Swann vs Q-See DVR System from Costco?

[kitaudio 0]

Hi Guys,

I have a $1,000 budget for a small ice cream shop. I can do the installation since I have experience with 12 volts and computers. Which do you think is a better choice for me?

 

 

From Costco . com

 

8 Ch Swann

9 Ch Q-See

(sorry, can't post link because I just joined)

 

Both have internet remote viewing.

 

1. Which is a better system? Swann or Q-See

2. Is there a better solution with a $1k budget?

 

Thank Ahead.

[jpatz18 0]

I would not buy those they are CRAP!!! Even for 1k. Picture are grainy and bad. Google Them.. I would not recommended for anyone.

[kitaudio 0]

Is that because the camera is of poor quality? Do you recommend a different setup for the same budget?

[jpatz18 0]

Depends how many cameras do you want. If its for a ice cream shop i wouldget some digital sensormatic box type camera and a dvr probably cost about 700- with like 6 camera and a dvr. Used camera of course.

 

I would never buy them from costco SAMS BJ there all crap and grainy.

[Wachhund 0]

The discounted pricing will bite you in the end. Save up and get a decent system. You'll need to id faces. Those cheap cameras are too grainy. Get a good dvr like an IC Realtime Max-4 or something like that and add your cameras as you go. It may cost almost twice as much mut in the end you'll reap the benefits.

[TallDoode 0]

I don't know that I agree. No one asked what he was going to monitor, when, lighting, 24/7 or just during business hours etc.

 

Many times the threat of video surveillance is enough and having cameras mounted and visible helps.

 

I have two cameras doing home monitoring. One is a Lorex the other is a Q-See. I like the picture better on the Q-See at night, but the Lorex seems to be better during the day. Swann makes good cameras and the Costco bundles for daylight hours are decent and you can recognize faces in them just fine. At night, due to the limited IR, they are not as good and you only get a few feet of view. One of the issues with larger IR cameras (like my Q-See that "sees" 80 feet in 100% darkness) is that if someone gets within 10 feet of it, the IR is so "bright" they look like a ghost. That is a problem I am trying to address right now. I want to see who is breaking into our cars and a big, white blur doesnt help the police much

 

My recommendation is to look around and see what you can put together for your budget but the Q-See from Costco is a decent monitoring system for a small business that is well lighted and not likely to be robbed after hours when the lights are off (since cash is typically removed every night). Plus, the 8 cameras looking down on someone think twice about robbing you (assuming that is what you want them for).

 

My .02.

 

dave

[501 0]

It can all be summed up in one simple sentence we have all heard, "You get what you pay for". I have had to replace several of those systems at small retail businesses because the quality was so poor. The live vew can look ok but check the playback, you will be dissappointed.

[oneirishpollack 0]

If your going to suggest the picture is all "grainy" and "crappy" can you suggest why?

 

The Q-SEE offers the following:

 

QD28194 Weatherproof Sony Sensor Camera Features:

 

Image sensor: ¼â€

[CollinR 0]

If your going to suggest the picture is all "grainy" and "crappy" can you suggest why?

 

Because my cost on those cams is under $40 and the DVR about $250 so in either case the bang:buck is poor when you pay more for a brand name like that with a reputation like it has.

 

and no I will not put my company name on selling that for $800 just because I could.

[oneirishpollack 0]

So are you saying it is about cost vs. features, chipsets, or technology? Should I be looking for cameras that cost over a certain amount to determine if they are going to work or not?

 

Please help me understand this.

[CollinR 0]

No it's not exactly about bottom line costs it's like everything else in life, an SVT Mustang and a Fararri may well perform similarly however their costs are much differnt. Also in many ways they do perform differently, in picking up chicks for instance whereas their 1/4 mile time may be the same.

 

Bang:buck is a difficult deal but thats how I make a living designing systems like this. Feel free to contact me about what I can do however I must admit $1k is on the low side.

 

This also depends on your goals, if you are tring to figure out if your employees are coming in on time or closing up early you don't need much of a system at all. You already know who they are. If you are more concerned about the general public you need a system will the capability of capuring identification. This is much more difficult with complete strangers. Also if you go the cheapest router to watch your employees you cannot easily do identification whereas a nicer system has no trouble telling you they seem to open a 1/2 late on Sat when you aren't there.

