Sponsored Ad - 4K POE Security Camera System with 4K 8Ch PoE NVR (4) x 8 Megapixel Turret IP POE Cameras (3840x2160) Pre Installed 2TB Hard Drive NV4108E-IP8M-T2599EW4-2TB

I've installed several POE systems for other homes as a handyman on the side. I've wanted something for my house and thought I'd try Amcrest. I've tried Lorex and Ring and other brands. Each has their own app and interface when using the back end of the system. Some harder than others.I installed this system myself. Four cameras total. (as seen in first pic)It came with 60ft of Cat6 cable where some of the others systems come with 100ft. Luckily I had reel of Cat6 cable of 1000ft extra and can make my own cables because the two cameras from the back of the house barely reached to the entrance 1" hole for the wires. I was able to have a junction box to continuing the wiring to the NVR system box. As you can see from the photos I wired four of the cables into a 1/2 PVC pipe up from the ceiling edge of the walls down to where I have the NVR.Just like any system it takes time to get to know how it works. I will say the platform was so much easier than other NVR systems I've used when trying to setup the network/p2p/firewall and ports from routers. (side note: comcast was a little difficult at first to open the port forwarding due to their "cloud" of working from the router.) But after a few tries I was able to get the port forwarding to work to get the app to work outside of the house when using the phone.Quality is outstanding! But due to each system, this one couldn't keep up with having four, 4k cameras so it would blank out 1-2 of the cameras. In another review, a buyer did mention this issue with her system. I will say this is common with any system. It turns out you would have to spend on the $1000 system which has more processing power to run all cameras in 4k. This would bog the system on any brand. SO it is recommended to lower the resolutions. So in my case I put three of the cameras to 5m (1080p) and just my driveway to 8m (4k). I also was able to change the frame rate from 15 to 25fps on the 3 cams. This allowed camera with most traffic to capture more in detail but not bog the NVR.The LED night vision is outstanding as well. (see photos) Don't get confused, doesn't have a LED light, but its a LED working through IR.All the cameras did have a mic built in. But I wouldn't rate it good or bad since the app audio playback isn't so great but the system itself does pick up pretty well if you can get it straight from the drive. You can def. hear from about 50ft when someone is walking to the mailbox across the street.I could say a lot more but over all I am very happy with this system compared to other brands I've installed or had. I was tired of people walking up and the "Ring Doorbell/stickCam not capturing faces or only people walking away. Or just never working at all. Also the IR was terrible or blurry. But Amcrest has won me over.I will say side note I did notice that my iphone on playback worked really well without being jittery or slow or the scrubbing was fine. But on ipad or android it was way jittery and I thought had to do with my frame rate on the NVR system itself but found out that wasn't the case. Has to do with the app on whatever phone its on. SO don't blame the system itself for its faulty playback. It runs just fine if you view it from a HDMI TV or iphone 6 plus. I also was able to preview it from my desktop by typing the IP address in the browser which allowed me to control the NVR settings and view all cameras from my computer from my home network.I def. recommend this system with the turret cameras. Low profile and easy to install. I read also with the Amcrest system I can get the doorbell and include it to the NVR recording on my wireless home network which is awesome. So I may add that and do a review on that. But right now spent enough! Lastly it’s nice that I can create other users. Either as a viewer or another admin. So that’s a nice feature as well without someone messing the main login.Hope this helps for those who are wanting a 4k camera system with built in 2TB drive. Amazon has the best pricing! This goes a little more on other sites and that's without a hard drive. So Amazon def. has it beat.I got this for $559.99 plus tax out the door was $611.79I will do an update of how long a camera last for my system.Last install clients lorex, one of the 4k bullet cams already crapped out and not even 6 months. That was a $900 system. Client not wanting to deal with wait time and warranty, spent additional $140 for replacement.

