20 Best Visions Systems Sk Dvr Diy (2023 Updated)

Good security system just needs better app interface and the ability to do more thru the app not just directly from the DVR, the siren only stays on momentarily about 10 seconds I think there better options for the current price.

The picture quality is amazing. I went online and used their video tutorials to set it up. I set it up on a table in my house before I ran wires and mounted the cameras. Setup is simple if you follow the step by step video tutorial.

The picture is amazing and the night vision is awesome! The picture quality is amazingly clear at 5 megapixels. The app worked as advertised and was as simple as scanning the bar code on the DVR box and entering your password in (it’s the Homeview app on google play store).

The DVR is a plug and play device that plugs into your router and tv via HDMI. The display on my tv is vividly clear. The Swann system is working like a charm so far and I have a giant piece of mind being able to keep an eye on my home when I’m not there.

I also figured out to get push notifications on the app for your phone you need to activate that option on the DVR. I’ve had no problems with the app at all, which was a concern at first when reading some reviews here that had issues.

Overall I would recommend everyone to buy this camera system.

The picture quality is amazing. I went online and used there video tutorials to set it up. I set it up on a table in my house before i ran wires and mounted the cameras. Setup is simple if you follow the step by step video tutorial.

The picture is amazing and the night vision is awesome! They all do what they are supposed to do – give you 8 channels of security video. My first had DVD picture quality. Not bad. My second had 720p HD cameras and that was much better picture quality.

Both allowed you to see your cameras on your phone over the internet, but the setup was hard and the lag and frame rate was bad enough I never used it. I got this one when my last one died, and my main purchase priority was compatibility with my existing cameras.

It has worked perfectly since day one, and was very easy to set up. Testing the user interface, I was pleased to see I could ‘zoom in’ to a picture with my mouse scroll wheel! Awesome! I also had a couple of the older cameras that needed replacing, so I put in two of the 5MP that came with it, and the picture quality is great!.

In about 8 months 3 out of 4 cameras had flickering security lights when triggered. When the first one started acting up I initiated a warranty claim by email. This was a fairly lengthy process, by the time I had the first camera approved for replacement the others had failed.

I asked if I could get those handled at the same time and was told I would have to start separate claims. It is not worth the hassle to do this for me. I just turned off the security light function. Obviously these lights are a issue if I have 3 out of four doing this.

I installed this in a commercial multi story condo building with cameras reaching about 2 floors down and also on the same floor but about 100 feet away. I didn’t need to use the booster because the range was sufficient.

I installed 5 of the 6 cameras in about 2 hours, incredibly easy. Replay picture quality is excellent. I had previously installed a Harbor Freight system, which was constantly freezing up and had poor range.

But this kit was amazingly easy to install, great range even in a commercial concrete building, and great picture quality. For the price, I didn’t know what to expect, but I have had no problems with this.

I got lucky.

this cameras work great and have an excellent picture for the cost. and most importantly is the ease of use of the software navigation. It took no time at all for a inexperienced person to navigate the various camera views and options Image quality is very nice.

remote viewing on phone works very nice.

I emailed the co that my screen wasn’t working. They said probably power adapter and would send replacement. 5 days later my replacement came. I plugged it in and it works great. Good customer service and great system.

5 stars.

Swann Enforcer 4K Ultra HD wired Security System This Swann Enforcer security system is great. Only took me about an hour and a half to install the whole system (4 wired cameras and the 2tb DVR). The video quality is amazing during the day and one of the best at night.

There are very little false alarms due to the True detect feature. It does an amazing job knowing the difference between a person, car, animal, and shadows from the sun changing. My old system would get tons of false alarms because of the lighting change through out the day.

This system is easy to use, the interface on the DVR is easy to navigate around, and the mobile app works very well too, and put together nicely. Works great with Google Assistant/Alexa. The cameras work very well at night too, get color in darker lighting than my old system, and the night vision is amazingly clear.

I can rest at night knowing I have a great system watching over my property and family while we are sleeping, or away from home. With the added flashing blue and red lights on the cameras helps scare unwanted people away.

If you are looking for a security system, don’t hesitate, get this one. The DVR is expandable to 8 cameras, more then you’ll ever need. I’m am extremely happy with this Swann Enforcer security system, having the 4K Resolution is a game changer, and a must have.

The details are incredible. Love it. Very happy with this system.

I’m pretty tech savvy and I actually followed the directions carefully during the setup. It’s been 3 days and I still can’t get this to work with the app. It is working but there are a LOT of wires everywhere.

The video may technically be 4k but the quality is very poor. Colors are poor and you will struggle to recognize people in the room. It does pick up sounds very well and the alarm feature may frighten some people.

You are getting a budget system of 4 cameras and dvr for a good price but this misses too many features for me to recommend.

