Zmodo 4 Channel SPOE NVR with 4 x 720p Cameras & 500GB

Now that I have used these for about 2 and a half years going on 3. Running 24/7 I can say surprisingly not one camera has died ( knock on wood ). Also bare in mind, these cameras are also positioned outdoors in Alaska enduring below zero weather and snow storms. Also it gets pretty hot here in the summer. Rainstorms. High winds. Just everything Alaska has to offer. I use 2 of these systems for separate areas of my property. I could of bought a 8 channel system but I prefer keeping everything as separated as possible so if one system goes down at least half of my system is still up. All have performed well with no real hardware issues. The software is what is kind of cheesy and can become non responsive however it has not stopped these cameras from performing their service for my needs and situation. I don't like wireless systems or systems that force me to connect to the internet in anyway whatsoever. These are great and secure as a isolated system and even after extending the length of the original cables by X feet ( 50 or so additional feet ) the PoE has yet to fail. ( Knock on wood ). I hope that when the time comes to replace a dead camera that ZModo has a painless way to order just a replacement camera for this system if that time comes but I have no experience in that department. These things must be tanks or I was very lucky on the batch I had received. I will continue to buy from Zmodo until they fail me in some way but this system ( systems ) has been incredible for the price. Would highly suggest these to anyone who wants a secure wired system. Update: 2018: Bought these in 2014. 4 years and every camera is still working though on many of the cameras the infrared for night mode has burned out partially. I can still use them for their purpose though. Bare in mind I do not constantly depend on the recording of these cameras anymore and they are for monitoring my property in real time while I am deep inside my home. I would not rely on those features for crucial recording. Judging from other reviews I would not connect these to the internet for monitoring either. I almost did then I decided not to push my luck. As a 24/7 Caretaker these help me know what is going on in my home and when needs, need to be addressed. If I was going to rely on these for actual security against crime I do not think they would stand up. I would get a new system for that. For the first few years of use. Maybe. One of mine systems has a faulty power issue that I fix by clipping a cable inside the NVR and bending it a certain way. It's ghetto but it keeps the system able to receive power. I did not expect this system to last this long but it has so far. I must got lucky with the cameras themselves compared to other reviews. Mine have lasted 4 straight years. I never turn the machine off. Hope it last awhile longer I do not look forward to setting up and buying a new one. As it stands I would not change anything for fear of the machine either burning out finally or the software somehow bricking it so I leave it as it is. As I said.. I almost plugged these into the internet after these 4 years. But after reading reviews I quickly decided not to. They are good enough for my needs.

