dcarter

Hmmm, I don't really understand that comment. It's sounds a bit insulting. I'm certainly NOT easily pleased. I haven't looked at this forum in years, but it's starting to come back to me... is it a full of folks that look down on the cheap DVRs? I've seen all the downfalls of the cheap DVRs in the past, and the point of my post was that they have gotten ALOT better and this one is VERY usable. I figured folks would want to know that. Or maybe this forum is more about the forum sponsors and the products they sell rather than free flowing honest information? I'd love for someone to enlighten me as to what I'm missing in the DVRs that cost 100's. Today, I bought a 2nd DVR from AliExpress for about $43 (without HD). It looks the same as the 4 channel, but it's 8 channel and is hybrid, so can do IP cams as well, and records at 960H. Can't wait to get it. At these prices, I can upgrade every couple of years!

So I've had cameras and DVRs at my house for many years. I've always tried to put together a cheap system, and I've never been completely satisfied with it... Hard to search for recordings, non-intuitive interfaces, downloaded video files that can't be played by any normal S/W... But recently, I decided to take a chance on a $51 mini DVR, 4 channel, direct from China. It arrived quickly (less than a week) and I installed a 1TB $49 WD SATA drive, and got it all setup. The improvements over my previous cheap 3-4 year old no-name Ebay DVR are significant. Recordings are shown on a horizontal timeline, searching is more intuitive, the web interface is much better (after you figure out how to install the unsigned Active X), and you can even download video through the web interface as AVIs! Very happy with this super cheap DVR. Now to buy another for the garage. Also has HDMI output. Search ebay for "mini dvr 4 channel h.264"

I've had this DVR for about 3 years and had some issues, but for the most part been happy with it. A couple of days ago it died. No loud fan noise, nothing. Now when I plug in the power, I just get a loud alarm, and no fan or power up. Anyone know what might be going on? Hard drive failure perhaps?