Amcrest 5MP POE Security Camera System Outdoor, 8CH POE NVR, 4pcs 5MP Turret Cameras, IP67 Metal Turret IP Cameras, Built in Mic, Pre-Installed 2TB Hard Drive, NV4108E-IP5M-T1179EW4-2TB

This is an excellent NVR and camera package. I actually had the standalone NVR (NV4108-HS) non-ethernet version of this and had a few cameras. So, I got this package and I have to say if you’re considering a non-ethernet version, this is the way to go. I have a full-stack Ubiquiti network, and for whatever reason, the cameras struggle to connect to my PoE switch. With this one – no issues whatsoever. You connect the cameras to the NVR and they just work. Also, the NVR came with the hard drive pre-installed. The last one I had to install a drive – very nice it was already installed. The NVR has (as far as I’m concerned) an easy-to-use and intuitive setup wizard to get it going. When you power on the NVR, it takes you through all the necessary steps to get it configured and set up (including adding the cameras). Then you’re ready to go. Mine shipped with the newer firmware, but if you have to update the firmware it’s not too hard. The user interface on these newer NVRs is so much better than the analog NVRs of the past which makes them an appealing option to many of the “subscription” based cameras such Nest, Arlo, Wyze, and many others. I like having my camera recordings stored locally and I like being able to use them without having to pay anyone. During the setup of the NVR, it guides you through a Peer-To-Peer setup of their Amcrest View PRO app which allows you to access your NVR remotely. Essentially Amcrest facilitates a secure connection between your device and the NVR with no subscription fees. The best part about this is that you don’t have to open any ports or anything in your router. The connection is automatic and transparent without any action on your part. The app does need some work but the notifications work well. They were right on par with my Nest Outdoor Cam and Wyze Cam and you tell the app what to when you tap on the notification. It allows you to select a few options two of which are opening to a live view of the camera or the recording event. The IP5M cameras are excellent! What makes them so excellent is their low-light performance. I really don’t like using IR if I don’t have to – you can see more detail without IR if you have enough ambient light. A great example of this is recently on my neighborhood Facebook page someone posted a video of someone trying to break into a car. The thieves pulled their car into their driveway and if they had IR turned off you might have been able to see the license plate, but because they had IR turned on the license plate just looked like a bright reflection. These IP5M cameras work well with low light and the picture almost rivals my Ubiquiti G4-PRO($449). The cameras have an excellent and high-quality microphone that can provide detailed audio once the “audio filter” has been disabled. The audio filter makes it sound like the microphone is underwater so I would strongly encourage doing that. You can disable the camera's microphone filter from the camera’s web interface. Speaking of the camera’s web interface. The camera's web interface CAN be accessed when they’re connected to the NVR. It may vary but you’ll use a URL similar to this http://<nvr-ip>:100. It’s the NVRs IP and then a port. You can see this if you use a browser to connect to the NVR and then select ‘Cameras’. Also, I would suggest changing the password again after you have finished the setup. I believe you change the password before adding the cameras. The cameras use a default login of admin/admin. If you change the NVR password after you have added the cameras it will update passwords on the cameras as well. The camera's web interface is accessible even if you’re not authenticated to the NVR. The NVR is fairly quiet and doesn’t run too warm as far as I can tell and with roughly 7 cameras connected with IR running it was using around 35 watts as measured with my kill-a-watt meter. Performance-wise – I would feel pretty confident that this NVR could record from six to seven 4K cameras running at their full FPS and resolution. I connected five IP5M cameras and two IP8M cameras all recording at their highest resolution and maximum FPS and set to record all the time and it was only using roughly 55Mbps out of 88Mbps of its available bandwidth. It doesn’t seem to struggle when recording but trying to playback the recordings you might be able to select 1-3 channels before it will say “Over decode ability”. I don’t really find that a problem as I’m only going to search one camera at a time. Also, a note about the matrix view of the NVR itself – it won’t play the 'main' stream from all the cameras. It will intelligently balance which stream it is showing in the matrix view – pretty smart. Playing back recordings is pretty easy – it’s easy to find motion events as the yellow blocks on the timeline. Downloading videos is tricky though – I would suggest using ‘SmartPSS’ and then watching a video on YouTube called “How to Playback and Export CCTV Video Using SmartPSS’ from ‘Auckland Security Cameras’. Also, be sure to read the ‘EXTRA NOTE:’ in the description. The method in the video works pretty well – as the video is very nice and clear if you can get the original video from the NVR itself. My favorite way to browse motion events is using the NVR itself (the web interface is decent from a Windows PC). The Amcrest App needs a lot of improvements before its usefulness will be on par with its competitors. If Amcrest nails their app down – this NVR with mobile app will be a game-changer. So, in summary: Great NVR, super simple to set up and configure, mobile motion notifications work great and built-in ethernet is life. Also, IP5M cameras are probably the best value in Amcrest’s lineup for quality and low-light performance!

