Customer Ratings & Reviews

8 channel is pretty nice. 1080P leaves me desiring for 4K, especially when it comes to home security. You need the best quality and highest frame rate in order to make a difference. Unfortunately we had a package stolen recently with just a video doorbell, but a pretty good brand name one. The frame rate was too slow and quality was bad so couldn't make out any face whatsoever and couldn't see the license plate of the getaway car. Fortunately the value of the items stolen wasn't much, but it sure would've been nice to have a detailed face and description of the people involved + getaway car to report to the police. That's why when it comes to home security, my opinion is spend more for better quality, otherwise there's no point other than false comfort--again just my opinion. For 1080p this runs okay, but I wish it was 4K, and the motion is just so slow I kind of regret even installing this. It's nice that they're spotlight cameras and thus are somewhat of a deterrent, and it's nice that there's audio, but 1TB isn't enough either in my opinion---although not bad for the price. Overall, I don't recommend this because I would personally invest in a 4k home security system. But you get what you pay for and for this price range it's not terrible.

System went out within 3 months and the return policy for BestBuy is crap. Waiting to see if the warranty is any good. But for the price, I guess it is ok.

Worst product ever customer service sucks it doesn’t stay connected the doorbell doesn’t allow you answer from app nothing but problems since day one and the only response I get frm customer service is always let’s factory reset and see if that works and we are sorry

Have used wireless and wired camera systems and this one for the money is very good. You can use a phone if you don't have or want o tie a computer to it. You may have to reset your phone and the system as some features did not work so I tried that and it worked fine. This system is a wired system so what is nice compared to wireless is it shows live where some of my wireless cameras froze or was lagging. The wires may limit you if you try and conceal but you can locate the DVR almost anywhere as you don't need to have it by the computer just a receptacle. The quality of the video is very good inside and during the day. At night the picture quality lacks but for a more an entry level camera DVR system I would expect it. It will not be very clear further out at night. I still like this system as my wireless systems require a subscription where this you do not need any type that I know of yet.

How do you turn is it it was too hot to sit up to pay someone so annoyed Best Buy to say that and the tax people never came

