Sabrent USB-DVR4 4-Channel USB 2.0 DVR Security Surveillance CCTV Digital Video Camera Recorder Adapter - VISTA Ready

by Sabrent

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 1.5 x 7 inches ; 4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001874F6O
• Item model number: USB-DVR4
• Average Customer Review: 1.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 2, 2004

Product Description

The SABRENT 4-CHANNEL USB 2.0 DVR is the safety system of ideal design for home/office/shop guard or baby care purpose; Users can do their own security by easy installation. It is the cost-effective solution to replace commercial VCR tape recorder, it supports stable digitized video recording and easily manages the recorded data via index of date and time. Features : 4 channels video input in one card, the maximum display/recording rate is 25 fps under PAL format, and 30 fps under NTSC format. 1 channel audio input. 4 screen display modes are available. Multi alarm triggering method: sensor, motion, video loss, and HDD space shortage. Supports schedule recording, recycling recording method available. MPEG4 video compression format. 5 level recording quality options available, and the recording frame rate range from 1 to 30 fps adjustable for each channel. Supports multi-channel playback, searching by time/date and recording events, images can be zoom/capture/save/print/backup. Supports remote surveillance and PTZ control through web browser, support dynamic domain name Configurable auto reboot function for preventing PC deadlock. Alarm notification by e-mail with image Please visit http://www.sabrent.com/products/specs/USB-DVR4.htm for more detail SUPPORT: [e-mail] Requirements : Windows 2000/XP or Vista CPU: Intel P4 Celeron processor, minimum 1700MHz Motherboard : Intel 845/865/915 series HDD : 80G or better RAM : 256M memory or better VGA : GeForce2,GeForce4,FX5200,ATI Rage128 Microsoft DirectX 9.0C USB 2.0 port True Color VGA Card Retail Package Content : 4 Channel USB 2.0 DVR

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed in Multiviewer, September 1, 2008

By 

V. Ricca - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sabrent USB-DVR4 4-Channel USB 2.0 DVR Security Surveillance CCTV Digital Video Camera Recorder Adapter - VISTA Ready (Electronics)

While camera set up was a little tasking I am disappointed more with the Multiview software. It is missing some of the advertized abilities such as email alerts only with some controls being greyed out and can't be used. It does not have any automatic trigger (motion) to take pictures and requires a lot of hard drive memory to store long survalence video. Hoping for an revision to the software but do not expect any.
Overall, it is ok for manual short term remote viewing but falls short of a video security system.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars software doesn't work as advertised, March 11, 2009

By 

Kent Brooten "Kent" (Kent, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sabrent USB-DVR4 4-Channel USB 2.0 DVR Security Surveillance CCTV Digital Video Camera Recorder Adapter - VISTA Ready (Electronics)

I have been in contact with the company who produces this device (in Hong Kong). I sent a detailed explanation (with graphics) showing how the software failed to work as advertised. I found others who wrote reviews complaining of the same problem: it won't send emails when motion is detected. They send me new drivers (didn't help) and send me of new CD (of the SAME version of the software). the last time I asked if they were going to update the software, they apologized for the faulty hardware and suggested I return it to them for replacement. It's clear they don't understand nor have they tested the software properly.
If you want to monitor 4 video cameras, it works. If you want the software to do everything as advertised, forget it.
Kent

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Stay away!, January 23, 2009

By 

B. Holtappels (NYC metro area, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sabrent USB-DVR4 4-Channel USB 2.0 DVR Security Surveillance CCTV Digital Video Camera Recorder Adapter - VISTA Ready (Electronics)

I bought this product for ugrading a perfectly working CCTV system from PCI (Connexant based) to USB. Turns out that after hours and hours of tweaking and downloading every driver that remotely had anything to do with it, I had to give up. It is built on the STK160 chipset made by Systek Taiwan, which is the only source for any driver and it does not meet even the very lowest quality standards.

It does NOT work with ANY other Windows software except on channel 1 (it is a 4 channel device) WITHOUT AUDIO. It works only after reboot with no other apps running and eats up 100% of the CPU. The software that comes with it does work on more than 1 channel, but it is very crash happy and has almost no features, not even the basic ones. It is so bad that it is not worth anyone's time. Do yourself a favor and buy another product.

I tried it on a Gigabyte P5 mainboard with Core 2 Duo and 2 GB RAM, XP SP2, and for reference on an IBM T41 laptop, with a fresh XP install with SP3. Same experience on both.

I am currently considering the Swann Guardian, but am hesitant after this experience.