Reviews

I am not sure exactly what others are going to be using this system for but for my small business it saved us literally the next day after setting the cameras/dvr up. I own a business near my house and use the four cameras to monitor the store via the internet when I am at home. I installed the system on Friday and on Saturday morning I noticed an employee sitting in the backroom talking on the phone. After that I noticed a line of customers growing at the door and not coming in. I figured out using this camera my employee literally locked the door and was using the phone in the back while customers waited outside. I raced to my business immediately and was able to let the same customers I saw on the camera in the store and SAVE THE SALE. I also had proof to fire the employee thereafter. For basic remote monitoring of a location this camera is a lifesaver. You may have to tweak a few security settings in Internet Explorer in order to use their Active X based software but the product definitely works and for the price is almost unbeatable. The system also works with very little light because the store is still visible after the lights go out when we are closed.

I will try to be fair and hit the highs and the lows of this product. Firstly, I already had a (4) camera system from Dedicated Micros (high end system) which has worked perfectly for (5) years, but I was looking for something cheap to fill in the gaps in my camera system. I did my research but went more on price than features, which in hindsight was probably a mistake. The system arrived and I had it up and running pretty quickly, the instructions were very good and installation is easy. Highs 1. Easy installation, easy instructions. 2. Pretty good video but needs some light to see in the dark, overall pleased with it. 3. DVR runs very quiet 4. Price..I actually paid $[...] and Amazon dropped it $[...] bucks..oh well. After 3 weeks, the DVR would not record. I then found out the hard disk got corrupted. I had a power strip and was not turning it on and off, hence this was a surprise. I reformatted the drive, tried every trick in the book and it simply gave out. As several other reviewers have noted, this apparently is an issue and is not as rare as I thought. Customer service via their email was quick and authorized a return. I had to pay shipping ($43 bucks Fedex) and now I am waiting for it to come back. I will try to update this review when/if I get the unit returned. Lows 1. no external disk for storing videos, must have it connected to network. 2. another reviewer noted the slow FF. I must agree, takes quite a bit of time to fast forward through saved videos. I'm guessing takes 15-20 minutes to look at 5 hours of video. 3. Cheaply made DVR unit. Obviously something that breaks after 3 weeks is cheap and the quality is subpar. My other system has run 24/7 for 5 years with no problems. If the the Hard Disk did not get corrupted, I would have given it 4/5 stars.

I chose this system for the price and internet monitoring capability. I installed it in a day. The installation is simple. Everything worked as expected the first time I turned it on. Instructions for configuring your particular router to connect the system to the internet are available in video form at [...]. These are not high resolution cameras but images are clear enough for home use purposes at close range. The night vision works fine in the area illuminated by my outdoor lighting. During the day I can see all the way to my driveway entrance 200 ft. from the camera. Make sure to place the DVR on a surface that allows air to get under it to avoid overheating, which is the number one cause of electronic device failures.

Hard drive stopped working after 3 months. Camera connections are sloppy and as a result the unit often loses the video signal. Likewise the ac input is sloppy and if bumped the unit loses power. The cameras work fine but the DVR function is apparently very cheaply made with an inferior hard drive. I do not advise buying and I would not buy again.

If you are the type of person who likes to save money by doing things yourself (instead of spending big bucks on pro installation), this cam system is for you. It's easy to install and setup. The only hard part for us was configuring the router to forward to the cam system. Fortunately, they have excellent tech support. Their tech guy walked us through and made sure we were all setup properly. The quality of the cams is good, not great, but it gives us what we need to view (over the Internet) what's going on at our place of business. We're glad we purchased this system. You get a lot of bang for your buck.

Reviews

This recorder is pretty decent - I just have a few complaints. It has no sound (which I knew when I bought it) but still, that should be a VERY easy thing to add. Secondly, it doesn't come preset to record on the highest resoulution, and I have no idea how much time is able to be recorded at the highest resolution. The manual covers lower resolutions, but not higher ones. Finally, while the manual was decent and the interface to configure options not bad, it seems like $200 for this thing is a little much.

