smg65

Thank you very much for your reply. Your advice is appreciated. After reading other threads, I now realize that there are far more "flavors" of systems than I thought. I think my next step is to find out exactly what kind of cameras are on the house. As far as a DVR goes, in addition to being absolutely sure the new DVR will be compatible with the existing cameras, I'll be looking for simplicity of the included software. That Q-See software seemed very complex to someone like me. Again, thank you!

Hello... please excuse my ignorance on this topic! I have zero experience with surveillance systems. We recently bought a house that already had a Q-See surveillance system installed. The DVR (QS-4816) hardly ever worked, it's extremely unreliable, and the few times it did work it seemed very complicated to me. But the outside cameras seemed to work very well. My son-in-law told me the cameras are analog. It is a wired system. The DVR might have bit the dust because it was installed in the (often) hot attic. That said, can I hook up another brand of DVR (but get it out of the attic) with the existing cameras? Any suggestions are appreciated! I would be looking for an economical unit that is much easier to set up and use than the Q-See DVR. Thanks!