Update 3/07/2016 I still recommend "DO NOT BUY" stance. zModo still has not fixed the email notification issue. Why is this important? Because if someone breaks in, they can just steal your NVR and all the video of them robbing your house! Email notifications are vitally important because it will email you an image of each camera which has a motion detection alert setup. This means even if someone steals the recorder, you will have several emails containing images of these robbers breaking into your home before they steal everything. Update 02/01/2016 DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS: 1. Currently, email notifications (intruder alert/motion detection alerts) do NOT work! They stopped working several months ago for people using Gmail accounts. They still worked for email accounts/servers. We all switched to different /working email servers. They have all stopped working. The only email servers which work now are Yandex email servers. I can't find any support articles or forum threads where Zmodo is addressing this issue. 2. Zmodo doesn't seem to ever update their firmware for these machines. The interface is horrible and and very confusing. As a life long techie, I still wonder every time I change something if I'm changing the right thing and/or if the changes are being saved. Super cryptic and very unfriendly interface. I see zmodo releasing "new" and "innovative" products on their home page all the time. They clearly only care about sales/marketing and do NOT support devices like this one still being sold. I've tried so hard to make this system work and honestly it's been the most frustrating experience. Stay away! Do NOT buy!!! Update: The system I received has a QR code on the bottom of the NVR unit. If you're cameras are plugged in AND you download the Zsight app for your phone, then scan the qr code, it will pull in all 4 cameras. This makes it very easy, and the system will randomly assign the cameras to numbers 1-4. I am getting some "false" alarms for the following: my camera pointed at my driveway triggers an alert if a car drives by on the street - which is 75 feet away! (I see this as having great cameras!) I'm going to drop the sensitivity and see how long until it only captures someone within 5 feet of the door. My side cameras trigger alarms if the brushes move from wind. I really like this system, but getting it setup and dialed in can be a bit frustrating. Ordered this after reading every single review and question/answer. I realized it was a gamble, but the price was right so I figured I'd give it a try and return if unsatisfied. Everything connects very easily and is very simple to put together and turn on. This is where things get difficult. The software is NOT user friendly or intuitive. Having read the Amazon reviews, I went to the manufacture website to find updated software/firmware for this system. I spent about 30 minutes and couldn't find anything for Model ZP-NE14-S! OK, maybe this is a new model and comes with the latest software and firmware. If that's true, this software will frustrate all but people who are tech savvy. So not user friendly. All alphanumeric input is done through an on screen keyboard using the mouse! Ugh! Why can't I connect a keyboard and type it in! Field labels are confusing at times - like the "From" field on the email alert. You have to put an email address in here, not just a name. Took me many attempts to configure email alerts guessing what the field label actually meant. Camera quality is very clear, but the cameras that came with my system do NOT have a reset button to recalibrate. This means one of my cameras is much darker than the others and not really usable. Notes: I setup the entire system in my living room before running wires through my attic. I wanted to make sure it works and I'm happy before taking that step. I highly recommend this approach. I did NOT read through the manual yet, so my initial frustration could be amplified by this fact. The browsing/research I did seems to indicate some of what I feel is missing in software that comes on the NVR box itself might be found in the iPhone app. I had an old VGA monitor so tried setting up using that first. This could be my mistake as Zmodo might expect us all to use our phones for software setup. (If this is the case, the included quick setup brochure fails in this regard.) I'll report back later as I dig in try to sort out the bugs. Pros: Price is great! $320.00 /Free delivery with Prime Construction quality seems good for the price. Solid pieces. 720p cameras give great quality picture in my opinion Easy plug n play components make hardware setup a breeze. Cons: Software setup and configuration is frustrating! Corporate website is confusing, can't find anything on my model! ZP-NE14-S I'm not sure if I'm running the latest software/firmware or not

For the price, it's a very good system. I have purchased and installed two of these systems at my home. So far I have been happy with their performance. That is not to say there haven't been any issues, but when I compare them with the price I paid for a HD NVR system, I really can't complain. I have listed the pros/cons below, when reading the cons,please keep in mind how inexpensive this systems is when you consider you are getting a HD quality CCTV system. Also, I highly recommend using a UPS for this unit, it does not like power failures. My first unit has been working for about a year now. Pros: Simple installation, it is basically plug and play. The video quality when viewing at home is fantastic Zmodo app for Android works well, even when away from home wifi. You can connect to more than one NVR or other Zmodo camera on the app home screen. Bonus, it automatically found a Zmodo wifi camera that I had previously purchased . Cons: When using the Zmodo app on my phone the video is time delayed and jumpy, but still viewable. One of the cameras was out of focus upon arrival, I had to take it apart and adjust/clean the lens. If you experience a power failure you have to shutdown and restart several times before remote viewing will work again. There is a 15 min delay until you can playback recorded video from your phone, from the NVR it's instant. The motion detection is a bit weak, sometimes it works, sometime it doesn't, I left mine set on the most sensitive just to be safe, I'd rather record too much than not enough. The UI is not very sophisticated, and takes some getting used to, but overall it does what it needs to do.

