Swann - PRO SERIES HD 8-Channel, 8-Camera Outdoor Wired 500GB DVR Surveillance System - Black

This is a good product for the value, although I had one camera have the IR Filter issue being stuck, I contacted Swann and they had the product RMA'd rather rapidly. For me, the product has already paid for itself. The first night after installation, I captured evidence of individuals trying to break into several of my vehicles and the video evidence gathered from the Swann video camera was quickly sent over to the authorities. The process of extracting the recorded video from the DVR to a USB drive was very simple and quick. I set the DVR to record at the highest possible resolution and the individuals were easily identifiable. I installed the product myself and it took a weekend and a 1-man crew to install all 8 cameras in the exterior of the house and the wiring. The cameras are enclosed in a plastic, water-sealed case that seems to do well for protecting the internals from the elements. I opted not to mount them in direct sunlight the best I could. The DVR interface takes a little getting used to but once you're over that hump, it's smooth sailing from there. It comes with a 500GB hard drive but is upgradeable to a 4TB capacity. Overall, this is a good product for the price, especially if you got it on sale or as a Black Friday deal. The only issues I ran into were the included wires not being of adequate length, I had to buy my own, and after the first night, one of the cameras IR filters would not switch off so it was recording in night-vision all day long.

The price was certainly one of the most appealing aspects of this security system, and it isn't a terrible product, but certainly has a lot of room for improvement. My overall feeling is if you need a security camera system on a budget, this is your best option. If you aren't on a tight budget, there are better solutions out there. Pros: The price. Picture quality is great. Night vision works very well. A lot of features, many of which are useful. Remote access. The cameras are threaded in such a way that you can remove the base plate and mount the camera in an outdoor outlet box. 24/7 tech support, and their tech team seems competent. Cons: To do the setup from the system, you must use a mouse (which is included), but a mouse only. There is no support for a keyboard (the two I tried didn't work), and there are times when a keyboard would be very handy. Lack of documentation included. It does come with a quick start guide, but didn't include any full blown manual for me. This might seem minor, but trust me, it's not. The initial setup is fairly intuitive and not complicated. But that is where the easy part ends. The system isn't intuitive at all, and with the lack of an included manual, very frustrating. Their website sucks. Trying to find a manual going through their support tabs and links is an exercise in futility. I managed to find it using google, but that shouldn't be necessary for any number of reasons. Also, you will find broken links, and the software they provide is hosted by a 3rd party which I found odd. Their software is incredibly counterintuitive. This is probably an understatement. Worse yet, it completely lacks documentation of any kind (I am going to call tech support up tomorrow to verify). Long wait times for their tech support.

Jumped through all the hoops with Arlo software and firmware problems and the Nest cam basically turning into a web cam without their unreasonably expensive cloud support/software. Even with a very high-end home wifi network and a 50mbps fiber internet connection the latency with both of these systems was excessive. Also lacking was any real flexibility in either of the software platforms to manage the cameras. Wanted to like em, but no joy and I returned both. The lower end (720p / 500GB DVR) 8 camera Swann system was sitting there on sale for not much more than either of the wireless cams..., for EIGHT cameras, a 500 gig DVR, all the cabling, and what turned out to be a very comprehensive software platform giving extreme flexibility over camera settings, event triggering and notification, scheduling, playback, live view from all cams 24/7 that doesn't use ANY internet bandwidth unless you are remotely accessing the system, and all I had to do was spend the time to wire it..., which actually took less time than what I spent fighting the shortcomings of the other two systems. For the money, this is definitely a five star system. The only shortcoming was the short cable on the mouse which was remedied by getting a $10 wireless USB mouse..., which I would recommend for anyone buying one of these systems. A weekend DIY project for a homeowner, or an easy job for a cable, telco, or Geek squad person if you don't want to mess with the installation. Lastly, I wasn't at all disappointed by the 720p resolution and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the app. One additional note about this system is that the cameras are video only but there is a provision for adding a microphone to the channel 1 input. No two-way talk back, though.

Picture quality is decent. Like cheap DashCam quality. 500GB storage drive is too small for continuous recording of 8 cameras. The unit default is set to record only when motion is detected. The 2.5 inch Seagate Video HDD can be replaced with a 3.5 inch version but screws are not included that I saw. Discard the included mounting screws in favor of stainless steel or other high quality screws. Camera wires include a BNC and power connector on one end and can be fed through 1/2 inch holes but may not fit through smaller holes. BNC joiner connectors can be used to join two cables tougher for longer runs (the power is male one end and female the other and will require no special connector to extend) but video quality drops with longer runs and BNC butt joints. The monitor works best via HDMI connection. The included short HDMI cable is a joke. The unit can be set to cycle through all the cameras at full screen on the monitor or show small images of all 8 cameras on the screen at once. DO NOT CONNECT THIS OR ANY SIMILAR CONSUMER BASED SMART DEVICE TO THE INTERNET. Cameras, thermostats and other SMART units are easily hackable and your cameras can be viewed by hackers on the internet or worse used in BOT attacks on websites including Government Websites like the September 19th 2016 DDOS Attack.

Good all around system for inside or out, 720HD gives good pictures and with night vision and some planning, vision of the comings and going will be covered. I placed them out side for coverage around the house, garage, driveway and entry doors. They are hardwired camera's, in my book are best over wireless, only way to take these out is cut the wire so, concealment of the wire is a must. Once connected and you start up the DVR everything is automatic, just set-up a user password and the defaults are set to record by motion, you can have all 8 views up as the same size or a few choices, like one bigger view of the camera of choice with the rest around the sides. You can even set it the every few seconds to minutes the change between the view as a full screen view. To change, click and hold the view, drag to the bigger view and the two views switch, double click for full screen, easy as that. Lot's of other features.....

Instruction only tell you how to set up wifi and how to hook up cables. My advice on running cables through your walls is run them from camera to box, not box to camera. Purchase a $12 wall phish from home Depot. It will save you a ton of time. I tapped wire to fish and could push it 20' into attic. Picture is great during the day. Set picture to mainstream for best picture at night. It's a good starting camera and the 500gig hard drive has been recording for a week and still has plenty of room. I have it set to record motion.

i purchased this system for a bargain 220.00 discount. i waited for couple of days to set it up. i am do it yourself person so i would not be surprised if i had to improvise. instructions says to feed wires thru the attic. i have no attic. i had to improvise it took a couple of hours for the first camera. the screws for the camera was to short (i have stucco on the side of the house) so i had to use longer screws. fortunately i have plenty of screws on hand. the instructions for the setup are diagrams so trial and error is the plan. i figured it out quickly enough. for a two story house its a challenge. if i had to do it all over again. i would choose a wide angle lens security system..but i am pleased with this system for the price.

When you buy your system, remember that you will be running cable thru walls...so do yourself a favor and set up the system, just run your cables across the floor and connect your cameras and view everything...let it run all day and night (maybe point the cams out the window)...then check your footage, playback, etc.. If there is an issue, you are not stuck trying to pull cables out of walls and feed another cable or something. This is what i did and i found one bad cable which was easily swapped out because i hadnt run anything thru the walls yet. All in all...the system is good for the particular price point in the market.