NVR

Amcrest NV1104E NVR Review

• Report rights infringement
• published: 24 May 2016
• views: 809

I review the Amcrest NV1104E NVR. Amazon.ca: Amcrest NV1104E 1080p 4-Channel POE NVR / Network Video Recorder - 4 X 1080p (2.1MP) POE Cameras @ 30fps Realtime, Quick QR Code Smartphone Access, Feature-Rich OSD with Multiple Trigger & Alarm Events, ONVIF Compliance, USB Backup Permalink: http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00X4UDG36 Amazon.com: Amcrest NV1104E 1080p POE NVR (4CH 1080p/3MP/4MP/5MP) Network Video Recorder (Black) by Amcrest Link: http://amzn.com/B00X4UDG36 --- REVIEW TEXT --- When you first see this NVR you'll think it's complicated, it's not. In fact it's 4 Power over Ethernet ports, a normal Ethernet port, a few USB ports and HDMI and VGA out. That's not that hard. Hook up a camera to a PoE port and the HDMI port to a TV and you'll see it's working. Connect a mouse (included) and, if you wish, a keyboard (not included) and you basically have your own 4 channel security monitoring station. I popped an external hard drive in there, very easy to do. One format later it had hours of capacity. Some settings changes and a new admin password was set. I emphasise I did NOT have to change any settings on any of the cameras, or even about the cameras, to get them to show up. They were automatically detected. Continuing this no-setup theme, I thought I'd really try something. I saw a QR code and realised it was for the Amcrest App. I turned off WiFi so my phone would use the LTE connection, then scanned it. The remote camera feed worked first time without network changes! I was delighted. Some tweaks later, I had it email alerting me to motion. Amcrest had sent me a bullet camera with it, but previously they had sent me a standalone PTZ (aka moving) camera. I connected this and it worked first time, even the movement. I did find a bug in the web interface at the time of writing that stopped precise movements, but this wasn't present on the direct camera interface. Playback was easy too. A full calendar and timeline was present and I could speed up footage to scan through it. Overall, it's a very capable NVR and I'll be finding new features for months to come. I'm impressed. Pros: * Most features were zero-configuration. They worked completely out of the box. * Automatically detected, used and even powered the attached cameras * Clever and configurable alerts system * Adding the hard drive was very easy, in fact easier than I expected * Stable, ran for days without any need or even hint of a restart * The full interface is available either through a web browser, or through a screen and mouse attached to the unit. You don't even need a keyboard (although you can use one) Cons: * Some issues with the web interface and PTZ cameras. It may be a camera specific thing. The device's built in interface was not affected. * Web Interface uses NPAPI plugins. Hopefully they will move away from this soon as most web-based interfaces no longer need them. Chrome no longer supports them, but Firefox worked just fine after the installation. Amcrest can patch the NVR later and keep it up to date. I was given a sample in exchange for an honest opinion.