I'm impressed with the quality of this item, it was pretty easy to install, has decent quality cameras (at this price point), and works with everything I've plugged into it so far!I recently purchased this to keep an eye on things going on around our house, we have had several instances where someone is 'tinkering' with things -not really vandalism, just messing with things -so we decided to bite the bullet and purchase a good quality observation system which would record and possibly capture the culprit. So far we haven't captured any out of the ordinary stuff, and it may be attributable to the fact that we installed this in the first place, it's a pretty big deterrent.
I'll try to walk you through my experience with this kit:
📦 UNBOXING
All items are well packaged, and everything advertised is in the box. The boxes had security tape seals on them, to let you know that the system has not been tampered with (nice little touch, though possibly not needed). The cameras and DVR all seem pretty durable and are aesthetically pleasing. The mouse on the other hand is cheap and you can tell it (more on what I did later to fix this), also the remote control is rather cheap and you need to be near to the DVR (within 4 or so feet) for it to work properly. This was a small issue for me as I put the DVR on an entertainment stand which is about 8 feet from my standard couch position :)
🔨 INSTALLATION
First of all -I am a home owner, I mention this because it is probably relevant to anyone looking to buy this for home use. You will have to run wires from outside of the house to inside the house, and to do that you will need to drill at least one rather large (5/8" to 1" hole) from outside to inside, unless you can utilize an already existing hole. This kit does not come with any of the tools you will need for installation (large long drill bit, screwdriver, cable clamps, cable ties, etc...).
Installation was pretty easy for me, after mounting the cameras I used cable clamps for the first few feet where the camera BNC wires make connection to the longer run of BNC wires (wires all included), that way if I have to change a camera out, it will be pretty easy. Then I used 5/16" staples to run the wires along the edges of the house. Once the wires "met up" with existing wire runs around the house I simply used cable ties to join them and run the rest of the way. It sounds complicated, but it was really easy other than going up and down the ladder... I sealed all connections with electrical tape also, to keep the connections dry and keep someone from disconnecting.
This kit includes 60' BNC cable runs, one for each camera. I wound up having to use two wires for two cameras, so I didn't use all eight cameras, it was fine with me as I didn't need eight observation points and having extra cameras will allow me to replace cameras as they go out (which they will). In order to use two cables for one run you will need to buy female to female BNC adapters, available here on Amazon for CHEAP or at the Shack as I got them from.
The hardest part of installation was drilling the hole and patching it when I was done running wires.
📝 List of tools I used for install:
○ Cordless drill with 1" bit, you could probably get by with a 5/8", I just didn't have one and didn't want to go get one. At the end of install I was happy that I had used the 1" bit because with so many wires going through, it gave me room to easily move the connectors through.
○ Staple gun with 5/16" T-50 Staples.
○ Cable clamps (small ones for single cables, medium for two or more). These can be bought in a kit at retailers, so you have different sizes. You'll need the small ones to hold the single cords in place.
○ Cable ties (also called Zip ties), for joining to existing cable runs. This causes the least amount of damage to the house if you have existing cable runs outside.
○ Lots of small wood screws.
○ Female to Female BNC adapters.
○ Silicon caulk for filling in and sealing the hole.
○ Some kind of faceplate for the inside wall, I used an old switch faceplate and just drilled it to make it bigger, you might be able to find something better.
○ Black electrical tape.
○ Wire cutters for cutting the cable ties once tightened.
🔩 BASIC SETUP
The DVR runs on an embedded Linux and is pretty straightforward, although I found some of the settings to be not as intuitive as I would like them to be. The cameras just connect to the back with the BNC connector, and a power connector, and they are on and working. The image quality is pretty good, it's not HD by any means, but it is good enough for what I'm trying to do with this system. During the day the image quality is great, but at night when the light is low, the image quality is also low. It's still enough to capture a reasonable image, and the DVR records at a high enough frame rate for the footage to be admissible in court.
