CIB R401W500G8795 4CH Security Surveillance DVR 600TVL 4 CCD Bullet Cameras K...

I opted for a 600TVL camera system because my current system had a lower resolution. When I got the cameras, they were definitely clearer than my other cameras. However, the manual that comes with the cameras says they are 540TVL. This is still higher than my current cameras. I have found conflicting information about the resolution of these cameras when searching google with the model #. However, the picture is good from them & I am happy.

The system came with everything needed to hook this up out of the box. The 65ft cables, power adapters, software CD, mouse, remote control, window security decals & even screws to mount the cameras. The only thing you need is a TV with RCA Video inputs or a computer monitor to view the video.

As far as the cameras, the infrared goes far & is impressive. My application is about 30-35 ft & it lights up this distance with no problem. The cameras glow a faint red when it is dark, but this is happens with every night camera in this price range. Daytime viewing is nice & the colors are pretty accurate. When it automatically switches to night vision, the picture is black & white, but still crisp. They are also very responsive when switching from day to night vision. The shield around it can be removed if you like & the cameras are about the size of a can of coke, they are metal & feel very solid. The mounts for the cameras are a little flimsy, but they work fine. I was also happy to see the mount can be mounted on top or bottom of the camera. Not bad cameras in my opinion.

The linux based DVR is awesome. It is silent & is very small, about the size of my cable converter. I am not a security pro or installer, but as a computer technician I have come across many CCTV DVR's. This DVR had features I never though to look for & was a snap to set up. For example, when set to motion detection you choose which areas of the screen/camera view are motion activated by selecting square blocks. There are about 50 blocks per camera screen you can select for motion monitoring. However dust or other small things would set off the motion detection. Then I found a feature that lets you specify how many blocks must be occupied for the motion to be recorded. I selected 3, so anything that sets off the motion detection has to be bigger than about a square foot. That way I don't have video of a bird flying by or dust in the air. I never thought of this while buying it. Anther neat feature is that you can select which cameras record when motion is detected on one of them. You can record the one camera that detected motion, or all of them, another feature I never thought of.

The DVR can be accessed by any browser, unlike my old system which required IE 6. There is a password option, so you cannot mess with the settings without a pin code, locally or through the browser. You can even set a user and an admin who each have different levels of access (View only or Administer). The DVR has an alarm that you can disable or leave enabled that will beep for events you select, like Full hard drive, disconnected camera, motion detected etc.. Another great feature is that it can upload/backup video to a thumb drive or to a remote server using FTP. It will even send you alerts via email. I did not try the phone viewing though so I cannot comment on that.

The DVR display is very nice, showing you what is going on, whether it is recording etc. It supports PTZ cameras & also has a setting to overwrite old video as the drive fills. You can specify how long to keep videos too. For example you can specify to keep videos for XX days before auto overwriting. The display shows you how many hours recording you have left also. You can choose scheduled, manual or motion recording, per camera.

My only gripe about the DVR is playback. Instead of a list of video to select, you see it in a timeline & have to select the time. It works fine, it's just different than my last system & I need to get used to it. Otherwise the interface is easy & friendly. Not an overcomplicated mess like my last system.

I would reccomend this system to anyone looking for a decent system for their home or business.

This system is truly a system that only requires the addition of some type of monitor to be immediately useful. This can be a television or a PC monitor. There is a VGA connection for the monitor and RCA for TV. The best quality is naturally from the VGA to a PC monitor. The colors in daylight are natural and can be adjusted for hue and saturation, contrast and brightness. Night vision is of course black and white when the infrared LEDs are active. Bright flashes or reflection back into the camera view will shut off the IR and colors will display during that period. If there is bright enough light detected by the camera from external lights at night, the IR will stay off. This system comes with 4 bullet cameras and there is the capability to expand with a PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) camera and an alarm input. There is a desire by most people to have a single power supply for the cameras which now comes with the system. It is a single transformer supply with an adapter that will connect all four cameras. This power supply is connected at the DVR end of the system. There is no need for power at the place where the cameras are mounted. Power is supplied to the cameras alongside the same cable as the video connection. There is a separate power supply for the DVR. There are 4 inputs for microphones (that I have yet to upgrade to) and one audio output. Microphones do not come with the system.

Clarity of detail at a distance may leave a bit to be desired. Things start to get a little fuzzy at about 30 feet from the camera. Not something I would complain about for the price I paid for this system. There is a "zoom" function that may or may not be helpful depending on what you are viewing. This merely magnifies a part of the viewing area. It is not an actual zoom like you would get from a PTZ camera.

