WD ReadyView Cameras / NVR

technician

n3wb
Joined
Mar 21, 2023
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Location
USA
Although I came on this thread 3 years late. WD products are not ARE NOT worth it. I purchased the 8MB 4 cameras, 6 terabyte purple harddrive 4k readyview security system and it's not a good product. Infact Western Digital and Microcenter bricked so many systems via IP. Like a subseven backdoor virus. Note... all of the security feed was being secretly shared with law enforcement and government agencies... out of nowhere customers nvr and cameras don't work no more. If anynone sees one for sale skip purchasing anything from western digital or microcenter. Avoid buying the system at all. In fact stay away from anything that is tied to a cloud or can be remotely controlled. These same convenient features are the very same reasons that people are complaining about being stuck with very expensive bricked products... Another camera company did this as well call ICee. When businesses discontinue products it's not always a deal to buy it...
 

tangent

IPCT Contributor
Joined
May 12, 2016
Messages
4,342
Reaction score
3,524
Although I came on this thread 3 years late. WD products are not ARE NOT worth it. I purchased the 8MB 4 cameras, 6 terabyte purple harddrive 4k readyview security system and it's not a good product. Infact Western Digital and Microcenter bricked so many systems via IP. Like a subseven backdoor virus. Note... all of the security feed was being secretly shared with law enforcement and government agencies... out of nowhere customers nvr and cameras don't work no more. If anynone sees one for sale skip purchasing anything from western digital or microcenter. Avoid buying the system at all. In fact stay away from anything that is tied to a cloud or can be remotely controlled. These same convenient features are the very same reasons that people are complaining about being stuck with very expensive bricked products... Another camera company did this as well call ICee. When businesses discontinue products it's not always a deal to buy it...
This product was being discounted to fire sale prices when this thread was started and was discontinued some time ago and is unsupported (meaning no software updates). I think some of your other comments are inaccurate and misrepresent things that may have happened. Ring is the company that was secretly sharing video with law enforcement not WD.

I don't think WD deliberately tried to brick any of these devices, but did abandon them; there are a number of things that could have happened. First while a device like an NVR may not get software updates your web browser is constantly being updated, inevitably things will break eventually. It's possible for something like an expired certificate to cause some significant headaches and function as a bit of a time bomb. Blocking the NVR from connecting to the internet or setting the date wrong on the NVR and your computer temporarily may allow you to resolve this type of issue. There is a review on Micro Center where someone had problems when cameras were unplugged and plugged back into different ports. I'm sure there a solution to this it's just poorly documented. It should be possible to plug the cameras into a PoE switch and monitor them using software like BlueIris instead of the NVR (may require camera disassembly and finding the reset button). The cameras are actually made by UniView. If the NVR lacks HDMI (it may, not seeing it in the specs), that could certainly be limiting. Not sure if the NVR has a web interface of if it was all through their app which could certainly be an issue. If you care to, it should be possible to at least keep the cameras working with some other hardware in place of the NVR.

Of course in 2023 you can get much better cameras (as you could in 2019) and shouldn't buy this, but the hard drive in this may be more reliable than some of the newer models and could be removed from the NVR.
 
Last edited:

Jporterz28

n3wb
Joined
Feb 6, 2020
Messages
6
Reaction score
1
Location
Johnstown, Ohio
How about a source for your report here?
Although I came on this thread 3 years late. WD products are not ARE NOT worth it. I purchased the 8MB 4 cameras, 6 terabyte purple harddrive 4k readyview security system and it's not a good product. Infact Western Digital and Microcenter bricked so many systems via IP. Like a subseven backdoor virus. Note... all of the security feed was being secretly shared with law enforcement and government agencies... out of nowhere customers nvr and cameras don't work no more. If anynone sees one for sale skip purchasing anything from western digital or microcenter. Avoid buying the system at all. In fact stay away from anything that is tied to a cloud or can be remotely controlled. These same convenient features are the very same reasons that people are complaining about being stuck with very expensive bricked products... Another camera company did this as well call ICee. When businesses discontinue products it's not always a deal to buy it...
 

Jporterz28

n3wb
Joined
Feb 6, 2020
Messages
6
Reaction score
1
Location
Johnstown, Ohio
This product was being discounted to fire sale prices when this thread was started and was discontinued some time ago and is unsupported (meaning no software updates). I think some of your other comments are inaccurate and misrepresent things that may have happened. Ring is the company that was secretly sharing video with law enforcement not WD.

I don't think WD deliberately tried to brick any of these devices, but did abandon them; there are a number of things that could have happened. First while a device like an NVR may not get software updates your web browser is constantly being updated, inevitably things will break eventually. It's possible for something like an expired certificate to cause some significant headaches and function as a bit of a time bomb. Blocking the NVR from connecting to the internet or setting the date wrong on the NVR and your computer temporarily may allow you to resolve this type of issue. There is a review on Micro Center where someone had problems when cameras were unplugged and plugged back into different ports. I'm sure there a solution to this it's just poorly documented. It should be possible to plug the cameras into a PoE switch and monitor them using software like BlueIris instead of the NVR (may require camera disassembly and finding the reset button). The cameras are actually made by UniView. If the NVR lacks HDMI (it may, not seeing it in the specs), that could certainly be limiting. Not sure if the NVR has a web interface of if it was all through their app which could certainly be an issue. If you care to, it should be possible to at least keep the cameras working with some other hardware in place of the NVR.

Of course in 2023 you can get much better cameras (as you could in 2019) and shouldn't buy this, but the hard drive in this may be more reliable than some of the newer models and could be removed from the NVR.
I bought one of these a couple years ago. It has been good for me. The system is a rebranded Uniview system, it may have been discontinued by them as well.

This system DOES have a web interface, but the plug-in required for it to work will only work with Internet Explorer. Fortunately I have been able to run Edge in IE mode to access it. As for regular viewing, I use EZ Station 3.0. Also, there is a HDMI port and USB mouse support. Honestly, the Web interface works best.

Anyway, unless someone points me to some real documented security risk, I will continue using it.
 
Top