Wireless Security Camera System,SMONET 1080P 8 Channel Home Surveillance DVR Kits with 4pcs 2MP Full HD Cameras 1TB HDD Night Vision Motion Detection Free App for Indoor Outdoor 24/7 Video Recording

This economically priced security camera system performs well. I bought this system after being disappointed with an Arlo system that I purchased. That system required the battery-powered cameras to be recharged and a paid subscription for uploading security footage to the cloud. With the Smonet system and its wifi network, every camera can be located without the need for a cable connection to the NVR and monitor. An AC outlet is required to power up each camera- eliminating the need to recharge the camera battery. The video feeds can be viewed on a smartphone or a TV monitor attached to the NVR recording device by HDMI cable.In my experience, the wifi signal worked very well, despite using it in a city crowded with interfering wifi frequencies. All the cameras were able to transmit the signal to the Smonet recording device. The Smonet system records and stores the camera footage at your home or place of business. In these times of Surveillance Capitalism, it is a relief to know that the views of your cameras will not be uploaded to cloud-based networks like those of Google or Amazon.The Smonet is fairly simple to set up but in the event of difficulty, their customer service is very helpful. The first attempts at contacting customer service took a day or two—the company is in China and telephone customer service is provided during their daytime hours. But after initial contact, the agent was quick to respond and very helpful. Using video calls with Wechat or Whatsup on your phone makes communication much easier.The ball joint camera swivel mount has limited movement preventing easy aiming of the camera. A camera stopped functioning after being flooded in a heavy rain storm--this camera had been aimed upwards, causing rain to fall on the lens panel and penetrate the housing. After explaining the problem to the agent, he consulted with their engineer and quickly sent a replacement camera that arrived within the week. The replacement camera was a different design which he said could be aimed upwards and eliminate the possibility of water damage. I am currently using that camera without a problem yet and I am a very satisfied customer.

I bought these cameras over two weeks ago and tried to hook them up over and over and every time I would hook up one camera it would delete the existing camera. I even deleted all of the cameras and started from Square One by following the very vague instructions and the manual. But unfortunately I've got the same result. I resorted to calling customer service and within 3 hours a gentleman by the name of Nacho had called me back and literally spent two hours on the phone going over every step and how to do a factory reset because it was the system giving me trouble not the cameras themselves. He even took the time to have me send him multiple screenshots so he could see exactly what was going on with the system and how to correct it. We finally got all four cameras working and one was cracked but he offered to send a brand new replacement as a courtesy. He called the next day to ask how the system was working and if there were any other questions I had that he could address. Customer service is extremely important to me especially when it comes down to the security of our home. And I've had other systems but never the outstanding customer service that I've had with this system in such a short amount of time.

I have bought three separate sets of these. I had an issue with one camera that kept going out. Smonet sent me a new camera and I was able to replace it and everything appears to be working now. I would recommend these cameras, especially if you feel comfortable opening up the receiver box and installing a 4 TB hard drive yourself.The things that would make these 5 star though:- Their website does not mention that they sell cameras, so getting support or the downloads for the camera and receiver software is difficult. I had emailed them at their support email address and did not get a response. This is important because I am noticing on some of the newer cameras they have the option for a H265 codex option and the older ones do not. H265 is able to encode video at the same quality and takes up half the hard drive space as compared to H264 which is what I am guessing the old cameras are using.- The software could definitely be improved for reviewing on the receiver itself. Clicking through to watch a previous day's footage has caused the receiver to freeze on me twice. It will restart on its own a few minutes later, but still a little worrying. It is also hard to click through. The playback is not for the time that you click on, but jumps back a bit from the point you're clicking. It also does not like it if you click too close to the point that it's currently playing (most likely the point that you just clicked on). So you have to click further before or after before clicking after the point that you want it to play so that it plays exactly where you were expecting.- There appears to be no option for changing the sensitivity of the alerts for movement, only for human detection? You also can only draw a single shape as the detection region (defaulted to a square that takes up the whole screen. It would be nice to have the ability to select multiple regions and even have those regions with different sensitivities.The main pluses:- Cameras themselves are better than you could get in like a raspberry pi camera.- Pretty easy to set up.- Stores locally without requiring any subscription service. Does not even require internet to use.- Decently priced compared to other options or DIY (such as raspberry pi camera builds).

Product was as described, I would buy it again. The shipping was fast. The camera gives a crystal clear picture and it is easy to playback. Also picks up good audio.