ANNKE 8CH 3K Lite AI DVR With Human & Vehicle Detection, 8 Channel CCTV Security Camera System, 8x 1080p Outdoor Surveillance Bullet Cameras, 1 TB Hard Drive for 24/7 Continuous Recording

I bought this 2 years ago and its been one of the best investments I've made for my house and I'll detail why below, but before that a few things to note.Installing this wasn't straightforward and putting up 8 cameras and associated cable routing isn't easy for the basic DIYer.- You'll need some tools and a ladder and you'll need to think about how the cameras and cables will attach and be routed outside and inside your house.- The cables are long (in some cases probably a bit too long) but for some houses they may not be long enough - measure and plan.- You need quite a few plugs where you are going locate the unit (I ended up needing 6)- You'll need some additional hardware (either using an existing TV or a dedicated monitor, plus a cheap mouse and keyboard).- You'll need to get the cables inside (I drilled a hole through the wall of my home office - you can go via loft but be mindful of length of cable you'll need)- You'll need to consider how you attach to your router as it doesn't have wifi.That said you can probably find someone to do it all for you and advise, and the cost of fitting will still be cheaper than some of the other systems. I did it myself so I saved.One point to make as I have had 2 years is the hard drive broke last month. Whether this was the consequence of a knock (it fell off a shelf onto the floor) or whether it just corrupted through heavy use, I'm not sure, but for €60.01 I got a replacement drive, reattached and it was working fine again. A bit annoying but for the sake of the benefits I had no issues replacing. This is on 24/7 so its it has a shelf life.Now onto the benefits:1) it works as a deterrent in a lot of situations - the night I put it up, i caught someone trying to steal my car on the drive. They saw the CCTV and scarpered. Have had several occasions where this has happened since. It doesn't stop someone breaking in, but it is an additional deterrent. If you think of the percentage of opportunist burglars there are likely to be; a lot of them will see the CCTV and give it a miss. The most determined will still go for it, but that is a percentage of the opportunists, so you are reducing the overall odds of break in. There are a little red ring of lights around the camera so these criminals will be looking out for signs of cameras.2) you can access the feed and recordings anywhere - the app is pretty good and you can watch live from where ever you are in the world as long as you have signal to your phone and your internet is working. I got asked by a neighbour on holiday if something had come up on CCTV, and I find the evidence and was able to send it back to them via Whatsapp. I have peace of mind that I can check it whilst at work or on holiday and take some of action.3) the settings are vast - you can have motion detect and various other settings where you look at tagged events rather than 24 hours in on go. It is pretty easy to setup and configure to however you need it4) the camera are good - at night and with a mask you can't identify people from 30 yards away - but placed above doors and within 5-10 feet in the dark you get good pictures and they are pretty clear.5) the recordings last up to a month - dependant on how you configure it, it can retain video for a long time. Less videos, lower quality of types of recording can extend recordings.This was a great purchase and comes highly recommended.

If you're looking for a video camera system and this is within your budget, stop looking you've found it. I did quite a bit of research and the price point for this system is as good as it gets with this amount of resolution.Video quality is amazing at 5mp. The nvr is user friendly and easy to install yourself if you chose to go that route.the installation was quite easy if you read the instructions well before setting up. We can manage to set whole things up within 2 hours without any support from others.I had to lower the sensitivity settings a great deal. This system will pick up the smallest movements.You will need to lower the sensitivity setting to keep bugs and such from setting off the alerts.The night vision is excellent. You also have access to an app so you can monitor your home on your phone while you’re away. All I can say is that I’m really happy with this system and highly recommend it.

Update: nearly 3 years later working well. Also has come in useful for multiple contested delivery claims and a cleaner who put the key in an odd place and forgot where! Also remote monitoring of property when on holidays for extra peace of mind.I bought the 8 camera version for my long and oddly shaped property. The outcome: the quality on the cameras is stunning and high resolution. The software from Annke is really good and *quite* intuitive, but just read the manual and online support. It worked straight out of the box and has a host of features such as motion detection (you will have to play around with sensitivity and area settings here otherwise you'll get a LOT of notifications), recording timetables etc. The included 1TB HDD stores a LOT of footage - I'd estimate around a month if not a lot more. It gives us a lot of peace of mind, being able to monitor the entire exterior of the house as well as connect to the system via our mobile phones, tablets etc when we're out and about or even inside the house! It'll be invaluable security for when we're on holiday in the future too. The actual deterrent of a legitimate CCTV system can surely not be understated either.The installation, as expected, was the marginally tricky part - but not because of the product. Took me about 2 days in total - I'm fairly 'handy' but by no means a professional - so I would wager that most people could manage this. Sound out your house and make sure you have a good drill (and bits), ladder, screwdriver, CABLE TIES and electrical insulating tape available. Installing the cameras onto fascia/the house is fairly easy. You have to be creative about how to hide and protect the wires and connections that come out of the camera side - I opted for heavy cable tie use (about €3.00 for 100 cable ties on Amazon or similar) and wrapping heavily with standard electrical insulation tape - others might buy small junction boxes. I then bunched these up behind the cameras, so there is a slight unsightliness to the camera connection but it can be mitigated by proper thought-out planning and creativity! It's now barely noticeable as I tightly tied them to the camera.I had a long 10mm drillbit for going through the external walls, but I had to get a long 16mm (€6.00) due to the fact that the camera (blue) BNC cable connector is 15mm. Also worth bearing in mind is the fact that if you plan to put multiple BNC cables through a single hole, you will need room in that hole to accommodate the BNC cable wire(s) (~2mm each) as well as pushing another 15mm connector through. You may therefore need to drill two holes that overlap to give you the required space to push the 15mm connectors through. I then sealed up the holes with silicone sealant.Make sure you have cable TIES as well as cable clips for routing the cables to ensure it looks neat - or you'll end up with a mess. Plan it all out before hand. It's very simple overall - simply decide where you want the cameras and map out how long it is - the cables that come with the product are very long, and there is an option to buy longer cables via Amazon if needed. You will also have to plan how to deal with your many many many feet of spare cable before it feeds into the CCTV monitoring box.... I opted for cable ties and an old food box!Beware of the adjusting screws on the camera though as they 'strip' very easily!You will need to make sure that you have an HDMI cable and monitor/TV for the CCTV box to connect to in order to set it up - and you need an internet router nearby to connect it to via a LAN cable. I did not do this however - I bought a 'Powerline Extender - TP-link AV1000' from Amazon which extends your internet through your house via the existing electrical lines and connected the LAN cable from it to the CCTV box - so you don't technically need it to be beside the router - and it works really well from the garage of all places!Overall, the entire operation cost me about €240.05 and it's really incredible value. It's been running for a week without any problems so far. I would highly recommend this piece of kit. The peace of mind that CCTV provides you is amazing, and with the additional functionality that the included software has, it has allowed to be notified of any visitors, cars etc. We've now installed a similar set up in our parents' houses to great effect.