Swann – Enforcer™ 4 Camera 8 Channel 4K Ultra HD DVR Audio/Video Security System – SWDVK-856804MQB I’ve had this system sitting in a box for weeks because I was too intimidated to try installing it. I finally opened the box and read the easy-to-understand, color coded instructions and wish I had done it sooner.

So easy, a first grader could do it! The video capture is incredibly clear and detailed— day and night. I haven’t checked out the app yet but definitely plan on it.

I purchase this camera system thinking I was buying the best system on the market. After paying a professional to install the system and paying him to come back out several more times, I wish I would have not purchased this system.

From looking on the monitor the camera looks like it will cover everything but, it doesn’t. It records when it wants to, it misses a lot of stuff going on in my yard. The camera system didn’t pick up my wife or contractors at my house working for days.

Several friends and family come by to visit and the system doesn’t pick them up. Someone pulled up and took something out my yard and the system didn’t take one picture!!!! You also have to switch from Substream to Mainstream every time you are looking at the system live on your phone.

One camera doesn’t take pics good at all. This one camera takes pics all day and night of nothing. But it misses people at my house. I personally have walked all around the house and property and out of 8 cameras only one took a pic of me and it wasn’t a good one either.

The quality is terrible to me as well. I wish I could return and upgrade to another system or get an refund. I know that’s a wishful thinking but, I will taking them down and donating to someone since they do not work good for me.

I hope this review helps and I hope you do your homework because this system is not worth the pennies you pay!!!!! -VERY DISAPPOINTED CUSTOMER!!!!.

Pros: great price, realtively easy setup, motion detection and recording seems stable and reliable. Cons: the motion detection is very basic, unlike more expensive systems, every shadow or sunlight will trigger the alarm.

The camera view angle is 90 degrees which is pretty narrow and you need more camaras to cover the area. The mobile app (andorid) is ok but seems to be glitching at times, some screens/features make no sense or I have no idea what it is for.

Over all, great beginner setup. More reliable than WiFi systems with batteries.

They advertise the fact that you can view your cameras from an app remotely no matter where you are. That’s fine and it works great FOR ONE USER!!!! What happens if your wife or flatmate also wants to view the cameras remotely? No problem, just disable remote viewing on your app then enable it on theirs so they can view.

When you want to view remotely again you have to get them to disable their app so you can re-enable yours. This is 2021. Surely more than one person can view the cameras remotely at the same time??? I would award this system 5 stars if this seemingly simple feature was available.

Now I realise Swann don’t allow it, I have since found other vendors that do. If only I knew that before I purchased this system. Hopefully my review will prevent others from making the same mistake I did.

This Lorex D861 is light years ahead of my old QSee QT528. I thought all of the new camera systems used the Cat5 cable system. I wasn’t going to replace my old cables that have BNC connectors – it is too much work running over 800 foot of new cable.

I also wanted to keep my electrical panel box for the cameras as it is far superior to the power supply that comes with the camera systems. I found this model that was compatible with my existing cables and comes with 4K cameras.

They work fantastic in daylight but at night there is no color. However, one can still record excellent video especially if there is some exterior lighting. I especially love the zoom scroll with the wheel mouse.

The interface is easy to navigate as opposed to my old system. The Lorex Home App works great on my Iphone. Now I can check on my home when I am away.

The cameras are great. Day time is crisp and clear. The night vision is so much better then the Night Owl system I had before. I can now see places in almost total darkness I could not see at all with my old system.

I do wish there was some finger room when trying to hook up the BNC connectors. They are really close to one another. After you get one on, the rest are somewhat hard to get on. I wish I had bought this system from the start.

I have only had it for about a month, but so far I have nothing negative to say about the camera system.

The 60 ft cables are not long enough to reach 4 corners of the average house, buy extra longer cables. C841CA cameras give excellent image quality and color even in low light. D861 recorder will not remain in full screen mode while sequencing.

It changes to all screen modes and even though I have told it to skip cameras 7 & 8 as I only have 6 cameras connected, it continues to give me 2 blank screens and will not ignore 7 & 8. Can be somewhat frustrating to get the screen image you might want.

I would say this is not the best recorder series to get.

This is my second swann system and fourth camera system in in 10 years. My first system was a professionally installed analog system which after a year the hard drive quit /froze and the camera clarity at night was horrible on hot and humid nights.

So I upgraded to an HD 1080 samsung sold by Sams unit which I loved the DVR and ease of use functions/settings/learning the dvr. But after over a year or so as usual the cameras night vision/infrared seems to wear out and on hot humid nights the screen/picture would be just a solid black blough.

So if you have any system and your night vision is not what it was when you first bought your system. Go into the PTZ setting and if it gives you the option to keep the camera in color mode at night and you have outdoor lighting in the area or its a decently lit area.

