Review on Wireless Security Camera System With 8CH NVR, 8Pcs 1080P HD Cameras, P2P Connectivity, 3TB Hard Drive, And Indoor/Outdoor Use For Enhanced Home Security by Taj Tyagi

I’ve owned this setup about a month.I Gave it 4 because I can’t give it 5. There are flaws. I Really wanted to go 4.5So, let me break it down.5 shipping packing: Quick shipping – packaging and padding first rate. Everything needed is included.5 Cameras: All 8 cameras are solid and well made. The 3 angle adjustments with the included Allen wrenches (one with each camera) allow almost any angle after mounting. The connectors are solid, and the Ethernet connector comes with a protective cover to seal it against moisture and insects. I have 2 cameras mounted outside and am running them wireless. The protective cover is important as I live in a wet climate. Camera range is good. One camera is 250 feet away and the signal goes through 3 walls, a floor and my garage (which has a fair amount of metal) and the signal is strong. It is important to orient antennas properly. I was careless about that at first and didn’t get a very good signal. Night vision is better than I expected.5 Base unit: I bought the 3TB unit. It is solid, compact and pre-setup. As soon as you plug it in, it starts up. If the power goes out, as soon as the power returns, the unit boots up and starts right where it left off.5 Pre-setup: Before they ship, they turn it on and link all the cameras and setup all the default settings. It really is plug and play.Now for some things that were less than perfect.4 Manual: The manual appears to be translated from Chinese. It loses something in the translation. It is quite cryptic. It will say where to go to set settings but gives no explanation of what the settings do. As an example, you can set a camera to record all the time, record on motion or both. There is no explanation of how those settings interact if you turn both on.4 The App on the base unit: When you plug in a monitor turn on the base unit, the app launches. You can use the provided mouse to operate the system. No option for a keyboard. There is an onscreen keyboard. Parts of the App are not intuitive, but once you learn the hidden right click and double clicks, you can make it go efficiently. I had to contact support to figure out if the unit was recording and how to play the recordings. Also, when setting record times and other options, you must do so in an exact sequence for the settings to save. Several times I thought I had saved record settings only discover later I had not.5 Support: Both the shortcomings of the manual and base unit app are more than made up for by support. The normal experience with emailing a company support questions is they answer the first question with a canned answer that doesn’t really address the question and then they completely ignore the subsequent questions. What a pleasant surprise when this company not only answered all 3 of my questions but did so as if they read the questions and thought it through. Then, on top of that, they provided additional information, anticipating the things I might be doing next. Remarkable. They also offer phone support, but I haven’t needed it.2 computer app: You can download and install an application to operate the base unit from your computer. Don’t bother. One of the worst interfaces I have ever experienced. You can’t even size the screen and it won’t even remember where you placed the window if you have multiple monitors. Totally non-intuitive and won’t do some of the basic functions of the base unit app. When I tried to launch it after connecting RDP on my iPad, it would not size down to fit the screen. Only app I have every had that experience. I uninstalled it.5 Html App: This isn’t mentioned in manual that I can find. I only found it because one of the tech guys at work suggested I try it. This is even better than the base unit app. To launch it open Internet Explorer (I know, I know, but the other browsers wouldn’t work) and in the address line enter http://192.168.0.xxx (the local IP address of the base unit.). It will ask you to load an IE plug in. Agree and the web page launches. It is intuitive and allows you full control. The IE App is well written. Way, way better than the computer app. Better than the base unit app.You can open router ports to access the web page from outside your network. I’m not that brave, and it is unnecessary.3 iPad App: I loaded it and it was not well written and It only works inside your local network. I need to remote in when away from home, so I uninstalled. Useless to me. I did not load the phone app as I assume it would be the same.I remote into my home computer from my iPad using the Microsoft secure RDP App. Once in I can launch the Html App on my home computer and do everything I need to do with cameras and base unit easily. The picture quality is still good.To summarize: the equipment is well made, the Html App is good, pre-setup is good, and support is good. Those are all I need to make this system do what I need done. Well worth the price.