Customer Reviews

Archerfish Quattro 4-Channel H.264 Intelligent Video Surveillance System with Weatherproof Mini Cameras (Black)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I spent the better part of a day installing, setting up, and experimenting with the Archerfish Quattro Interactive Video Monitoring system. My conclusion is that the hardware seems to be solid and reliable but that without a service subscription of $8/mo the product has limited use and appeal. The only features available without a service subscription are viewing recorded video (DVR) and live video. The event detection features that make the Archerfish different are not available. The box itself is pretty locked down and is not accessible in ANY WAY AT ALL from your local lan.

Combined with an extremely high up-front cost (approx $1,000 - $1,200) it's difficult to recommend it. What follow are some of my more detailed notes:

Packaging Contents
*Everything needed is included in the box: AC Adapters, cables, ethernet cable
*No printed instructions in the box but everything is easily available on line

Physical Setup
*Easy to setup/connect cables
*Camera mount needs wrench since they can't be threaded by hand
*Cameras have big bulky heavy adapters instead of lighter ones.
*No easy way to mount cameras level. No visual indicators on camera and video delays makes it tougher
*5 separate AC adaptors! Instead of powering cameras from receiver they need to be powered individually with their own AC Adapter

Registration
*Must provide credit card even for the basic subscription or the free 3 month subscription

Software Setup
*Can't setup a static ip for the device.
*It does not seem to be possible to access the device directly via your local LAN.
*All access must be through the Archerfish website
*Even with UPNP turned off it's very easy to configure your firewall and only one NAT rule is needed to be able to what video remotely

Use
*Only one camera available for live video at a time. It really would have been nice to see all cameras at once.
*There are long delays for live video 5-6 sec from local 8+ seconds from internet
*No way to just use this on local network to view the cameras. Everything needs to be done from the Archerfish website.
*Only records to external USB. No hard drive. limited online storage
*The external USB device is formatted with an ext3 file system. It's a pain for windows users because they can't read this format by default.

Event Configuration
*Up to 3 zones per camera can be established.
*Events are only on a per day range (intra is possible) and cannot overlap. You need to add multiple zones for the same range.
*No notifications or search or motion etc. w/o premium subscription

Pricing
*Amazon $1200
*If purchased independently from Amazon the four cameras would cost $260 - $330 (including all accessories)
*$870 ($1200 - $330) is a lot to pay for a device that has no hard drive, cannot be accessed from your network, and requires a paid subscription to make use of all of its

features and reliance on a the vendor to use at all. Imagine buying a computer and only being able to use it as long as the company was in business and offered a service.

Quality
*Video quality is Ok. Nothing great. Some of the other cameras I have used from Axis offer much, much better video quality
*No audio. This might be fine for surveillance but home users may be interested in Audio since this can be useful as a baby monitor or a monitor inside the home.

Security and Privacy
*All of the video that is recorded by the Quattro (except for the DVR function where it just records all the cams all the time) is stored on the Archerfish website.
*Archerfish does not provide any information about how they safeguard the data. All they say is that their portal is secure and their servers are hosted.
*There is no mention of encryption

I was disappointed by the amount of work required to get this system functioning. The company recommends a professional installation, which would drive the cost way up. All the cameras are wired and require feeding to the various locations where they would be useful. Then there is the internet requirement and subscription setup. By time I was done figuring out what to do I was more concerned about privacy issues than security.

I do not live in a high crime area, but I had hoped to use this for some simple security and convenience. I wanted to monitor our garage doors to make sure the kids shut them at night. I also wanted to monitor the front door. We are on a corner lot and the other place I had hoped to put a camera was on the side with no windows. So, give this criteria, I would either have to pay someone $400+ to run the cables, or do it myself. I chose to do i myself and run the cables along the outside instead of through the wall. It didn't last long. I found there wasn't enough cable for the side camera, and it was a pain with the others.

Now, I had a minimum setup, and went to the next step. I know you can get a free account, but I really don't like the fact that you have to go through an internet connection in order to use this product. I know it offers a number of features and is most likely secure, still it didn't leave me feeling very comfortable.

Overall, I think this is probably best for a small office rather than a home. The difficulty getting things setup and privacy concerns keep me from giving this product a great review.

