Bought the Swann NVR8-7200 costco 4 1080p camera package. It has absolutely mind blowing in quality and operation but for the person I bought this for it's unacceptable. Why? Because I need a better GUI / more intuitive UI with ability to use a remote over a mouse is even better. e.g. Simple playback from one camera:
Mouse:
Go to playback, select camera, select type of event and then search.
Remote control:
Press playback on 2x2 or larger--comes up blank as no camera was selected. Need mouse.
Press playback on 1x1 works fine. Need mouse for more advanced features like date searching/etc.
Was I just naive to assume that this would work great since there was a remote? Watched tons of youtube videos of UI's on DVR's and just assumed that NVR packages would be as easy. What that a mistake? Am I just expecting too much? This is a PC with a remote emulating keyboard/mouse buttons vs a dedicated appliance. Running IP cameras to a regular PC running zoneminder, blue iris, etc looks just as "easy."
I'm thinking of returning it, grabbing an analog DVR system, and just doing dual runs of cat5e with the analog. My thinking is that once an "easier" NVR system comes along I can just use the cat5e cables already run.
Qsee QC DVR
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/qsee-8x8-700tvl-8-960h-secrty-sys/prod11630139.ip?navAction=push
Ease of use
100ft Night vision
Good enough quality