Zmodo Surveillance System with 4 Weatherproof IR Cameras PKD-DK0863-NHD (Hard Drive Not Included)

Pros:

-Very inexpensive

-Comes with all you need to get started (4 cameras, you can add up to another 4)

-flexibly programmable for each channel: Framerate, motion alarms, privacy areas, schedules,more...

-Can be accessed on your local network or via internet if you have the network chops to config that.

-The DVR is the latest relase from the manufacturer, as of 2/2012

-Support is great, was willing to talk me through a few setup questions and workaround one bug I found in their firmware (see below)

Cons:

-Wires seem to be lacking a bit in shielding, they pick up a little intereference when run at full length through attic where other A/C wires are.

-Included cameras are not the sharpest image. Considering they are practically thrown in for free...

-Total supported framerate a bit on the low side, buy forgiveable at the current price point.

-Shipping from the manufacturer took a month. I noticed that after I put the order in, so shame on me, I'm spoiled.

For reference, I paid One Hundred and Thirty dollars in January '12. If you're handy enough to install your own hard drive, this might be one to get. Recommend a 500gb at least. Manufacturer told me not to go all the way to 2TB, they've run into problems with stability with that big a drive. Don't forget to make it an AV rated hard drive. I used a Western Digital Green Power 500gb, which worked fine!

Also, ran into one problem: you must use IE to view the box over the network. And, IE 9 has a glitch with setting up alarm areas per each channel. IE 8 works fine, or just go to the console to set it up there. Support is now aware of the problem.

So now its set up and running... I already used it to identify who masking-taped a flyer to the front of my house, just for fun.

The DVR is not of the best quality and mine broke after about 6 month. The hold time for customer service representative is very long and when you get them they are not paying attention to what you are saying. The company is not cognizant of customers time. I would rather pay a bit more and get better quality product from a company that provides better customer service. T

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The unit seems to function OK, but the color an all channels has a problem. The trees are purple and the HUE control does not work. I have seen this problem in the past when the 3.58MHz osc had a problem. I think I should send the unit back for replacement. Also, I have not been able to make the motion mask work. I still think the unit is worth the money and the problems are minor so far, but the color problem makes it look worse than B&W...

The cameras have a very good picture, much better than the cameras I had been using. The nite vision has a much better range than my old cameras also.

PS I have not been able to make it show up on Firefox. And some of the settings don't work with Internet Explorer. Still worth the money.

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I gave two stars because this is truly a miracle come true. However the miracle lies in how far the Chinese mfg are willing to go in the name of cost saving. For example, in order to save cost they skip screw to fasten the little "hood" that goes over the camera.

Just to be fair, DVR does work, and so does the cameras. Do they work well, no. One of the camera IR emitter promptly burn out half of its LEDs after only 3 hours of on time. Now, let's go over a few things.

Camera resolution. It's so bad that you won't be able to see facial feature of a person standing 15 feet away. So, for the purpose of security camera to ID the bad guy, this camera will most certainly fail the task.

Camera color. Brown looks purple. Green looks gray. But, it is able to tell colors apart. Since I only spend $120 for the whole set, I think I can live with it.

DVR resolution and frame rate. Grossly over estimated on Zmodo's web site. 240fps in CIF mode. with 60fps in D1 mode. Keep in mind this frame rate is share by all channels. But when I tried to set 30FPS for channel one and two, the software knock me back to 18fps max. What gives?!?!

For comparison, I also own Foscam FI8918W IP cam. Although both cameras have similar spec. This unit makes the Foscam FI8918W unit look like HD cam.

All in all, this set is good enough if you just want to know if some is snooping around house, or check to see if UPS/Fedex left package at your front door. For true security camera usage, the resolution of the camera and usable frame rate will need to be much better.

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The DVR is OK. The cameras suck. The software is outdated as it's written for Windows XP and will NOT run on Windows 7 x64 no matter what compatibility mode it's set to. If you want updated software you'll have to BUY it from a 3rd party company whom will first offer you a downloadable trial but, you have to request it meaning that the software is likely very expensive.

In a nutshell, if you're looking for a CHEAP system that will simply squeak by and you don't care about the software or camera quality, then this will do fine. If you need something with updated software and decent cameras, keep on looking. I gave this unit a 3 star rating simply because there's no way to do a 1/2 star (I consider it a 2.5 star product).

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