8CH Wireless Security Camera System

I had a "4pcs 960P Cams+8CH 960P NVR(No HDD)" unit for about one week. So far so good. The following is my experience: 1. Good price. 2. Very quiet NVR. I can barely hear any noise from the NVR in any room. I think it is because the NVR doesn't have a fan - not sure it is good or bad. 3. Good video quality during daytime and night. 4. Setup is easy. Cameras were already linked to the NVR once I received it. 5. Robust remote view app on mobile devices - though its user interface could be better (see below). 6. Great customer service - Daisy helped me over the phone for a few issues (see below). She even called me back and left me a few voice messages to make sure I am satisfied. Much appreciated! Now for the areas which could be improved: A. It takes 3.5 inch hard drives. I bought a NVR without a hard drive because I have an spare 1T 2.5 inch hard drive from my old laptop - that will save me about $50. After I opened the NVR to install the hard drive, I found the 4 pre-drilled holes don't fit my 2.5 inch hard drive. I was disappointed because the description on Amazon says: (4TB HDD Max can be supported: Internal, SATA Interface, 3.5/2.5inches). I read the manual (operation guide). It says "Please purchase HDD (SATA 3.5")" (on page 06). Luckily the wiring works. So I just used one screw to install my 2.5 inch hard drive. The NVR has lots of empty space in the box. I would suggest make room for both 2.5" and 3.5" hard drives. B. The camera antenna can be attached to the left side of the camera only. This causes some problems for me. It would be nice if the antenna can be attached to either side of the camera. C. No dome camera is available for this kit. I would like to add one dome (or fish eye) camera to the system. Unfortunately they don't make it. D. The first time I connect the NVR to the TV in my family room with HDMI cable, the TV shows "Mode Not Supported". I called the customer service. Daisy gave me some tips to trouble shoot the issue: use a VGA cable or a different TV. I followed her advice. VGA cable and another TV all work fine. So that means the TV in my family room might not be compatible with this NVR. E. One camera's signal was on and off. Daisy pointed out that camera might be too far from the NVR or there might be too many walls between the camera and the NVR. She patiently went through the "repeater" setup procedure with me on the phone. Basically, a camera (with good signals) close to both the problematic camera and NVR was setup as a repeater to take the signal from the problematic camera then pass it to the NVR. It fixed the problem. Thanks, Daisy. F. The camera's base is too small. A little bit bigger base will make the camera more stable. G. There are 3 or 4 screws to adjust the camera's angle and position. They are not well designed. H. The remote view app on mobile device, Danale, is solid. However, the user face has room to improve. For example, in one camera view mode, swipe to left or right should show the previous or next camera. I. During the setup, I was asked to provide the password for my home wifi. I was very hesitate to provide my password though I did it eventually. Anyone knows if this poses a security risk? This wireless surveillance system is very good considering its price. I will upload some pictures and report back in a few months.

