ICRealtime - First Impressions

[danweber 0]

In one of my other threads I promised I would post a review of the newly acquired ICRealtime Pro DVR. I didn't have enough time to play with it extensively but here a couple of my first impressions:

 

1) No ability to disable the local key lock (IR remote or front panel) is very annoying

 

2) Events are listed in a list instead of a calendar format. It works but with many cameras and many events it is not very intuitive and a calendar/channel matrix display would be much cleaner

 

3) Some minor firmware errors where the text on the event list wraps to the next line and some areas are not refreshed. Rather disappointing for a unit at this price point (yes, i am picky).

 

4) IR remote control perfomance is laughable. You have to really point the remote control to the correct spot for the unit to accept the signal.

 

5) Even though the unit records at 720x480 resolution, with everything set to maximum quality, the live image shows more detail. This is a minor detail but a little surprising. Recorded quality is good though (if it were the same as the live view it would be excellent).

 

6) REW/FF makes the video jump in quite large increments (even at the first level) instead of just playing the video faster. It's very easy to miss something this way.

 

7) REW/FF does not give any progress indication in relation to the current event. What I mean by that is that it does not show you if you are at the beginning, middle, end, or wherever within the entire event. At the end of the event it simply jumps to the next event and this is only noticeable by looking at the time stamp.

 

Remote software has no apparent REW/FF controls in playback mode

 

9) I haven't found a way yet to playback all channels at the same time. Would be nice to playback multiple channels at the same time, in synchronized fashion to see an event from different angles for instance.

 

10) Unit is very noisy

 

 

Bottom Line:

The unit works adequately but to me it is not superior to other units I have seen. I think it is largely over hyped and in my opinion overpriced. The PowerTelecomm unit I looked at before was easier to handle and would be my preferred choice, if it didn't had the network issue (which we discussed to death already).

 

As I continue to use the unit I will post additional comments. The builder of my house was interested at DVRs as well but at the moment I don't feel comfortable to recommend this unit to him. I'll start looking again at other units from my previous short list and see how they perform. I think I also have to rethink my original exclusion of PC based DVRs and reconsider the latest GeoVision and AverMedia products.

[blowrabbit 0]

Have you ever used the GE dvrme-ct or the new Symdec-4 [hybrid] and if so how do they compare to what you mentioned regarding the playback functionalities of quality and time signature ? I have the same concerns about fastforward playback when used remotely.

[rory 0]

blowrabbit are you having issues fastforwarding remotely with the DVMRe-CT?

[cctv_down_under 0]

I would have to agree with both of you on this one...the fac is that although it might seem like small annoyances and being picky, however the annoyances that the installer is suggesting are usualy areas that customers have complained about before, so they know what they are looking for.

 

You are correct that without testing all brands it is hard to ascertain the differences and you do not know what you are missing, an end user has much less chance of knowing..what is missing and what should be improved.

 

As for live being better than playback.........you should expect that because it is not compressed???

 

That said there are always newer products and good ones and the HYPE is sometimes warranted...mind you...more often it is not warranted and I am convinced people have even made second users in this forum to repeat their like of a product and build a hype.

 

It does sound like a good product and i have tested many...i would love to test it for you but I am not about to buy one because I have heard very little about it.

 

As for the SDIII...awesome choice of camera!

[danweber 0]

Ok, first off I need to set something clear: I don't work in the industry, I am simply an end-user that originally evaluated a unit for a new house I have built. The task was easy, so it seemed: put up a few decent cameras and use a DVR to record and monitor them.

 

In my day to day job I am a Software Engineer and an IT Consultant so I know a little something about user friendly software and software quality.

 

My previous exposure to CCTV has been when I owned a small resort where I put together my own DVR with a home built PC and a GeoVision card and then hooked some cheapo bullet cameras up to it. That system worked pretty well and I customized the remote viewer to my likes. I was even able to provide the police with some good footage of some incidents.

 

I don't have the money to just go out and buy every DVR out there so I largely depend on recommendations and my own research. When I started this entire process for my personal use I was approached by my builder (which I have a very good relationship with) and he asked me to share the outcome of my research because he wanted to use some DVR systems as well.

 

My first idea was to use a GeoVision again as I knew what it was about from my previous use but I thought a standalone unit would be a better system and would be easier to maintain and operate. For the PC Card based systems an IR remote control is always an add-on where for a standalone system it is the primary way of interacting with the DVR and I thought that this would make it easier to operate. I have the monitor output modulated onto a TV channel and distribute it to every TV in the house and with the IR network I can use the remote to control the DVR from any TV location.

 

To narrow down my selection of a DVR I tried to obtain the user manuals of as many units as I could to read through the operation of the unit and its features. I also looked at some online demos but most of them usually didn't work properly.

 

Now I have a IC Realtime Pro hooked up and it IS a nice dvr. And as one person pointed out before, most of my 'dislikes' are personal preferences and picky details. However, that's what's important to me and the items mentioned are annoying to me.

 

Does anyone know how frequently software updates for the IC Realtime are being released? The usability could be tremendously improved by cleaning up the firmware a little and I would be willing to put together some suggestions based on my background in Software Engineering. With so many DVRs coming from Asia I am not sure if distributors have input in that though and I don't want to waste my time.

 

I'll keep the IC Realtime in operation for the moment but at the same time I decided to go ahead and look at the GeoVision offerings again. Their new combo cards look interesting. I also read some good comments about AverMedia and will look into them as well. I like the fact that AverMedia now has a Linux based card, even though the software is not yet on par with the Windows cards. The good thing about the cards is that they are in a price range that allows me to just order one to look at.

[normicgander 0]

I think Danweber is entitled to his option on the ICRealtime. It sounds like he has good technical credentials as an engineer and an end-users feedback is equally important. Any dvr company or OEM would welcome feedback of this nature and ICrealtime would agree.

 

I also think in the highest quality setting the compressed 720 x 480 image should be as close to the live view as well. But in reality, we have all seen various DVR recordings in the "720 x 480" mode and thery're not all equal. This is simply because the industry lacks a testing standard or the dvr oems should state the resolution in horizontal TVL. How often due dvr oems tell us how the units A to D is performed? Many of them use ITUs 601 recommendation (as well as ITU H.264) which yields about 455TVL. Vlado Damjanovski's book has a great discussion about this.....

[bcs 0]

I think danweber is being too fussy, about icrealtimes pro dvr

 

You just have a look at the playback quailty of this dvr ( the best i have seen ) if you can find a dvr with that quailty for that price, give me a shout because i would like to see it

 

If you have not connected up to internet, you have not seen the brilliance of this dvr, bringing up live video in one screen and bringing up playback in a another without any breakup it is fantastic!!! also if you connect up a PTZ and see how fast it moves with the click of a button

 

Every DVR has it downs, NO dvr is perfect but ICR Pro DVR is not too far short at the moment

 

Finally the noise of the dvr is down to the fact it has a Blackfin Processer for every channel and TWO Motorola processers,

 

I have no connection to ICRealtime, but i buy a few DVRs off them and find the support is superb and the product the same

[jmason 0]

How much does the ICRealtime Pro DVR cost?

[rory 0]

same as the GE's ...

[Thomas 0]

This thread is locked. The responces to this review have been little more then attempts to smear/shout down the reviewer.