BTW, I purposely chose not to do a technical review on this system because I thought the issues I faced were more relevant than commenting on what is available from others.

I've been using the Archerfish Quattro for about 6 months or so and I just don't like it. It was extremely difficult to coordinate with my computer, not cheap to subscribe to and just way to complicated for my home use needs. I've tried over and over to like this product, but it really isn't user friendly. The concept is great, but the delivery isn't.

Disclosure: I originally received a slightly different version of this system for free as part of the Amazon Vine program.

The Archerfish camera monitoring system does not come with any software. Everything works through a web interface. In order to even use the Archerfish system, you have to do an initial setup through their web site. Only problem is, it will not recognize my device. The instruction manual that came with the system is terrible. I realized that my first problem with setup was that I didn't have the ethernet cable connected between my device and my router. That's because the instructions NEVER tell you to do this. Of course I was able to figure it out, since I realize you need a network connection to the device, but I empathize with novice computer users who may not realize this and can't figure out what's wrong, even though they followed the instructions exactly. Even after connecting the ethernet cable, I still couldn't get the device registered at their web site. The troubleshooting instructions on their page are incomplete and useless. Here's a sample of their troubleshooting guidelines taken directly from their page:

"Perform a soft reset of . On the side of , locate the door for the MicroSD card." Perform a soft reset of what? On the side of what? Did someone not proofread this and realize words were left out? In the instruction manual it also says to go to a specific internet address, and then "go to the Dashboard menu." Well there is no Dashboard menu from that page. If you go to Archerfish's main site, you cannot access the myportal page at all. You can't sign into your account or navigate to the page you need to go to to setup and operate your cameras. All you can do is view their products. The ONLY way you will know which page to go to is that one page in the manual gives the correct address. I don't care that I can't view my images on the web, I have all the hardware in front of me, I should at LEAST be able to view local images from my computer without needing Internet access. Since everything is done over the web, if this company ever goes under or if there site is down, so is your camera. This is way too much of a gamble given the price of this device.

Another terrible feature- each camera requires a separate 12v power supply. They can't all feed into the power supply for the main device. This makes no sense. All of the cameras have to hardwire into the power supply, and the cable that connects them even has two cables - one for video and one for 12v power. So why not run that cable, which is going to end right at the unit, into a power input on the back of the device. That way they can feed off of the power supply that the base unit is using. But instead, you have to have a separate power supply, meaning that if you connect 4 cameras to this device, you are going to have 5 of those huge AC adapters that all need to be connected to the same power outlet. Prepare to invest in a power strip solely for running this bulky device.

The only pros are that it does come with very long video feed cables (although if you need more than 100 feet, you are out of luck because there is NO option for extending it due to the unusual design of the cables). The cameras are also small and fairly stylish (about the size of a roll of pennies).

I had this product for three years and despite desperately needing a home monitoring solution, these cameras mostly sat unused during the entire time I've had them. With all of the free software options for camera surveillance these days, there is no reason to pay a company for "monitoring." After weeks of trying to figure out the installation, I was finally able to get the cameras working, only to experience fairly mediocre picture quality, and an overwhelming influx of e-mail notifications every time the power went out on my computer. Ultimately, I threw this whole system in the trash, and replaced it with another system that was about the same price, but offered much more flexibility.

This video surveillance system has some nice features and some so so features. The one thing that really turns me off to this set up is the need for each camera to have its own electrical outlet. It's not so bad when you have maybe one or two cameras that you'd like to use. But trying to set up 3 or 4 gets a little challenging, especially if you don't have that many outlets where you need them. I will say that the quality of the images surpassed my expectations. They were pretty clear considering your looking at them via a web browser. It seems that the most helpful features require the subscription service, so that's another star removed. The free account access will serve most common requirements though. I think for what you get, the price is still very prohibitive.

Components: The set comes with four cameras, mounting hardware, four 50-foot cables for video and power, monitoring box, and an Ethernet cable. A computer with access to the internet is needed to set up the system, as the monitoring box will need to be connected to a home network. Neither the camera nor the recording box are wireless, so everything needs to be wired.

Installation: Installation was fairly simple. Due to issues with the software (discussed further below), you may want to install cameras roughly where you want them and run the wires temporarily, to make sure the device meets your needs before permanently installing them. Once the hardware is installed, you'll need to set up the device on the company website.