I’d recommend this setting. So onto my first swann system which I bought just over a year ago. It’s a 4k swann system I bought from Sam’s. I thought I was getting the PIR cameras with the system as advertised but I soon found out I could add the cameras.

So when this system came up for 249. 00 I purchased it instead of buying cameras with the PIR. That way I have back up cameras/extra and a back up dvr if my other one ever goes out. For what the system is.

It’s a great buy/deal at $249 which is the best thing to the upside of this unit. I like a lot about it. But here are my cons and what I don’t like. Not having the option of infrared on six of the cameras.

I understand why and with the LEDS it’s probably not possible to have all those features in one camera. Another dislike is when installing the bullet cameras I noticed there was no foam weather /moisture seal in the mounting base.

I first thought it was just forgot about at the factory but after call customer service and several days of hee-hawing in emails over proof of purchase over a foam seal. I got a generic response that this system doesn’t include foam weather/moisture proof inserts in the mounting base of the 6 bullet cameras.

So I’m in limbo right now and am thinking about returning the system to the store for a refund. May try another brand in the future. Wish I could get another Samsung system that Sam’s sold but I believe someone bought them out and changed their name.

The Swann system/dvr almost requires a college education/course to learn all the features and settings to get it to operate in all the detection modes/settings/ Also I have a huge problem when I download footage from my dvr to a memory stick getting it to play on my computer.

I’ve tried all the file types and downloads and my computer will not play them. But in the end at $249 I’d recommend this unit but be ready to be frustrated until you learn the system and settings.

The camera’s are of great quality and build, as is the DVR. HOWEVER, the Swann Security companion app is absolutely ATTROCIOUS!!! Now, if there was an alternative to remotely view and access your system, this wouldn’t be such a deal breaker, and you could safely ignore my review.

That, sadly, is not the case, and this app is an integral part of the whole interconnectivity of this system. As much time and effort as Swann put into making sure their devices have great build quality, they should’ve invested at least as much time to ensure that we have an app that is at least as reliable and can be trusted to provide us with consistent remote access to our camera system.

For this glaring reason, I cannot recommend this product, and deeply regret purchasing this system.

I was able to set this system up right out of the box. It can be a little intimidating at first, but the instructions are very clear and very intuitive. You place the camera and have to run the cables all the way back to the hub to connect it all.

You connect an HDMI to your TV and an Ethernet cable to a router. Then you power all devices with the power supplies. You connect the included mouse and walk through setup step by step. Very easy. It is actually an easier setup than wireless devices because you don’t have to link them all to your Wi-Fi.

I was seriously up and running the whole system (not including camera mounting/wiring) in less than 10 minutes. The quality of this system is unlike any camera system I have had before. You select 4k resolution if you have it available and it just pops off the screen.

The cameras work very well and have night vision that is also clear. I really don’t have a bad thing to say about the cameras and their clarity/reception.

Came faster than expected. Unit seems solid and easy to setup. Have not yet been able to do a complete install of all cameras but what I have been able to get completed they are working well and great image.

A good deal of settings to work through to tweak them as you wish. I have mine connected to my 55 inch tv in our living room and used a wireless mouse instead of the wired one sent. Works great! Choose the wired cameras as I have the space to hard wire them without the wires being exposed.

This gave me the 2T hard drive as well as power and a better image so shouldn’t have any issues with overwriting something that I may have wanted to keep. Still playing with the system but like it so far.

What a piece of garbage. From the first couple months problems after problems, and it is now 15 months later and out of warranty. Cameras do not record all motion, so you miss major events, useless. Called support many times, which solves the problem for like a week and then again same problem.

One of the cameras stopped recording completely 7 months in, so they sent me a replacement. That replacement was working fine until 6 month later, water got inside the lens (clearly a manufacturers defect).

Customer support says the camera is now out of warranty because of the original purchase date, even though this camera is not the original but a replacement they sent, which turned out to be defective.

The customer support is useless and have no common sense. They just hung up the phone and there is nothing I can do about it except for letting everyone else know of this scam these people are running.

They send you faulty replacements and you are out of luck. What a waste of money and time. DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS PRODUCT OR THIS BRAND EVER AGAIN.

I’m very please with this. Good value product with a lot of functionality. It looses one star due to the lack of decent documentation. There are a lot of complicated settings and interfaces which you just have to guess at how they work, I’ve wasted a lot of time doing that, just for the lack of a proper user manual.

Otherwise great. At this price point it is not going to offer high fidelity, but the image quality is fine – you can just about read number plates in day-light. At night it goes to black-and-white – but that’s fine, it still shows images clearly.

It offers multiple ways to interface. Direct to it’s own box with an HDMI monitor, or via a Windows PC, or Android, or Apple – they each do the same thing, but a bit differently. All the kit seems pretty rugged and well made – given the price point.

I’ve had it a couple of weeks so far and no problems. Only time will tell how reliable it is long-term.