Bought this system in July and installed it at a remote cabin I have in the Mountains. I had Satellite Internet also installed to use with this product (Exede). Installation was easy and I had everything working in no time. Picture quality is excellent. At that time the instructions did not tell you that the POE connections needed to be placed in a conduit box when installed outside (the newer model actually branded FUNLUX instead of ZMODO, includes this in their instructions. FUNLUX has the 8 channel version of this product. As a result, one of my cameras shorted out and had to be replaced. ZMODO covered it under warranty at that time. That was a good thing because they don't sell replacement cameras (I see this as a negative in the future). It took me a month to get the replacement camera (they wouldn't cross-ship at that time). Interesting enough, the newer FUNLUX version of this system states that it cannot be used with Satellite. But that has worked fine for me. Only issue has been when the Satellite goes down, it comes back up with different IP addresses and the NVR cannot resolve without a reboot. Another month went by and my NVR stopped recording and made a humming sound. Zmodo told me it needed replaced and the hard drive was likely bad. This time they did cross-ship. Before I shipped I looked to see what hard drive was inside. It was a Western Digital GREEN drive. If you buy one of their systems without a drive they recommend you install a WD PURPLE drive, which is designed for continuous writing. WD GREEN is a PC drive designed for occasional writing, which is probably why it only lasted two months. So apparently they don't follow they're own recommendations. Software that comes with the NVR is pretty glitchy and not very user friendly, but they say its improved (can't imagine how bad the old version wasy). I cannot get the email alarm feature to work no matter what I do, it does not recognize the domain, no matter which one I use. You can pull video clips off the NVR to a USB, but you will need video cutter software to get to what you really want, since the file is quite large, usually an hour's worth of video. The alarm uses is changes in pixels to go off. As a result, you can get tons of false alarms. Wasps were the most frequent culprits and at night spyders. Sometimes it would get so bad that I just turned the alarm off which can be done remotely. Now that it is cold and bugs are gone I thought false alarms would go away. Not! Over the weekend, snow showers were actually setting off. I guess I can play with the sensitively on that camera (it was set to high). I'm waiting for the FUNLUX 8 Channel version to come down in price. Once they do I plan to scrap this system. The cameras our interchangeable with the FUNLUX (I confirmed w/Zmodo support), so that will give me 4 spares, since they will not sell replacement cameras. Overall, when its working a very nice setup for the money.

I bought this system twice. The first time I bought it, one camera did not work with poor reception and an unclear picture. The other cameras functioned great. I returned the full item at that time. Because of the reasonable cost and high picture quality, I decided to give it another try and bought the system again thinking I was just unlucky the with previous purchase. Again, one camera was defective. One - single camera does not transmit to the internet whereas the others transmit fine. I tested the cameras upon opening but did not check the internet broadcasting prior to installation. Suffice to say, after 10 hours of wiring and mounting, only 3/4 cameras work. I have changed the cameras around; 3 of the cameras work great, so the wiring is not faulty. This system would be awesome 5 stars - IF the quality control was good. --------------------------- Update, I contacted the seller and he replaced the unit and paid for shipping. The system works as advertised. Great resolution with fairly simple install. I can view it from my computer and I am working on getting it visible on my wife's iphone. I have reviewed the video recordings and at times it seem it misses 1-2 minutes randomly. I cannot decipher if it is related to my internet or a camera issue. Overall I am happy with the purchase and and camera quality and resolution. For the price you cannot beat this system at this level. The customer service via email was excellent. Pros: 1) Single wire to camera - ethernet power (important if doing a attic or a lot of wiring you can save a lot of headache not needing 2 wires) 2) Great camera viewing - 720p resolution (higher than most cameras out there) 3) zmodo support 4) Straight forward install Cons: 1) Quality control can be an issue but this is superseded by the customer support 2) only 4 camera system, some people may want 8 or the option for 8 3) Brief missed recording periods 4) VGA connection to monitor (not a big deal, I bought a dell monitor on Craigslist for 20$ and installed everything in my attic) --------------------------------------------------- Update 9/15/2014 I made some small adjustments that have helped greatly - I thought I would share 1) Use CAT6 Cables. I replaced the CAT 5 cables provided with CAT6 cables and the image resolution and night vision is about 30% better. Really clear! So you can buy cables for about 15$ on amazon and for me it was totally worth it! 2) Assign a stable IP address to cameras and NVR system. I went into my router settings and assigned the IP addresses to be stable so now I can access them consistently with my Kindle, iphone using the zmodo app. I have not tried access remotely outside of my home network because I have not had time to troubleshoot things. 3) The periods of nonrecording previously mentioned were due to my internet NOT the system. So I set it to "continuous record" and disabled the motion detect setting. So the system is constantly recording. No more gaps. Last week I saw a suspicious car outside my house, used the playback and found it was the neighbors cleaning service. Pretty cool.

