Customer Ratings & Reviews

At an attempt to update my old camera system which was a Night Owl system as well , this system doesn't let you go back and view past recordings nor does it give you directions on where to find or how to

Dooo noooot buy.......It worked okay for the first year but now the entire system Is down and wont work . Just boots up to a black screen Tech support is a joke and rude ... i just lost 548 dollars on a cam syster thay only worked a year.... shame on nightowl

The range of view is horrible. You can barely get any camera view when pointed in a direction

Video quality is good. Build is cheap. Reviewing the footage is super tedious. You cannot adjust the sensitivity of the motion detection, and you must orient the camera properly when mounting it because you cannot invert the image through the software. The phone app runs nicely as long as you're not trying to go back in time. Reviewing footage is best done directly through the DVR, and even then it is slow-going and tedious. And god forbid you need to export footage because every motion event has to be exported seperately, often broken down into 10 or 12 second increments. So If you're wanting to export a full 10 or 15 minutes of video to give to the police or to edit into the next Youtube viral hit, you will probably be forced to export 30 or more separate files. There should be an option to export from one point in the timeline to another as a single file, but alas... Yet, I must confess, at the end of the day, the system does what it is supposed to do. It watches and records and serves as a deterrent, and provides evidence should you need it. I even used it once to help me figure out where I lost my keys. So it is not without value. And it is for this reason that I give it 4 stars instead of 3.

I bad these to replace my Swann cams that with out after 6 years but it is definitely crazy that my 6 yr old out dated camera picture are way better than these. I was even more upset that I had to take them down and returned them after I wasted my time putting them up 

From the date of purchase to present, I have been in communication with Night Owl in an effort to get my cameras up and running, only to be told that my recorder was a faulty one. I am preparing to return the recorder, in hopes of receiving a replacement that is working and functional. Until the replacement is received, I remain disappointed and unsatisfied as a new customer

Doesn't capture a wide angle. One camera can only get 30% of my garage. There cameras are only able to move up and down not side to side or swivel. You have to twist the camera sideways and it makes the picture sideways. I can't create a login on the app and when i called they didn't know how to fix it. I'm returning this for something better.

trash and not worth it even right out of the box it NEVER worked

I couldn't connect to my device when I was not home. Completely defeated the purpose of trying to protect my home!! I can't believe a $20 blink camera can actually be more effective than a $300 system! Complete piece of trash and I will never be buying from this company ever again!

This Night Owl system is a 12-channel unit with 1TB of storage. 12 channels means it supports up to 12 independent cameras. This specific configuration comes with 8 wired cameras leaving you with some room to expand. Note, the DVR unit only has physical connections for 8 cameras so the four additional ones will have to be wireless. So choose carefully if mixing and matching from other Night Owl systems. The cameras in this system are rated as 2k with 60 feet of bnc cable. Each cable carries power and the AV signals (there's two way audio capability as well). At the DVR side, splitters are used to supply per to all the cameras. Side from the camera power adapter, there's the DVR itself and it's adapter, USB mouse, HDMI cable, either cable, and some mounting hardware. The Ethernet cable is an absolute requirement for anything app related. While it will work completely offline and has support for Wi-Fi cameras, likely to keep up with the bandwidth needs, Ethernet is what you get to connect the DVR to your network. So, with needing to connect to your router and having only 60 feet of cable for any one camera, careful selection of DVR placement is important. For my current house, the wasn't any good place to locate the DVR that would allow me to really split camera coverage around the house because I was limited by the 60 foot length (I was able to work around Ethernet). This is where those potential Wi-Fi cameras come in handy as of I had a set of those, I could position the DVR such that I could get coverage of ¾ of the house. I was also avoiding drilling holes to go completely through an exterior wall though that would not have impacted the length problem too much. Installation is pretty straightforward once you plan the routing. I utilized windows for a non permanent install but otherwise you'd need to drill holes to snake the cables through inside. As the views I wanted were achievable from just the first floor exterior, near the porch ceiling line, the DVR was stored in a side closet by the first floor bathroom. A big bonus - a monitor is not required for setup. You can actually complete it through the app after pairing using Bluetooth and making the connection to your network. This is pretty key as it reduces one more constraint on placing the DVR. Camera quality is actually decent. Felt like what if expect for true HD. Yes, I know they're 2k cameras, but there always seems to be a gap especially when looking it things at night under IR illumination. The cameras have a spotlight and siren, in addition to the speaker and mic. Together with the "AI" detection capabilities, you could do some cool things. For me, the detection was a bit too sensitive and resulted in the down being triggered a bit too much. So, I turned that off and used it as a regular monitoring system. The two way communication is good enough that the cameras providing coverage near the front door could almost be useful as a doorbell camera. The audio quality was amazing and has little lag. The FOV and coverage area means I'm typically just talking to a head, but it's still good and if you're paying attention, you'd get a good look at your visitor on approach. The spotlights are almost enough to dispenser with regular motion activated lights in the front of the house and a secondary benefit, my door lock keypad now gets illuminated enough to use it without fumbling the first code entry to get it to light up at night! This system is coming very close to being complaint free for me. Easy configuration, great video and audio quality go a long way. For a smaller house, this would be perfect. As it is, using Wi-Fi to deal with placement issues may be sufficient even for my layout. Not needing to locate the DVR with display/TV access, no matter how infrequent is a major plus. Not needing to pay an ongoing service fee to access my own data or use the system is always a feature I look for. Just work on the AI detection and this will be golden.

The service is so bad, I would not give them away !!! . The company is so bad for call service. I call seven (7) times for help, and no one new what the ----- to do. This was all for programing. Look good but service is bad.

Item was returned. Due to amount of holes in the wallet. To install

Wrong system for my needs. Wanted a wired system, not a wireless one.

Stay away from best buy homewood store .everything is a joke

Device stopped working after only 3-4 weeks. I have to reset it every week and then now doesn’t work at all. It’s either the power supply or the hard drive and tried to contact customer service with no answers

you have to run a power cord to each camera, like its 1976 never even set up just returned and bought 1 made in the century we live in

Best Buy has STOLEN all of our protection plans. They are impossible to contact. Terrible Customer Service.

As soon the light is turned off the camera turns off. When you turn light on you have to literally unplug and plug cameras on to reset them to work and it is not guaranteed it will work.

Cameras were returned because installers said house was too large and siding was sealed.

Plastic junk no way to set this up at any angle its plastic and broke before you could get it installed. JUNK