First off hello, this is my first post in the forum other than the introduction forum.
I just purchased a Q-See QC448-854 8 channel, I bought at Costco for $399.00, reg $599.00, it was on sale, one month ago and set it all up to replace my three month old QT474-403-5. I was able to return it to Home Depot, (great return policy), because I did not think ahead needing 8 channels instead of 4.
The small QT474, with 420 res cameras was ok but a little lacking in resolution so I opted for the 600 res cameras with the deal package at Costco. You can tell the difference.
The QT had different software on the DVR and easily setup and ran without a problem recording only motion sensing which was easily searchable.
Here comes the QC, got everthing up and running, working fine, connected to internet, mobile iphone, etc. The problem is when I try to set the system in settings it would not let me keep "all" channels for motion under "schedule" nor under "record setting". After pressing "ok" on the different screens it would not save and upon reopening each screen both would stay return to channel 1 in the drop menu and record setting as "regular" instead of motion. I can only turn all cameras off or keep them recording full time.
Now the Q-See help messaging system: I posted the problem in their help desk area and received a quick response with an agent who ran me through the mill having me do all kinds of things that would not work, reset to default, reboot, set each camera separately, etc. I can understand they will try to diagnose problems before acknowledging it could be a problem with their equipment where they have to RMA you, but really, I just installed one of their systems and it was working great.
I finally had to go through Costco's concierge tech support who assisted me greatly in having Q-see send me another DVR to replace the one I had. Just got it Tuesday and installed it July 4. The "new" DVR went through setup fine then when I tried to start inputting my settings it rebooted. Ok I will give it that, might have been a glitch. Went back into settings after an 8 minute boot time and two minutes later it rebooted. It then came up again after 8 minutes and the loud beep came on with a warning screen ""NO AVAILABLE HDD FOR RECORDING". Do what? This occurred a few times then recognized the hard drive and did it again, rebooted. and is still constantly rebooting. Now this is the "new" one.
So back to the help desk and pretty happy at this point as one can imagine, the yoyo there gets me to start trying to diagnose it by reformatting the hardrive, but hello, it says no hardrive available to reformat. Then he gives me a link to "buy" a new ac adaptor. I proceed to tell him I tried the new adaptor and the one they sent with the new unit, does it on both and both power adaptors work fine with the old unit. He now wants me to exchange the hard drive from the old unit into the new one. That took the cake, got back in touch with Costco's concierge tech support and got Q-see on the line and now waiting for Q-see RMA division to contact me to give me a new RMA so I can ship back the "new" DVR to get another "new" one. Also after reading several reviews of this unit at the Costco website, posted after I bought it, people had been complaining about constant rebooting.
Sorry to be so long winded just wanted everyone to know the situation because as of right now I am hoping someone in here might have an answer as to the old one I have now, if there was someway to have it KEEP the settings to make the DVR record only on motion since it looks like most of these dont work and I am afraid I will get another rebooting one. "The Q-see person said it was tested before shipping" yeah right even though it had a refurb sticker on the back.
Any help greatly appreciated and hope this could answer some questions for people looking to purchase Q-See equipment. So far cameras are pretty good but this DVR is trash.
