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I bought this to replace my existing 2MP surveillance system.
Packaging - all components came in a box that was packaged in another box that was then packaged in yet another box ! I think it's pretty safe to say it's prone to shipping damages. Each camera was carefully packaged along with other components.
Mounting cameras - mounting cameras was very easy. They come with drill template, although I didn't need them as I was mounting cameras either to the soffit or the siding so didn't have to drill anything. All you have to do is plug in the connector coming out of the camera to ethernet cable that goes to your video recorder and you're ready to go. I used existing ethernet cables but you also get them with this system.
After powering up the system you're presented with the wizard that walks you through the set up - you set a password, security questions, time zone, choose unlock pattern (so you don't have to type in the password, instead you draw a pattern like you can do on your mobile phone), set up network connectivity, enable access through mobile application etc
System comes with four 8MP POE cameras although it supports up to 8. Cameras are a bit over 6" (with the mounting bracket) when laid flat. With the help of Annke Support I was even able to connect my old 2MP cameras to the remaining 4 ports and even though the quality is not as good I don't have to initially spend more money to buy additional cameras.
Mobile application - Annke has it's own free mobile application that allows you to remotely connect to the system. It's called Annke Vision. Application has fingerprint sign on capability so it's very convenient - I hate typing in passwords. Setting up application to work with the NVR is easy - you click on the add button inside the app, scan the QR code that you see on a screen when setting up a system and you're done.
Accessing NVR can be done directly through NVR itself (hooked up through HDMI to TV), through Annke Vision application or simply by browsing to the NVR's IP address while connected to the same local network. If you want to access NVR through the browser from outside your home network you can set up DDNS (I setup my free hostname at https://my.noip.com). I have a poor cell phone reception at work and my employer blocks a lot of ports over wifi so it's difficult for me to use the application, hence I connect to NVR through the browser. Browser plug-in only works with IE, it doesn't work for Chrome.
Other features:
Motion detection - you can set up motion detection on each camera, the way you do this is you define an "area" that camera should monitor and if it detects the motion it triggers an alert(sends you an email).
Video tampering - notifies you if for some reason video has been tampered with.
Video loss- pretty useful feature to inform you if the camera has been disconnected (on purpose or due to some technical issues ) - you basically don't need to be checking your cameras periodically to ensure stuff works as expected, system will notify you on it's own.
Failed attempts to log in to NVR - you will receive email notification in case someone tries to log in to your NVR with invalid credentials.
DDNS - you can set up DDNS to remotely connect to your system by friendly name, i use ddns.net, you can get a free hostname from them. This friendly name then maps to the public IP address of your router at home.
SMTP(Email) - once configured NVR will send you alerts to an email. Google has a free SMTP server you can use. I had to use port 587.
Video playback - Annke provides a player to be able to play exported files, i also used VLC player and it worked fine. Link to Annke’s player:
http://support.annke.com/document/HK/general/player/VSPlayer_V7.2.0.exe
Image quality: Image quality during a day is superb compared to my old cameras. This system has cameras with 8MP resolution.
After exporting the video, I took a snapshot from the video and it created a file with 3840x2160 resolution. You can clearly see everything that is going on around your house. With H265 compression the videos are also much smaller in size!
Image quality at night: thanks to EXIR (I honestly didn't know what it was until I got these cameras) the image at night is uniformly lit - with my old cameras the image was bright at center and darker on the edges. See picture attached to this review, the shot from the Back Yard was done without any lights on, what you see by the stamped concrete is neighbors light bouncing off my siding.
I’m attaching a video as well as some images to this review so you can see the quality for yourself.
Overall this is a very good system at an affordable price that I would totally recommend to everyone !
