Q-See QSPDVR04 4 Channel Digital Video Recorder PCI Card
by Digital Peripheral Solutions
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List Price: Our Price: $71.99 You Save: $28.00 (28%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Digital Camera See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Q-See QSPDVR04 4 Channel Digital Video Recorder PCI Card
Customer Review: DVR
Summary: 5 Stars
the Dvr card performs as advertised, it was a quick and efficient way to connect my multiple low cost security cameras into one remotely managed system. As a plus it has a motion sensitivity email app that lets me know when some one is in my yard when I am away. I received the package quickly and the vendor was reliable, I plan on purchasing more of these cards for my home security system as they are a great value.Customer Review: Q-See 4 Camera Video Recorder
Summary: 5 Stars
I installed this in minutes on an older computer, I set it up to record the times I wanted, can also be motion triggered, it was recommended not to use the harddrive on the same computer, I did, works fine, good clear picture, no problems!Customer Review: Does the trick
Summary: 5 Stars
This product does what it's supposed to. We didn't install it, but had a tech do it for us. Maybe it is easy, but I decided not to find out the hard way.Customer Review: Good value despite a few hoops to jump through.
Summary: 4 Stars
Overall, this is a great software and hardware combo for creating a home security system. Just don't install the software that came on the disc. Instead, download the latest version from the company web site and use that instead. Once you do that, things go a lot better.
Be warned, that despite it claiming 30 frames per second recording, that's for all four inputs combined. So, if you have 4 cameras hooked up, you can only get around 7-8 frames per second on each. For me, that's fine since I only run at 7 frames per second, anyway. You really don't need much more than that. It saves space and gets the images.
Some nice touches include the ability to print stills as well as set various recording times and modes for each camera. So, you can determine when each camera records and whether it rolls full time or only when it detects motion. The interface is easy to control, though the broken English in the manual requires frequent re-reading to fully understand some of the advanced options. You have three view options: 1 camera full time, multiple cameras at once or a cycle of all cameras on the system.
The playback system for recorded videos is a bit slow to load, though I'm sure part of that is due to the older system I'm running it on (see the next paragraph). It's relatively easy to call up and view video, as well as burn it to recordable media to view elsewhere. The software has a handy calendar function to allow you to pick a date to view. From this area, you can also manually delete files. When hard drive space is running low, the system will automatically delete older videos, so be sure to back up anything you want to keep for your records.
So far, my system has been running well for several months on an old Pentium II system I dug out of the closet that I'm running Windows XP Home on. I've only had one freeze up and a reboot took care of that.
*** EDIT: (March 22, 2010): Regarding the above, I have since replaced the above system with a Pentium 4 system I recently retired from normal computing service. At the same time, I also upgraded to the latest DVR software available from Q-See. Both changes are an improvement. Indeed, the slow transition from recording to playback view were due to the older system I was running. The software now jumps from recording view to playback view in one or two seconds and the interface overall is a bit more polished. The only thing I don't like is they eliminated the "notch" in the playback speed slider that shows normal speed. It's still easy to get it back to that position, but I liked having the indicator show exactly where that center "normal" position is from the last software.***
The card has BNC connectors on it, but you can get an RCA to BNC adapter at any Radio Shack. Most decent security cameras will come with one.
If the camera has controls for it, the software can control panning, tilting and zooming (PTZ). However, unless you have a camera designed for remote control, this function won't do anything for you.
Finally, if you want to monitor a remote location, you can set up the software to allow to log in via the internet when you're away. It offers password protection for both remote viewing and for adjusting settings (including disabling the system) when you're at the system itself.
I gave it 4 stars only because of the snafu with having to download a working version of the software and that I wish you could search forward and back a little faster than what can be done currently. Also, the ability to choose an exact time would be nice rather than fiddling with the slider bar. The hour by hour ticks are nice, but not as handy as they could be. However, the price is certainly right, considering how much a standalone security video deck or DVR costs.
Overall, very good, just a few "gotchas".
Customer Review: Great Card but Crummy Instruction Book
Summary: 4 Stars
This card performed well in my computer with inputs from three Q-See QSC48030 cameras. I was very satisfied with the capabilities of the card and the software but finding out how to utilize the features of the software was as much trial and error as it was obtaining the information from the instruction manual.
Cons: I really did not like the limitation to 1024 x 768 screen resolution. Also, using a remote computer or computer on the LAN, the Remote Desktop will not display the camera video but there is a utility provided within the software that will allow you to view the display remotely. My old software (Webcam Surveyor which does not work with this card) would allow me to use Remote Desktop and to use any screen resolution. This was an advantage to me because I could have the remote desktop running in a window and monitor the cameras while working on something else. With the Q-See software, even if you are working on the computer with the card installed, you can only view the camera video in full screen mode so you can't monitor the cameras while working on anything else.