Review on Evtevision 16CH 5MP Network Video Recorder: Easy Remote View, HD Output, Motion Detection (Hard Disk Not Included) by Christopher Smith

I was excited to get the 5MP NVR and try it out on my existing security camera system which is only 1080P. As a background, I set up two 1080P NVRs with 9 ONVIF cameras connected to a Netgear Nighthawk R6700 router both wirelessly and via a 1G wired LAN. I use this system every day for security and wildlife monitoring. The monitor is a 65" Sony 4K OLED TV, each NVR connects to the TV's own HDMI input. I set up Evtevision on the network described above to compare with my existing 1080P NVRs. I have a few Used it for days and got a good idea of its features and issues.The NVR's HDMI output has been set to a maximum resolution of 2560 x 1440 30 fps, aka 5 MP.Overall I'm impressed with the NVR's capabilities, but disappointed with the 5 megapixel video as well as some other issues it has Read on for my impressions: GOOD: -- ONVIF CAMERAS AUTOMATICALLY DETECTED: Shortly after powering on and booting up, the NVR detected 9 existing ONVIF cameras in the system and installed them in 9 channels out of 16. It was a really excellent result with many plug and play manufacturers and I didn't have to do anything, especially with such a diverse range of cameras that manufacturer. Both the main display and lower resolution displays or previews worked. With 2 cameras, the preview screen was not working, but this was fixed by setting the "Extra Stream" or preview camera to N1 or lower resolution. For camera reference: 1) Sunba, PTZ, Model 405D20X, 1080P (Unlike other cameras in the system, this is a more professional camera.) 2) YoLuke, PTZ, Model PI-2MP-RWF, 1080P 3) BESDER, Bullet, 60B04MW- HXT201, 1080P 4) BESDERSE, Bullet HX60R36 1080P 5) KingkongSmart, Bullet, FBA-XG60-5MP-W, 5MP 6) EvteVision, Dome, Fixed, 4MP 7) YoLuke, PTZ, P16-4X-5MPW-Y, 5MP 8 ) Dericam, 1080P 9) ANPVIZ IPC-b750W-D-4X , 5MP -- 5MP VIDEO OUT WORKING: I have configured Evtevision to output 5MP (Main Menu/Display/Resolution) or 2560x1440 30fps via the HDMI output. The TV has confirmed that the HDMI input is 2560 x 1440 30 fps. First, the TV wasn't scaling properly and the screen size was about ½ the size of the TV screen, so I had to adjust the TV to display the full screen with that setting. However, with all that, I couldn't really tell the same image from a 5MP camera from a 1080P camera. I placed the 5MP and 2MP cameras on the same image and captured them in a photo for reference (see attachment). -- REALLY INTUITIVE USER INTERFACE: I jumped straight into it without using the manual (which is very subtle anyway). ) and found the menus easy to understand. It took me a while to find the PTZ control menu, similar to finding Easter eggs, but I finally figured it out. More on that later. -- AUTOMATIC FIRMWARE UPGRADE: Sometime after power on, the NVR asked me if I want to update the firmware to the latest version and it was done automatically. Other NVRs I've had always forced you to download the firmware so you had to do it yourself to determine if it was a new version. -- WIRELESS USB MOUSE WORKS: I connected a wireless mouse with a USB transmitter to the NVR and it worked fine. -- EASY HARD DRIVE INSTALLATION: I installed a 4TB enterprise hard drive. Installation was trivial with 4 mounting screws and 2 cable connectors already present in the case. When powered on, the drive was formatted and ready to record almost immediately, with no user intervention required. The drive reported 3.6TB available, which is correct. Just a note unrelated to the DVR, the hard drive makes a noticeable hit. So much so that my wife thought it was some kind of animal on the roof. I've since replaced the noisy Hitachi drive with a very, very quiet WD Blue drive. The woman is much happier now. -- PTZ CONTROL WORKS!: I have two PTZ cameras in the system, SUNBA professional and YoLuke, and I was able to control both cameras successfully via Evtevision. I was even able to adjust the focus, which I couldn't do with existing DVRs. Major advantage! OUTPUT COLOR OFF BUT FIXED: NVR video colors were initially saturated. I was able to compare video from an identical camera from another DVR and see obvious bright reds and greens using Evtevision. But there is a fix under main menu/output settings/user settings and here you can change the saturation of the color among other things and I was able to set the color to a nice level. -- ADVANCED PLAYBACK FEATURES: Playback options are extensive, including many more than I've ever used, including features like face recognition. Most importantly, it's easy to select 4 channels, dates and times and navigate the timeline with the mouse, with the video preview window where the mouse is on the timeline. -- EASY