Amcrest 5MP UltraHD 16 Channel DVR Security Camera System Recorder, 5MP Security DVR for Analog Security Cameras, Remote Smartphone Access, HDD & Cameras NOT Included (AMDV5M16)

Good service and delivery

My experience with Adam Pometti with bay alarms has been absolutely fantastic. What do i mean by fantastic? Basically not only was he very helpful as well as thorough with system selection, he also gave me the best options that would benefit my offices in what we were looking for. Not only that he also referred me to an agent that could help me with my home. Highly recommend the alarm for your safety and security. Thank you for your continuous help Adam P. The DVR quality is clean, clear and not noisy.

My parents had a Samsung all in one camera system for their house. The system had 10 x 1080p cameras and they never did look that great using the Samsung DVR even with the settings set to high quality (1080p). This is the 3rd year of owning the Samsung and it finally died. The board would recognize if a hard drive was not plugged in but it would never initialize. I purchased this unit for them and configured it in about an hour and the picture quality looks like it is using the full 1080p of the cameras. I have used Amcrest before with their wireless cameras and they always seemed to do well. This unit works well and is easy to navigate using the Amcrest View Pro software. I scanned the barcode with their Apple and Android phones and it just worked. Great device!!

*** UPDATE *** Got my replacement, IT had everything, a user guide, the mouse was sealed, had screws for the hard drive, had the hard drive cables separate from the unit, meaning the on the old one someone installed them already. The unit was somewhat easy to set up, I did cut my finger on the thin metal chassis. Set up was really simple. Has lots of controls for the camera and display modes. I have an HDMI monitor and a regular VGA monitor but running 1080p resolution. The BNC cables on the unit were hard to screw down because they were so close but I got it done. The phone app works very smooth compared to the older units software. I can't hold getting a used unit against the product so I raised it to 4 star's. My only real gripe is setting up the Tour mode is not as customizable as I would like. One note - I did find out that a wireless mouse works with the unit, makes setting it up so much easier!!! What I can access on it is not too bad. Problem is my NEW DVR came in, I put a hard drive in the unit, spend time hooking it up to the cameras and turned it on. It came right up, all my camera were working.. Everything was good. It warned me of resolution changes for the cameras, no problem. Well I clicked to log in to the menu system, I wanted to check out the quality of the recording, check the encoding, etc. It asked me for the Admin Password, I entered a blank at first, then the word password, then I got online to look up the default password. Seems It sets this up when you first install it, so I went in to do a password reset and it was going to send the password to someone elses email a T****@gmail.com which was not mine.. Seems this person had it before me and ran the setup. I got on with Amazon support and they are sending me a new one, and hopefully, this one will be a new one. From what I was able to see I liked the unit. One thing I like is that it has a built-in cooling fan. My complaint with the old one from antoher company was it was a hard drive killer because it got too hot.

Bottom line: easy to setup without even reading the manual. Available Windows (64bit), Android and Apple software means I can monitor my cameras remotely and locally from my PC, phone or tablet. Went for the 16 channels because it helps cover my whole house outside and inside and it gives me plenty of extra channels for expansion. Motion detection wasn't as intuitive to setup but a quick read in the manual got it where I want it to be. One thing to consider is that the default sensitivity out of the box for motion is maximum so don't set the email notification on until the sensitivity is changed to whatever works for the zone. I learned this the hard way with hundreds of emails in my inbox after only a few hours. Software has tons of options and it has prompted me now to read the manual in more detail. Face detection is something I have yet to try but it is an interesting feature. I recently added an Amcrest PTZ wifi camera and it integrated seamlessly with the system. Now I want to change all my outside cameras to PTZ. I hope this unit lasts me as long (or longer) as the working unit it replaces. Had to retire the old one due to my email provider who increased security and the old one couldn't send emails anymore.

Device worked well and was easily configured. Sadly after one (1) day in use, the device stopped detecting the SATA drive. Took the drive out of the unit and attached to SATA to USB adapter and plugged into PC, drive detected and functioned normally. Tried two (2) more hard drive in the unit, it would not detect either of those drives. Contacted Amcrest support via email, took over a week for an initial reply. Thereafter support suggested simple changes which I informed them had already been done. Support agent(s) continued reading their script and being less than useful. Threw the unit away and went with another vendor. Not a bad product perse, but the support after the sale is a joke...

Used Qsee for years but they went out of business and I've become a fan of Amcrest products after purchasing this. System auto detects type of cameras so I was able to use my old Qsee cameras, with new Amcrest BNC cameras and with Amcrest $40 Wifi PTZ cameras all at the same time. What really impressed me is that I could use 16 BNC Cameras with up to 16 IP cameras at the same time. Its a hybrid both DVR & NVR so why not get this. Was able to easily add Hard Drive internally as well as external usb drive (one caveat is there is only one usb port for a mouse & external drive so you'll need a usb splitter) The software has tons of options like Face detection thou I have yet to try. I love that I can listen to the audio live, talk through the cameras and control the movement PTZ. Only con is its only 5mp but for my use 1080p resolution was enough. With only 12 cameras recording at 1080p 265 recording 24/7 I had to get a 10TB hard drive to record 30 days.

Works great! I installed the hard drive. EASY I added 13 of the 16 available cameras. EASY I then hooked up to my network. EASY and I know have mobile access. Also EASY

It's stopped working