Synology IP Camera License Pack for 1 (CLP1)

by Synology

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.1 x 5.5 inches ; 1 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001MJ0JAO
• Item model number: IP Camera License
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,054 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 19, 2008

Product Description

IP Camera License Pack for 1

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice tool, but lacks essential feature and the price is not justifyable., June 7, 2009

By 

Trailman (Medfield, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Synology IP Camera License Pack for 1 (CLP1) (Electronics)

I like the Surveillance Station of my Rackstation RS-407, but it is a rather crude implementation of a surveillance camera utility. Synology clearly spent time and effort on making the user interface slick and appealing, not without success. But if you have 3 weeks worth of video material on the disk, how are you going to look for a specific event without a fast-forward playback mechanism?
I have to take the video file and view in Windows Media Player. Why spend $50 per additional camera license if I can't even view the recorded video with the onboard software? If the pricing were reasonable, I would buy another license.

Update 12/2009: Indeed, version 2.2 of the Disk Station Manager (the web interface that comes with the latest firmware patch) adds up to 8x accelerated and 1/8 x slow motion playback, as well as a digital zoom that an be applied to the recorded video. I still think the licenses are too expensive for the target market of my RS207 - home users and small businesses.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Absurdly overpriced "license" to RESTORE access to immature beta software, September 13, 2011

By 

J. Nelson (Southern California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Synology IP Camera License Pack for 1 (CLP1) (Electronics)

Synology manufactures some of the best network-attached storage (NAS) devices around, and has spent considerable resources making the user interface for their devices convenient, intuitive and powerful. Among the software features bundled with their NAS operating system is a "Surveillance Station" software package, which can, when used with one or more IP cameras, turn the Diskstation into an internet-enabled video security system.

While the ad copy for the Diskstations may discuss the maximum number of cameras each of the different models can accommodate, it may not make clear that, out-of-the-box, each Diskstation has a "license" to use only one camera. You simply can not connect more than one camera to the software without buying a "license" code for each additional camera. Why Synology would choose to intentionally cripple one of their software titles, and charge such an exorbitant ransom to enable it, escapes me.

For example, I have a DS1511+, currently Synology's flagship 5-bay SOHO NAS. According to Synology's specifications, this device is capable of supporting up to 20 (!) IP cameras. (The word "support" here is used generously, as very few cameras are fully "supported" -- with many you won't be able to record audio, or stream a live view to anything other than Internet Explorer with ActiveX plugins). As with every Diskstation, the DS1511+ only includes a "license" for 1 camera. To fully enable the 20 'supported' cameras, one would have to purchase 19 of the CLP1 license packs. Do the math (Amazon doesn't like people mentioning prices in their reviews), and you will discover:

THE LICENSING COST FOR THE CAMERA SOFTWARE WILL EXCEED THE COST OF THE (EXPENSIVE) DS1511+ HARDWARE!

According to the Synology moderators who locked (!) a discussion thread on this topic in their support forums:

"The ability to use 1 IP camera per DiskStation out of the box is for evaluation purposes and is not provided as a license key."

Therefore, the Surveillance Station software that they advertise so proudly in the ad copy for each of their NAS devices is properly understood as an EVALUATION TRIAL COPY.

This came as a surprise to early adopters of Synology products, who previously enjoyed a copy of Surveillance Station that was unburdened by additional camera licensing requirements. Much to their surprise, a firmware update pushed out by Synology disabled the functionality of their software, and rendered their previous purchases of additional cameras wasted. Imagine how you would feel if you updated your Windows operating system, only to be told that now you owed Microsoft an additional $50 printer "license" for a device that previously functioned, and was now disabled.

Will Synology push out additional firmware updates in the future that disable additional components of their operating system? Will they begin charging a per-hard-drive "license" fee for their multi-bay units?

If history is any indication, they might.

Plan your purchases accordingly.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cost-Effective Add-On for DiskStation's NAS, January 13, 2012

By 

'tis True "pdxcentric" (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Synology IP Camera License Pack for 1 (CLP1) (Electronics)

If you're shocked about the cost, research (the cost & feasibility) of other IP-Cam CCTV hardware/software. It can be very expensive to purchase, install, config & maintain your own CCTV system. That's why so many just buy the 4-Cam or 8-Cam packaged CCTV solutions at the local hardware store -- but they still have to hump around the house to install each camera with individual cable-runs, and learn how their system needs to be configured, etc. These systems are great for consumers who don't know anything about IP-based CCTV systems but if you're reading this review, I'm assuming you're already tech-savvy.

I don't work for Synology. I'm an ordinary average guy with a wife who wanted CCTV cameras in the house, and I already owned a DiskStation DS410 NAS device using firmware version "DSM 3.2-1944" with 4x2TB Seagate hard drives. I was surprised DiskStation's firmware had a CCTV Surveillance application already on-board the DS410, and I was also surprised I needed to purchase a license for each additonal CCTV camera I want to install. So, I searched the Internet for similar IP-based CCTV systems and compared cost, etc. I was even more surprised to discover other IP-based camera licenses cost twice as much (or more) than Synology's IP camera license.

I now have ten (10) CCTV IP Cameras all over my house connected and managed by my DS410 NAS using Synology's Surveillance Station firmware. Each of my cameras are Chinese imitations of the popular wifi Foscam PTZ models w/night vision. I tried using only wifi for the last 6 months but each IP camera's wifi radio performance was marginal at best. My wife and I also own iPhones and Synology offers a Surveillance Station app from Apple's iTunes online app store. We can monitor every camera in the house from our iPhones including pan, tilt, zoom! I ended-up routing CAT-5 cable to each IP camera and the overall performance of the system is way better! Just make sure to have a good router and network switch. I'm an expat living in the Philippines, so obtaining all of this equipment was not even clost to easy but little-by-little it's all assembled and working 24/7.

I only have two complaints about this purchase: (1) each license has to be physically shipped to your address instead of just receiving an email with the license key, and (2) Amazon split my shipping into two separate deliveries [2 different shipping companies] instead of only one EVEN AFTER I SPECIFIED 'GROUP INTO INDIVIDUAL SHIPMENT' upon check-out, which wasn't a big deal but one of the shipping companies lost the delivery and I had to spend hours on the phone overseas to resolve the problem. In that regard, Amazon's shipping policies/procedures have degraded since I first began shopping with them over ten years ago.