The mouse was a disappointment, it was cheap as I stated before, and the cursor was fairly erratic --making it difficult to select and deselect items on screen. I decided to try using an optical wireless mouse I had, I plugged the dongle into the USB port, pressed connect, and to my surprise it works perfectly! It is significantly more accurate than the mouse included in this kit.
It took me a little while to get all of the settings perfected, and some of the menus are not as well organized as my mind logically thinks... for instance you have to enable each camera to record (from the Record menu), then go to another tab to tell it when and how to record (manual, continuous, motion activated), in my case I only want to record motion, to do that you will also have to go to a completely different menu (Alarm menu) to set up the motion areas. That doesn't make very much sense to me, seems like that would be another tab on the Record menu item. Tisk-tisk.
Anyway I would say for the price the basic setup is reasonably intuitive if not perfect.
📼 RECORDING AND PLAYBACK
Once all set up (motion areas, recording times, etc...), this works great. So far I've only captured deer, the neighbors cat, and my family members, but it is working and works as advertised. Playback is pretty simple and of course you can fast forward so it doesn't take that long to review a night of footage. The included hard drive is 500 GB, it claims to be able to record six months continuous footage from eight cameras. I don't think that's overstated based on how much footage I currently have, and how much hard drive space is remaining.
📡 ADVANCED SETUP
DDNS: Ok, this is where I had some problems... I have an Apple Airport Extreme base station (router) and have mostly Apple computers. The included software to make your wifi router easily work with this system for mobile viewing is all PC software, and only works with selected routers (mine not included). I'm no expert at networking, in fact it confuses the heck out of me. I youtubed and googled help with little success, so here I go, trial and error until successful...
To make a long story short I wound up getting it to work by setting up a dedicated DHCP, and using the built in template for file sharing, then adding the other necessary port forwards. It wasn't too hard, but as popular as Apple products are I would hope that in the future Lorex includes support for their routers and computers. I can see some people not being able to set that up, and it is part of the marketing.
Anyway once set up the DDNS works like a charm, I have my Android phone and iPad set up with the Lorex app, so I can view around the house from pretty much anywhere.
🆚 COMPARING TO OTHER PRODUCTS
I had previously bought X10 wireless cameras (the 2.4gHZ kind) and had them installed in certain areas around the house, but they just never worked very well so I wound up not even using them, even though I left them up as a deterrent. When new neighbors moved in next door I found that they also had some of these 2.4 gHZ cameras, and to my surprise I was able to inadvertently view the signals, so I made sure my cameras were off (if I could pick up their signal, they could pick up mine). The camera system I bought from X10 costed about $400 and never worked right, this system I bought from another retailer (not Amazon) and paid $499 and it works as advertised. Enough about X10 though, I have other products from them that work great so it might just be the surveillance systems of theirs that have issues.
✅ OVERALL
This is a great budget system, the price and quality seem to be well balanced for a typical home owner. Could it be better? Yes, but it would undoubtably cost more. I would say, for me at least, it is a solid system and is easy enough for an average home owner to install and set up themselves.
✯✯✯✯✯
Highly recommended!
I will say this about Lorex, you get a lot for your money. Unfortunately, you get a lot of Chinese made products that rarely do what they are expected to do. You are never exactly sure what they will or won't do, as the models change so fast, there is never time to get the marketing materials accurate on the hundreds of iterations they have on every product. And when they do work, its often can be temporary, as the products are quirky. And if you don't have 12hrs min. to dedicate to set up (after all the wiring is completed) then hire a professional. I have set up a lot of these, and still can't complete a complete set up in less than 12 hrs, and then the following day, following everything in the Lorex literature, expect to be on Lorex 800 help line, on hold for up to an hour, and then the service reps are very short with you, they can't be bothered....and it seems like USA support.