First thing to highlight is that the product I received looks slightly different to the pictures shown here (the recording unit is dark grey, and the cameras are like product no. 49708), but the specification is the same.

These cameras aren’t on a ball joint, so can be a bit fiddly to position exactly how you want – multiple screws for the ‘elbow’ position and to give a bit of play in the connection to the camera body.

However, once in position these are well fixed in place, and less likely to drift vs some ball joints. Camera quality itself wasn’t quite as good as I’d hoped, but is more than adequate for most purposes.

Good field of view and night vision – not clear in the spec but these do have IR recording as well as quite a strong floodlight feature for colour recording at night. It also wasn’t immediately clear these could be used outside, as they look different to most external cameras, but yes they are fully weather resistent.

Everything was quite easy to setup, although I made sure to test it all fully before going to the trouble of running the cabling. Cable lengths are generous, and should be sufficient for most sizes of property, plus appear decent quality so hopefully won’t fail once you’ve gone to the (unavoidable) effort of routing everything where you want it.

The phone app and notifications are a real plus with this system. This is free to use for receiving alerts of movement and easily viewing the associated footage, but you do need to pay extra to save your recordings off-site to the cloud.

The notifications work well (a little too well if it’s a high-traffic area, but you can turn them off by zone), but they take a minute or two to come through. Overall this is a great system. It’s neither the cheapest or the best featured, but you get a lot for your money so will be a good middle ground for most people’s needs.

NOTE: I received this product for free through the Toolstation Customer Panel, in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

N. B. This system was provided free of charge for testing and an unbiased review of the product. The box was promptly received, was well packaged and contained the system, plus 15 and 30 metre extension cables.

Once the contents were checked and found to be complete, we (as is often the case) had to sort through the myriad of instructions in two separate bags and in different languages to find the ones we needed.

The instructions said to ensure everything worked before installation which we thought a good idea. The first step was to connect the recorder to a TV via the included HDMI cable and then to our broadband router via the included ethernet cable.

The ethernet cable supplied was a standard size (approx. 0. 5m) which did not work for our home layout as our router and TV are in different rooms. Fortunately, we happened to have a 10m ethernet cable to hand.

We were concerned at this point (as it wasn’t stated anywhere that we could see) that although this connection was required for the initial set-up it wasn’t necessary to maintain the TV connection to operate the system.

However, we continued with the set-up wizard which was mostly straight forward except we had an issue with confirmation of the email address. This failed every time no matter what we did, however in the end we ignored it and it still works.

We think this is for the cloud storage. We made the decision to disconnect the TV and as everything still seemed to be working, we downloaded the mobile app (one android and one IOS) without any problems.

We are also using an old laptop as a monitor. The hardest part of the installation was where to position the cameras! Lots of cables were strung around as we located the best site for each one. Fixed length cables are ok, however there is always lots of coiled spare cable especially from the nearest camera.

The rest of the installation was quite straightforward. One thing to be aware of is the diameter of the hole required to get the pre-assembled cables through as they have fixed connectors on the ends.

The hole needed to be approx. 19mm whereas the cable itself is approx. 5 mm. Once installed, (one camera outside, one inside) we found the picture clear for both cameras and the night vision particularly good.

The motion detection is good although the outside camera does seem to respond a bit more slowly than the inside one. The zoom facility on the camera view in the app is particularly useful although some picture quality is lost, mainly at night, which is to be expected.

We also like the different mode settings for when at home or away from home. In summary, although we have only had the system up and running a few days, we are very happy with it. We like the quality and the ability to add further cameras is great and we intend to do this soon.

Cameras are quite cheap and nasty, and I would be surprised if they last more than a couple of years in my harsh salty climate. DVR is not of the same quality as my previous Swann system. I bought this kit as I wanted to upgrade my cams to HD, but they only operate in LQ despite changing the settings.

Another annoyance is the requirement to run 2 power packs for the 8 cams. the previous cameras were powered by the BNC cables directly from the DVR. This means the unit requires 3 power outlets to run.

The Windows app is useless and cannot find the DVR on my home network, even despite entering all the relevant data including IP addresses etc. The only slight improvement is the IOS app which worked straight out of the box.

Unit is also not WiFi capable without purchasing a genuine Swann USB antenna at another $59. For $900 look elsewhere. This is the most disappointing Swann kit I’ve owned out of 4 systems over the years, and I will probably go for Google cams next time.

I got this device with eight cameras on special for a good price. The hardware seems pretty good quality, and comes well packaged. Sadly the whole thing is let down by Swann’s software. When you visit the Swann website to download apps for your windows PC to interface with the DVR (the recorder/ base unit of this setup), you are confronted with a number of different apps, and it is not very clear which app is the best choice for the specific unit I have.