The Night Owl 8 Channel Bluetooth DVR was a tough product for me to review. This is the 4th camera system I have used in the last few years - 1 'roll my own" system using POE cameras and Zoneminder on a home built linux server that I used for several years, and then 2 competitor brands of "4K" cameras that I've received from the Tech Insider Network program. With that in mind, I wasn't necessarily stuck on the idea of the Bluetooth setup from a phone based app, but I found the idea intriguing since mobile apps have been the weak point of the two competitor systems I've used. First impression, the packaging: this is going to to sound really dumb, but the packaging for this system is truly a work of art. Night Owl's packaging engineers should be super proud, because it is quite simply shocking that they fit 8 cameras and a DVR into a small package - with everything feeling super well protected at the same time. It really was amazing when I received the package - you really won't believe they fit it all in that size box. 5 out of 5 here. Second impression, build quality/design: the DVR itself is super compact and classy looking. Unfortunately, it doesn't have built in keyholes for wall mounting it, but it's very small compared to the other off the shelf security camera systems I've used recently. It has a very quiet fan for cooling, which is really nice. The cameras are pretty compact and lightweight, but definitely feel like they are made of cheap plastic. Not necessarily a big deal once they are mounted. 4 out of 5 here. Third impression, setup: I unboxed the unit and tried to set it up using the bluetooth option + Night Owl Protect app from my Note 20 Ultra. This was utterly frustrating. The first attempt did not work at all. The app would never connect to the DVR. After power cycling the DVR a few times, I was finally able to get it to connect on the last attempt before I called their tech support (which is 24/7 - commendable). From that point on, the bluetooth did seem to make for easy setup. I'm just not sure what the advantage of bluetooth is supposed to be for setup vs a QR code and an internet connection like many other systems. You could say that it means you don't have to have the DVR connected to the internet... except then you can't view live video from the app. Just really strange that their marketing and quick start guide push that feature so heavily when it actually makes it harder to set up. 1 out of 5 bluetooth setup, see below for additional setup notes. Usage notes: Another big frustration with the app is that it failed to update the firmware on my DVR multiple times. I'd run the update and check back 10 minutes later and it would still show that it was on the same version. At this point, I finally got frustrated enough to hook up an HDMI cable and use the DVR the "traditional" way - and here is where my review goes from 1 star to 3 star. Hooked up to a monitor/TV, the interface of the Night Owl DVR is far more modern and easy to use than any other camera brand I've used recently. Here's where the bluetooth feature finally shines, too. You can unlock the DVR from the phone app, so you don't have to input a password with the little tiny included mouse. (side note on the mouse: it's actually a lot nicer than the included mice on the other two systems I've used recently). I was able to review recordings easily using the app, and I found scrubbing much more responsive than some DVRs I've used recently, but I also had some random disconnects when viewing the feed, and the app design itself isn't anywhere near as nice as the design of the TV/Monitor interface is. Overall the app is a bit of a fail overall, but still the unlocking feature just makes a huge difference in usability. Camera quality is very good for 1080p analog cameras. Daylight quality is only so-so but I found night performance to be very, very good. Motion/"people" detection is very good especially for analog cameras. App usability: 3 out of 5 stars Camera quality: 4 out of 5 stars. Motion detection: 5 out of 5 stars. Final note: After my frustration setting it up using the supposedly "preferred" Bluetooth/mobile app option, I factory reset the DVR and set it up the "traditional" way using the mouse and a TV. Super easy to do, worked totally fine, and then I scanned the QR code in the app to add it to the app. This was a 5 out of 5 experience. Ultimately, this is a really nice product that is nearly undone by the instructions and sales pitch regarding the bluetooth setup. If you set it up the 'normal' way, it works perfectly well, and the bluetooth is a great feature in the ability to unlock your DVR from your phone, saving you from entering your password via mouse. I really struggled with giving this 3 stars or 4, and settled on 4 because once I got past the really frustrating setup, I really, really liked the product. Hopefully my experience with the app is due to the early nature of the product and app, and folks who don't read my review will not have to deal with that trouble. Either way, skipping the "preferred" bluetooth setup, this is a great camera system with expandability to include their Wifi doorbell and other network cameras.

Compicared camera to install. I don’t know how to install Call technical support but cant find out the audio

This camera system is terrible. First the cameras on bend up and down not side to side. Then it records everything like leaves blowing or snow yet misses vehicles people and animals. Plus paid electricians to install the app is horrible I want to rerun it but one camera is mounted way up high Sticking with Arlo pro and essential cameras better app and flexibility in positioning

Old school is the term that immediately came to mind for me with this system, and I mean that in the best possible way. This system does not rely on WiFI or cloud storage. Although you can connect to WiFi to view the cameras when you're away, it is not necessary for recording and storing footage. The system comes with its own DVR system that the cameras are directly connect to, so wireless is not a thing here. What you are NOT sacrificing on with this “old school” system is video quality. That’s as updated as you can get right now and the quality is excellent. I will say the wires can also be considered one drawback of this product, because yes, lots of wires connecting the cameras. if you install the system properly, this doesn’t have to be an issue, it’s just something to consider that wouldn’t be an issue with wireless cameras. That being said, I think the tradeoff in terms of number of cameras, DVR, picture quality (day and night vision), and PRICE makes this an incredibly worthwhile purchase. A wireless system with this many cameras would cost at least three times as much money and of course you’d be relying on WiFI for your cameras to work. For some, that may not be a huge issue, but if you have an Internet issues, this is an excellent option to bypass that problem.

