12CH 1080P HDMI P2P Standalone ONVIF NVR

Found all the cameras in my house and added them very quickly. Doesn’t come with a HDD but I threw one in and automatically started recording to it. Menus are not great but once confirgured I don’t need to use them.

Price can't be beat, and it mostly worked. But software is clunky, security-doubtful and not fully functional. It can record from the camera at full resolution, but can only playback 1080P on the device itself (although it can play higher resolution through the web interface --- most of the time). WARNING -- do not leave the Sync check box selected on the channel (encoding) setup, otherwise it will rest your cameras to 1080P (if they have a higher resolution) in order to be compatible with its own poorer resolution. I tore my hair out for hours trying to figure out why my cameras were resetting their resolutions. The interface on the device itself is OK, mostly self-explanatory (once you figure out that UpWindows means Back and discover that a right-click reveals the menu). The web interface relies on a plug-in called Netsurveillance Web which only runs on the old IE (not Edge or Chrome). It pulls down a file NewActive.exe which has a few scary messages on a Google search that questions its safety. I checked it several ways on a throwaway spare computer and it passed virus checking by Windows Defender and Avast. But it doesn't work fully -- log and message popup windows cannot be closed by clicking on their X button (top right) and stay forever on top of your live view. The NetSurveillance Web access does allow you to playback saved videos at resolutions greater than 1080P, which the built-in interface does not. You can download the saved video files, but it's very slow. I had trouble getting motion capture to work well on more than one camera (which was Channel 1) and finally gave up and just set them all to record continuously. You need to provide your own power supply, and the brief user guide tells you to choose a "quality true 12V 2A" one. I had a couple of old power supplies lying around from replaced NetGear routers, one of them worked OK but the other didn't. I guess you get what you pay for, mostly it worked.

Very cumbersome to use. You can get it to work, but when you consider that you have to add a power supply and a hardrive, you're already approaching the cost of a QNAP or Synolgy system which are far more capable, much easier to set up, better support, and better expandability. I'd have a hard time recommending this to anyone but the most budget strapped. For example, there's 2 USB ports and the U/I supports a mouse, but not a keyboard. Have fun entering your log-in and configuration info on a mouse controlled screen keyboard. Using their web interface plugins was near impossible to get working, and violates all computer security best practices. Load their SW and plugins only on a throw away computer. I was able to get it to mostly work with an recent model Amcrest PTZ camera, and I was able to get partial functionality using a Dericam camera, both using the ONVIF protocol. After all the frustration, I gave mine away.

Very happy with the unit. My first “NVR”. Without any drama the device finds the wireless cameras, and starts using/ recording them. I knew the NVR didn’t include a hard drive. But there are no screws to mount a hard drive. The box has holes for HD mounting.

For the price is does standard nvr task. no PTZ cameras