Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let me first say that I had installed a Samsung SME-2220 system at my house prior to this install of the SDE-5001 system at my Mom's. My cameras are nearly identical and have glowing red IR LED's at night and have 50' of clear night vision in total darkness. The SDE-5001 does not have enough power per channel to power the IR LED's, the result in about 5' of effective night vision rendering the system useless, nowhere near the advertised 50'. I bought this unit at Costco and figured it was just a defective DVR. When I went to exchange the DVR I did a test on the demo unit at Costco which to my disappointment it had the same issue, no or very weak IR LED's when covered. You should be able to see the red IR LED's glowing from 30' away, it's like having a flashlight with a weak battery, pointless. I called Samsung technical support and spoke with Troy and he was extremely impatient and rude both times I spoke with him, he repeatedly cut me off and was quick to dismiss my claim even though his underling admitted to me that the IR problem is a KNOWN ISSUE by Samsung and yet they continue to sell and ship these SDE-5001's, knowing they are defective. Basically Samsung doesn't care how many hours you spent in a hot attic, rolling in insulation, installing their defective product. I just hope this review saves someone the pain I went through only to have no recourse than to buy something else and rip this one out. Troy will tell you to send the DVR in for repair but the problem is a major design flaw and there is no fix for it, so your option is really return it and get something else or install a bunch of floodlights around your house and accept the barely working night vision. Poor customer service and all around shady business in my opinion. Update 11/30/12 - I finally got in touch with Samsung Corp Engineering and sent them pictures of the grainy night vision. They were unaware of the issue, they agreed it was a defect, there is NO fix for it, yet they continue to sell them.