Features:

  • 【Exceptional H.264+ Video Compression】H.264+ considerably improves compression and transmission efficiency, without sacrificing video quality. It allows you to maximize storage space and enjoy ultra-long recording, 4x longer than H.264.
  • 【Live View from Anywhere Anytime】With the free ANNKE VISION APP, you can enjoy live video from every corner of the world. Check in on your home or business freely on your iOS/Andriod phone, tablet or PC, wherever you have an internet connection.
  • 【Customizable Motion Zones & Instant Alerts】Stay confident that you won’t be bothered by false alerts, as you can mark out the motion detection zones. And instant email alerts with snapshots and APP alarm pushes allow you to take precautions in time.
  • 【Multiple Recording/Playback Modes】 You can customize your cameras with different recording modes including manual, schedule and motion detection. Various playback modes like event, tag and smart mode, are also available. Notes: An internal hard disk drive is required; it can't record or playback without hard drive. Please search ASIN ON AMAZON: B01G72GAOE for 1TB Surveillance Hard Drive Disk.
  • 【Worry-Free Warranty】All ANNKE products have passed CE & FCC, HDMI Senior Member certified and ISO 9001 certified. Easy-to-reach lifetime telephone and email support, 1-year warranty and 60-day money back guarantee.
Emails a photo when motion detected

I have multiple DVR's at my home, business and vacation home from different manufacturers. I took it for granted that all DVR's send a photo of the motion event - turns out some don't, this one does. This Annke DVR has been running for about 8 months with a WD 1TB drive installed. Being familiar with other DVR's made programming easy for me. When I do have a question, Customer Support has been very good, both before and after the sale. I have been using basic motion detection and selecting the area of interest; it works. You can decide which cameras to select on a motion trigger too. If camera 3 detects motion (or tamper or video loss) I can receive a photo from Camera 3 and any other camera on the system. The DVR also supports recording pre-trigger so you can see what happened immediately before the event - very helpful. This model uses ActiveX for video playback so see the HELP/FAQ for enabling that in Win10 IE browser. Also important to me is the Android and IOS app by Robert Chou, IPCAMERA that I use to view all my cameras. A wonderful app, always updating, and supports all sorts of equipment so easy to use that a grandma with a smartphone or tablet has no issues. In IPCAMERA, Select SWAN NVR8-7200. This Annke DVR supports noip DDNS service too. I have not tried the advanced motion detection software yet, so can't really comment about it. I hope it can help screen out dramatic lighting changes that can take place on sunny days with some clouds.

Best bang for the buck in Home Security Surveillance DVRs

I have tried other brands (won’t name them here) that were simply useless (unable to stop hundreds of false alarms, detection failures, etc.). With this DVR I was able to eliminate nearly all possible false alarms and still get 100% detection, real-time email/text notifications and event recording. The DVR records 30 seconds prior to and 30 seconds after an event and can send real-time email/text with multiple pics from the most pertinent images from that time range; which pretty much perfectly catches what you need to see to determine exactly what happened (i.e. who came to your door, etc.). You can remote live view any one or several cameras simultaneously from the mobile and PC app. Reviewing event history is straight-forward by simply jumping to tick marks on the timeline or searching for specific events on specific cameras. You can even view events with up to 2 cameras synchronized side-by-side (which is really handy for seeing people/vehicles entering one camera’s view and then moving through to another). The UI appears better than most (nice graphics and easy to navigate). However, setting up the system takes an inordinate amount of time due to lack of useful common defaults (i.e. you spend a lot of clicks setting options for each day of the week for each camera—so lots of repeat this for 7 days x 8 cameras = 56 windows to click through to set the most common “do this always” setting). Several things (like configuring event triggering/recording and configuring event scheduling) are confusingly in separate places and easily missed. For example, you set up a bunch of event/alarm triggers but forget to also go to a separate menu section and set up the recording schedule and then nothing happens—leaving you confused and frustrated. The manual is better than most but there is still some poorly worded and badly documented features (like pretty much all of the Recording Schedule section of the interface). Making this worse, some of the features in this section simply don’t work (I worked with their support (which was very responsive) on these issues so hopefully they will fix this). Perhaps the most useful feature of this DVR is its ability to detect what they call “VCA Events”. This allows you to set up things like “line crossing” where you can draw a line and then specify that an alarm should trigger when something crosses the line in one direction, the other direction, or either direction. You can also trigger on “people gathering”, “loitering”, “object removal”, “parking”, “unattended baggage”, “facial recognition”, etc. I find that the “Line Crossing” feature is the ultimate way of eliminating false positives associated with the more common block-area motion detection. When you block out an area for motion detection (most DVRs support this), you can never really eliminate false positives from shadows, bugs flying near the camera, sprinklers, clouds, car lights, etc. Detecting “line crossing” means that something has to actually move across a line (like your front door step) as opposed to just set off a square somewhere in front of the camera. This eliminates 90% of the false positives. I set my system up to record on both motion and VCA events but only send emails/texts and audible alarms on VCA events (so I over record for historical info but only alarm when something really happens). Alas, you can only set up one VCA event (fixing this would make this a truly stand-out DVR). So I end up using the VCA event for the most important camera (e.g. the front door) and then limit the motion area and turn down the sensitivity for the other cameras to limit the false alarms there. When setting up block-area motion detection, like all other DVRs, you will have to play with the motion sensitivity to get it right. For me, setting the sensitivity to 1 works for detecting motion that is within 5-10 feet of the camera. Try 2 to detect motion within 15-20 feet and 3 or more for further out. The higher you have to set the sensitivity the more false alarms you should expect. Also, when setting the motion area, limit it to as few squares as you can. Try setting them all on then watch what actually triggers with different sensitivities set (you will likely be surprised). Then remove any areas you really don’t need. This will greatly reduce your false alarms. Bottom line, the hardware works. There are some bugs with the software and there are some UI issues (hopefully they will fix these in an update). Still this is the best security DVR I have tried. It has more features than most and it works. For what it costs, you can’t beat it. ** UPDATE (2019) ** While this is still the best low-cost security CCTV DVR system, analog security systems are all but obsolete now. Unless you have analog CCTV (i.e. coax) cabling/systems already in place, you are much better off investing in a digital NVR system. Your best bet is to go with wired POE cameras and a quality NVR like Reolink or Amcrest. The low-cost NVR systems tend NOT to have all the triggering features (line crossing, loitering, etc.) and will still cost you more than a CCTV DVR system. But, the ease of use, higher resolution, app independence and future proofing is worth the extra cost.