[Update 1/30/2024]. I bought the four camera 4K NVR system with 2TB drive, and I added three more cameras for a total of seven cameras recording 24x7, I was only getting about 4 days of storage on the NVR. I recently replaced the 2tb with a Seagate SkyHawk 10TB (ST10000VX0004), it was crazy simple. I have about 16 1/2 days of recordings and another 2.5tb free. I'll probably get around three weeks. I think with a four 4K camera system and a 2TB drive, you'll get about a weeks worth of video at max resolution.There is a feature to FTP video's to offline storage, but once there, you do not have an integrated video browser/viewer and you do not have an automated way to remove video's when they get x days/weeks/months old. I could do it if I really wanted and probably make it work, but I would rather have a larger hard drive. The 10TB is the max they say they will support, I'm not sure of what the real limitation is, support wasn't very technically helpful on that. There is a single cable and while you may be able to rig another power cable (Y power adapter) and additional drive cable, I'm not sure the firmware/software will understand spanning two drives. I was really impressed, installed new drive, turn it on and viola, it installed itself, re-added the cameras and my settings. VERY NICE!!![Original Review]Bought this a few months back. I have used multiple different manufacturers systems (Zosi, Blink, Ring) and the interface were garbage and/or the night vision wasn't very good, and/or missed motion detections. This Amcrest system has both a phone, console and web interface and they both work really well. I purchased an 8 channel NVR with 2TB and it came with four 4K camera's. The day and night are great on them. I just added a Relink RLC-823A 16X that has 16x Optical Zoom. In the screen shot it is the Amcrest 4K on left and the right is the optical zoomed in Reolink. Digital zoom works, but optical zoom is 1,000 times better. Took a bit to figure out how to put a non-amcrest camera on the NVR, but it works! You have to first plug it into your network (and power outlet) and then through phone or web interface, directly on the camera, go through the set up, but then under settings you have to turn on the ONVIF support. Once you turn that on, just plug it into the NVR and it adds it. With the NVR, you get POE, so power cable is not required.I need to clean off the camera lens, I'm getting a little glare at night from large dried water spots on lens.Cameras are heavy (IE: well constructed). The housing is metal, the camera ball is plastic, but seems strong. The "reset" button is in the most idiotic location if you need it. (take camera down, unscrew cover plate, press and hold button, reassemble, reinstall, re-align camera pointing angle UG! DUMB!). Another vendor has it on the end of the cable split outs with a cover on it. I've only had to do it once per camera after installing them.Amcrest support is decent, they actually answer the call and work with you, but just like any place, it depends on who answers the call and the depth/knowledge they have.I ended up putting some black electrical tape at the bottom of the camera's face to hide the red light (IR) to reduce bugs/motion at night. You can't even see it.I have motion notifications going to my phone, it doesn't use the pretty name for the camera, it uses channel number, probably a way to change that, but I haven't found the time to look harder for it. I get a crap load of motion notifications due to bugs flying by, bee, spider web moving in the wind, etc. I can adjust the sensitivity down, but then I feel like I'll miss real motion. I need to invest some time playing with it for near and far motion and see if I can tune them.I have not used any of the "AI" features.If you understand image resolution via camera, vs TV, vs computer, vs Phone, etc, you can skip this feedback.Also, very important. Image resolution understanding is a must if you are trying to look at fine details in the recording. For instance, a 4K camera, on an HD TV, shows well, but it's dropping pixels. The same 4K to a high res non-4K computer monitor will look good, but you can't zoom in on it like you do a phone 8megapixel photo. What it shows on console and web interface is one thing, what is streamed to you phone is even lower resolution (looks great, zoom not so great). If you save/export/backup a recording or snapshot, then plug that into a 4K TV, it has finer details. Don't get me wrong, the resolution is great, but if you are looking on your phone and try to zoom in for a license plate that is semi-far away, you won't be able to read it. You may need to export recording/photo for real resolution (assuming the display you are using to look at it can do the 4K), or you may want to add an optical zoom camera to pull in more details from further away.The mobile app is pretty good, easy to use, lots of features. I can view the motion recordings, do all kinds of settings on the cameras/system. It was pretty well thought out for features/functions needed by the enduser, but it could use a little UI reorganizing.If I had to do it all over again, I'd buy it a second time.

The AmCrest tech (Kimberly) was very helpful during my initial setup. The equipment is just what I needed.

Very pleased with this system. Rodger an Amcrest associat was very helpful in resetting the password and getting me all connected.

The 4K cameras are the best. Super clear. You can zoom in on things. I can clearly read license plates from 75 foot away. Night vision is great. Can see clearly 100ft. This system was recommended to me by a friend. The suggested it bc of the software. I have to say it is pretty good. Also I’m using this remotely. You have access to if from your smart phone or desktop using remote access. The smart iso app doesn’t give you all the features the pc software does and the pc doesn’t give you all the features as being logged in to the main system. So that’s a down side. But once it’s set up you have live view and play back and that’s all I really need. I will also say the camera covers are a bit of a pain to put on if your on a 20ft ladder. Over all it’s a great system.