Bought the Costco item #689086, Q-See 4 Channel HD Digital NVR with 1TB Hard Drive and 4 HD 720p IP Cameras. $699.99 including shipping to my home front door. Delivered and set up two days ago.
I have no experience in home security beyond locking my doors, my Beretta, and wife's Smith & Wesson Walther. IOW, I am more an old fashioned guy (read: out of date), more comfortable with mechanics than electronics.
I knew enough to know what I did not want:
(1) B&W cameras with a resolution that cannot distinguish an elephant from a human;
(2) an expensive system as I weighted the acquisition right up there with a new lawn mower.
I knew I did want
(3) compatibility with my & wife's iPhone, iPad and PC,
(4) compatibility with my wired home security system that detects window and door openings.
Several years ago I had phoned the various home Security System companies in my area. Explained what I wanted and did not want. I did not have confidence that they offered what I wanted. They were pushing me to sign a multi year service agreement for unknown services. So I exited the consumer market for home security products - until I visited the Costco web page a few weeks ago. Bingo - - - four 720p cameras, 1TB storage drive, POE, iPhone and iPad apps, and Windows software, VGA and USB ports. $699.99 SOLD.
Last spring I had purchased a Linksys EA4500 router. Lucky for me it included PnUp, making the installation much easier. I did have some difficulty configuring the port forwarding. So I called Costco help. They were excellent. But something was still not right. Costco put me through to Q-See and in a few minutes all issues were resolved.
I now have the four cameras connected to the NVR. I have not yet fished the wires through my walls. Accessing the transmissions when on my LAN and when on the WAN Internet is a breeze. Transmission quality is excellent. Very cool to receive email from my NVR.
Conclusion - very satisfied Q-See and Costco customer.
I came across this site looking for information on expanding my home security system. I would like to add two-way audio along with my Q-See camera at the front door, and I would like to add another four cameras. The first four are nice, but have me wanting more.
Thanks for reading my first post here.
