win4me

ZMODO 4CH CCTV Surveillance DVR Day Night Weatherproof Security Camera System: 4 channels 4 cameras CCTV system (~$150 as of July 2012). System Model: PKD-DK4216 . Zmodo DVR Model: H9104BH (aka H9104V) This review is a result of a week worth of effort setting up, configuring, and testing. With help of Zmodo support I was able to find some issues, as well as reveal advantages of this CCTV system. OVERALL: The system is good for the price. I would recommend the system to someone who has elementary surveillance requirements with some network features (email, mobile, internet access) . PROS: Low price. Decent video quality. Ease of installation. All parts come along in all-inclusive package (not including HDD). The system pretends to be network feature reach. CONS: The DVR software is raw and, apparently, poorly tested before release. The DVR has many flaws and issues in configuration software set up. Some of the problems are essential. The user interface is un-intuituve and lack of documentation. Some features like FILE SHARING are completely undocumented. Some features don't work as expected. The Alert Images distributed via email are small in size and low quality. When it comes to resolving technical and configuration issues Zmodo front-line customer support is not always helpful due to lack of technical skills. The post follow up will go into details describing some fundamental issues found with this DVR system.

Issue #6. ZMODO 4CH DVR H9104V: Active X web control application issues. There a few issues encountered with installation and running the Active X control enabled application that allows to access DVR configuration via Internet Explorer. 1) Only Internet Explorer is supported by the Zmodo DVR application. You have to make substantial Security Level downgrade on order to install Zmodo software. Zmodo DVR does not support Chrome and Firefox. This is a big disadvantage. 2) After installation of the Zmodo Web Client was not able to login to the system. The application complained "Login Incorrect". Only after reboot of both DVR and my computer, and making configuring Port Forwarding (even though computer and DVR on the same network) I was able to login successfully. 3) Finally the Web Client does not have some of the configuration controls that native DVR system has. For instance, the Web Client application does not have an option to control FILE SHARING and FTP SETTINGS. Some other network controls are also missing in Web Client application.

Issue #5. ZMODO 4CH DVR H9104V: Does continuous recording regardless that Motion Detection Recording only is set ON.

Issue #4. ZMODO 4CH DVR H9104V: was not able to configure FILE SHARING feature. This is a major failure because it does not allow browse/backup recorded video files. When this option is enabled (see check mark) the DVR still does not allow to access the HDD file system. Typing Windows Explorer "\\192.168.1.51\" prompts for password, but never let you in complaining with "Incorrect Login" message.

Issue #3. ZMODO 4CH DVR H9104V: FTP SETTING does NOT sends Motion Detection pictures to the FTP server. This is the weird one, yet crittical issue. Successfully configured and tested by pressing TEST button, the DVR successfully sends a test image to FTL server. However, no images are FTPed in Motion detection Mode. Only email is send out when Motion Detection is triggered. This is the EVENT HANDLING settings, e.g. how Motion Detected event is handled: http://content.screencast.com/users/flantus/folders/Jing/media/4f467281-8de7-4e46-a73e-2ff2934ffb6a/2012-08-14_1201.png

Issue #2. ZMODO 4CH DVR H9104V: can't see USB drive (backup device) Plugging 1GB USB flash is not recognized by the DVR. When USB is formatted as NTFS file system, the DVR disables a mouth, e.g. the mouse cursor does not function. When USB is formatted as FAT32 file system, the mouse is functioning but the system still responds with "No backup device" screen prompt.

Issue #1. ZMODO 4CH DVR H9104V: hanged at the first start up with HDD installed. After installation of a new HDD the DVR hanged at the statrtup screen. After multiple unsuccessful startup with and without HDD, the system eventually succeed booting. After HDD formatting it does not seem happened again.