In researching a wi-fi only camera system, I purchased four systems on Amazon, and returned three and kept this one. I purchased systems from OnWOTE, HISEEU, Firstrend, and Canavis. If you are shopping for a wi-fi security system with a good image, and great wifi reception, which is critical to the system working properly, this system from Firstrend is your best bet related to cost, and as others have mentioned the customer service. I will briefing describe the issues with the other systems, this is based on my opinion and the operation of the systems based on where we needed the cameras and systems to be placed. The OnWOTE system had just average picture quality, and not good night vision at all. In addition I would loose connectivity with cameras often. The HiSeeu system was OK, but I have a power supply fail repeatedly and contacted customer support via email. Johnny replied and agreed to ship a new power supply to me. He sent me an email showing a shipment notification, but almost one month after that email I have never received anything. With the power supply failing, and lack luster customer service that system was returned. The Canavis system had the best picture quality and the worst reception range for the cameras. I wanted to like and keep the Canavis system, but the dropping of the connection and the slow transfer rates resulted in the return of this system as well. Yes I know, I could have purchased a wi-fi range extender to improve the reception, but WHY should I have to do that. I am not looking for a mile of connectivity just a normal two story home. And if I am spending $200 on the system, it should just work out of the box. The Firstrend system has a great picture and good night vision. One of the best parts is the connectivity of the system. I am getting excellent signal transmission on the unit and cameras, from the same locations the other units were failing. I did have one issue and that was one of the camera was great in the daytime, but at night the image was foggy almost like it had condensation behind the lens of the camera. So I contacted customer support via email, and received an email back within one day. They asked a few trouble shooting questions, normal stuff, and agreed to send me a new camera. That was great customer service. Within a few days the new camera arrived, and I could not add it to my system following the instructions that were sent via email with the shipment notification. So I found a phone number for Firstrend, 888-806-1588 called the number left a voice message, and sent an email as well. The instructions they sent appeared to be for a different system due to the menu configuration. Within one day, I received a phone call from an international number, it was Firstrend. Wow, they did return my call. During the call the nice lady discussed with me my situation about not being able to add the new camera to my system. She researched my order, and the camera they sent me to replace it. She discovered the new camera was not compatible with the system I purchased. She promptly stated she was sending me a new camera for my system, and for me to keep the camera that had sent in error. I asked how long would the new camera take, and she added priority shipping at no charge as well. So that evening I received an email from Firstrend with a screenshot of the order being placed for a new camera and 2 day shipping. So I really could not ask for much more customer service than that. I have had the system up and running for over two weeks now and really can't stress enough that the reception range on this system and the cameras is very good. I had to adjust the direction of the antennas on the cameras for maximum throughput, but it is running well. So in conclusion, for the money, the Firstrend system is great - and the customer service is outstanding. I am hoping the system lasts for a couple of years, so we will see. Take care,

Hi. I bought the XMARTO units in a couple formats and they sucked. - They never stopped needing attention. The OS / interface was terrible. They failed constantly. The hard drive link failed. The cameras lost connection all the time. - I bought NEST cameras with much the same result PLUS the added misery of only getting to see who robbed you if you agree to be on the hook to pay a monthly subscription fee forever. Then I bought this (Firstrend 8CH with no hard drive.) - I placed the cameras in the same positions as the 2 other systems I'd had in place here, only FARTHER... and they worked! - They work ALL the time. - They reach farther. The OS / interface is MAGNIFICENT. - The only drawback is a delay on my monitor if there's too many cameras writing video to the hard drive at a time, but I don't care. It works. I don't have to babysit it and repair it all the time, and the video that IS written to the hard drive is clean. - I say all this while knowing and fully acknowledging that this is a cheap system with cheap processing capability and that more expensive systems could process the data without any delay and capture more frames and process motion sensing better than this one does. - But for a cheap system... this is amazing. You can get a better processor... but you CAN'T get a better processor in this price range. This thing is awesome for the dollar... and if you want it to process faster, use fewer cameras. It will never flinch if you only connect 2 cameras. I have 4 connected and it does ok. Be warned: This is a wireless ONLY unit. - Yes, the cameras have CAT5 connectors on the back... but the DVR/NVR box does not have INPUTS for them. So if you buy this you WILL be using it wirelessly. That means hard limits on your distances. - Mine are about 60 feet through 2 walls, one of which is concrete and they're doing very well. - Do not expect them to go farther than this, you will be disappointed because of the physical limitations of wifi standards, not by the brand. UPDATE, MANY MONTHS LATER: I now struggle with the reality that these are only 70 degrees wide angle, and most of my prior cameras were 120. So these are not "ultra-wide" in the security industry, nor are they "super wide because they use the latest technology". - These are narrow. Compared to the norm you can find all over amazon. This makes it very hard to cover my property and this company does not seem to offer any wider versions of the cameras so you get what you get. - 2) Secondarily, the operating system, (which is mid-level... kind of terrible, but almost all security camera OS software is terrible... so this is in the middle... ) I was hoping to update to smooth it out and make some of the bad grammar and glitchiness go away... but was then advised by Firstrend that "this is it" / "We advise users to NOT update the firmware" etc. - Garbage. Not advancing. -- 3) The AVI codec (the actual video format) is terrible and does not function well with Mac / Apple machines. I have to transcode it to store and use it on my computers. Its a HUGE extra waste of time if you ever do capture something you want to save and send... which you will... which is the point of the system. 4) There is only 1 USB port... so... you get to have your mouse plugged in, or your USB storage destination. Not both. In order to offload videos you must click a "begin timer" button, and then it says (using broken english tech words) "you have 60 seconds to unplug your mouse and plug in your thumb drive"... That's just sad from my vantage point. So... after time I have dropped 1 star. It's still better than the XMARTO equivalents by miles, etc.

