Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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52 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent home surveillance PCI DVR, July 18, 2007
*** UPDATE 5/4/08: After over 1 year of use, I've made a few updates to the review. Overall, still very happy! Just wanted to add some more useful information and minor updates. ***
I'm currently using 2 QSPDVR04 PCI cards along with 8 various Q-See camears. The maximum is 4 PCI cards (16 channels) per system. The box includes the software, users guide, pci card, and 4 BNC -> RCA adapters (the 4 connectors on the card itself are BNC (video only). The RCA adapters are only used for the low-end camears - which don't normally work that well anyways. Also note that the Q-See hardware and software both appears to be identical to the Swann gear.
I do suggest a much better system than their minimum requirements, especially if you are going to use more than 1 PCI card. In my case, the 2 cards are installed in a Dell Optiplex GX280, P4 2.4Ghz, 2GB of RAM, and 250GB HD. It's a relatively cheap system and has been dedicated as a DVR PC for the cameras. I originally had a slower PIII 1GHz system doing the job, but when I added a 2nd PCI card, that was a little too much for the old Dell. While this is still well above the min sys requirements, it's still a good idea to make use of the "scheduled reboot" feature if you notice things getting sluggish after awhile. This is possibly due to some bugs in the s/w and may be fixed in the future. I always install the latest software from the website - very important.
I'm using the remote web playback/recording software so 4 other computers in the house can monitor the cameras in realtime as well as PC's located outside of the house, via the Internet (may need to make changes to your router). I should also inform you that some of the "advanced" features may require a bit of time to figure out for novice PC users. Especially considering the manual looks as though it was written in another language and then poorly translated into English.
I have a few cameras connected to these cards. (1) QSVC456C camera, (3) QS2350C cameras, (2) QOCDC cameras, and (2) QPSCDCA indoor only cameras. The DVR software is setup to record 24/7 as well as make note of motion detection. This allows me to either playback everything, or just video where motion was detected. But thanks to a 250GB HD, it can record for months without running out of space. The card is only able to capture 7 FPS for each camera (30fps total). This also applies to watching video in realtime. So images will appear "choppy," which is expected for something in this price range. It's honestly not a big issue though.
The recorded image quality is fairly good, at a maximum of 640x480 resolution it works well for home surveillance. Just don't expect to zoom into a licence plate 100 ft away like you see on TV. :) The software also allows you choose several viewing options, such as auto scroll mode that goes through each camera, in full screen, one at a time. Or, display them all at once on the screen in various formats. You have the ability to set recording to schedule, manual, and/or motion detection (the sensitivity is adjustable).
The playback software works very well. Just select a date, then scroll through the time to pick the spot you want to watch. You can watch 1 camera at a time, all of them at once, or pick the ones you want. It's similar to other video editing software that you have likely seen on your PC. The only negative here is that if you want to watch it play back in realtime, the the fastest it will go is 4x. The use of 'motion recording' is recommended due to this over sight. I'm hoping a software update will fix this important "feature."
Pros:
* Very inexpensive DVR PCI Card
* Easy installation
* Basic but very functional software
* Expandable up to 4 PCI cards
* Good video playback/record quality.
* Remote software for Live/Recorded playback via LAN/WAN.
Cons:
* Advanced features may confuse some users
* Manual needs to be re-writting in "English"
* Fast Forward needs to be drastically increased
* 30fps shared between 4 cameras
Bottom line: while there are better dedicated DVR's and PCI DVR's out there - considering the price and functionality of the QSPDVR04, I rate this card at 5 stars, and consider it highly recommended for and home/small business surveillance. Even though I didn't have any issues with the card or software, keep in mind that I am a very technical user. If you don't feel comfortable opening your PC or are a novice user - be sure to read the users guide on the Q-See site before purchase to make sure you know what you're getting into. :)
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34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Performs well, August 30, 2005
This hardware performs well, but for the price it doesn't really provide anything the Swann equivelant does for a few dollars less, they both use the same software vendor. Also, there is a software upgrade available on Q-See's site that makes some essential upgrades, I would recommend installing that right away, as you have to uninstall in order to upgrade, and you lose any settings you made. Also, no matter how you read the wording, this card (and the Swann) only capture 32 fps divided by the number of camera's you use. If you use 4 camera's you will only get 7 fps on each.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
All in all I am pretty pleased, July 21, 2008
Let me start by saying that I give this a Five Star rating based on performance-for-price; this product is not without its shortcomings.
I have an Intel motherboard with an Intel CPU and everything works great for me. I am running Windows Vista Ultimate 32-Bit. nVidia nForce chipset and nVidia 8800 GTS Graphics. I had lots of blue-screens when I first installed this card, but after updating the nForce drivers from nVidia's website everything has been great. (I have read that AMD users may have more issues.)
A point that I want to make very clear is about the "30 FPS (frames per second)" of video capture; this card can, in fact, encode 30 frames per second of MPEG video, but it is divided amongst the 4 camera ports. IE: you will get perfectly smooth (movie quality) video with 1 camera, 15 FPS each when using 2 cameras, 10 FPS with 3, and only 7 frames a second per camera with all four ports connected. I am not saying that this is bad. Again, for the price, this is a great card with LOADS of features, but do not expect a four-way split screen with each camera having fluid video.
That being said; I generally like this card a lot. I specialize in computer service and repair for a living, and it took me a little while to get the Web Service running correctly. I followed all of the steps to setup "Remote Viewing", and was able to monitor all four cameras from any PC or laptop on my LAN, but was never able to watch from outside my home. A friend informed me that my ISP (COX Communications) blocks HTTP Port 80 (probably to discourage web-hosting) and once I configured my Q-See software and my Linksys router for Port 70 everything worked just fine. I can now watch my Front Door, Driveway, Backyard, and keep an eye on my pooches from anywhere in the world.
Another surprise was when I tried to log into my IP address from my Windows Mobile cell phone. A message asked me if I wished to install the cab file offered by my IP address and when I accepted it added Pocket Camera to my Start programs. I can now scroll through all of my cameras live on my cell phone. (Yah, my friends think I'm a HUGE Geek, but they agree that THAT is pretty cool.) LOL
The only issue I have at the moment is that the Q-See "SUPERDVR" monitoring program is locked to 1024x768 resolution and cannot be moved around on your screen. I have a dual-monitor setup and would love to be able to drag the camera application to my secondary monitor so I can see motion out of my peripheral vision while working on my main screen. Unfortunately I still have to Alt+Tab back to the program periodically to survey my premises. No biggie, and most people may not be running dual-monitors, but it would be a nice option for those of us who do.
Something that really impressed me was the ability to playback any given period of time, from any of your cameras, then burn it directly to a DVD. This is useful if you need to bring evidence of vandalism to the authorities, or simply if you want to record your dogs running around in the backyard.
I highly recommend this card, and have positive reviews for a few cameras as well. There are DVR cards at Amazon which can capture 30 Frames Per Second for each of four cameras, if you need such a thing, but most of then start ar four or five times the price. I think this is an excellent and easy-to-use investment for any homeowner or small business.
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