I bought this system a year and a half ago. It was fairly easy to install and I wanted one with POE so I only needed to run an Ethernet cable. The video quality is decent and it works well enough at night. It would be nice to be a little more clear to more easily pick out people. I initially had terrible problems with the cameras being washed out during the day. This I solved after looking at some forums and figuring out each camera needed to be in "outdoor" mode. After that change, I no longer have the washed out problem. The biggest downside to this system is the NVR. I've tried setting it to record all the time and setting it to record after motion and I don't notice a difference. It records most of the time but there are always gaps. Playback is clunky and it's cumbersome to review footage. If you know about what time to look for it's easier but still not pleasant. I do have it setup with my IP cam viewer app and I like using that for a live picture much more than the Zsight app. Although if I'm away from home I have to use the Zsight app. It works over LTE most of the time. I was able to check my live footage while on vacation. To check recorded footage, you have to be in the same network. It's even worse on the app so I check footage through the unit itself. My NVR worked decently for a year and then it died. The cameras all shut off. I did my own troubleshooting and contacted support. The first rep had me do some combination of unplugging and plugging it back in that I knew wouldn't work. She asked me to wait a specific amount of time. Of course it didn't work. I contacted support again and they gave me an RMA number. I shipped the NVR to them and received a different unit a few weeks later. The new one worked for about a month. I went back to check some footage and realized it stopped recording. I can play footage from October but anything after that shows no recordings. I went through the hard drive format process and it does not work. The October footage is still there and it still does not record new footage. At least the live view works this time but now I am trying to decide if I should contact support again or cut my losses and try a different system or NVR at least. I've been considering trying Blue Iris to use my desktop for recording. It didn't work as well as I expected to begin with and having the NVR die twice I do not recommend this system. I did also notice that although my cameras are all under the eaves and they are designed to be outdoors, the brackets are getting rusty.

The Pros: 1. Very high image quality for cameras in this price range. 2. Excellent Night IR and cut to good Daylight Color rendering (more about this later) 3. Solid USA Based support and phone staff. They will even walk you through router config if you need help, including remote log in support directly on your PC if you need that. 4. Almost unbelievable price / performance ratio. The cameras are solid and well machined, appear to be weatherproof, you get the whole kit: cables, 1TB recorder, and software for mobile and PC based, 4 high image quality cameras, all for less than you can pay for 1 Sony camera. This kit is being sold very cheaply ! It is a bargain ! 5. A good “plug and play” package with everything you need for the homeowner that wants to “give it a go” and install his/her first security system. The Cons: 1. The software is a project in development and has issues. It is usable for and will suit most all home users. It is possibly not suitable for a commercial business environment, although it could be made to work in that application with patience and if you have some basic abilities working with these systems. It is being written by programmers in China, and although Zmodo does have a USA based R+D staff, there is a long way to go for them to get up to the standards of companies like Digital Watchdog and Honeywell that have years jump on them. You will be OK with this system and very happy as long as you are not expecting the very latest and greatest security system software. At first I was going to give this 3 or 4 stars but after working with both the system and with Zmodo support staff for the last month I think I can give it 5 stars. The system is very very inexpensive for what you are getting, and must be considered a real bargain, with a few caveats. After talking with Zmodos support staff, and getting a feel for what they are up to there at what amounts to a start up venture (They first organized the Zmodo camera business in 2008) I feel that it is reasonable to assume that they will continue to upgrade and update their software. I set the system up, and it was painless to get running, as the internal software in the NVR does a good job of configuring the IP addresses and getting everything “plug and playing” for you. After 48hrs one of the cameras failed. This is not unusual in inexpensive equipment as you, the customer, are responsible for the burn in and QA that would be done for you at the factory, if you paid 4x the price. I called Zmodo support and was surprised to get a real person here in the USA. They have a very well organized RMA system, and I was sent a replacement camera in a reasonable time frame. Overall I am very satisfied with this system for use as a basic security tool at my home. I have experience working with high end commercial security cameras, and can say that, surprisingly enough, the Zmodo cameras actually out perform some commercial cameras in two regards: many cameras have a devil of a time dealing with “IR cut” or “transition” in and out of light and dark phases at sun up and sunset, but these cameras perform excellent in this regard. Also the whlole system is smooth and not choppy, in real-time full motion recording and transmission over the internet. Not something that you can say about even some high end commercial gear! They do use software compression techniques to allow for transmission over slower internet connections, so the image quality you get on your Andriod or iPhone is no where near what is being recorded “on tape”, so that is not a defect, it is an engineering reality. When you pull the images off the disk you will have access to the full image quality, which brings me to my next important point: And that point is: the image quality passes the “Police Test”. What I mean by this, is that if you record an image of a bad guy in the eye of the cameras within 20 feet, and the lighting is reasonable, you will get a portrait of the character that can actually be used in the real world of police work. Most security cameras and systems simply fail to pass this important test. So, I rate this system as a “buy” if it fits your home use, and if you can deal with a software platform that is, admittedly, not the very best in the industry, but is certainly useable by most out there that probably don't need every bell and whistle anyway.

