Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I purchased a pair of D-Link DCS-932Ls along with a D-Link DIR-605L Wireless N router, D-Link DNR-202L Network Video Recorder and a Seagate 1TB external drive in order to build a (relatively) simple and (comparatively) inexpensive home surveillance "nanny cam" system that allowed remote viewing, continuous recording and motion detection without having to purchase a subscription or eat up tons of bandwidth uploading the video to someone else's cloud service. (My review of the cameras is very similar to this one, but goes into more detail about their operation, if you're considering a similar setup.) If you're looking to set up a system like mine, it'll probably take a moderate level of technical know-how and a not-insignificant investment of time getting everything configured. I didn't find the D-Link community forums until after I got everything set up, but a few of the threads there might have saved me some grief. Features verified to work: - Recording and playback of Audio\Video at 640x480 "medium quality" MJPEG at 12-15fps. (My cameras do not support HD video or h.264 encoding, so I haven't tested that.) It looks like with continuous recording of two cameras, I'll get around 8 days before it starts overwriting the oldest video on my 1TB drive. I could increase this by lowering the resolution or framerate (or getting a larger HDD), but a week's backlog is more than sufficient for my purposes. - Remote live view and playback of recorded video through the Android app and direct IP interface (though the IP interface can be a little tricky to set up to work correctly from outside your network), with fast-forward, pause and slo-mo - Receipt and logging of Motion detection events (which must be set up first on the cameras, and then enabled in the 202L) which highlight video segments in the playback selection window - Plug-and-play recording to an external HDD (which actually surprised me when it just started up once the HDD was plugged in, since I was expecting to have to turn on the continuous recording) - Saving video segments to AVI, though I'm having an issue with the audio stream of exported AVIs being played at half-speed. Not sure if this is a codec issue or a device issue. I've managed to alter the exported AVI files to correct the issue, but I'm hoping to find out why it's happening in the first place Available Features I Haven't Tried: - Any cameras other than the pair of DCS-932Ls that I've got (though only certain D-Link cameras are supported) - iPhone app. - E-mail alerts on motion detection, disconnection. - Recording schedules, or recording on motion\disconnection (I'm using it to record continuously, though with motion detection active on one camera which puts highlights in the playback selection window) - User Accounts - you can set up sub accounts that do not have access to camera settings, but can still see the Live View (I think) Complaints\Issues: - Java security weirdness. If you view the Live View or Playback through the NVR's direct IP interface (as opposed to the Android\iPhone app), recent Java security changes require you to add an exception for the NVR's IP address to the Site List in the Java Security settings. - Sometimes during playback the status information pane (which shows time, speed, etc) will seize up. Since there's an on-screen-display for each camera, it's a minor annoyance - Has a LOUD error beep when it's not connected. This might be a plus or a minus, depending on your situation. Thankfully, there's an option to turn it off. - Setup can be a bit daunting. There are automatic configuration options, but to get things working the way I wanted required some poking about. (See 03/20/2014 update at the end of this review.) Some of this could probably be chalked up to the router configuration more than the 202L, but to me it's a package deal. This is somewhat exacerbated by the fact that... - Documentation isn't fantastic. It's not awful, but there are certainly some gaps explaining esoteric settings. You have to find the documentation first, though. - It wasn't obvious (to me anyway) that you can click-drag to select a segment of video to view in the Playback selection window. I found that out accidentally. - Using the Save as AVI to export a video segment works, but produces an AVI where the audio stream is played at half-speed, out of sync with the video stream. I've managed to edit the AVI files to correct them, but it'd be nice to find out why they're being exported incorrectly in the first place(if it's a codec issue on my computer, or a device issue with the DNR-202L) Heads Up: (Things that aren't really complaints, but could be easily overlooked.) - It has no built-in storage. You need to purchase a separate external USB hard drive. - It's not wireless. It needs to be physically plugged into a router. - It's tiny. From the picture, I assumed it would be the size of a router. It's a little bigger than an Altoids tin. - It only supports D-Link "cloud" cameras. - It will record 4 cameras at a time, but the interface suggests it can connect to 8 total. (I suspect you just pick 4 of the 8 to record, if you happen to have that many cameras.) Why This Particular Setup: - DCS-932L - The cameras offered Audio and nightvision at a decent quality much less expensively than other alternatives I've seen, as well as remote live viewing without the use of a subscription service - DIR-605L - I'd read you need to dedicate a router to your cameras to avoid bogging down other services on your network (e.g.: Netflix). In the end, I'm actually using it as a switch plus wireless access point (with LAN port to Lan port connection to the "parent" router and DHCP disabled on the 605L) so that the NVR and camera traffic is sequestered to the 605L, but the NVR and cameras are still on the same subnet as the rest of my computers, facilitating access. - DNR-202L - Local recording of (and remote access to) continuous Audio and Video without the use of a subscription service - Seagate 1TB portable external drive - the DNR-202L does not have its own storage, and requires an external USB hard drive. 