annke 8 + 4 + 1 TB Security Camera System

UPDATE: 12/15/2022 - Annke stepped in to show themselves honorable. Apparently, a supervisor took over my case. She looked back through my emails, saw my frustration - and the problem - and set out to solve it. First, after clarifying a few things, she advised that they are retraining their newer agents in how to better deal with customers who need a little extra help with all the internal settings - because this system does offer quite a bit of fancy features and not everything could be listed in the manual. They are also looking to update some other issues so that customers walk away with the info they need on a more timely schedule. And, lastly, they offered to send us two extra cameras for our trouble - which does indeed show a genuine concern for customer satisfaction - and I must say, I was not expecting that one at all. Obviously, they are truly intent on customer satisfaction - and I feel much more comfortable about the product now. Thank you, Annke. In lieu of the extra steps you are taking to provide better customer service - and the FACT that this system is truly kickass - It's a definite recommendation!! (PREVIOUS REVIEW) Though I've had it for less than a week, the system - SO FAR - is pretty good. Excellent picture quality, easy physical installation. It does have a hard drive but doesn't have an internal wifi connection - and this has caused an issue - b/c I could never get it to cooperate with my phone. The phone app setup was grinding and just would not cooperate. I installed the system on my large TV and the video is great, though no matter what I try, it won't send emails to alert me of threats as it's supposed to. The worst part is CUSTOMER SERVICE. They offer a number but a human NEVER answers. You are told to go online to CHAT - but when you do - there's nobody to help you there either. You have to send an email and wait for someone to contact you - and when asking for clarification on a couple of setup issues with regard to downloading and saving video - the reply was simply to follow the instructions in the manual. SERIOUSLY? The playback is a bit tricky as well. Playback includes an entire minute before the "scene" and an entire minute after it's over. I tried to check if that could be changed up a bit but - without customer service to directly address this - I could not find the internal setting to adjust (if even possible). They also do not specify how long the videos are kept on any setting before overwrite kicks in - but a professional electronics guy told me his lasted about 6 months on continual record. He also helped me figure out the correct way to download and back up the video I needed since I couldn't get wifi connection -and the instructions for any remedy were not available. Granted, most people who work with electronic setups for a living or hard drives, etc., may not have issues. I'm not completely ignorant of these things either as I'm always working with different setups and even built two of my own websites. But, to ME, I had to reread the instructions over and over for clarity - and still, some were just not clear. You will also need a magnifying glass to read the instructions or use your phone's camera to zoom in. The print is SUPER, SUPER SMALL and on some of the setup pics - the images are too blurry to read at all. I would suggest this product (minus customer service) for now because - if it lasts - it's truly great quality video. Godspeed.

I got this Annke security DVR system a few months back to replace a 2006 era Q-SEE wired camera system, and I recently got around to installing it. The old system was a 4 camera one, and the new Annke system is an 8 camera system, but this model ships with 4 cameras. I had planned to simply use my old cameras with the new system to fill in the remaining slots. However, after seeing the MASSIVE improvement in video quality, night vision quality (IR illumination), and an number of other factors, I decided to order 4 more matching cameras to upgrade to all 8 HD cameras. I didn't spend a ton and get a 4k system like I was considering, but I am still quite impressed with the quality of these HD cameras (1920x1080). I can easily zoom in and read license plates, get good facial views on people, and see smaller details on animals, day or night. It's a huge improvement over the 960x480 system I had before, and for the price point, I'm very satisfied. I didn't have to swap out any wiring to replace my old cameras, and it was straightforward to wire up the new ones. So far, I'm impressed with the performance and the DVR is SILENT, especially compared to my old one! I'm not sure what some reviewers were referring to when they said their DVR was loud. Other than a minor whir of the hard drive if you stick your head up close, it's dead quiet. Here's to hoping I get 17 years out of this system like I did my last one!

This system was a lot easier to set up than I expected. One of my cameras had intermittent operation. I contacted ANNKE SUPPORT and they shipped me a new one. One of the outstanding features is the camera white light turning on automatically giving you full color view. I asked SUPPORT if there is a way to have permanent color night vision. Laura responded and gave me a link describing the procedure - not difficult. But after discussing it with my wife, we decided not to do that. The bright white lights on the cameras ruins the stealth aspect of the camera. I have to comment on the IR night vision. The detail picked up by the cameras is amazing. I have worked with security systems for more than 15 years. For the price, this is the best system I have worked with and I highly recommend choosing it.

Works good. Nice hearty little system. Install was a pain, but that's always the case with a wired system. I was able to stick the cable in between my soffit and the house siding, as the cable is fairly small. Cable is only about the size of a 10-12 AWG wire. Picture is pretty good. you're not going to be able to read a license plate with it but you see enough to know who and what's going on. The software on the DVR box is nice, it is a bit involved and if you're not good with computers you may have a problem. I'm pretty tech savvy and it took me about a week to get comfortable with the layout, and am still discovering new things on it. I will say this, the motion alarm on it is useless at night. This is due to the fact of the amount of moths coming up to say hello to the camera, I assume that they can see the infrared lighting the way they swarm to it. It will constantly set the motion alarm off. I have even put the motion detect setting on lowest sensitivity and also set it up to 200 secs, and it still goes nuts. Motion alarm still goes off frequently during the day, but not nearly as much as night. Even at the 200 secs setting, it still picks up something moving if its moving for less than 10 secs, so don't know how that makes any sense. But the motion alarm is a crucial thing to keep on because you can scroll through the footage based on motion alarm events. I also set it up to send an e-mail when there is motion, which is awesome. Just don't go running to your home because it detected motion, most likely a false alarm. The mobile app is a nice perk. Can see each of the 4 cameras from it and connects pretty quickly. The only negative thing I have to say about the mobile app is the remote playback feature. If you scroll to a specific time of day, when the picture loads it displays exactly one hour ahead of the time you picked. Not a huge deal, just annoying. Overall, this is a nice inexpensive solution. For the price, you can't beat it. It's alot better than what I had before, which is nothing.

This item was great and working very well. Thank you.