Overview: The first order I received the quality control was almost non-existent. One of the cameras had all the threads that hold the case-back on completely stripped. I threw the mouse in the garbage after about 10 seconds of trying to use it; Essentially worthless. I later had to go dig in the trash for this mouse for my return. Three of the four cameras died within a week of ownership. I highly recommend setting up your system and letting it run for at least a week just plugged up on a table. I did a return on with Amazon (which is fantastically easy) and the second order I received is working adequately. I'm used to having to hack together things to make something work, so this product is just... meh. Software: The Zsight (v1.2.2.74) software sucks. Using the android app, transitioning from inside and outside of the network that the IPC's are on forces you to logout and log back in. When it works, its okay... when it doesn't work, its mildly frustrating. If this is a feature you would use constantly, I'd look elsewhere. The built-in software on the DVR (v40.0.2.7) works okay. Its very simple and functional. I'd like the option to VNC into this machine to control it. The DVR runs linux, so it might not be too hard of a challenge. An IP-KVM might also be a good alternative. The web interface on the DVR and the IPC's is solidly terrible. It flat out does not work in anything other than IE, which still doesn't work. Once logging in, you are presented with a broken interface that prompts you to log in again. If you plan on using the web interface, I'd look elsewhere. Hardware: The cameras are very simply built and have a hilariously short cord on them. You're gonna want to seal the Ethernet connection up with some dielectric grease or some sort of junction box if you plan on putting these outside for any length of time. If you live anywhere that's constantly humid or near the ocean, I'd say go ahead and silicone up the plug once you put the Ethernet cable in. The field of view on these cameras is a bit more narrow than I expected. Don't expect a super wide GoPro like FOV. If I had to put a guess, I'd say its somewhere in the mid 70 degree FOV. The cameras are actually pretty decent at night with a pretty impressive near infrared spectrum. The IR-led's are quite bright, so if you are thinking about hiding these cameras they will be easily spotted at night by looking for the red ring around the camera. Cons: Other than the quality control on my first device and the pretty terrible software, the only extreme negative I can find is that I cannot change the default password on the IPC's themselves (because their web interface is broken). Admin:111111 is the username/pass. Changing the password on the DVR is trivial. Hacking: Fun - I have read the documentation on the device and I understand that it like most devices run an embedded linux. Looks like a somewhat obvious UART pinout... someone with a scope and some time might find some fun in this device. Scary - Default setup mentions nothing about changing the password on the cameras themselves. If you can access the network that the cameras are on, it's trivially easy to get the video feed from them with the default password. If you have these pointing inside your house... someones probably watching you. All in all its a bottom of the barrel device that functions just enough to not warrant me returning it. If you live in a super-sketchy neighborhood I'd probably invest in a nicer device. That includes anyone thinking of using this in a commercial application. Update: 1/12/16 I've had this device for a while now and thought I would add some additional comments. First off, two of my camera's have died. Of the remaining two, one of them works great while the other no longer has IR functionality. Unfortunately, without IR the camera is completely useless in the dark. Furthermore, the camera never clicks over to the night time mode which rendered my additional IR illumination useless. Of the two dead camera's... One is flooded with water (was installed under an overhang) and visibly arcs inside when plugged into the DVR. The other has a charred Cat5 cable end. I've replaced the plug and it still no longer functions. Upon disassembling of the camera, I found that one of the Phillips headed screws that is intended to hold a PCB board to a brass barrel was loose in the camera body. I suspect this caused a short and ruined the camera. I've found that many times the android app will not contact my DVR, which warrants me having to go power cycle it manually. This happens maybe once a month. I have also experianced the DVR having some sort of problem with my hard drive. I placed in it a brand new Western Digital RE4 enterprise class hard drive. I am very familiar with these drives and have good experience with them. I had placed an extra cooling fan for the DVR and hard drive to keep cool air flowing over them, as I know these drive can get hot. Twice now, I have had the DVR say that it needs to format the drive. I have taken the drive to my workplace and tested it extensively with no issue. Overall I would not recommend this product. The quality control is abysmal and the features are lacking.