Not happy cameras don't focus good and images are hard to distinguish over all risk I could return them

Returned merchandise it was not what i expected for 1080

Bought this 4times trying to get a box that works right then the one box that works caught a guy but there was no video at that time all of a sudden and talking with support he made me change all the info and now i have to return the box for a warranty exchange again

This is the second security system I have used. At first glance it feels cheaply made. The materials used to construct the camera body and the housing for the DVR feels flimsy and hollow. You do get 8 cameras and compared to my old system, it's a pretty big upgrade despite how everything may feel to the touch. I've always said, never judge a book by its cover but always reserve judgement until the end. I did. Set up was fairly easy. I basically tied the cables to already existing camera system and fished it out of the walls. Super easy, except that I had 4 cameras before. This meant I had to fish out the other four. The Bluetooth feature worked and didn't. I always tend to reset my phone, router, or device I'm trying to connect prior to connecting anything OTA. This gives me an extra layer of assurance or proactive troubleshooting in case something doesn't want to connect. Bluetooth was a bit shoddy at first but then connected. I see the reason as to why they did this. regardless if I hate using the mouse, I still would prefer to do it the old fashioned way until they streamline the Bluetooth feature and work out the kinks. There's a lot of settings to go through. Person detection was sub-par at best but I've come to understand that most human detection, unless developed by a government agency, is shoddy in my opinion and gives false detections but as time goes by this should simmer down with technological advances. At least this is my hope. Video quality is great as well. 1080p during the daytime looks crisp and clear. The night time IR can only sense things about 30-35 feet ahead of them and then its pitch black. I was used to this fact from all of my cameras, even my more expensive cloud cameras from reputable companies so this wasn't an issue. Placement and careful planning is key. Overall this is a great system for anyone wanting to setup a camera system and not wanting to display it on a monitor. Not the greatest selling point, but it gets the job done very well. I'd still recommend it just because of its price point. Sometimes you get what you pay for, and sometimes you get more. 8 cams and a DVR with no subscription? Sign me up.

This product was not as expected. Not able to use at my home. Tried to return and was unable to due to a 14 day return policy I was not aware of.

Would not work straight out of box! Worked with nightowl support and they could not fix issue! Returned to store for refund!

The Night Owl is a home video monitoring system with 8 wired cameras and a DVR. The contents are pretty typical, 8 cameras which use a BNC connection for video/control/audio and an RCA type connector for power. You get 60 feet of cable that you'd connect to the camera on one end and the DVR and power adapter (through a splitter) on the other end. Since the camera power is collocated with the DVR, you'd need to have at least 3 plugs available with space for larger power plugs, DVR power, and two camera power adapters. The cameras themselves are decently rugged and honestly look like exterior floodlights. So, depending on your install location, these may not look like you have cameras until someone gets within about 30 feet. They even have a flood light feature when motion is detected. As I'm testing these, I swapped out my existing system which saves me the need to plan out where to locate the DVR or route wiring. 60 feet gives you a decent amount of wire to deal with and while the instructions caution to only use Night Owl accessories, these are so generic as to be easily extended with longer cable should that be needed. With cameras loosely in place and hooked up to the DVR and power, setup is to download the Night Owl Protect app to setup via Bluetooth. The DVR does have an ethernet port so it can be connected to the internet, but that's not required to setup the cameras though the connection to your router is pretty much required if you'll view video remotely. With Bluetooth, the app will discover and pair with the camera, then walk you through some initial setup. After that's done, you'll find that Bluetooth only mode has limitations. For example, there's no live view with Bluetooth (to be honest, this makes sense, Bluetooth was not designed to stream video) and so you can't actually use the Bluetooth setup to check camera positioning or viewing angles. So, I hooked up the DVR to the router. Once that was done, I could then access OwlVR (what I named the DVR) cameras to finalize positioning from my phone without needing to go back and forth between the cameras and a temporary monitor located with the DVR. So, the good news - video quality is great The not so great news, the field of view isn't that great. So for some areas at the front of the house, I needed to position things for more semi-overlapping coverage than I expected. The cameras have one-way audio. You can speak through them but there's no audio that's recorded. While I realize this makes storage needs higher, this is sometimes a downside of systems like this. You'd typically set up at least one camera to provide front of the house coverage. It would be nice if it could double as a true doorbell camera. While you can get notifications and have the app pop up an image of who's in front of the cameras, the interaction if any is one-way. The cameras can also play a preset warning message. I'm a bit conflicted on this one. It seems pointless when I'm home and if away, it seems like it may only serve to tell someone that I'm away. I left that off and stuck with the motion activated spotlight. The DVR system does have some smarts to help avoid generating notifications just based on a tree branch swaying in the wind, so you won't be inundated with messages for normal, ignorable events. As expected, these also have a "night" mode where the camera pretty much records in infrared. However, the Night Owl doesn't seem to add it's own infrared light so in pretty dark areas or well shaded, you can't make out much in the way of detail until the floodlight turns on. The camera system boasts smart assistant support but it's just the basic - play x camera on the tv command. Which is not useful when you're only connecting to the DVR via the internet anyway. The app does support a lot of things with the camera and has some relatively unique functionality in terms of capturing faces as part of an alert notification. I like the system but it's too tied to Night Owl for my long term comfort. While they seem to be security conscious, needing to use an account validated by Night Owl means the DVR system isn't truly independent with smartphone use. While it is capable of that, you'd need to give up a lot of functionality and have a TV or monitor available within HDMI reach of the DVR. Also, the narrower viewing angle means that you won't get the same mileage out of their 8 cameras that you would from similar systems.