 

This is all part of system design and really shouldn't be hashed out in a public forum.

[BurstElement 0]

You have to remember that these systems are designed for a particular price point / purpose... i.e. low cost DIY monitoring.

 

Of course most of us here are used to installing and using cameras of far higher quality than these and consider them to be "rubbish"... you have to consider that if using a professional installer the labour cost would usually be similar to the price of the hardware... this alone makes it a poor economic choice for an installer or customer of an installer to want this grade of hardware.

 

You really need to tell us what you are trying to capture and in what sort of lighting situation, however, from experience i think you might be better off with a different / custom system.

If you are trying to protect against customer theft / harassment during business hours you probably don't want / need IR cameras.

Dome cameras are typically 30-40% cheaper than an equivalent IR camera and will look neater if you only require business hours surveillance.

 

I don't think most ice cream shops would require 8 cameras either... probably 4-6 cameras at most depending on the size of the shop.

[PhilSI 0]

If your going to suggest the picture is all "grainy" and "crappy" can you suggest why?

 

Because my cost on those cams is under $40 and the DVR about $250 so in either case the bang:buck is poor when you pay more for a brand name like that with a reputation like it has.

 

and no I will not put my company name on selling that for $800 just because I could.

 

I am new to this forum and while don't know much about this stuff, I am highly familiar with many industries where the "pro guys" trash the stuff you can by at a warehouse club. In many cases this is B%*&S^%$ because these guys don't even look at what they are trashing. They just don't like that they can't be competitive in this segment of the market. This does not mean the product is "crappy"

 

I also understand cost structure very well, so rather than trash this because you can buy it for a cheap price (which tells me nothing) please explain what is inferior about this product from a specification stand point vs the higher end/more expenisve products you sell?

 

Swann Day/Night CCD Cameras x 4

 

· 4 Swann day/night indoor/outdoor 1/4â€

[RickA 0]

Swann Day/Night CCD Cameras x 4

 

· 4 Swann day/night indoor/outdoor 1/4â€

[CollinR 0]

Swann Day/Night CCD Cameras x 4

 

· 4 Swann day/night indoor/outdoor 1/4â€

[PhilSI 0]

Thanks for the reply, not that I didn't believe you guys, but an answer stating "why something is no good" or "why something else is better" is much more useful and credible than just trashing it because it comes from a warehouse and has an aggressive price.

 

Thanks

 

Phil

[rory 0]

4 Swann day/night indoor/outdoor 1/4â€

[Daedalus51 0]

I'm somewhat of a newbie to this forum. I signed up in March, and it seems the activity has picked up a bit since then. I hope the trend continues.

 

I started out with a Costco Q-see package for my house a couple years ago. I can't speak for Swann, but from what I've read on specs, reviews, and info from sites like this I doubt there's much difference among any of the bargain-basement import brands.

 

It's really "cool" to be able to watch what's going on around the house. I know who's outside while I'm surfing the web. I can see who let their dog poop in my yard and didn't clean it up, and I know which neighbor drops trash on the sidewalk as they walk from their car to their house. I've even recorded some taggers and also a felony committed in front of my house, though not enough evidence (license plate) to do any good for the cops.

 

Honestly, the quality is very poor. The DVR doesn't do all it's supposed to do. The motion sensing is a complete joke at night. The manuals are just terrible attempts at translation. The hard drive gives an error every now and then. Upgrading the firmware can kill the DVR. Customer service is non-existent. The cameras started out crappy and then got worse. I had one mounted where the body (not the lens or sensor) was exposed to the sun, and its image slowly went bad within a year.

 

What's nice is that these systems are modular. You can replace any component depending on need and budget and see instant benefits. I've upgraded 2 cams to a PTZ dome and a much better D/N cam. Right now I am on the hunt for a better DVR. I'll end up spending a lot more than I set out to spend, but the price/performance quotient in this industry is what it is and, like most, I've had to adjust my expectations to reality. Eventually I'll have replaced the whole system, but at the same time I don't think it was a waste of money. I got my feet wet without breaking the bank and I got a lot, though not all, of the benefits that I was looking for.