I managed to score this when they dropped the price at Amazon Warehouse for $149 (now $649). Best security deal ever. The cameras are sharp, cover a wide area, and have true colouring daylight. The software for IPad and IPhone works very well and is simple to install. I have our system up and running in a little over hour, all outside, and am very pleased. Further, when I requested instructions for the software, they quickly sent me copy and when one camera failed, they sent a replacement very quickly. Now, I am not a CCTV expert, but I got an excellent system for a wonderful price which also had excellent service from the company...

Está muy bien en la entrega, el producto llega completo de acuerdo con lo ofrecido por el vendedor, la instalación en tu casa es muy sencilla solo conectas y listo ya tienes imágenes de inmediato, también me gusta que solo con un cable tienes video y corriente en cada cámara, lo que no me gusta es que es muy complicado ver las cámaras fuera de tu casa porque la configuración para el teléfono, tableta o pc no está disponible en español y tienes que buscar tutoriales en internet ya que en la página del fabricante no son claras. Hay que pedir apoyo de tu proveedor de internet, etc para poder ver lo que sucede en tu casa cuando estás en el trabajo o en otro lugar lejos de ella

Buen equipo, todo funciona bien una resolución suficiente para su uso en casa. Llego en tiempo y forma, ya está en funcionamiento.

uan de las camaras me de plano a los días de conectada, empezo a fallar hasta que no registra color y solo aparece en blanco y negro ademas de que no se ve la toma de infrarrojo y hace unos días de plano otra camara de la nada dejo de funcionar, producto fácil de instalar pero con poca duración

For $300 I was buying it more as a toy and see if it works at all. I'm not disappointed. This particular unit needs a separate hard drive. They have other versions that include hard drive. Would be nice to know that there are special ones for surveillance system. Mine has been working for a couple of months with my spare hard drive. Hope the drive will last. Installation is very straight forward as only one network cable will do. No need for finding a power outlet and video cable (much thicker and less flexible). Used the QRcode to find the monitoring software to install on my Android phone. Now I can monitor my home anywhere. Video quality is pretty good. Thanks to another post suggesting not to initialize the camera in low light. I did that at first and two of the cameras didn't focus at all. Once I initialize at broad day light, the cameras function well both day and night. The most annoying thing is that the software generates alerts when switching from day to night mode. So it happens everyday at dawn and dusk for every camera. So make sure you don't wire it to your alarm system or you'll at least get alarm every day eight times at least (4 cameras 2 times a day). At one point the Android app somehow hides the recording review function. The software definitely needs some work.