TO COPY TO FLIGHT DRIVE. I was able to easily copy part of the recording to a USB flash drive plugged into the DVR. This is an important feature that I have used to share videos with the police or simply record wildlife actions to share. -- GREAT PRICE AND VALUE: The device I own is listed in this review for $67! I spent more than 2x for an 8 channel 1080P NVR. -- SHOW ONLY 9 CHANNELS: I can't figure out how to show 16 channels. If I find out what's bad, please update the review. COULD BE BETTER: -- DISAPPOINTING 5MP VIDEO: As my first 5MP NVR, I expected a noticeable improvement in video quality over 2M or 1080P. I know the dash cam was running at 5MP and outputting 5MP to the TV giving an image resolution of 2560 x 1440 @ 30Hz, but the video from the camera didn't look any better than the 1080P camera. In fact, in an A/B comparison of two 5MP cameras versus 1080p cameras, my wife chose 1080p images. The attached images try to compare 5MP and 2MP images from the NVR. -- PTZ CONFLICT: There were two PTZ cameras in the system. From time to time I found that when looking at a PTZ camera and trying to align it, it would not respond. I later found that the other invisible PTZ camera would move when the main camera was not responding. Since I have cameras pointed at specific locations, this is a serious mistake. -- POOR SUPPORT: There is no support contact information on the box or in the manual, no phone number or work address. There is an email address listed on the Revain product website that has not been replied to. I contacted them through the Revain website by clicking on the manufacturer's name and an email was sent through the Revain system and there was a delay of around 1-2 days between each message but they responded. To tricky questions, awkward silences, like why this controller suddenly started controlling the wrong PTZ camera. The bottom line is don't expect much from the support and don't buy it if you think you need their help to use it. -- NO INTERNAL FAN: The device has no internal fan and the surface of the case under the hard drive will be very hot. There aren't any performance issues yet, but there is something to watch out for. -- HIDDEN MENU for PTZ: Initially I could not find any tool to configure PTZ. The instructions didn't help. So, after looking for Easter eggs, I found that when you place your mouse cursor at the bottom of the screen, a hidden menu with several quick access items, including PTZ, appears. The PTZ controls didn't appear anywhere else in the menu. Another software bug. -- LONG UPDATE DURING IMAGE SWITCH: When switching views from preview (16ch) to large image and vice versa, it may take 4-6 seconds for the image to update. -- IPC OPTIONS ARE NOT AVAILABLE. The IPC settings gives you access to the camera configuration via the NVR. None of the cameras installed in this configuration returned IPC parameters with the message "Error getting configuration". Maybe a problem with ONVIF. You can still access these settings by accessing the camera directly, but not through the NVR. -- SLOW FAST PLAY: Fast playback only increases to 8X speed. I think the much faster playback speed comes in handy when looking at previous images. Other mfrNVRs on my system are up to 32x faster, and sometimes I could use them even faster. -- ODD SOUND ACTIVATION: Another software error. There are 2 hidden speaker icons that need to be activated for the sound to work. You have to move your mouse over the bottom right corner of the screen and click to bring up a small row of icons that are very, very difficult to spot because they are so small. The second set of icons appears when you move the mouse pointer to the bottom of the screen. Both speaker icons in two different icon sets must be enabled for sound to work. See attached picture. This can help you deal with it. I asked if they could fix it but their answer was to lower the resolution to 1080P and the icons would get bigger. Yeah right. -- WIRELESS DISPLAY RESOLUTION: After 10 days of operation, I turned on the monitor one morning and the output resolution of the NVR changed back to 1080p from the 2560x1440 that I had set it to. I disabled "Automatic Maintenance" (this will reset the NVR), so another software bug. CONCLUSION: Excellent quality for a 16 channel 5MP NVR. As usual, I only used the NVR for 24/7 monitoring and recording, skipping complex features like face detection or motion alerts. The buggy PTZ controls issue is a serious one, and with a few other bugs you can work around, I have to decline. Despite the downsides, the NVR is worth the money, and if you have a first NVR and not multiple PTZ cameras, it's a good choice for your home security system. If you are not tech savvy I would buy a more well known brand that offers real support.