Opening the Box
It was packed well from Mace, but once I opened the DVR box, I was a little concerned. The cameras felt solid and instilled confidence, but the DVR itself was 'off'. By this I mean, it didn't say "Mace" anywhere and it felt a bit cheap. I had the impression this was a mass produced DVR which was then licensed to many retailers. Funny thing was, Mace didn't even spend the trouble of branding it. The instruction manual was also unbranded. The included CD had a paper label with an anime' figure and hand written numbers on it. Hum.... Reminded me of something I would get from the back of a van in China-town. The instruction manual was a poor translation to English from some other language. Not horribly helpful as it would turn out.
Initial Testing
I decided I should plug everything in and make sure it all worked before I actually ran wires in my attic and drilled holes in my ceiling. I plugged the cameras into the supplied cables and then the cables were plugged into the back of the DVR. Finally, I plugged in the power cord to the DVR at which time I observed a disticnt arc and pop from the power in port! Now I'm really thinking this thing is poorly made! But, the DVR powered up as far as I could tell. I realized right way a DVR with no monitor is useless. So, I ran to buy a computer monitor. When I got home with my little flat screen for $79.99, I noticed the house smelled funny!
The Fire
So, maybe it wasn't an actual fire, but it would have been after not much longer! That funny smell was coming from one of the four included camera cables. It was so hot I couldn't even touch it! I'm lucky it was a short trip. (get it?) I did some testing a learned the problem was a short in one of the cable ends where the 12VDC plugs in. I ended up cutting the ends off of that cable with the plan of soldering the connection during the install.
It's ALIVE!
After the 'short' distration, and hooking up my monitor, it was working. The cameras looked good and the DVR was recording. I considered it a good test, and proceeded with the installation. The install was pretty simple really, not much more than what I had in my floor except for the wires were now in the attic running to each camera. I also connected an ethernet cable to the DVR to use the network functions.
DVR Software and Functions
I wanted a DVR that would record video at all times and allow me to watch the feeds from both a computer and my blackberry. B&H indicated this product would do both.
Step one was seeing if it was recording. The DVR software was pretty straight forward, even though it too was odd. I am able to search the recorded history, and play back all 4 cameras at once. There is a glitch in the playback. If I fast-forward, it only plays about 3 minutes, then stops. That makes it hard to search a 30 minute clip unless you sit there for a real time play back. There is a work around. You can copy a video file to a thumb drive, then that file can be played in Windows. From there it is very easy to skip around, etc.
This is a snapshot of the monitor:
Step two was could I view it from my web browser. This is a complicated process, but here is a rough overview. I first checked that my router had assigned an IP address to the DVR. It had. So, I opened IE and typed the IP address in the address bar. The cameras came right up (after getting Active X to run)! But this was only an intranet connection, I needed and internet connection too. This involves opening ports on your router from outside and directing those ports to the DVR. This was complicated and I spent some time googling the answers. There are nice people on Youtube that show you just how it is done! I eventually was able to type in a www address, and my cameras would open up. Too bad it wasn't asking for a password! Anyone that found my web site could view my cameras. The instruction manual told me how to set a password, but it wasn't working. I later learned that the asnwer was to use the web browser connection to set a password. Again, lot's of web searching involved. The browser viewer also allows you to watch recorded video. Windows 7 was blocking it due to Access Control setting in the Win7 User settings. You can turn off that security feature in the control panel then it works ok. Also, the active X used to view the cameras is unsigned thus IE refuses to load it. It takes some more Googling to learn how to convince IE to load the Active X.
Step three was to view the cameras from my blackberry. By this point I had learned how to forward ports in my router, so I had to add another port and then install the blackberry client from the CD. Shocker... it wouldn't connect. I later downloaded a newer BB client from the mace web site, and it works! I can view all of my cameras from my BB over both the 3G ntwork or wifi. I did get my rooted Nook Color to play the cameras via wifi after installing the android app, as well!
Next Step is to connect it to my alarm system. I haven't done this yet, but has some neat features. By making the DVR a 'trouble' zone, if a camera goes off-line or the HDD crashes, the DVR will notify the alarm system and in turn you will know there is a problem. My alarm system will actually send me a text that I need to check the DVR. Cool! Also, if the alarm system is triggered, the DVR will email me a snapshot from all of the cameras. Those features have yet to actually be tried, but I bet they will work after a lot of trouble shooting.
Thing is, this system does work. But, it is finicky and the manual won't help you. If you plan to use any of the advanced features, you will have to do some research and stick with it! I consider myself pretty techie and I call this hard, so I don't think a normal homeowner would be happy. Even an installer will be mad at this sytem unless they know its particular needs.
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