Looking through Swann’s FAQ and support pages does not really help that much, as there seems to be conflicting information everywhere you look. As an ex IT person, I found it hard enough to get this side of things running.

I would not like to be someone who is not overly tech-savvy setting this gear up!.

I bought this a month ago and it worked really good for about 3 weeks. I have it installed in my barn which is about 50 yards from the house. I installed a router programmed to be. Repeater in the barn and had it wired to an external antenna.

It worked great for about three weeks and the would not let me see the video. I had good Wi-Fi on my phone and could see both routers but was not being able to see the dvr system. I thought the dvr had failed.

Went to a horse show and was telling someone about the system not working and opened the app on my phone and it was working. Got home and tried to look at it and it would not let me see the video. Turned off the wi fi on my phone and it works.

Not sure what has changed. I thought maybe password or something but I don’t see any where to sign in. It’s working I guess I just have to have the Wi Fi off on my phone when I’m home.

Only complaint is the night vision at a distance but can turn up brightness and contrast to help. Works great. Easy interface to learn. Wired systems are a paint to hook up but you get better connectivity and picture for the price.

Definitely would recommend.

This is a great security system for your home especially if you are in a budget, the quality in the video its great also if you have internet access you can connect the security system and watch it on your app from work or any place.

Also customer service is awesome,very helpful and kind they resolve my issue. I would highly recommend this items.

Very affordable, not sure if its gonna be a problem but the cameras are very light and made of plastic.. Ill be setting them up tomorrow 5-13-22

Was excited to set this up thinking it would be easy based on the number of 5 star reviews on their website. I was surprised to see that all the mobile apps have 2 star reviews and are not the easiest to use.

If Defender could find a more complicated setup procedure I think they would. Even the customer service is meant to serve them and not the customer. No phone support. Chat is only available business hours on the east coast time.

No after hour or weekend support. When chatting with support they send you to manuals and videos vs telling you want to do. What should have taken 5 min took over 2 hours. Save yourself the hassle and buy from a retailer.

At least you won’t be charged an arm and a leg to return and get a better system. BEWARE when setting this up they will ask you for no less than 4 passwords and verification numbers. Be sure to note the differences in their names.

In one place they ask you to provide a password for a feature they don’t even support. Come on! If you don’t have the feature, hide it from your customers so they don’t have to provide another useless password.

Each password is labeled as something different in the support manuals. The email address you set up with the DVR doesn’t get passed to the app. Once you figure out which password goes with what, and which verification number goes where, it works OK.

For being 2020, one would think Defneder would have invested in better manuals and better user interface to make it easy, but this is the same ugly technology as the old DOS days of 1988. Also, the DVR wouldn’t work with my older monitor that accepted an HDMI cable and on my widescreen monitor it stretches the view end to end so it is a distorted view.

Get it together Defender.

Cameras arrived very quickly. I unboxed everything and all appears to be there, as ordered. Right away I set up 2 cameras in my office to ensure they work as I expect them to (ie. clarity and night mode viewing).

So far I have connected 2 cameras outside and since I was replacing an older system camera it was fairly simple to connect – good clarity and night mode is acceptable but not great. I have 4 more cameras to connect but have already run the wires to where I want the cameras to be.

The DVR set up was easy and so was the App set up however some of the steps were somewhat confusing in the DVR set up but I figured it out. I haven’t gone through all the folders and options in the DVR as I don’t really understand them fully (this is where more info would be nice from Defender).

My main complaint is the following: the camera wires should have the ends clearly marked as “Camera” and “DVR” so you don’t run the wires the wrong way. The Uniden (my existing/old system) wires were clearly marked and thus you don’t spend time having to rerun wires if you mix the ends up.

One positive aspect of the 8 CH system is that I can actually use my old tech 1080 cameras on this system – so I get 6 new HD cameras (Defender) + 2 old 1080 cameras to max out my system capacity. I can upgrade to 2 more HD cameras if i like but I don’t need to at this time.

PS – there is an advantage to buy right from Defender as they double your warranty coverage to 2 years.

Bought the 4K1T4B4 system refurbished and it seems to be working fine, though I’ve only installed it today. Nothing special. The DVR settings/menu control is a little slow and unresponsive. Manuals aren’t as readily accessible.

It runs relatively quiet compared to my old Defender DVR. I haven’t opened the DVR up to check what hard drive is used, so I hope it doesn’t fail prematurely. The cameras are made of plastic which makes me wonder their actual resistance to the elements despite the IP67 and -40°C ratings.

Night performance is not as good as some of the more expensive products in the market but if there’s sufficient ambient light, it’s good enough for my need. I only wish the angle of view is a little larger, at least 90° instead of 79°.

The BNC cables for the cameras aren’t heavy duty enough to be used exposed outdoor, better get some heavier gauge cables if you plan of running the cables outdoor exposed. The HDMI and Ethernet cables are a nice touch.

