BTG 8CH 5MP Poe Security IP Camera System with 4K NVR, Outdoor 5MP 8 Bullet Surveillance IP Cameras HD 2592 x 1944 IR Night Vision CCTV System H.265 2TB HDD

This was our first experience with security cameras. After doing some research, we concluded there were several preferred features that we wanted and this BTG by Bolide series had them. These included: 1) Minimum of 5 mega-pixel cameras that are ONVIF compliant (meaning other ONVIF cameras can be used with this system so you are not required to use only BTG cameras). 2) Ability to record locally (we did not want to pay for cloud service). 3) H.265 coding, which stores twice as much video (compared to H.264) and remote streaming will be more efficient. 4) POE – Power Over Ethernet, meaning one ethernet cable (per camera) will provide power to the camera as well as the signal. Any camera would require a power wire and a wired connection for the signal is more reliable than wireless. Although not given in the description, this package comes with 100-foot ethernet cables for each camera, which is excellent. 5) Alarm, playback, and remote access features. We can monitor from anywhere with our PC, tablet, and/or phones. You can set an alarm to notify you of movement and it will send you a picture of the trigger event (via email only, not through the app). Bugs can trigger an alarm, so you will want to adjust the area and sensitivity of the trigger. You can go back in time and playback the video in detail as required. 6) Reasonable price.Other observations: In general, the interface of the NVR, which you must use to set-up the system, is user friendly assuming you have basic PC (and preferably some networking) skills. The infra-red (IR) lighting provides very decent night vision, as we live in the woods and it is very dark at night yet we can see reasonably for at least 50 feet. The remote monitoring using the app (we have iPhones) has worked very well (others have indicated that the Android app did not?).The only possible “complaint” might be the limited documentation, although the supplied mini-DVD (which we did not view because our PCs no longer have DVD players and we didn’t want to watch on TV) may have more details. Installation of the cameras and basic set-up of the system is quite easy, as they are pretty much plug-and-play. However, setting up various features, such as alarms and notifications, requires some patience and is a bit of trial-and-error without instructions.The quality of the components (NVR and cameras) appears to be very good. There is always concern about reliability and only time will tell I suppose. At the time of this review (Sept. 2018) we have had the system up and running for two weeks and so far, so good.

The system was very easy to setup and get running on a local HDMI connection to a large format Vizio TV for home viewing. Cameras are excellent quality and image quality on screen is superb. My high expectations were being met on every level until I began trying the alternative viewing methods.Unfortunately, remote viewing was a completely different story. The Android mobile app was unable to maintain a connection to the NVR and was not able to display images from any camera at any time, even though it showed independent connections to each camera, by name. I decided to try the software for desktop viewing and that drove my virus software absolutely crazy, as it tried to reach out to the P2P service. Even after entering exceptions in the software for the P2P domain and IP address, MalwareBytes continued to provide a continuous stream of warnings of "riskware" as the software attempted different ports, resulting in a disconnection from their site. At one point, the tech support folks thought maybe my wireless capability was not adequate to transfer the images to the mobile app. However, several speed tests through my Netgear Nighthawk R8000 showed an average speed of 135mbs download and 15-20mbs upload (upload is the critical factor), which far exceeds minimum requirements.The NVR setup and menu system is fairly straightforward, but unfortunately the manual is only provided as a PDF file on the small CD in the box or online. Running back and forth to read an 80 page PDF file is not the most efficient method when you're in the middle of an initial setup.To the company's credit, their technical support team was OUTSTANDING; providing quick, friendly, and responsive dialog. We spent several days and many hours on the phone trying different configuration changes in the NVR, my wireless router, internet connections, the system software and even changing out cables. Unfortunately, no solution was found and the equipment had to be returned. Without mobile connectivity and viewing, this system would have very little value to me. However, if you only require an exceptionally easy setup, lots of recording capability, great video quality, and all the features you can imagine AT HOME. . .this system is guaranteed to meet the highest demands. My two star rating applies ONLY to my experience. I would have every expectation, that this system will likely work fine for most users, assuming there was a unique incompatibility issue between their system and mine that future installs will likely discover.

Cameras have outstanding picture quality and excellent night vision. Its easy to set up remote viewing as long as you know how to open your router port(which you can google). My only complaint(as well as many others) is the Android app does not work. It will display the camera information but not the images. For that reason, I give it 3 stars. I will change to 5 stars if they get this fixed.Edit: I called tech support,left message....and Mike called back. He had the Android app working in 5 minutes. Here is the fix:In the google play store, Search for "BTGIP"(no spaces). I was originally using "BTG" which does not work. I uninstalled BTG and installed BTGIP. I than went under devices and added my camera by IP address(using the port that I configured in the router and the NVR). It worked!Im changing my rating to a 5 star for the quality of the cameras and the customer support!