[lamlamz 0]

Interesting post.

I hope it gets better and thanks to Professionals comments and advice giving us valuable information.

I also recommend to check out the Amazon's user comment. I believe those are amateurs and DIYers, which in general commented Q-See product in many different ways. Some comments also give us some examples of application and their usage experience.

[Sky1 0]

Go to Costco get a Q-See and try it out for a couple weeks without hard mounting. If it does not meet your expectations, return it!

 

That is what I did, I got a Q-See kit with a QT528 1 TB hard drive, 8 520 TVL CMOS cameras just last month.

 

I noticed that the glass fogged up after 2 nights, some residue must have burned off the LED's, I unscrewed the glass and cleaned them and they were fine. I then had 2 cameras fail, one buzzing and one no LEDs for night vision. I did an online RMA with no problem, they paid for return shipping.

 

If the lighting in the room or outside is within normal levels the picture is very much acceptable, if it goes to night or overly hazy and bright the pictures go off a bit.

 

For an Ice Cream shop I think you will be happy with a basic 4 camera system.

No, it is not HD but should be acceptable.

 

I am keeping mine, I have just received my camera replacements from Q-See and got everything working great.

[shockwave199 0]

My qsee 408 dvr is awesome. Love the thing. Really like the MC software for it too. Nine months and it's handled everything, giving great video recordings and pictures. I no longer use qsee cameras, but the dvr is tops, imo.

Edited December 5, 2011 by Guest

[Ken Layton 0]

With these "low end" pre-packaged systems, if you don't expect much, then you won't be disappointed. They are what they are so to speak. Nothing to write home about.

 

Probably ok for someone just getting started with camera systems.

[dbooksta 0]

So what should we be looking at?

 

I'm going to run siamese cable for 10 exterior cameras around my home. I want a "plug-and-play" DVR with seamless remote viewing and control from computers and smartphones that can do 7fps D1 on 16 cameras. And I want hardwired weatherproof cameras that give crisp day and night images.

 

What's better than Q-See or Swann DVRs and cameras for that installation?

[Blueish 0]

I've gotta agree with the poster who said that the pros trash the stuff without knowing it well.

 

I got a Swann 8-channel 4-camera kit at Costco. I also have a variety of IP cameras and plenty of experience in similar fields... and I've played with contemporary high-end kits.

• Swann is better quality than Q-See, though not by much. Avoid Lorex.
  
• Getting everything working is a PITA. Once it's working, it can be stable. My first Swann had to be RMAd.
  
• The picture quality isn't great on a kit. That's partially the DVR - resolution - and much more the camera (cheap, cheap lens, low-def) and also the cables. Cables really do matter for long runs.
  
• High resolution is cool, but even the license plate won't buy you anything in most precincts. The cops just don't care.
  
• With the stock 480-line cameras, well-mounted, you can recognize people and actions. Mount at least one very visibly (like by your front door) and most other problems will vanish.
  
• What a more expensive install buys you starts with better alarm/alert tracking and filtering. This is HUGE. Double the price of the Costco units and you can record 24/7 (hard drive space is cheap) and yet still easily see motion-detected alerts on the timeline. It's cool and useful.
  
• And the expense buys you an easier set-up and higher resolution.
  
• The remote access on the lower-end units is flakey. It works... but for example the Swann's only runs in 32-bit Internet Explorer with ActiveX permissions and will crash the entire IE session if you high-speed past the end of a clip.
  
• No Mac support
  
• The Android (/iPhone) app seems pretty great, but it doesn't support playback of recorded images.

 

What you may want to do is determine which of these you care about, set an arbitrary amount (e.g. double the Swann kit cost) and see if a dealer will sell you comparable kit with fewer trade-offs for that. Expertise costs money.

[mike_va 0]

[*]High resolution is cool, but even the license plate won't buy you anything in most precincts. The cops just don't care.

Not true here. Lately I've not been running the IR, and they STILL want to see the pics - in the latest case two young women checking car doors. They are very encouraging of the cameras.