After using several different types of camera systems I have come to accept the wired is the best route to go. With this one I had to have some come in and install although if you're good at this type of thing it's definitely not too advanced to do on your own. Per my installer...installation was on the simple side and didn't take as long as they anticipated. It helped that I had pre-mapped where I wanted everything to go. Camera wise...the quality of the video feed is very decent regardless of if it's day or night. Areas around the perimeter of my home are extremely dark and sometimes cameras I used in the past did not pick up clear images of what was going on in that area. This one definitely does an excellent job. The app so far has worked great with no issues while being pretty easy to navigate. Despite being super easy to use it does offer a healthy amount of user friendly customization options which is always a good thing. Ultimately if you want a great budget and user friendly wired system with great features this is definitely worth a try

One of the important things in life is safety and putting emphasis on the safety of our families should be, without a doubt, one of the priorities nowadays. Well it seems to me that this company is putting a lot of effort in delivering a quality product, maybe not the best but a good option to consider. Starting with the unboxing is something easy, it's just a matter of cutting some seals, open some boxes to remove the cameras, cables, DVR and everything needed for installation, which is a set of 8 wired cameras with a DVR that allows remote connection via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth depending clearly on the location, but the connection at home must be done by oneself in a wired way, which in my opinion is not a problem if done with the necessary tools and precautions, in my experience I can say that I took the time and patience to install one by one to my taste and need. The cables are very long and easy to connect, actually nothing that requires too much effort, the cameras are not very large and come in white with black, the plastic with which the cameras are made feels not very high quality but seem to be a little resistant, they are screwed to the wall, connected by cable to the DVR, another cable for power supply and ready. Once the cameras are installed the next thing to do is to connect the DVR to the internet via Ethernet, it includes a small mouse that connects via USB and an HDMI cable to connect to the screen where the video will be shown in real time. Once connected you will start to see the image of the 8 channels on the screen, the next step is to install the app and connect the DVR for wireless use. The Night Owl Protect app, which is what these cameras work with, allows you to see in real time the video of all the channels and click on the one you want to enlarge the image, you can turn on a flashlight that includes the 8 cameras and activate an alarm and even talk as the cameras have speaker, they are not of the best quality but they do the job. The app allows you to customize, alarms, notifications, motion detection etc, the only thing that caused me inconvenience was to register the device in the app, because when I tried it crashed 3 times, at the end it could be installed and I could connect remotely and see in real time what the 8 cameras were recording. I must say that the video quality is very decent, you can clearly distinguish people and objects, it is 1080p and whether recording in color or black and white in night mode the quality is the same, what really surprises me is the night mode, despite being very dark and with a very minimal light source, looks great, very good there Night Owl. The image looks great even on the mobile and there is not really much delay time and you can easily choose which camera to see and enable or disable some of the functions of the cameras, I think that this security cameras kit, that you can get for relatively affordable price, gives you 8 cameras, a DVR, everything you need for installation and remote connection via internet or Bluetooth, I think it's a good deal, the quality and app can be better but for now I'm satisfied with this product and I can recommend it.