This system has a good live real-time response to activity in the camera view. There seems to be no lag in response time when viewing the direct live feed to a monitor. There is a built-in capability to view live feed from networked PC's and on mobile devices. There may be somewhat of a challenge in this as it is advertised to be able to access the live view from any internet enabled PC or mobile device simply through a browser. I have yet to find the proper avenue to obtain this from any PC outside my home network. I have only had this up and running for about 2 weeks and not had a lot of time to research the issue. At this point, I have been recording constantly at the highest setting for the frame rate (120fps) for about 2 weeks and have used less than half of the available disk space. I expect approximately 1 month of video before the overwrite function starts. Disk space conservation can be achieved with lower frame rate settings but I elected to have higher quality video in the recordings. One thing to note is that the recorded video quality is slightly less than the live view.

The remote that came with the system appeared to be of generally good quality but it was semi-responsive an finicky as to the position it was pointing. I tried changing to new batteries but got no better response from the remote. This may just be where I have the DVR unit set up and I changed over to mouse control (a small mouse comes with the system). One thing that bothered me about the mouse was that I had a wire hanging across my workspace since I have the DVR on an upper shelf of my computer desk. I remedied that issue with a wireless mouse and it works wonderfully. I can now operate the system from across the room if desired just as I could with the remote.

The view from the cameras show a wide area due to a slight fish-eye lens effect. This is something to be aware of if the need arises to give specifics to law enforcement about any sizes, distances or dimensions. It's just a different view to get used to. This fish-eye effect is not exaggerated as if you were looking through a bubble though.Lines are not straight and sizing may be off slightly. Mounting and positioning for view are manageable but slightly tedious. There are 3 points of adjustment, 2 of which are done with an included allen wrench and the other with pliers on a lock ring at the base. The product picture for the mounts does not match the type of mounts that came with my cameras so there may be different mounting devices attached at the company's discretion.

One of the most time consuming parts was to set up the motion detection. It has many useful functions with area blocking, size, length of time in view and overall sensitivity. I had to set each of my cameras to different levels according to what the camera had in view. This is affected by the contrast (adjustable) and any reflection of light back into the camera from nearby walls and the like. You may have it set so that bugs or raindrops won't set it off but then a spider crawls onto the lens and it will go off due to the apparent size and reflectivity. It is not a perfect system but in general it works. You will see a lot of dust particles floating in the air on camera that you normally would not notice.

So far, people that have seen how my system operates and the view it produces are at the least intrigued at what they see and did not know it could be so affordable. I will still need to see the longevity factor play out but it appears to be a system that will last a good while. If you have the desire or need for an affordable quality camera system, this is the one to get. If you have never had a security camera system before, you will find yourself almost constantly watching the screen for any activity, at least for a while. Go ahead and do it.

2/9/12 Update:

This system is still working great after 5 months. Spiders definitely love the heat from the IR LED's so cleaning cobwebs away from the camera view is an occasional task through the nice weather seasons (about every 3-4 days). The sun shields work pretty well on the cameras but you will get a glare or brightness intensity issue if pointed in the general direction of the sun. The only complaint so far is the DVR timestamp function. It loses about 2-3 minutes a week so the internal clock is somehow not calibrated properly in my unit (not enough of an issue for me to return it since I am more interested in the images than the time). The time difference can be calculated to find out when an incident occurred on camera. Overall, I am still happy with the system and it has made my life a little easier in certain ways since it is quicker and easier to investigate outside noises at a glance.

Buy CIB R401W500G8795 4CH Security Surveillance DVR 600TVL 4 CCD Bullet Cameras K... Now

This system was so easy to set up, It took longer to run the 925 feet of cable. That's right one camera was 645 feet away and it came in crystal clear the second camera was 150 feet and the other two were 65 feet each away,I installed the system at my business.

I called customer service because I tried to run the system over Wifi instead of using a phone line to the router so I could see the view the cameras from my home,

Rachele was so polite and explained how the units communicate with each other.

I would recommend this system and company to anyone thinking about installing a

surveillance system.

Read Best Reviews of CIB R401W500G8795 4CH Security Surveillance DVR 600TVL 4 CCD Bullet Cameras K... Here

I have been looking online to replace the surveillance system we have in our business. I am so happy that

I came across with this product. The camera is so clear. You can view it remotely from your computer or iphone.

It is so easy to set up with the help and patience of RACHELLE. She's always there to assist and answer all my queries.

Their customer service is outstanding.

I highly recommend this product. It really works. BUY it and you won't regret it!

Want CIB R401W500G8795 4CH Security Surveillance DVR 600TVL 4 CCD Bullet Cameras K... Discount?

I compared cameras and shopped around found out from a youtube video the difference between less than 450 TVL and 600 TVL. Looked pretty significant so I chose the more expensive cameras. I usually don't write reviews because I have 3 kids and not a lot of time. I also do not have time to try and work out problems with shoddy tech support. This is where the seller stands out. I'm not bad at figuring this stuff out so tried myself for about 3 days to no avail and finally decided to call their tech support. They did a great job helping me troubleshoot my issue, were very courteous and knowledgeable. The product works as advertised also.