My experience with an off-brand DVR

[SEANHAWG 1]

I have been trying and testing DVR's for the past month to try to find one to re-sell to my customers. I sell used equipment to folks who are on a budget. Most of the recorders I sell are VCR's with a Multiplexer but I get several inquiries for DVR's all the time so I have been on the search for a low priced decent quality DVR to sell.

 

So one of my customers turned me on to this DVR that he bought on eBay. He said he loved it. This was a no-name DVR which I was reluctant to purchase as I have purchased some no-name cameras before that were poor quality but since he said he had such good luck with it, I thought I would give it a shot. This was from a USA seller but when I asked a question about the product, the english was very poor so I assume it it a chinese seller with a location in the US. For $209.99, it sounded like a great deal so I went ahead and bought it. Its a 4 channel DVR with a 500GB hard-drive and one of the best things that I like about it is not only does it have 120 FPS display but also has 120 FPS recording which was pretty important to me. I was skeptical that this was not true but I verified that it was when I received the unit it. In the last month, I have tried a Vitek & Clover DVR which was more expensive than this one yet they are less featured. Both of those units only had a 250 GB and the recording was at 60 fps for 4 channels. I have received quotes from some commercial CCTV dealers for some other brand name DVR's but all of them are out of my customers price range and to be honest, their features were comparable to this no-name that I bought and quite often were less featured. I really want to stay with brand-name DVR's but it seems that I am paying for a brand rather than features (perceived value). When I received the DVR in, it did have a brand name on the front , never heard of it? But so far, I really like it and it seems like it would be a good product for my customers. My question is, why would I pay twice as much for a brand name DVR that is less featured than this DVR that just bought off of eBay? I just want to make sure I make the right decision for my customers. Here are the specs to the DVR that I bought:

Edited October 17, 2010 by Guest

[ogloco 0]

I am new to CCTV, but not to business. From experience if you are going to buy a no name-brand item you need to make sure you are able to return it if it's defective and be sure to have a warranty period. When you buy items online most of the times you have to pay to get a defective item back to the vendor. In your case, if you are able to find a local distributor that distributes no name-brand products you have someone to go back to in case the item is defective. In Los Angeles there are a lot of distributors but I found a company that sells products for low budgets. It is (u n i x c c t v . com). If you are able to find a local distributor that will be able to back up a "cheap" DVR that does the job, I would buy it.

[SEANHAWG 1]

I somewhat take back what I said about this DVR. The daytime recordings look pretty good, but when I reviewed the playback at night, it looked like a pixelized nightmare. And no its not my cameras because when I view them live the cameras look great at night but when I view the playback recordings it looks like a very bad youtube video or something and I am just viewing it on a monitor, I dont even have the internet hooked up to it.

[Soundy 1]

I somewhat take back what I said about this DVR. The daytime recordings look pretty good, but when I reviewed the playback at night, it looked like a pixelized nightmare. And no its not my cameras because when I view them live the cameras look great at night but when I view the playback recordings it looks like a very bad youtube video or something and I am just viewing it on a monitor, I dont even have the internet hooked up to it.

Is there a compression/quality setting you can change?

[SEANHAWG 1]

I am not sure about compression but I can change the recording quality if thats the same thing. I had it set at the highest it can go. Still looks like crap at night. The compression for the unit is H.264.

[rory 0]

been here done that, time to sell it off for cheap and move onto the next 100 units to test

[bpzle 0]

been here done that, time to sell it off for cheap and move onto the next 100 units to test

 

ain't that the truth... I've sold countless units I didn't like, but I'm always upfront and tell people it was a sample, I don't like the product, it works but limited warranty. People buy it anyway. lol

The real crap (like Gadspot) I throw in the trash or give to family members as Christmas presents. haha

[rory 0]

ain't that the truth... I've sold countless units I didn't like, but I'm always upfront and tell people it was a sample, I don't like the product, it works but limited warranty. People buy it anyway. lol

The real crap (like Gadspot) I throw in the trash or give to family members as Christmas presents. haha

LOL yeah this one i got now, an old avtech one, i mean it works and it works in 100+ temps, but its so crappy especially the network video and evidence sharing .. i wont even sell it .. gonna change it any day now for something a "little" better and give this to someone for free. Luckily im not the one that buys all the DVRs to test, someone else does .. i just get to test them cause they know i will torture them to see how good they really are

[SEANHAWG 1]

Whats wierd about this DVR is when I am even in live viewing mode, the picture quality seems to be lost a little bit as opposed to hooking the camera directly up into the TV, not a lot but I can tell it. But yes, I will sell it and let people know about the loss in quality, and continue my quest to find a decent low priced DVR that I am satisfied with that I can re-sell for good. This one wasnt too bad or anything but I just HATE that pixelized look at night. For example, the cameras I am using are not the best night vision cameras (LUX 1.25) but you can still see whats going on with an outdoor light, it just gets a little snowy. But during playback, it takes that fuzz and makes a disgusting pixelized mess out of the picture, I would be embarrassed to even show it. The daytime seems to be okay though but there is still just a little bit of video quality that is lost, the picture is not just as "crisp" as when the camera is hooked directly into the TV. I dont mind about losing a little frame rate but I hate losing "crispness". The crispness is what I need to identify license plates, faces, etc. If I lose that than whats the point?

[rory 0]

The direct connection to the TV is not compressed like with the DVR, among other processing it is doing.

[SEANHAWG 1]

I know the DVR is compressing video during recording but is the DVR compressing the video during live viewing too?

[rory 0]

Sure, well, it has to process the incoming video signal and then work on that, shrink it, split it up, etc. How much compression and what it does depends on the DVR though, you are right though its not the same as the recording compression, good point. But it still has to process the live video, from what I have seen with many cheap 4 channels they must be compressing the crap out of them in live 4 way video, the quality is bad in many cases. That could also explain why in a single way view the video is much better quality, almost the same as a direct connection to a TV.