New 8 Channel Embedded Linux US811 H.264 Network DVR With No Hard Drive, Real time True Triplex wit

I got a 4-channel version of this product US411L H.264 DVR last year and I like it, so I bought the 8-channel product US811 H.264 this year. For this product, there are improvements but also introduced some regressions and problems in design. Instead of giving out comments such as Pros and Cons in the review, I grouped them as my personal "Likes" and "Dislikes". Despite of so many negative comments, I still gave the product 4 stars because of its low price and acceptable performance

Likes:

Improved 32-bit GUI

Improved CODEC resulting a better video quality & save disk space at the same time

30 fps for one channel playback

The new added 'Criteria' feature makes the event search much easier.

Now you can choose specific channels for backup

HDMI connection gives exceptional picture quality. Note that you will need a HDMI-DVI converter if you are using monitor's DVI port.

4 audio input for CH01 04

Two Sata devices supported

Up to 3T storage support

Dislikes:

Images are showing 10% clipped on the left with VGA output to a monitor. This problem cannot be resolved neither by monitor`s on-screen adjustments nor DVR's settings.

Problem with power-off cam connection. For example, connect a cam to CH03, setup motion for it. When motion is detected; an event will be created and recorded. Now shut the cam's power off, CH03 will show Video Loss logo; the video loss event triggers the recording, and it will keep on recording forever until you reboot the system. The US411L H.264 DVR does not have this problem.

For highest image quality, only one frame-per-second (fps) playback for other channels. Let's say you have 3 channels triggered by the same event at the same time, when you playback all of these channels in one screen (e.g. Quad display), only the channel in focus gets 15 fps, others will get one fps.

When playback multiple channels simultaneously in one screen, the time stamps are not synchronized, compare with US411L H.264 DVR, this one causes confusion. It would be logical to view the events in the same time frame in playback mode for multiple displays. Also, there is a serious time-lagged among channels in multiple display playback.

Not continuously playback for a selected channel. Let's say your events recording are interleaving with CH03 and CH04. Now, you select CH03 in full screen to playback. You can see that every time CH03 finished one event playback, the display will freeze or pause before next CH03 event becomes available. That is because it is waiting for the interleaved CH04 events to finish playing back silently in the background. It would be logical to have a smooth streaming playback for a selected channel instead of having paused display among events in playback.

System freeze up after playback in quad and single display.

Inconsistent output. Try this; connect DVR main A/V to a TV set, and VGA or HDMI to a monitor. The main A/V will show channel in full-screen sequentially, if the "Enable Spot" button checked. However, the VGA or HDMI output will still in multiple channels display unless you choose "Auto-Seq" literally. The US411L H.264 DVR does not have this problem. Note that US411L got VGA output only, it does not have HDMI.

Snapshot icon does nothing in playback mode. There is no documentation either.

Hard to find manual recording clips. Let's say I chose "Record On/Off" to start a recording, then I chose the same button again to stop it. I have to remember the recording time in order to find that piece of clips from SEARCH SETUP, Time Search menu. It is not shown in the Event Search list. The US411L H.264 DVR always counts it as an event.

The fan is making too much noise.

On screen display, there is an unknown icon sitting between the channel and the speaker icons; I cannot find any document about it. What would be the function of it?

Erroneous documentation, e.g. sensitivity can be adjusted from 0 10, document says 0 is the most sensitive but in fact it is the opposite.

Good or bad?

Motion detection is less sensitive than their 4 Channel version (4 Channel Embedded Linux US411L H.264 Network DVR). For example, US411L will record every lightning at night but not the US811. The old US411L records everything as events such as small cat crossing the street, rat passing, and sun shadow shifting, etc. If you have the old US411L, you will dislike this 8-ch which is blind on most motions even with the highest sensitivity setting. The US411L takes any instantaneous picture changes as events, but this one does not.

Undocumented Tricks:

Fast forward at more than 30 fps While you are in the playback mode, click the "9 Display" icon once to show all the channels in one screen, then click the "9 Display" icon again and the playback in each channel will fast forward like crazy except the CH-01. Whenever it slows down back to normal, click on the "9 Display" icon again will do the trick.

Suggestions:

The picture frame is always red for playback channel. It would be nice if users have a choice to change the color.

In the EVEN SEARCH, Criteria; need to add 2 more buttons in the menu one for "Scheduled Events", the other for "User Recordings". So that users can easily find their scheduled events (except motion events) as well as their manual recordings (i.e. clips resulting from pressing "Record On/Off" manually).

In playback mode, the big magnifying icon blocks portion of the video; it would be good to have a choice to put it away. The video does not contain mega pixels that need magnifying.

It would be better to have a choice to change the background color & font size for time stamp.

Item came quick and was easy to install. I did had to contact the company for support. The company customer service was excellent.

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This is the 3rd unit I have had. It is the best so far. Search Feature is Great You can Search any Camera that was triggered. Motion is triggered and starts play back before Trigger.

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This is my third DVR unit I purchased for my house and, although I only had it for a few days, I like it!

Simple to install hard drive. I had a 1GB drive from my old PC, system found drive, format it and done...

The back button is the right mouse button, everything so far is very easy to configure, playback, remote in...

I hope this unit lasts more than the other two (Different brand) I had.

So far, I have nothing bad to report about this unit and would recommend it to anyone looking for a home or business DVR system, with easy playback, easy remote viewing (I have a droid).

One last note. The company had given me a 2-3 weeks to ship this unit, but I received within 3 business days. KUDOS!!!

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