Scruit 0 Posted April 9, 2010 Nice solid looking unit. Surprised that the audio and video loop-out require special cables that don't come standard. The first bootup took several minutes and didn't give much indication that it was actually booting up so I was worried at first. I like the gui interface. The provided a mouse but not a keyboard so I got a mini keyboard for $15 that works great. Setting up things like camera names was a breeze with the keybard, and the gui makes it child's play to adjust a page full of config settings. The vga output is much better than the tv output of my last DVR (CPCam 507HC), of course, and the mouse allows for point/click zoom to individual cameras (including a nice right-click-drag zoom feature inside a single channel). My DVR arrived with the .19 firmware that was unusably slow of playback/searching, and channel 16 didn't play back in single-channel mode. The DVR rebooted itself while trying get ch16 to work. I updated the firware, an easy process, to .21. I forgot to export the config, shame on me. It's easy to export, just a couple of mouse clicks. The new firmware solved the playback issues completely. Configuring the individual channels is easy enoughto do but I nticed that you cannot over-commit the framerate. Example: 240 fps over 16 channels is 15fps each. In "Smart" mode the channel can run at a lower framerate until there is motion, then it jumps to maximum. As I never expect to have motion on all 16 channels at the same time I had homed to be able to set the channels all to 30fps (understanding that only a handful will be at 30fps at any given moment) but it won't allow that. Therefore in smart mode the DVR will never see 240fps unless you have motion on every channel. In a busy bus terminal that might be common, but in a residential setting that's not likely. Searching/playback is a doddle. I can use the event view to find either a motion or alarm event, double-click on it and it comes right up - however it always brings up the video a few seconds AFTER the event time, so I always wind up rewinding it to get to the actual event. Plus it defaults to a 4ch view of channels 1-4, so I have to do the extra step of clicking on the 16way view. No big, really. Haven't tried CD/DVD export, but the usb key backup was very easy and provides excellent quality. There is no analog 16-way output which was a problem for me because that's the signal I sent to the big TV downstairs. Instead I use a VGA-to-SVideo converter inline with the VGA cable to the monitor. Lower quality and an extra cost, but works out for me. There are two spot monitor outputs that are controlled by alarm rules. I can create an alarm rule that says "When you see motion on channel 1 set the spot monitor 1 to that channel, and set spot monitor 2 to channel 7" This works well because I cna have spot 1 set to a close-up view of the alerting camera and spot 2 can be set to a camera that provides an overall view of the same area. On my DVR spot 1 and spot 2 are mislabelled, so spot 1 in the gui actuall controls spot 2 as labelled on the DVR. I have spot 1 and spot 2 connected to two spare channels on a smaller DVR, which is set to record on motion for those two channels. This basically means I can use the smaller DVR to run a playback of someone moving from camera-to-camera, and all the channel-hopping is already done for me. Having this second DVR record these images provides an excellent backup recording location in case the main DVR cannot play back the video for any reason. The alarm inputs take relay contacts too, which is great because I have a wireless driveway monitor with 4 relay contacts. This means I could set up a rule for driveway monitor relay 1 to set the spot monitor to the correct camera and send me an email. I had previously hacked this featre together using a USB io card and home-written software. The DVR will send email from different senders so I can set my phone to play a different ringtone for each alarm channel used. e.g When my phone gets an SMS from HomeDVR_Alarm01@myisp.com it plays a ringtone that says; "Front Driveway Alert", etc. The web-based viewer is excellent. AVTech or CPCam just use the software as a surrugoate remote control and provide a poorly digitized video output. The aver web viewer is great quality video even on fullscreen 16way. Haven't tried it across the web yet. I called Aver to ask about the audio cable. They are sending that to me for free but I had to pay $30 for the video loop-out. Aver support has always been very responsive. Compare that to AVTech or CPCam, where there is no actual support at all. I got answers to all my questions in under 48 hours using their fabulous web-based ticketing system. Suggestions to Aver for improvements: - When setting up the motion mask / percentage, please have some indication on screen of whether the motion sensor is being tripped right now. - Please allow the 16way image to be an option for one or both of the spot monitor outputs, - Please allow the fps to be overcommitted. If I have two channels I want to set them to 4fps no motion and 30 fps when there IS motion. That way I get better/smoother video wehn something happens under one camera because the motion camera can borrow unused fps from the camera that does not see motion. I understand that 240fps is a max so if both cameras see motion they will both max out at 15fps. The "people and cars leaving artifacts" problem described earlier does not appear to be happening with mine except for the last second of the video expoert to a USB key. I paid $1300 for this DVR new from buy.com. I love it. Overall it's great unit with excellent video quality and a robust software. I'd like to see the GUI controls be a little more responsive rather thanwaitng for up to 3 seconds for some controls to take effect, but otherwise this DVR inspires a lot of confidence in its reliability and features. -- Support questions I've asked -- Question: Where is the audio cable? Answer: Call xxx-xxx-xxxx for the sales team and they'll send you one. Question: Why is the deinterlace setting in 3 different places? Camera settings, DVR playback, and remote PC playback? Answer: Delinterlace settings affect the display, not the recording. It appears whereever the video is displayed. Question: Why is the FTP option greyed out? Answer: It's a placeholder for future functionality. Not availlable right now. Question: Why does the watermark validation say that the exported video is bad? Answer: Researching... Question: Can I get a 16-way output on the spot monitor? Answer: No. You must select which channel to show on the spot monitor outputs using alert rules. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bpzle 0 Posted April 9, 2010 Thanks for the review! Hard to beat this unit for even twice the price... Coolest thing IMO is it's a hybrid... Are you using any IP cameras? If so, which ones? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bpzle 0 Posted April 9, 2010 Also, check out StarTech.com and search "utp vga" for some neat VGA distribution options to all the (HD)TVs in your house or even to multiple dedicated LCDs like for the kitchen or bedroom. Plus you'll get a much better picture than the S Video... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Scruit 0 Posted April 9, 2010 No ip cameras yet, but the hybrid was a great selling point. Definitely look forward to getting some megapixel camera on there, but not until the proce drops significantly. Will check out vga over utp. Thanks! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tomcctv 190 Posted April 9, 2010 No ip cameras yet, but the hybrid was a great selling point. Definitely look forward to getting some megapixel camera on there, but not until the proce drops significantly. Will check out vga over utp. Thanks! Hi scruit. i have been using avermedias own ip camera over till areas it is only cheap but better than a standard dome and you get sound i will take some shots for you to see. as far as the audio lead kit. mine comes tomorrow i will cut it open for the pin config. no point buying the lead all the time as its for 16 mics once you have the config you can make your own for how ever many mics you need. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bpzle 0 Posted April 10, 2010 tom, aver cameras are a little hard to come by in the US... looks like UK only thing? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