Want this to work on your Android devices? Good luck. Yep, after 4 hours, got it to work on all my Android devices, within my WIFI...of course, you can only view 4 cameras...is it that hard to offer at least 2 screens of 4 cameras???? But then, it will not work when you leave WIFI, which is where you really NEED IT ! As many posters noted, the instruction manuals are not complete, so much missing information, and often, even after doing everything, and calling tech support, it simply does not work... Want it to talk to your Apple Devices? Manual says download Apple IPAD Lorex Mobile Eco app...sounds reasonable, except app does NOT EXIST, no mention of why. I later found it under Iphone apps.
all this... and yet, you can buy some Foscams, and a $5 app, IP Cam Viewer, and whamo, you have amazing access from your remote devices, as well as the ability to move the cameras around from your devices or PC...you can record on 3rd party sites as well. Wondering if this entire centralized DVR method is dated, or at least, not necessary, as they simply have not put the R&D into these products to benefit from the centralized control... or Lorex doesn't have the foresight, not sure. 6 years ago I thought, wow, they should have this system perfected in a year or two...well, 6 years later, still quirky. I think this will be my last Lorex system I buy...need to buy a better built / designed / supported video system. However, if you are on a tight budget, I can't deny, Lorex gives you a LOT for your money...like all things in life, its a set of compromises you deal with.
Update.... got very ambitious and determined to make this system work, called Lorex tech support again... wait times...
40 minutes on hold, to get level 1 tech on phone
50 minutes, level 1 tech transfers to level 2 tech...
90 minutes on hold for level 2 tech...finally I surrender...
you need to be retired, and be patient, sit on phone all day with these overseas tech support. I asked the first tech today where she is located, heavy Phillipine accent, she claimed Toronto.... oh well, so its not USA, whatever... they don't fully comprehend English, which is always part of the problem trying to resolve technical issues. When both parties have the same native tongue, it's still quite hard, add the language barrier, hold times, limited knowledge of level 1 techs, and its not easy getting these products to work FULLY.... its our new world order of Walmart and Costco dominating retail sales...
Day 3.... finally got Android running on 3G, took 6 hours to figure this one out. and, still wanted to get the Video OUT (remote) display to show what I wanted...I thought it could do it, but no information in the manuals. The 2nd level tech (2 hrs again) started probbing me, try this, try that, does this work, etc. Meaning, we both were playing a guessing game, his information was as limited as mine. Then, by sheer random luck, I hit on a formula that worked and remarkably I could control which cameras (4 options now avail, 1-4, 5-8, 8, Sequential) that display on the remote display. Again, you need tremendous patience, accept that many features are NOT documented in the users manual or in the high level teck support manuals... be willing to gamble a day or two hounding Lorex tech support (at times), or just experimenting... I guess its safe to say, the set-up is far from, plug n play. This is prob. why Lorex has some simplified systems that monitor only, which reduces the number of variables that must be set up, documented, supported, etc.
At least this system had no defective parts. The last two Lorex systems I installed, all needed the DVR to be sent back to Lorex as tech support determined they were defective, again, after 6 hours of trying everything on the phone with them. Often its not easy to decipher between a hardware and software problem.
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My best friend bought this for me. We checked out the system before installing it. Everything worked fine. Took all day to install it. It looked simply beautiful Saturday night. Got up Sunday morning and there was no color at all. Checked the monitor, and it was fine. So the brain's color processor went out after only 12 hours of use! I have to go return it, but he has the receipt 60 miles away A real hassle! This unit does not have sound either like my last two units had. Lorex is getting skimpy with their engineering. Also the mouse is super cheap, they could have done much better for one dollar more.I paid a company that Lorex recommended, to come in and set this system up. I paid to have the camera's installed only it seems. After they left I contacted Lorex about this and never received a response.After letting the system run on it's own for about a week I went to look at what was recorded to find out that nothing had been recorded. So, I sat down to set this up on my own and was dumbfounded at how difficult it was. That or the DVR is broken because I cannot get it to record at all. So now I guess I paid $700 to have fake glowing cameras all around my house.
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