1TB provides about 8 days of continuously-recorded 12-15fps "medium quality" MJPEG audio\video from two DCS-932Ls. The Other Alternatives I Considered: - Logitech Alert Indoor Master - My runner-up selection. Uses networking-over-power by communicating through special power adapters to avoid tying up your home network , has HD cameras with 130 degree fov, is probably easy to configure, and allows remote live viewing. Does not require a subscription for recording video, but my understanding is that local video recording is done by designating a home computer to do so using Logitech's included software or a 3rd party solution, although the camera's built-in microSD cards hold a certain amount of video until it's ready to be downloaded. This was roughly the same price as my setup, but only came with one camera, and additional cameras are nearly twice the price. There is some subscription service offered by Logitech, but I didn't see that it offered any meaningful benefits over the free service. - Netgear VueZone - Cameras are truly wireless, being battery operated, but they don't record audio. Requires a subscription or 3rd party software (on a home PC) for continuous recording and playback. The full-featured 110 degree fov camera with nightvision is twice as expensive as the 932L. - DropCam Pro - HD video, 130 degree fov, two-way audio, reviews seems to suggest it's easy to use. Requires a subscription or 3rd party software (on a home PC) for continuous recording and playback. One camera is three times the price of a single DCS-932L. - Foscam - No subscriptions, comparatively inexpensive, pan-tilt with two-way audio, but again - need to dedicate a PC with Foscam or 3rd-party sofware to recording and playback. - Lorex Wireless (and similar) - A true "surveillance system" with a dedicated DVR-type unit. Most require physical installation of BNC cables from the cameras to the DVR unit, although I did see a Lorex system with two wireless cameras at a big-box retailer for about the price I paid for my setup. The reviews were poor, so I dropped it from consideration. Two things that keep coming up in this review: - Subscriptions. It's a matter of principle for me, so it's a personal preference thing. I prefer to buy products rather than services. I get what I paid for and then I'm done putting money into it. A cloud recording service would necessitate using Internet bandwidth for streaming the camera feeds, where my setup allows me to sequester the camera traffic onto its own router unless I'm actively viewing the live stream. Plus, I'm not at the mercy of a company who may discontinue the service before I'm done using it. I am using D-Link's mydlink cloud...thingy to direct web requests for live viewing to the cameras, but it's free, and it's not essential. - Use of a home PC for recording\playback purposes. I don't like the idea of using up CPU cycles, bandwidth, and storage space on my main computer for recording, plus I don't have to worry about the recording service starting back up automatically if there's a brief outage. With the NVR, you can access the recorded video for playback from any of the computers in the house (or remotely), and I've unhooked the power to the cameras and the NVR more than once to move them and had recording start back up very quickly without any intervention on my part. There you have it! I've had the system running for about a week now, so if I experience any issues with reliability down the road, I'll update my review. Update 02/28/2014: The system has been running for about a month (admittedly the short month of February) without interruption. With the two DCS-932Ls recording continuously on medium quality 640x480 MJPEG with audio, I'm getting around 8.5 days backlog on my 1TB drive. I've experimented with using some inexpensive (like, $6) smartphone add-on wide-angle lenses to increase the field of view with some success and will probably be semi-permanently attaching those to my cameras in the near future. If you're considering it, I'd recommend a clip-style version of the 0.67x wide angle lens. The more common magnetic version of the lens interferes with the IR filter of the DCS-932L unless the magnet is removed (which isn't trivial). Update 03/20/2014: I've read several reviews where people report having trouble with the setup Wizard. I configured my cameras and the DNR-202L through the direct IP interface before ever running the Wizard, and even then I only ran it to register the unit with mydlink.com. It requires a certain degree of technical know-how, but it seems like the Wizard has a spotty track record. Also, the forums at forums.dlink.com might provide some user-to-user assistance if you're having difficulty getting things set up.