Defender SENTINEL1 Ultra Compact Web Ready DVR Security System w/7-Inch LCD & 4 Indoor/Outdoor Night Vision Surveillance Cameras
by SVAT Electronics
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Customers in the UK,
buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: SVAT ElectronicsModel: SENTINEL1
Color: Black
Product features:
- Includes compact DVR; playback footage directly on a 7-inch LCD screen
- Features 320GB Seagate hard drive; can store up to 80 days of footage
- Comes with four hi-res outdoor night-vision cameras
- View online with free dynamic DNS service
- Instant motion activated recording; Time, date, and event search
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Defender SENTINEL1 Ultra Compact Web Ready DVR Security System w/7-Inch LCD & 4 Indoor/Outdoor Night Vision Surveillance Cameras
Customer Review: Excellent value, basic features
Summary: 5 Stars
For the price, this package is an excellent value.
This system comes with 4, wired cameras, but I bought a wireless camera so that I could start using the system right away, without having to run cable.
The camera quality of the wired cameras is pretty good -- nothing spectacular -- but they are slightly higher resolution than normal, which allows you to zoom in slightly on the DVR.
The included cable has a proprietary connection at one end that has both video and power in one connection, and splits out power and video signals on the DVR side. Each camera connects to the DVR via a BNC (twist-lock) connector, but comes with six total RCA-to-BNC connectors (two with the DVR, one with each camera). If you were to upgrade the camera later, or custom cut the camera cables to length, you would need to re-terminate either the proprietary camera end (might be tricky) or the DVR end (might be slightly easier), or just run a new cable.
The DVR comes with a remote, but most of the functions (such as search by percentage) only provide "single-click" functionality, meaning: to search to 98% of the DVR's memory, you have to click the remote 98 times, rather than having the convenience of just typing "9" then "8" on the remote. There are similar problems entering date / time and other attributes.
The PC connection functionality comes in three pieces: There is a dedicated "client" application that has all the basic DVR functionality, but is VERY unstable. The program doesn't crash, but it loses connection to the DVR quite often, even on a PC with a wired network connection. The second piece, a dedicated "backup viewer" program, only works on backup (archive) files that have been copied from the DVR's "backup" function or from the web backup client.
The third piece of PC functionality is a web client, that you can only get to by "registering" your DVR on their website -- good luck 3 years from now when they take the website down. The website has two main pieces: A real-time viewer (can't view the DVR, just what is happening RIGHT NOW), and a backup utility. The website provides a "Dynamic DNS" (DDNS) service, so that you can connect to your home network without knowing your public IP address, and the manual has fairly thorough instructions for setting up a variety of the most popular routers, including Linksys, Netgear, and D-Link. You have to set the DVR to a static IP on your home network, and configure your router for port redirection so that incoming requests from the web client on a particular port go straight to the DVR. Remote viewing is SLOW, at about 7fps even at LAN speeds.
The backup utility is MUCH more convenient for making backup files, suitable for the backup viewer program, since backup files are about 100 meg per 5 minutes of video (the DVR only supports MJPEG, which is old and crappy video compression), which means that the included memory stick can only hold about 25 minutes of video.
To back up 6 hours of video, it took me nearly 1 full day using the web backup utility, and just over 7 gigs of storage. The web backup utility crashed 3 times, but it was still much better than using the memory stick. SUPPOSEDLY, this unit can support a USB hard drive for backups, but I haven't tried it yet -- that would probably be the best option.
If you use these cameras outdoors, the motion detection feature is going to be worthless, so don't even bother. Regardless of how you tweak the sensitivity and masking, there are always going to be situations where the picture varies enough to trigger the motion detection. If the sun goes behind a cloud or the wind blows, it's going to trigger the motion sensor. The motion detection feature might be nice to use in an indoor, enclosed area, like your garage, where the picture will be relatively static unless something happens.
The motion detection can trigger the cameras as well as an alarm contact and a "pop" monitor. The alarm contacts let you specify "Normally Open" or "Normally Closed", and can be used to interface with an alarm system. Likewise, I *think* you can have your alarm system's motion sensor trigger the cameras to record, but I haven't figured this out yet. The "pop" monitor is normally off (blue-screen) unless a motion event is triggered, which then displays the camera on which motion occurred. This allows you to use two monitors: One that can remain on "quad view" all the time, while the other shows you motion events as they occur, without having to switch back and forth all the time.
Despite a few shortcomings, this is a great deal on an entry-level DVR / camera package suitable for home security.
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Description of Defender SENTINEL1 Ultra Compact Web Ready DVR Security System w/7-Inch LCD & 4 Indoor/Outdoor Night Vision Surveillance Cameras
Protect your hard-earned possessions, assets, and family; know who has been on your property; rid yourself of uneasiness when you travel on vacation or business. The SENTINEL1 is a user-friendly, do-it-yourself security system that offers many advanced features for the protection of your business or home. The online viewing feature allows you to conveniently access your DVR's live or recorded video footage on any computer in the world with Internet Explorer. Record up to 80 days of continuous video on the built-in 320GB Seagate SV35 series hard drive. The SENTINEL1 is space-saving and simple to setup. The compact unit has everything you need to start monitoring your property effectively.Cameras
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