Great Value

I bought this to replace the DVR that came with my KGuard Security system. I had that DVR for three years, but could never get the live feed to work so that I could look on my phone and see what is going on at any time. Also, it would detect motion and send me an image, but about 60% of the images had nothing in them...it would send an image that did not show what caused the motion detection. This one sends a 3 image burst which always shows what caused it. Anyway, I installed a 500 gb SSD...which makes no noise whatsoever...which is nice since I keep it in my bedroom. I plugged in the existing cameras and within 15 minutes I had it up an running and was even able to access the live online feed with no problems. The menus are very easy to use. Yesterday, I went in and accessed the hard drive and the playback function was very nice also! Very happy with this so far!

Great unit, easy to install, works well

I purchased this unit when my 5-year-old system died. I plugged the old cameras into the back; I added a hard drive that I pulled from an old Dell computer I no longer use; and within 20 minutes I was up and running. The system works great with my iPad and my Google Pixel phone. And it does a wonderful job recording only when there is motion. I have been able to quickly access my cameras while traveling abroad, and the playback system is also very good and very responsive. I watched from across the ocean as my FedEx driver dropped off a package, and saw again when the neighbor took it inside for safe keeping. Everything simply works great. The unit is quiet too. I highly recommend. Just follow the instructions to set it up, connect to the Internet, and download to your phone or iPad. (And the hard drive really can be just any old hard drive you might have, or you can buy a hard drive on Amazon.) . Wonderful product, especially for the low low low price.

Better than most

This is my 3rd DVR for a setup I purchased a few years ago. Out of the box my first system, a different brand, lasted a week. I replaced it with a well known brand that lasted less than a year. This week I installed the ANNKE 8 channel DVR and will probably never use another brand. First, as a tech geek and working in the IT field, this DVR has many bells a whistle that actually work. My biggest complaint of other systems is the lack of mobile motion notifications. This thing does not fail to notify me via app popup. It takes some tweaking but it works well! Next is the interface. It's better than any I've ever used. Multiple logins, Options broke out in drop down notifications, and more. Setup was easy, mobile app works perfect and unit is quite. When this unit fails I will buy again.

Very happy with purchase!

I've set up probably ten CCTV systems for residential use and this one by far was the easiest. You can't beat the price and it has the same features of the high end options. It arrived on time and once I put the drive in (used recommended WD drive) it knew what to do, unlike other brands that I've used. You can also use their cloud service to view on your phone (super easy to connect to Android) or with a static IP and port triggering on your router will open it up for multiple browsers and devices.

Packed with features

I bought this DVR to replace a failed much more expensive Night Owl DVR that was buggy from day one. Annke is packed with surprising amount of features. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of features in the box and ease of use. User interface is way better than my original unit and suddenly all the bugs got out of my system - just like that. I had a lot of issues with the connection being dropped on my previous NO unit but this one is rock solid after couple of months. I had to restart my NO every couple of weeks and connecting to it remotely was a hit or miss. ANNKE just connects and I love the capability of zooming in the cameras which my NO did not have. Does not come with a HDD but just swap the one from your old system. One other note is if you read the reviews people complain that they have connectivity issues...I have a business internet line in my home and if you have only basic internet I would recommend upgrading your line or choose a lesser dvr-this one needs bandwidth to work properly. Overall great value for the money !

A cheap system for you and your house or bussiness. make sure it's in a place 70F all year around and add a fan for the inside.

so far i have been using this unit. works first was confusing to me to setup.. looks good on the VGA and remote seems to take alittle time to update thru it's app. UPdate: 08/25/2018 I have been using this device for only seven months and it died on me, what does that tell you. first off. I opened it up and found the heat-sinks (CPU + RAM+ ADAT chips) has baked on dried out yucky white hard stuff. it ran okay until it got hot and cycled rebooting and never stops. This would be good used with SSD Drive not spinning drives. Takes too much to run and heats up the components on board. Keep in mind I had this running 24 / 7 only had a few re-boots (5). I won't be buying this again. oh and NO remote comes with it...AND.. the IR LED fell out of the case!! wasn't soldered on !! so only 1 star.

Surveillance Camera Recorder

The computer that I was using for my surveillance cameras started acting flaky so I replaced it with this DVR. When I hooked up the cameras, it worked perfectly, but since it didn't have a Hard Drive, I ordered one and installed it and it recognized the Hard Drive automatically. Now it records everything that activates the Motion Detection system. It takes a lot of getting use to when navigating through the menus.

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