The mouse is nothing special and will likely break with heavy usage. My other major concern in addition to the quality of the weather-sealing on the cameras and the hard drive is the power supplies. I’ve had to get replacement power supplies for my old Defender security system a few years into service.

Only time will tell how this system will stand. All in all, for the price, it’s good thus far, 4 hours post-installation.

I bought this system following research of a wide range of CCTV units. TBH, being a complete amatuer to this sort of thing I found it easy enough to install. But I will stress how I spent quite some time with the planning stages.

Getting it right in my minds eye b4 commencing with the installation. Its mainly a one person job, but having another body to help with holding the ladder whilst I was at the high part of the house was reasuring.

I am still working my way through the settings of the cameras and how to view the playback. On the whole, I think that the instructions could be better. Perhaps a video to help with the range of options available.

The footage of the subject in the camera view is reasonable, but I dont think its as sharp as I would like it to be. I expect I would have to pay extra for the privelage.

Easy to set up straight out of the box. Basic quick setup instructions included as hardware is pretty self explanatory. Cameras are small enough to mount in tight corners, and can be positioned easily.

Included with each camera are long video and power cables which I’d have thought would be ample for most applications, but 15m extensions are available from Toolstation, should they be required. It should be noted that as this is a hard wired system, each camera will require a separate cable run which will require further work to hide these cables, however I find this to be much more reliable than a wireless system.

This product can work as a standalone traditional CCTV with DVR system, but I can highly recommend downloading the SWANN SECURITY app which works flawlessly and sends notifications of movement [detected via built in PIR sensors on each camera] with very little delay.

The system integrates well with ALEXA after the SWANN SECURITY skill is enabled and this allows the ability to use voice control to view live camera feeds on compatible ALEXA devices. Overall I would highly recommend this system if you are looking for a HARD WIRED CCTV setup, particularly due to the well developed software.

I received this product for free through the Toolstation Customer Panel, in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

I just bought another complete set from Harbor Freight to add two more cameras to my existing system that has been running and recording continuously for over 4 and 1/2 years. You can buy additional cameras at Harbor Freight, but I like the system enough that bought the complete set again so I would have an extra DVR and two extra cameras.

When I installed my original set in 2018, I chose to have the cameras recording continuously because the motion sensitivity was too strong and the beeping alarm from the DVR was too annoying since the unit was in our bedroom.

Would have been fine if the alarm beeping could be turned off when detecting motion. With continuous recording, there is no sound at all from the DVR and with 4 cameras recording continuously, I get 5 days of footage on the DVR before it automatically begins overwriting the previous recording.

With 6 cameras recording as I have now, I guess I will always have about 3 days of footage available at all times. The original setup with the free app for viewing remotely on my iPhone and iPad was very hard to get up and running, many frustrating attempts, but once completed it has worked flawlessly.

Adding the two new cameras required no setup, plug and play. Overall, this is a great, durable, reliable system that is easy to install if you have access (attic)to pull the cables and the ability to mount the cameras.

For me, the clarity of the cameras is very good night and day. I would and have recommended the Cobra system to others, and I would, and have purchased again.

A rather mixed bag for this unit. Good: – Straightforward setup. – The current version of the iOS app works very well. (lots of reviews of how bad it is which was probably true. But there is a replacement that has good reviews for a reason.

Bad – Windows app is ANCIENT. It is a variation of the same one that came with the DVR I bought years ago that this was to replace. Clunky, bad UI, dependent on screen resolution is odd ways. – NO WAY TO CONFIGURE THE DVR REMOTELY.

The apps can only view and retrieve recordings. To change the important settings like the motion sensitivity, hot zones, alarms, lights, etc. , you MUST go TO THE DEVICE AND USE AN ATTACHED MONITOR. No way to stash this in the utility closet where the wires come in from the camera unless you have a monitor there as well.

This is ridiculous. My 10 year old unit allowed me to set these things via the SAME APP. Yes, I contacted Swann support. They confirmed – Inserts GIANT Swann logo in the corner of each picture. Not a huge issue in color daylight.

But in night BW images it makes the corner of the image uninterpretable. There is also another logo ‘HISILICON’ inserted mid screen for some odd reason when viewed on either Swann’s windows app or the old one I have (yeah, that much the same) from another vendor.

It is NOT there on the iOS app Mixed – Support is ultimately prompt but messed up. Support site wants a product ID (makes sense) to file a ticket. But neither an exact nor partial match of any of the product names will not find this one.

Huh? After filing a ticket, the email says they are challenged due to Covid (Really? It’s been almost 2 years, and support is remote work. Adapt) and to expect a TWO WEEK response time or to call or chat.

Well there is no chat on the site, so that’s out. But when I called, the robot offered a call back which came in approximately the 10 minutes forecast. Better communication and this would actually be excellent.

