Good Deals on a DVR

[Earl Weiss]

I got the one from Woot, link that Earl gave above. Reading the forum, it says that the cameras are pretty poor, but the price was so that the cameras were free. I'll dump them on Ebay.

Before you toss em, try it and see how it works. Have some lesser res cameras which give a great picture in an office or hallway. Outside over a long distance of 25 feet plus, not so much.

 

[MEP001]

The cameras I put in the bays are usually so dirty that I can't really see anything in detail, but those along with the good ones and the tag camera were enough for the police to see what the guy who snatched a customer's purse did and got him convicted. The bay cameras by themselves wouldn't have identified him, but they kept him in view the whole time he was on the lot, so the link between ID and the crime was 100% covered.

 

[pitzerwm]

Update

I finally got my DVR and got it more or less of installed. It is a Zmodo H9116UVDH, the manual is total crap, their chat is also crap. Lucky I didn't need to try their "ticket" system. I had a wizard helping me and since, I've already had one, I finally got things going.

The software to use your smart phone was not even installable, at least reading the instructions. I found IPCam Viewer and got it installed and so I can monitor the cameras on it.

The instructions to set it up so that you monitor your cameras on a browser were also pathetic and wrong.

If your IP address rarely changes then you can do this. Here is what you need to do on most DVRs I would think. In the settings of the DVR, the HTTP port is defaulted to 80. I don't see any reason not to use this. You do need to Port Forward in your router. I have a Linksys, it turned out that you needed to make the External port something above 49000 to 90000 and the Internal port 80. Choose both TCP and UDP, and in the address, use whatever address your router assigned (192.168.1.100) if that is it. Don't forget to enable it.

Now the Zmodo defaults to reboot ever so often, which can change your internal IP. If that happens you need to change the port forwarding info.

Then in a browser (IE) (which you also need to allow activeX) Go to internet options in IE and prompt for Download unsigned activeX, Prompt for Initialize ActiveX scripts. Then when you put in your IP:and the port that you picked, it will ask about the ActiveX viewer say yes and it will/should bring up your log in.

On YouTube, there are also some useful videos.

 

[TurboJet]

I just ordered one of these babies. Figured for the price you can't loose.

Hmm, I guess for the price, I'm going to have to burn a day getting this thing to work.

Don't understand, all the investment to manufacture and sell something, and these guys can't hire an american born university student, pay them a few hundred bucks, and to make sure the manual isn't written in chinglish. Don't get it!

Thanks for the input Pitzerman.

 

[pitzerwm]

call me if you need help. I might be able to help you

 

[TurboJet]

Thanks Pitzerman.

First, I'll do the self serve guy thing and try and figure it out myself, then I'll swear a little, then I'll call my kid, then I'll say to myself can't they just give me some decent instructions, then I'll drive home thinking about it and come up with an idea, then I'll go back the next day, and it still won't work. You may get an email. But then I might surprise myself.

Jeez sounds like I've been through this before with other things.

 

[cleaning up mud]

we have a Zmodo at one wash and im really impressed. easy to install and to set up to view over the internet and my smartphone. 16 cameras.

 

[cleaning up mud]

we also have cable internet with a fixed ip address, $10.00 month more, its worth it.

 

[cleaning up mud]

I finally got my DVR and got it more or less of installed. It is a Zmodo H9116UVDH, the manual is total crap, their chat is also crap. Lucky I didn't need to try their "ticket" system. I had a wizard helping me and since, I've already had one, I finally got things going.

The software to use your smart phone was not even installable, at least reading the instructions. I found IPCam Viewer and got it installed and so I can monitor the cameras on it.

The instructions to set it up so that you monitor your cameras on a browser were also pathetic and wrong.

If your IP address rarely changes then you can do this. Here is what you need to do on most DVRs I would think. In the settings of the DVR, the HTTP port is defaulted to 80. I don't see any reason not to use this. You do need to Port Forward in your router. I have a Linksys, it turned out that you needed to make the External port something above 49000 to 90000 and the Internal port 80. Choose both TCP and UDP, and in the address, use whatever address your router assigned (192.168.1.100) if that is it. Don't forget to enable it.

Now the Zmodo defaults to reboot ever so often, which can change your internal IP. If that happens you need to change the port forwarding info.

Then in a browser (IE) (which you also need to allow activeX) Go to internet options in IE and prompt for Download unsigned activeX, Prompt for Initialize ActiveX scripts. Then when you put in your IP:and the port that you picked, it will ask about the ActiveX viewer say yes and it will/should bring up your log in.

On YouTube, there are also some useful videos.

I got a new system and have one installed in another location, I have tried everything to get the new one to work over the internet and phone with not luck, I have port forwarded in my verizon router, put the ports in, know the ip addresses watched videos, etc. and it still doesnt work, tried calling zmodo and its a 20 minute wait.