This system is priced right and a great buy for anyone looking for a wired camera system. After a solid month of using this system I will say that if you want a 1080p wired camera system, buy this one! Setup was super easy, hardest part of the setup for me was running the wires discreetly. Everything else wored exactly as it was supposed to and I had 0 issues with it. You can set up everything with your phone and the app, this was super convenient as other wired systems I’ve worked with in the past, I had to use a computer… this made everything super user friendly and convenient. Once setup, I tested the quality and reviews footage and found it was right where I expected it to be for a 1080p system. No, it’s not as sharp as 4K, nor should you expect it to be. Some motion was blurred, but I found that I could open the app and view my camera and see what was going on quickly. If I see something or someone that shouldn’t be there, I can see that easily with this system.

When I first heard of Night Owl I thought “this will be a bare-bones system similar to any generic security system”. I had never come across this brand in any previous search to find a surveillance system for my personal use. So saying I went into this system blindly is completely accurate. The cameras themselves feel cheap. They are light and made of plastic. The base is just a generic platter with a few holes in it. It screws to adjust and a locking nut follows behind it to lock it into position. Slightly above this platter rests a plastic knob that allows for vertical movement. It's fairly flimsy, that I thought I may break it by adjusting it after locking it in place. Luckily none of my adjustments actually broke it, just a sense that it can with enough pressure applied from the hand. Moving to the lens of the camera, the material encasing the front of the camera appears to be entirely plastic with a oval-shaped cut out for the camera lens. There’s a small opening above the lens for the onboard speaker. Below the lens seats its LED lights. At the center, a (roughly 100 lumen) white LED and within that same lens what appears to be 2 IR LED’s. It’s a basic and compact camera. The description reads 30ft IR visibility. But I would consider 20-25ft to be more reasonable as at about 30ft I could only see shadows. Was it a dog, a cat, possum, or a bag of trash blowing in the wind? You may never know! In all seriousness, it might come down to your ambient environment. In mine, with several other light sources around (from my house, neighbors, street, etc) 30ft was a long shot. Despite its shortcomings in material, it performed quite well for a typical suburban front yard (roughly 35’x40’ lawn 25’x20’ driveway area). Included with the cameras are mounting screws and 8 rolls of 60ft BNC cable. The resolution on these is fairly good, mostly in the day tho. As mentioned before, nighttime isn’t so great, you won't catch any faces or license plates at night (few will be this good). I blame most of this on the few IR LED's. What you will see are figures, silhouettes, and vague human characteristics unless someone approaches the camera close up. The DVR unit feels a little better to the touch. Setup was literally 1 click, I didn’t have to do anything but download the app. Most systems typically make you go through a ton of hoops just to start using your recorder. Based on the design and the screw holes on the bottom it only seats a single HDD. I did have to go ask in the Night Owl Q&A for this next bit. I searched both the product description on Best Buy, Night Owl, and the FAQ pages that Night Owl sent after setup. I also checked both manual/materials included with the security unit and the online manual. But no matter what, I could not find a definitive answer to the largest HDD upgrade the DVR would see. According to Night Owl support, it will take a maximum of 8tb 7200rpm HDD. The system offers several recording options from motion to object and narrows down those options to person, face, and vehicle detection. In my setup, I couldn’t get vehicle detection working right as it always triggered it as object detection and not vehicle. Additionally, it offers a notification system on the cameras that will either strobe, turn on the light, announce “smile, you are on camera”, inform you are unavailable, or activities its siren. Configuring everything from the iOS app is mostly straight forward but (at the time of writing the app is rated 1.7 in the app store) there are several areas that could be more intuitive or work better. My biggest issues- settings not present, hidden settings, and a cumbersome view process. The view process creates a clickable window for picking the DVR then windows for each of the cameras set up. But if you only have 1 DVR having an extra press before viewing your cameras feels redundant. This however, is not being factored into my review since apps carry another system. What really stood out, because I’ve never seen it in any other cheap system before. Night Owl offers wireless camera pairing with the 8ch DVR. That gives the system a grand total possible of 12 camera feeds. These would probably work well in locations where running a wire is either difficult or nearly impossible. So to summarize PROS Good Resolution DVR Features DVR Build Quality Upgrade-ability Wireless Compatibility Reasonably Priced CONS Cheap Cameras Weak IR Non-intuitive iOS App (Not rated)