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(More customer reviews)Night Owl Security Products FS-8500 8-Channel H.264 Video Security Kit with 8 Night Vision CamerasI purchased my system on-line from a club named Sam for less then 400
The system seems solid, and was some what easy to setup. I write this review for those considering purchasing a system...
Do you initial setup next to your PC if you are going to set it up to access it via the web, its easier to adjust and try settings from the DVR and you PC when they are right next to each other as not all settings can be done via PC.
I am still having issues getting web access to my DVR but I AM able to access the cameras via my Android smart phone.
Use dnydns service for your port forwarding as Night Owls is poky and somewhat unreliable (it is also free)
The cameras are too narrow focused for most indoor or small area monitoring, they are great for monitoring your front yard but not your front door.
Consider where you want to put your DVR for security and make sure you can run all cables too it, network, power, cameras.
the DVR will retain settings if power is removed so get it setup next to your PC and they you can put it in a closet or secure place otherwise you will need room to hook up an external monitor(you will still need a monitor to do the initial setup settings, but once set your done)
The camera cables are long enough but are fragile, not overly cheap or anything but lay them in your attic rather then pulling and dragging on them.
TAPE the power connections to the cable/camera the video BNC will be fine but if you pull the cable too hard or taught you can pull the power connection loose and if its in a difficult place to get to you will be doing it all over again in that hot attic.
Place the cameras in the area you want them (or think you want them) and run the cables externally thou windows or doors to do a pre-check of views, if its all good then you can see if you can run them in a concealed area( attic)
Running the cables is work, stooping, squatting, crawling thru an attic, plan your wire runs and have a helper if possible.
The cameras motion sensing works very well and is tunable in sensitivity and the area that you want motion to be looked for by a particular camera, meaning you can have it watch a gate that has a tree by it and have it watch the gate but block out the part of the tree limb that might cause false alarms.
The night vision is very good indoors and at limited distance the claimed 30ft is a maximum but 10-18 feet is very doable...
Camera color is somewhat inconsistent, some cameras in certain lighting are like watching a tv where as some of the cameras lack blue/green even in broad daylight and almost look gray scale...
For the price of the system and the quality of the DVR its a pretty good deal, I guess they had to skimp on something to make it fit in a price range and I would guess its the cameras, don't get me wrong, they do work and work well enough for most situations but I can see that I will need to replace a few for wider angle ones and may also replace a few with non-IR cameras as the faint glowing read LED's are a give away but are needed for night vision, I may use a non IR camera for my front porch where the porch light will provide the needed illumination and vision in the dark is not needed.
I will update as I continue to find more pro's and con's...
UPDATE: I have replaced a couple of camera with [...] that have a wider angle of view
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