I was previously using two 4k Amcrest POE, and two reolink 4MP POE cameras with Blueiris, along with Wyze V2 cameras and Eufy cameras. Blueiris is a wonderful software but very overwhelming to set up. This system is very simple. Plug and play. They simply just work straight out of the box. CAMERAS The bracket/mount for the camera is extremely easy to install. It's good for easy installation and bad since it is easy to detach if someone wants to steal but then I will have footage of the thief. I will take the easy install instead. I had to install sideway for 2 of the cameras due to my wire configuration. The image was rotated 180 degrees so they are correctly oriented. The only issue is the pics look stretch out when I make the fit to screen. Minor issue but I wish the screen just filled with black bar instead of stretched to fit especially in mobile app view. Night vision is great with infrared but since my house and front yard has decent light, I left the infrared light off. The night time images are way better than my old cameras I had. NVR First time when I hook up the NVR to my old TV that I was using before all I got was not supported error message. I had no idea what is not supported. After a quick Google search, I found that my TV has terribly low resolution that the NVR cannot display. After I swapped put the TV to a monitor, everything showed up great. Setting up the NVR was easy and straight forward. I was able to found all the cameras and able to add them, including my Amcrest doorbell even though the control/setting of the doorbell was very limited in NVR. I set up all the cameras setting and everything was working great. The problem I have was alarm set up. I set up to see the alarm message and they pop up but only stayed for a short time and went away. The message screen is still up but the actual messages disappeared. I don't see any other way to set them up so the alarm messages won't go away until I dismissed them. The motion detection detects every bit of pixel shifts of the scene. Since these cameras are not AI capable like Eufy, I understand why the every moments can cause the motion detection to go off. My cheap Wyze cameras are the same way but one thing I like is wyze will highlight the motion in green box to show what casued the camera to trigger. If Amcrest can implement something similar, that would be easy to track the reason of the motion alerts. When I turned on the face detection in the app, it turned on and saved the setting. But so far, I haven't noticed any face detection. I only see the normal motion detection. Snapshots are working great to glanced though the footage which is very helpful. These are my observations. I hope they are helpful.

Everything came packaged great, and everything needed for the install was included. The NVR comes preassembled with the hard drive. The system is easy to hook up by running an included POE cable from the NVR to each camera. Power up the NVR and go through the straight forward settings to have the system up and running in minutes. I connecte4d the NVR to my home network and used my iphone to scan the QR code that pops up on the display to download the app and add the NVR to my phone. I can view the cameras anywhere now. I have many other cameras on my network that I was also able to add to the NVR through auto-discovery. Once I put my custom username and passwords for each camera in the settings, they were displayed through the NVR. I will say that I have some cameras that I have not been able to add, most likely due to me not knowing the proper settings that the camera uses. I included a picture showing that the NVR comes preset as Uzbekistan for the region and no way to change it, however this didn't seem to effect anything. I would recommend this system to anyone that needs a simple to use system that comes with everything needed.

I installed this product at my cousin's house, after he saw how responsive and clear the image is on my Blue Iris + Amcrest system was at home. We had to drill some holes in his walls to run CAT5e cabling from his bedroom to the living room, where we placed the NVR. We connected the NVR to his 75 inch 4K TV and it gives an impressive image! The image given over the included Amcrest View Pro software is crisp and fluid. The lighting situation on my cousin's porch is tricky; the porch light is always on and there is a Circle K located across the street with extremely bright lighting. I did not change any of the image settings such as exposure in the provided images, this is how it looks on auto mode, which is great. The cameras also include microphones which provide streaming audio to go with the video, so far I have not been in a situation where I would hear someone speaking; but I can very clearly hear the traffic in the street a good distance before I actually see the vehicle in view, so the microphone sensitivity must be pretty darn good. There is a bit of artifacting in the audio quality due to low bitrate, maybe Amcrest could raise the default value a hair. The app is very responsive when doing playback, after dragging the slider on the timeline, playback begins after 2-3 seconds. This is a fair bit more responsive than some other systems I have used. The most important thing to me is that Amcrest maintains full ONVIF compatibility, which means you can get as creative with your set up as you want. You can completely disable the P2P features and run the camera system on a separate, internal network with no internet connectivity, and set up your own NVR system using the software of your choice. This is important because the camera system you have mounted on your walls may exist longer than the company you purchased from! This is my third Amcrest-based system that I have installed in the past 2 years. This one using all Amcrest-provided hardware, the other 2 are a hybrid system using Blue Iris / Amcrest NVR / Amcrest Cameras. They are now my go-to recommendation for both work and at-home surveillance.