The Defender recorder does a decent job as long as you plan to plug it in for power. Just don't plan on using battery power, or you will be changing them every two days. The only real functional quirk I've run into is that to check the video, I need to unplug it from the power (obvious) to take it over to the TV. But if it is turned off (or unplugged) while recording, the manual says some video can be corrupted. Yet as you approach it, it will turn on from motion detection (sort of an awkward catch 22). Anyway, I can live with that I think, just something to be aware of. What really sucked is that I paid for upgraded premium shipping, but the vendor (JUSTBUYITHERE) took two weeks to ship. I selected the vendor, because they were near by my Southern California location. I thought paying extra for priority shipping meant I would have it in two or three days, but I didn't receive the item for over two weeks. They did ship priority mail, just not for over a week! Some vendors get it and some just don't. All I can say is "JUSTBUYITHERE" just BLOWS! I won't be doing any further business with them, and I recommend you don't.

Works well, pictures and video are very clear. Battery life is short if there is a lot of video taken. Pluggin it in with included ac adapter solves this problem. However this then makes it more conspicious. Make sure to put this is a location that is hard to reach. If someone figures out what it is it can just be stolen and all the incriminating video with it. John

that the programming is a little clunky. Why four stars -- The unit delivers good quality images and if you set the motion detection level correctly you can get a lot of time coverage on the included memory card. Bought the unit specifically to monitor a location based on movement in that area. Unit has performed flawlessly. How it could earn a fifth star -- the programming is a little complicated but manageable with some patience. As remarked by others the manual could be written a little more helpfully. The biggest issue (for me) is that you have to rely on an external monitor to program the settings. This means that either you have a portable tv to connect at the location you are placing it or that you have to program it where your monitor is. If you do the latter you place it at the location and do some testing to determine whether the settings are working as desired. This is done by removing the memory card, downloading the images to a computer and viewing how it is recording. A small thing that would get it an additional half star would be if the mounting bracket had two ball joints instead of one which would give it a little more flexibility in adjustment the way in which the unit can be angled from its bracket.

I have been playing with this video camera for two weeks and I have some thoughts: PROS- Good look from the front as far as being covert. Looks like a traditional motion detector to most people. Really good picture from about 3 feet away to 6 feet, then gets a little blury but still okay, not bad, still on the pro side of this story. Removeable card is handy if you do a permanent install. Has a mount on the back that I want to try soon. CONS - Battery drain is quick! You will need to use the AC for recording. Batteries are just for when you are moving it around. Lights on the back cannont be disabled, I put white electrical tape over them. Need a large data card to get decent video storage, I guess this really depends on your application but the included card was too small for me. Overall, I was satisfied for the $200 price.

Reviews

Had an issue with customer service, the problem was handled promptly and to great satisfaction. I would recommend this company to others.

very short life,not even a month, hook it up to the computer and both blue and yellow lights were flashing at same time and would not work anymore only used a few times.

All the details were well specified and the shipping didn't take long to receive. I couldn't buy two items at once when I made the order.

This pen was purchased as a gift. The pen came with very poor directions. The recipient could not figure how to use it. I was not pleased with this purchase.

When the pen camera initially came it seemed to work fine. The video quality was of expected quality, the audio somewhat less but manageable. I tested it out several times recording at my desk and everything seemed to work fine. The pen-to-computer transfer was simple and straightforward, as was charging the pen itself. I took it on a field test, but I was unsuccessful. I attribute this failure to myself, thinking I simply made a mistake because I covered the recording light with electrical tape to hid the little glow from the back. After the failure the pen still worked as I tested it again. I put it back in my desk for a couple weeks unused, and pulled it out today to use it again and it wouldn't work. Thinking the battery was dead I put it in the wall charger for a couple hours, came back and it was still not functional so I plugged it into the computer to charge it, and later found it still not working. Usually even after a little bit of charging you should get a little activity, even if short lived. But no, the pen was clearly broken. In short, do not expect this thing to last long. It's cheaply made (which is why you can get it for $30) and will not hold up.