Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This system packs a massive load of value for the price paid. If you're looking for a basic camera system with decent camera images, then this is what you're looking for. By no means is it a commercial level feature packed system that can produce "High Definition Images". It cannot see fine detail, but produces usable images to see mischef around your property or business. For example, if you want to know which neighbor is messing with your car or who's dog took a crap on your lawn, you can probably identify someone you've seen before. The closer you can get a subject to these cameras the more detail you can see. INITIAL IMPRESSIONS: The DVR looked exactly as I intended. It was a good size and included a Western Digital 500GB Green Drive with a very recent manufacturing date. The cameras were smaller than I thought. No problem with that. All metal construction. Looked perfect for my installation. Everything was packed well in China!! INSTALLATION: I had already wired up my house with Siamese RG59/power cabling. I used no crimp BNC connectors and cut off the power plugs that were on the supplied bundles of camera cables. I spliced the plugs to the power cabling at the camera end and DVR. (Note: I used crimp caps with a little corrosion compound for the connections outside) If you're going to do this make sure you dont damage the conductors while stripping. Use the proper strippers and crimpers!! The supplied power wire is very delicate (looked like 30awg wire). I mounted the cameras on the underside of my roof soffits. I won't get into much detail on that. Every application is different. I can say the supplied brackets worked out well. I had to mess with the cheap ball socket to get the camera to hold the position I wanted. I'll try to post a picture of how I mounted them. POWER UP: I had everything connected including an old CRT monitor I had laying around. Everything worked and I was up and running with images on my screen. I adjusted all the cameras. A lot of back and forth, up and down. I got a workout. I started clicking around the menus. I've never used any other CCTV DVR before but I found no problems figuring out the menus. The included instructions were not that great. I just used them for reference. If you struggle with any type of menu system, you're probably have difficulty. I use all different types of menu structures for the type of work I do so I didn't have any trouble. I found it very intuitive. NETWORK SETUP: I am not a network setup expert. If you know nothing about networks, have someone else set it up for you. The instructions are not very good for someone who doesn't know what an IP address is. Once I figured out what IP address my router gave to the DVR I was up and running on another networked PC in my home. It did take a little tweaking of the settings within Internet Explorer to get it to work. Make sure it prompts you for unsigned Active X. The Zmodo website has information on this. There are also videos on youtube on this subject. For some reason, it only works on IE. I can't get access on Firefox, Opera, or any wireless device in my home. I need to consult with someone else on that. My router also opened up the ports I needed automatically because it had that feature. There is a setting in the DVR that you need to enable for that to work. I did get remote access on my Android phone with the IP Cam app. You need to know what INTERNET IP address you are by going to whatismyip or log into your router. Because I don't have a static IP, I need to use the DNS Service suggested in the information supplied. I won't go into this. It's too complicated and like I said, I'm not an expert. I can figure it out but can't explain it very well. I know it will work once I get it all set up. OTHER COMMENTS: I setup basic stuff like time/date, recording, motion, without issue. It may take a little messing with different settings to figure out how it all works. I'm very happy with the features of this DVR. I like how you can search for specific camera recording with motion marks. This way you don't need to watch hours of video. You can go right to where it saw motion. You can fast forward or manually go back. I've read other reviews of comparable DVR's in which you can't do that. A definite plus!! I'm still discovering other features the more I mess with it. Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase. Amazon currently has the best price. It was delivered without issue as usual. ***If you're not interested in remote access or home network access, this system will still work great. You can view everything from a monitor connected to the DVR and use the included laser mouse. You'll be up and running and love it!! I hope this in depth review helps others decide what system to buy.