Oh, and this on the day before a holiday :-).

The Swann Enforcer has a lot of features built into its program. It can be integrated into your smart home with either Alexa or Google assistant for voice control, and monitored from your smart phones.

It works on both iOS and Android. Not to mention that the base can be connected to any tv or monitor with a HDMI cable, and display all cameras constantly in a grid, or all the cameras individually like a slideshow on a constant rotation.

The base includes 1TB of local storage. I logged about 500 hours using both main and sub stream recording, and only used about 300gb of storage. I have my recordings set to constant 24/7 recording for 2 of my cameras and the other 2 are set to record 30 sec clips only when triggered.

(The hard drive can be upgraded to a max of 4TB. ) Each channel can be set up however you want it. The system comes with 4 cameras, but is equipped to handle up to 8, which gives you plenty of room to expand with this system.

If you go to the swann website and visit the product page, you can view the compatible cameras for this system, if you want to get more. One of the best features of this system is the PIR. All the included cameras have a built in Passive Infrared Sensor that helps to make the “True Detect” so great.

The True Detect tries to eliminate false detections and recordings by attempting to pick up heat signatures during motion sensing. My last camera used to get a trigger when it snowed out, or the wind blew leaves across the yard, so I will be curious to see how this works in the other seasons.

Right now it has been pretty decent at eliminating false triggers. The cameras have a 90 degree field of view which is a wide angle but not as wide as some of the wireless brands which can encompass 180 degrees.

While those cameras might be able to fit a wider area into the screen, the edges are typically somewhat distorted, and the wider angle cameras usually have a shorter field of view when it comes to overall distance.

So a 90 degree camera can typically see up to 100 feet, and be distortion free. While most of the 180 degree cameras are typically only good up to 50 feet. The base does have some features in the software that are not supported with this setup, like “sound”, and “PTZ”.

There are no speakers or mics included on these cameras. There is also no “Pan Tilt and Zoom” ability on these cameras either. The features remain in the program incase cameras with those capabilities are ever added later.

Even though there is no PTZ function available, you do have to enter the PTZ menu to change some of the camera settings. Here you can change the Exposure, White Balance, Day and Night lighting, Image Enhancements, Video Settings, and Language.

The night time lighting can either be done in color (with the assistance of a small white spot light, that lights up for recording), or in Black and White with the infrared sensors (which glow red in the dark).

Unless of course you have an alternate constant light source, like a porch light, street light or seperate spot light. The cameras can also be set to deterrent mode, in which they light up a set of strobing red and blue LEDs to simulate police lights.

These lights can be triggered to go off when motion is detected, and you can set the duration of the strobe effect as well. The system has a 12 month warranty and an IP66 rating on the cameras. IP66 is “dust tight” and protected against heavy seas or powerful jets of water.

So they should be able to handle virtually any kind of weather. The Base does have 3 total USB ports. One port on the back can be used to connect the mouse. Sadly, the unit does not support any keyboard, so all typing has to be done with an on screen keyboard and the mouse.

The other USB ports can be used for external drives or flash drives to back up or store important recordings. The phone app lets you view all the active cameras in “live view”, and lets you playback events.

When you view individual channels you have the option to do a manual record, snapshots, turn on the alarm, or the spot light. You also get real time notifications of current events, can view the user manual and have the ability to connect to your DropBox storage.

If you don’t have a DropBox account, you can sign up for a free basic account which includes 2GB of storage, or enlist in one of their premium plans for increased data storage. When setting up the base, you have the option to use an alternate DNS or the one provided by Swann.

Swann tech support says that they do not hold any video data on their servers. Their servers are solely used to help relay your video data to your remote devices, if selected. Overall the security system is really nice.

It is spot on with the event notifications, they all come through in real time. Live viewing and connecting to the cameras from the app is pretty quick and so far pretty reliable. I have had other camera systems that sometimes take forever or just sometimes will not connect.

My favorite feature is the S. M. A. R. T feature, which bypasses the long gaps between triggers and puts just the events together for playback. It saves a ton of time trying to review past recordings.

There are actually a lot of different ways to sort and search through recordings. The user interface could be a little better, while it might be a little difficult to navigate to the option you want, there are still a ton of options.

The video quality at 1080p is pretty good, and most things have sufficient detail. Facial features are detailed enough for a good description at under 10 to 15 feet at night and under 40 to 50 feet in daylight, which is average for most security cameras.

Also, just as a side note, try not to mount the cameras too close to an overhang, corner wall or side obstruction. One of the cameras I mounted was too close to the gutters. It created a haze at night, due to the reflection of the infrared beams bouncing back onto the lenses.

Otherwise that was the only problem I had with the install. All the included cables were long enough for my house. If you need longer runs you should be able to buy a BNC extension cable or (regular BNC cable and a BNC coupler).

