Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

UPDATE: 2017-05-02 10 months later A couple weeks ago one of my cameras IR leds went out, only half of them were functional. Less than a year and it's already breaking With the lack of remote access, I started using third party programs to access my system for remote view and control. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPDATE: 2016-11-24, 5 months later Cameras/DVR/HDD still good, quality is still good. I haven't had any mechanical issues yet. AGAIN I highly advise you not to update the DVR if you want to retain access to the DVR remotely, if not go ahead and update. EZVIZ is another company of hikvision, which is a Chinese company known to collect footage from your cameras. Probably why they removed direct access to the DVR and forcing your to use their horrible mobile and web app through their cloud. I honestly don't care about my footage being taken/used/seen by the anyone because all it's used for are perimeter cameras, nothing to hide. Mobile app connectivity is slow and sometimes I have to force close the app and restart it to get it to load. Web app interface is weak, timeout feature is annoying especially if I want to keep it open remotely, hence why direct access to the DVR is better. If someone finds a way to downgrade the DVR, please let me know thank you! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cons: Lack of feature for remote access, mounting bracket is too short and doesn't allow optimal mounting positions, no remote, can't zoom in playback via DVR, and fans are loud. Pro: Good image quality, good IR distance and illumination, affordable price When you first buy the system you can access the DVR directly via the web browser. However if you accidentally update the DVR via the mobile app, you will lose that functionality and will be FORCED to only use the mobile app or their s***ty web app. I don't know what they were thinking when they decided to remove the feature to access your DVR directly via a web browser... Some people like myself have my DVR installed somewhere I can't easily access all the time and require remote access to get to all the advanced settings. With their web app, you can not do a damn thing..... It's exactly like their mobile app but for your browser. I've spoken to their support team already and they don't "ALLOW" direct access to the DVR anymore. So I highly suggest you not to update the DVR's firmware. This system also does not come with a remove which is also a useful tool for those who install DVRs elsewhere besides ground level and in front of them. Mounting bracket is extremely short which doesn't allow much adjustment or positions of mounting. In playback mode you can not zoom in. Fans are loud too loud, I suggest you not put this in your bedroom. The only good things about this system is the quality of the image is good, the IR distance is good and their price is affordable.I would return this and get a different system, but it's too much of a hassle to remove everything and do it all over again with a new system.