Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)We purchased this unit alog with 2 additional cameras for a total of four.The first problem we encounted was connecting the unit to a TV/computer.If you missed it in the fine print, the omission of 1 letter of the alphabet in the model number means the unit CANNOT be connected to a computer monitor -- the base model supports low quality output to TV only.
There are no instructions whatsoever in the user manual about making the TV connection and the unit we received did not come with the necessary adapter to connect the BNC output of the DVR to a standard RCA video in jack on the TV.If don't live in a fairly large city then plan on ordering an adapter and waiting for it to arrive, because this is not something you're going to find at Walmart or even Radio Shack.
The 4-channel view on a TV monitor is initially impressive.You get decent color output from the cameras in daylight and they switch to black and white automatically when the light gets dim enough.Unfortunately the IR illumnation LEDs glow so brightly that it's impossible to hide the camera.You CAN see in pitch black darkness but the criminal can easily see the camera.
And here's where it all falls apart as far as this system being of any use in recording a crime and offering proof to law enforcement.The video quality is so poor that we found it impossible to identify even a close family member from farther than 10 yards away.This is true in both daylight and darkness.In order to cover a window and door going into our garage it was necessary to mount the camera at least 15 yards away.At that range, a person's face was nothing more than a murky blur even with the camera output set to highest quality and much time spent playing with different brightness, color, and contrast settings.Want to put a cam on your driveway and record license plate numbers and maybe grab facial features of a driver?Forget it -- totally impossible with this system unless you could run alongside the car pointing the camera at it.
Another big problem is the interface on the DVR.The remote control is so cheaply made that you've got to stand right in front of the detector on the unit, and really pinch HARD on the buttons.We were forced into using the poorly labelled buttons on the DVR front control panel.The so-called menu system is a nightmare to navigate once you've spent a minimum 30 minutes of total frustration learning how to get the menu to come up in the first place.Pressing the menu button does nothing more than flash the percentage of hard drive space already used on the monitor.No menu comes up.You've got to first hit the stop/pause button, after which you get a password prompt.Enter the password correctly and the system just sits there.Press menu NOW and... you get a password prompt!Enter the password AGAIN and -- nothing happens!If you happen to wait a couple seconds before pressing any other buttons, the menu finally comes up.Press any other button during this pregnant pause and the system goes right back to recording and you have to do the whole double password dance again.
The various setup submenus were fairly well laid out once you were able to get into them except that (1) the loss-of-signal alarm on/off didn't work; we got an alarm even after turning it off, and (2) there are 2 seemingly conflicting motion setup menus and even with motion detection turned off, the second menu clearly tells you it's still enabled.The ability to toggle between always on/on during motion detect/always off for any of 24 1-hour time slots in a day was clever.Motion detection did work well when enabled.
The PC software is a total nightmare.The problem starts with the installer, which does not work.Insert the installation disk and you get a menu option "click here to copy viewer application to hard drive".Clicking the option does absolutely nothing.Nothing is copied to the drive.There are no informational or error messages.It just sits there, a non-responsive dialog window staring stupidly back at you.If you browse the install disk contents you will find a statically linked windows executable (translation for non-programmers: you can copy 1 file to your hard drive and run it -- there IS NO INSTALLATION PROGRAM).
There was no USB connection cable in the box (like the BNC-to-RCA adapter, it was promised but not supplied).We had to buy a cable.Copying the viewer program manually to the hard drive and firing it up, the software immediately recognized the DVR and began displaying the live picture view.The displayed picture on a computer monitor was of extremely poor quality, just like the useless (for identification) images we saw displayed on TV, so the quality problem wasn't because of a TV signal.
The final nail in this system's coffin was the playback controls when we played back recorded segments.There are buttons for rewind, play/pause, and fast-forward, as well as a scroll bar at the bottom of the playback window to allow you to move forward/backward in time.THE SCROLL BAR IS COMPLETELY NON-FUNCTIONAL.If you have an hour-long video and want to jump to minute 45, it's going to take you 45 minutes to get there.Clicking and dragging the scroller to the right or left has no effect at all on playback.Although FF/REW buttons on the DVR itself will cycle through 2X, 4X, and 8X playback each time they are pushed, the same buttons in the PC viewer application are real-time only.So you cannot speed through the video at 8 times normal speed by clicking fast foward 3 times.
The only possible use for this system would be manually observing some area of your property for intruders.Having a DVR is pointless because the recorded video quality is so poor that it's impossible to identify a crook unless he/she walked right up to the camera.We laid out around $750 for the DVR and 2 extra cameras but the functionality we got was equivalent to a sub-$100 webcam from WalMart.Don't waste your money...
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Product Description:
The Lorex L104161C2W Digital Video Recorder offers excellent performance at a value price. This surveillance DVR provides real-time recording choices: Motion Detection Record, Continuous Record, or Scheduled Recording. You can display one camera on your monitor or view 4 locations simultaneously with the built-in quad processor. To easily transfer video from the installed Seagate Security Certified Hard Drive to your Personal Computer, "PC Link" Software CD is included with a USB male-to-male cable for quick connection.The included Digital Wireless Color Indoor / Outdoor Night Vision cameras feature VGA resolution and a flexible mounting stand for ceiling or wall mounting. Just connect the cameras to the DVR, connect the DVR to a computer monitor or TV and you are ready to view, record and protect what matters to you.
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