Customer Ratings & Reviews

I love the cameras. They are crystal clear. Installation can be tough depending on where used. Lots of wires. But a great product once installed.

this system is a good system that can be a baseline for future addition of cameras.what really makes this system great was the extra support you can get by phoning the company to help. if your having an issue.. their tech's are very helpful and true pro's..

happy with my purchase. it was easy to install and operate.

Great resolution, reliable operation, very easy setup.

I purchase this camera online but i was out of town for 3 weeks when the camera was delivery to my house. When i open the box, I realized i received an open box camera system and the power adapter was broken. Then I called Bestbuy customer service about getting an exchange for a new one but they told me online purchase is only good for 16 days. I was very sad and depressed!!!

Installation: The system itself is easy to connect. However, if you want a quality install, without wires running all over the place, then the install becomes more difficult. The location of your cameras and the design of your house will determine how difficult it will be to hide the wires. You’ll need to install the control box (NVR) in a location that has an electrical outlet but it is also best to keep it in a secure location so an intruder doesn’t just walk away with it (and all of your recordings). In all probability, you’ll need to run wires through attics and then down through an interior wall to the NVR. If you want to be able to access your system via a computer or smartphone, you’ll also need to be able to connect the NVR to your router. If you don’t care about remote access, then you can simply connect the NVR to a monitor or a TV for viewing recordings and maintaining the system. Image Quality: The images are good quality. In good light, you see a clear color video. In darkness, the camera uses infrared light to record black and white video that is surprisingly good quality. The infrared image may actually be clearer than the normal light image, especially for recognizing faces. However, the infrared has limited distance. Indoors, the cameras are great with either type of light source. Outdoors, the cameras installed under the second story eaves are useless at night with only the infrared light. The system really needs a flood light to be activated by motion in order for the camera to pick up any images. Without some source of light, the nighttime image will simply be a black screen. A nearby street light or porch light can provide enough light to give at least some image in the video. In other words, this camera security system should be thought of as one component in your security setup if you expect it to work at night at any distance of more than about 25-30 feet. The other component is supplemental lighting. Motion Detection: You can set the system to record when motion is detected, but this may be one of the more difficult features to implement well. Rather than using true motion detection, the manual says it compares sequential images and if there is a difference in the images that exceeds the threshold you’ve set, then motion is assumed and the system begins to record and send alerts (if set to ‘on’). The default threshold is 10, which means if 10% of the video image changes between frames, then motion has occurred. The problem with this is that simply a quick change in lighting is perceived as motion, including a cloud blocking the sun, or car headlights shining on your yard at night. If you increase the threshold to 50%, it may lessen these false motion detections, but it would also ignore a person unless the person’s image took up more than 50% of the screen (unlikely). One feature that helps you with this is the ability to specify which parts of each camera’s field of view should be checked for motion. If you turn off this checking in areas of the field of view that are unlikely to contain an intruder, then it seems you can limit the false reads. General: One feature that I’d like to see but doesn’t seem to be there is the ability to turn indoor cameras off when you’re home. You can set them to not record images, but from your computer or smartphone, you can still see the live image. It would be nice if you could simply set the cameras on as you leave the house.

I've had the system running for three months and have had no issues. Two weeks after setup, the driveway camera captured someone trying to break into our vehicles at 3:00 AM. The resolution was good enough to make out distinct facial features 15 feet away from the camera. During the day time, that same camera captured a contractor working on my neighbor's property across the street taking equipment out of his truck. Night vision is ok given the right conditions (i.e., no ambient lighting from street lights). It's most effective up to twenty feet from camera. Setup takes some time. The wires took some time to run but it was worth it. Because the system uses Power Over Ethernet, I have a UPS which can power the NVR and cameras in the event of a power failure. The app is a work in process and can stand some improvements. The preview feature allows you to monitor your cameras from an IOS or Android device. Recently Swann added the capability to also playback captured video on your device. That doesn't always work and will hopefully become more reliable over time. The NVR (Network Video Recorder) is fantastic. There's a bit of a learning curve to configure it but tech support is there to help if you need it. The NVR's reporting and logging features are excellent. I mostly playback the video on my HD TV via an HDMI connection. You can also monitor the cameras from a computer. The program will only display on your primary monitor if you have more than one. You can however input the IP address and port of the NVR in a browser and monitor your cameras from Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Chrome. Then you can move the browser window to a secondary monitor. I wish they put the USB port in the front of the NVR instead of the back so it's easier to get to. The digital zoom feature only works when you playback video on the NVR and the resolution is fairly poor (especially if your trying to magnify something far away). Aside from that, I've been very satisfied with the system. I have 5 cameras running and plan to add at least two more.

Cameras produce very good high definition images. Equipment installation very simple....cabling can be tough because of construction obstacles but Swann has no control over that. Great product for the price.

I thought this would work perfect for my needs. Unfortunately once installed it's no where near as good as the website makes you believe. Their tech support service is the worst I ever had the misfortune dealing with. Their website also needs to be better in that I'm looking for better cameras that could possibly help yet I see no where that it shows me the chance to even purchase something better. I'm completely dissatisfied with the product and for the money I wish I could return it. One of the cameras failed in less than a month installed and I've yet to hear back from Swann on a return RA to get it replaced. I can't think of a way this could get worse. If there was a way I could leave ZERO stars I would.