I am finally satisfied with a complete camera system. I have purchased different brands and this one surely stands out. Quality, Price, Ease of setup, & Ease of use. Amcrest surely wins for my future camera setups. Packaging and accessories: All included items were present, along with the 4 POE cameras, DVR (hard drive Pre-Installed), and cables; instruction manual is included with all necessary mounting hardware. If you have a larger home you may have to purchase additional Cat 5 cable because the included ones are about 60 feet long. Initial look: The cameras are light weight (not to bulky) and fairly sturdy. They are finished in white plastic and the DVR finished in black. There is no pan and tilt feature for this camera but you are able to zoom in from your monitor/phone. These cameras are able to also pick up audio. With the cameras being POE there are no annoying adjustable antennas attached to them. First time setup: The first-time setup is easy. The cameras are plug and play with the included Cat 5 cables. Once you determine where you want to mount the cameras you plug one end of the Cat 5 cables into the camera and other in into DVR. Application: The app works very well and was easy to set up. The app allows for easy camera configuration i.e. push notifications, camera name, and camera sensitivity. The quick access to enable push notifications for motion is good but could get annoying if sensitivity is set too high. Video and Audio quality: Video and sound quality is excellent. There are various configurations available that allows you to further adjust them to your individual liking. During the day, the image sensor has a good dynamic range and the colors are vivid. Images have wide angle. At night, the IR illumination work very well and are more than adequate to give 50+ feet of coverage. The night-time image remains sharp, something which many cheaper cameras struggle with. Recording and playback: Configuration of the record function is very straight forward and searching for recorded videos is simple thanks to the intuitive timeline. Videos can be search from a specific time period or motion detection. This can be done from either the DVR or App. Negatives: You can’t plug a standard keyboard into the USB port. Don’t need VGA too old, has HDMI Amcrest should add Display Port. No set screw to hold cameras in place? (I did like templet sticker mounting cameras) App can always use update? Summary: Overall I’m very impressed with the camera, DVR and the available features. It represents a very good camera system.

Plugged everything in and powered it up. Immediately hit a snag where the region was set to Uzbekistan and English but both were greyed out and non-changeable. However I could change it via web browser, logged into the web admin where I could set region correctly. Checked NVR firmware which was up to date. Checked the cameras and they needed an update which was easy enough, hardest part was locating the camera firmware to download. I really liked that you could update all the cameras from one central place, that is a very nice feature. Setting up cameras in Blue Iris was surprisingly easy, just gave it the IP address and login info and it detected the first camera right away and gave me a picture. Subsequent cameras were also easy by cloning the settings for the first camera and editing. The cameras perform very well in Blue Iris. Cameras give a nice clear picture and seem well built. I thought at first the cameras didn't rotate on their base, but then discovered they do when I grasped and turned them. The way the camera attaches to the wall bracket seems firm enough, but I probably would have liked to see a screw to make theft of the cameras a little more difficult. The supplied cables have ends that didn't fit the waterproof coupler that comes with each camera. I was able to cut away the strain relief with a knife and the coupler then worked perfectly. The NVR has fairly comprehensive features, only thing I found missing was the ability to fast forward through sections of recording. The manual is rather lacking and there is no help built in. I didn't find it much of a problem, but if you haven't used some sort of camera system like this before it might be difficult. This was a massive upgrade from my old DVR system as the camera picture quality is really very good in daylight or night time.

A product is only as good as the support behind it. I had most of the software working, but I needed assistance with the app. I called Amcrest tech "support" and throughout the process, I had to repeat myself multiple times for the agent to understand. I have no issue with overseas agents, but they should have a decent command of the English language to assist. This was not the case and eventually the steps that I was instructed to follow, led to cameras not being able to be viewed on the monitor connected directly to the NVR. The agent could not rectify the situation, so I was informed that escalated tech support would call me back. I received no call, so I called back after a few days. Again, I was told that escalated tech support would call me back, but I refused to disconnect the call until I spoke with someone. The "supervisor" called while I was on the call with the agent. I explained the situation and again I followed the instructed steps. This time, the cameras stopped working on my computer. Now they were unable to viewed on the app, the monitor connected to the NVR or the computer. Again, I was told that the situation would be escalated and I would receive a call. Again, there was no call, I called back, was informed someone would call me, I refused to disconnect until I spoke with an escalation tech and someone called while I was on the call with the agent. I followed the instructed steps again, but the software won't recognize my modem/router now. I was informed it would be escalated to U.S. based support out of Houston, TX. That was over two weeks ago. I call every few days to inform them that I have not received a call, they inform me they're sending an email to their Houston support and the process begins anew. Of course, if something were to get stolen or vandalized and not caught on cameras, they won't accept responsibility. I curse the day that I bought these cameras and I should've done more research about the support, or lack thereof, by Amcrest. If you purchase these cameras, you have been warned.

We purchase Amcrest products all the time for our customers. We have found that they have the best camera system out there. We are very happy with them and so are our customers.