. No biggie.

4. The included SDCard-to-USB adapter is more versatile than other models (I quite embarrassingly learned the hard way). While the adapter I owned reads files from my Sharx camera's perfectly fine, it can't read the files written by the DVR. But, the package did include a "new & improved" adapter, so that's nice of course.

Based on this update, I've changed the review from 2 stars to 4 stars, to (what I believe) accurately reflect the product.

The only thing blocking that 5th star is the 2 days of recording time, as my Sharx IP camera's can get 5 days out of the same size card (and a slightly higher FPS too).

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