Functionality: Each camera has its own power source, rather than having each powered by the recording box. So, while long cables are provided making it unnecessary to have an outlet near the camera, you'll still need a total of 5 outlets in the same spot wherever you put the recording box, which is cumbersome. We had to use a surge protector in order to have enough outlets to plug everything in. It would be better if all the cameras were powered by the box. The picture quality from the cameras is comparable to any other security camera: low resolution and grainy, but more than sufficient for its purpose.

The hardware components are excellent. There's a lot of interesting potential here. The device can be linked to external triggers, such as an alarm system, motion sensor, or a switch attached to an entryway door. These external sensors can be used to trigger recording.

Where the system really falls apart is the software. First, despite both the Amazon product page and the packaged documentation, there is no free subscription available. The monitoring service costs $7.99 per month, and there are no discounts for pre-payment. The first problem that we encountered with setting the software up is that it's all done online, and the web address provided in the package documentation was not correct. I had to download an updated manual from the website in order to find the web page to set up the device. The website used for configuring the cameras is very difficult to use. It routinely lost contact with the cameras during configuration, making setup cumbersome. Oddly, when viewing video from the cameras outside the setup, we didn't encounter the same difficulty.

The largest limitation with the software is the inability to set up the cameras to record continuously, as one would expect with most security cameras. The system only works by recording based on events and all recordings are stored on a website. Through the website you create your own events, such as a person entering the room or a door opening; only when these set events occur does the camera record, rather than being able to record and store continuous video.

Pros: High quality cameras, ability to connect to external triggers.

Cons: No free subscription service, horrible website, no ability to continuously record (only can record based on pre-programmed events).

We gave this three stars after much deliberation. For us personally, it would be two stars due to its limitations. For those that don't mind the limitations, it could be a four star product.

This system is not your typical video monitoring system. What really stands our for the Archerfish system is the ability of the hardware/software to work together and communicate with you based on specific events. Most all of the other video technology / monitoring systems are "passive" in the sense that they either have to be monitored full time by a "live" person or they simply record what is going on.

This is the fact that makes this system really rock. If you are looking for a monitoring system for your home or business then this system will do what other systems can only dream of.

For example, I set this system up at my home to alert me when someone leaves or enters my front doorway. What really is exciting here is that the system lets me know when my wife leaves with the kids to go to preschool and also lets me know when FedEx drops an Amazon package at my door.

No DVR based passive system can recognize a person coming and going and then send a picture to my iPhone.

Cool and very neat system. The future of monitoring.

if you have a small business or have a remote office that you need to monitor when employees are coming and going - then this system is for you.

if you want to know when the family takes off and comes home - then this system is for you.

In the aesthetic sense - the cameras are very small and the main unit that you hook the cameras up to is about the same size as my lynksys router that I hooked it into. Would be better if the system came with wireless cameras - but that may be asking too much ....

This system does seem like it would be better for a business when used daily
but for us it is working ok for the times we are away from home and do not have someone to keep an eye on the house.
It is a bit frustrating when it says a free subscription is an option but it really is not so maybe it was at one point
but now their lowest one is $8 a month.
We have had no issues canceling and just will renew once we are gone again.
The hardware was really easy to set up we only needed one camera on the back door and one at the front.
The cameras seem pretty high quality but i have no others to compare them to this is the first system like this
we have ever used at the house.
I am impressed with the actual product but just wish the website was better.
Do agree would be nice if could do constant record and not just based on what you tell which events you pick.
But so far we have had enough events and have not needed the constant recording thankfully our area is quiet.
Having the extra piece of mind when we are away from home for long periods of time it has been nice.
The price seems a bit much for home use so might be better for a small business.

I am not much of a technophile like some of the other reviewers. I'm just a low income guy who wanted a simple set-up to watch some trouble spots (vandalism, gas-stealing, drunken fights, etc. in the alley and near the bar back of where I live. This product is really best for a business rather than a home, because to work right you need to figure on a monthly paid service. They also need to tell you that you require a router and some kind of recording device which are not included in this package. To use the full set of attributes, you need to upgrade to the premium package which requires a monthly bill/service. Like millions of others, I can't afford extras these days, since rent and food are even a challenge currently for many folks.