Wonderful

I've had this camera system for over a year now, and while the video quality is clear and high definition, the lag time creates a choppy video feed, most often more than one or two seconds in delay. All four cameras have choppy video feeds. I have the modem and the router within 10 feet of the NVR, cameras are not too far, and I have fiber internet to the house - and still have the problem. Sometimes it's not apparent lag - it's faster video speeds. For example, someone might be walking down the sidewalk in front of my house and the video feed looks like it's been sped up 2 or 3 times faster. The person looks as if they're speed walking when they are not. I realize this is also created by lag, but I never receive normal, real time video feeds. The installation is easy for this camera system and it's a good concept for wireless, but I would not recommend it unless you can live with these lag issues. I cannot recommend this system. I regret the purchase. One star.

Easy to install

One of four cameras came broken. Neal at technical support shipped me another camera. Prior to receiving replacement camera, another camera's night vision lights failed to turn ON. Emailed Neal, and he shipped me another camera. NVR software is pretty straight forward. Downloaded IP Pro on my Android phone. Reviews of IP Pro claim a lot of problems, but it seems to work fine. I have not had any major problems using it. I separately purchased a 3 TB hard drive and installed it; I think 4 TB is the max. The hard drive connection wires are inside the NVR, although my NVR did come with hard drive screws or recording light....not sure why. Not a big issue though. I did not even try the motion detection, because it would always be triggered due to camera placement. The NVR software does have individual camera motion sensitivity adjustment. I have all 4 cameras being recorded all the time. NVR can be set to erase old files or just start overwriting when the drive gets full. The wireless is great. Only need a power plug for each camera. I installed two cameras under my house overhang and then waited until I received the other two replacement cameras. I installed these other two further down my driveway, which was at the NVR's wifi limit. The one camera would pause for nearly 10 seconds and jump forward in time. I could see because I had the camera times displayed. A nice feature is the ability for a camera to repeat up to two or three other cameras wifi signals to the NVR. I used the two house mounted cameras to repeat the two driveway cameras. Now the driveway cameras may lag at most by one second. NVR software allows you to change the channel numbers of the cameras. This is only important for viewing on IP Pro on your phone, because it can display 4 cameras on a single page with 2 pages. You may have the option to change the number of cameras being displayed at a single time on IP Pro, but I'm not sure. I realized this when I setup the two replacement cameras as channels 5 and 6. I later changed them to be within 1 to 4. The NVR software also allows you to move the cameras' images around on the screen. If you have 6 cameras being displayed, one is large in the upper left of the screen where the other 5 are arranged around the bottom and right sides of the screen as smaller images. You can drag a different camera image to the larger picture if you choose. One nice feature with both the NVR software and the IP Pro phone software, you can double click on one camera image, and it will enlarge just that single image to the whole screen. This makes it easier to investigate at night. I never purchased other cameras, but this seems like a great bang for your buck.

Wasn't what we wanted, it shows good, but we wanted it to record too, and it don't. It wants to let us change the voice announcing, and two of the cameras don't even work. a waste of money.