From what I’ve seen, you should be able to run at lengths up to 1600 feet for 1080p.

Any time someone asks me what brand of WIRED security camera they should buy I always recommend Swann. The company has been involved in the security camera business for years and they provide a quality and reliable product.

They also offer more than the competition with their bonus features that come built in to each of there cameras. The first perk to having this style of system and particular Swann’s system is that you don’t need to pay a monthly subscription.

You get all of Swann’s remote/online viewing features at no additional costs. Swann provides you with a 1TB hard drive so you don’t have to pay for “cloud storage”. The 1080p quality is decent. I have used Swann’s 4K cameras (packed with the same great features) and I do prefer the better quality.

However, the 1080p is great for those on a budget or who want value but still have a crisp picture. Also it depends on the monitor/tv you are using. I have these cameras setup outside only and I can see everything in field of view perfectly.

The color night vision is also awesome and will help you identify someone in case you ever need to. The bonus features! Swann always adds more to there security cameras and is really the only company that packs all these features into a well built outdoor/indoor camera.

Each camera in the kit is equipped with red & blue lights to scare off intruders (like law enforcement is there), heat and motion detection (this will help no waste time with unneeded alerts or take up recording storage), color night vision (which works super well), and is compatible with google and alexa (which I did not test).

These features are great and there’s really so much you can customize. The operating system is good and I always liked having more control and customization with my camera. Some of the big wireless brands narrow down what you can control and do but Swann lets you take control of the cameras features and customize and implement them to your needs.

Also once your DVR box is tied into your homes internet you can view each camera on the Swann mobile app. I recommend going on Youtube and going right to Swann’s Youtube page “Swann – Security Made Smarter” They post frequently and will show you how these cameras really work.

They also show you how there operating system works. Swann has tons of resources to help you along the way. More specifically Swann has tons of videos on the enforcer system. They have been using the enforcer camera for awhile now and it’s because they are reliable and trust worthy.

Review for the Swann – Enforcer™ 8-Channel, 8-Camera Indoor/Outdoor Wired 4K system. I purchased this 4K system to replace a 8 year old Swann camera system that was still working but images were poor (old 420 TV lines analog).

This Enforcer system is up to date with sharp video. My topology is the Camera system DVR is attached to my network with Ethernet. All cameras are hardwired (no choice with this system). This was fine as my old system’s cables were used to pull the new cables through all the runs.

The system is monitored with a Window 10 Desktop using Swann’s computer interface. The download and setup wasn’t to complicated. The computer app has a lot of available configuring for the alarms ( lights and siren ) on each camera.

I hardened the system with DVR, close by monitor and the Desktop all on UPS backups that are surge protectors also. The 4K resolution is amazing and that is with only a 1080p monitor. Full screen and zoomed in to a selected area the picture is very good.

This is a solid system. I’m not using the phone app yet but that was notifications and remote video playback. There is no audio with these cameras just F. Y. I. There is enough storage on the DVR for many weeks of history as I only have the system record when it sees something and the sensitivity is adjustable.

There is just a lot of customization to explore if you choose. Thumbs up.

Camera quality is great. Using the system is not user friendly. I don’t think I will buy another Swann product. It is very hard to figure out how to set the parameters for recording. You can only view 4 of the 8 cameras at a time.

You have to reconfigure the settings to view different recordings. I am having a very hard time setting certain cameras to record all the time and some to only record when there is motion. Since they are all hard wired, which means they can’t be hacked, it is very labor intensive to install.

Where as “Ring” systems are very easy. And they are not that cost prohibitive.

Well what can i say. I looked on line for a new CCTV system and ao poped up. At first i looked at placing the order online, however i had a question so decided to call them instead. The agent i spoke to was very good and helped me with my issues around the product.

I purchased a Swan 8 chanel DVR with 6 camaras. the system was delivered the next day as promisted and took me around 3 hours to install the system. All the items i needed for the installation came with the kit, screws, cables, and of course camaras.

installation instructions where very simple to understand, i have however done this kind of install before, but i would say anyone that is handy would be able to do it. In turms of use. The camaras produce an excelant picture in colour, and the software is easy to setup.

I would recomend this product for both home, and business use. I would also recommend oa as a supplier.

Always had swann equipment and always been awesome. But this product isn’t what it’s cut out to be unfortunately. Picture quality is really good during the day but when it gets to night you have to have the led lights on so you can see what’s going on.

If the led lights are off you are then looking at a black screen if there’s no surrounding street/garden lighting around the camera. No night vision option. You can set it up so the light comes on during heat movement so then you get night colour vision but distance is minimal and camera needs to be mounted low level (bungalow height) for good colour pictures.

All in all I wish I spent the money on a different system which actually has the night vision. Oh and soon as you break the security tags on the box very do not allow returns and refunds so be careful.