Amcrest NV4108E-IP5M-T1179EW4-2TB Review

brianegge

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I received a camera kit from Amcrest to install and evaluate, with no requirement to post a review.

Amcrest NV4108E-IP5M-T1179EW4-2TB four camera NVR kit. Cost on Amazon: $429.99.

I was interested to try out this camera system, though it is on the lower end of Amcrests line. I’m a fan of kits, because everything is already tested to work together, and you have all the parts you need to get a system going in a day. Many people prefer software NVRs, but my opinion is if you want something to setup and not touch, the hardware NVRs are much better suited to the task.


The NVR comes with an external power brick and a mouse if you have no others. I tend to either only use the mouse for setup or get a wireless mouse so the unit can be moved away from the desk/monitor. I really wish the firmware could work with a touch screen. It would not take much to support USB touch and the GUI itself would not need to change.


The back of the NVR is pretty standard, but it seems about time to drop the VGA port in favor of a Display Port:


I connected the unit to the 4k monitor, but it defaults to SD until you change it in the settings.

A bit of a surprise to see the region is Uzbekistan, but that does not matter as it turns out.


With the 4.0 line of firmware, stronger passwords are required. This is a shame in my opinion, and should maybe only be required to enable P2P or use the internet connected features. It’s also a bit annoying that you can’t plug a standard keyboard into the USB port for typing the password. Or even use a touch screen (see above!) Using the mouse is not a friendly way to create a strong password, especially the tiny mouse the unit comes with.

My usual strategy is to go through the bare basics of the install using a monitor and then do the rest through the web gui. This way I can use a keyboard to enter things like camera names.

The kit came with four IP5M-T1179EW-28MM cameras, which appear to be the same hardware as the Dahua T2431T, though the Amcrest firmware lacks the IVS capabilities.

This camera standalone is $54 on Amazon, and really performs well for it’s cost. The night time performance of this 5MP 1/2.7” is better than my Lorex 1/1.8” 8MP, but neither as well as the Dahua 5442 series of cameras. For the lower price you get a plastic housing without any theft deterrence. I would not place these cameras anywhere you are worried someone might walk off with them, as they can be removed without even needing a screwdriver.


Unlike most turrets, it cannot rotate around the mounting ring, so you must choose carefully the direction you mount the ring. The included screws worked just fine for mounting to my wood siding, but failed when I tried to use the included mollies on drywall. The force required to start the screw stripped the drywall and left me with a spinning molly in two out of three attempts.




I installed the first camera inside my garage:


Night time:


The picture quality was great. They include a hefty bug on the image, which my older Amcrest cameras do not. You cannot remove this from the NVR, but instead you must through the camera interface directly.
NVR camera settings:

Camera settings:


I installed two, under the eves of each garage door.

Here’s two deliveries, one day time and one night:



I have the BLC mode set to HLC in the night profile. If this van had a front plate, it would be readable.

The password requirements are annoying, as both the NVR and cameras want “strong” passwords. I had to reset my camera password once as I couldn’t remember it. Fortunately, you can do that if you have physical access to the camera (How To Perform a Factory Reset (IP5M-T1179E)).

The cameras came with out of date firmware, but the NVR was up to date:

Shipped:


Updated:


Cost
The NV4108E comes with a 2TB hard drive, which seems rather small these days. However, the unit by itself costs $259.99 + 4 * 54.99 = $479.95, compared to the kit which is $429.99, so you save $49.96 and get four runs of 50’ Cat6 cable.

Summary of suggestions for Amcrest:
  • Remove strong password check if P2P is disabled
  • Larger molly’s
  • Allow removing of logo from NVR config
  • Add basic person/vehicle IVS detection
  • Remove VGA connector from NVR (goodbye 1990’s)

The cameras are not nearly as good as the Amcrest IP4M-1048EW, however, they are ¼ the price. I think this kit is well suited for a small business, where you may only need cameras in one room. The NVR can handle up to four additional cameras, but with only 2TB of hard drive, any additional cameras will reduce the recording time significantly. However, two smaller DVRs are often better than one larger one, as most of the lower end DVRs are capped at 80MBps anyway.
 

Flintstone61

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install tip...fwiw....I throw the wall anchors from the kits away and use these. I have 3 of these camera's. In laundry rooms. the audio works via ethernet which is nice. I like your point about the usb keyboard. I always try pluggiung one in when i get a new device to setup, Some TV's accept it. one of my Nightowl X DVR's accepted a keyboard on set up. the other Nightowl and the Amcrest Pentabrid 4k did not. thanks for posting.
 
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wittaj

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@brianegge - do you have one of the cams not installed that you can show the screw patter of the ring. And I guess you mean the beveled part of the ring cannot be rotated, so make sure that is installed the direction you want?

What is the distance from the camera to the walkway where the delivery people are at?

How far is the truck in the afternoon pic?

What shutter speed are you running at night and could you post a video of that picture?

I have been looking for a few cams around $50ish for some overviews.
 

TonyR

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Thanks for the review!

I have 1 question: a friend purchased a similar Amcrest POE NVR and 4 cam kit about 2 years ago that included the cables, which turned out to be CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum), an undesirable aspect, especially with POE.

Do you know if the furnished cables are CCA or solid, pure copper?
 

fenderman

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Ouch, those night images are terrible. Even the indoor image is bad.
 

brianegge

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Do you know if the furnished cables are CCA or solid, pure copper?
Is there anyway to tell from the jacket? Looking at the terminator, it's hard to tell, but I think it may be CCA. The cables are 50', so might not be so much of an issue.
 

brianegge

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do you have one of the cams not installed that you can show the screw patter of the ring. And I guess you mean the beveled part of the ring cannot be rotated, so make sure that is installed the direction you want?
IMG_8129.jpeg
Correct, the camera can't be rotated around the ring.
 

brianegge

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What is the distance from the camera to the walkway where the delivery people are at?

How far is the truck in the afternoon pic?

What shutter speed are you running at night and could you post a video of that picture?
The camera is attached on the eave of my garage door, so I don't have an exact measurement, but it's a 2.8mm lens, so maybe 10 feet.

I tried setting a fixed shutter speed, which was good for cars coming up to the driveway at night. But then I found the auto day/night profile feature didn't work, as it stayed in night all the time! A script could fix this, but I was lazy and switched it to auto, with HLC on.
 

CarlosBarletta

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Hello Brian,

Thank you for your feedback. We honestly do value our customer's real-world experiences so we can continue to improve on our Technologies.

Please feel free to fill out our Support Form by clicking on this link for support. - Amcrest support This is the fastest way to get support
from our Product Support Team.

Amcrest Team
 

Flintstone61

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Hello Brian,

Thank you for your feedback. We honestly do value our customer's real-world experiences so we can continue to improve on our Technologies.

Please feel free to fill out our Support Form by clicking on this link for support. - Amcrest support This is the fastest way to get support
from our Product Support Team.

Amcrest Team
Do you know off hand if the Wan port is limited to 100 Mbps? Not seeing the Gigabit LED on link light with my Cisco.
Yet the Amcrest Xvr AMDV8M8-H5 sitting right on top of it.... shows a Gigabit link light
 

brianegge

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Do you know off hand if the Wan port is limited to 100 Mbps? Not seeing the Gigabit LED on link light with my Cisco.
Yet the Amcrest Xvr AMDV8M8-H5 sitting right on top of it.... shows a Gigabit link light
I just checked my managed switch and it's 100Mbps. But the whole thing only supports 80Mbps. I have 5 cameras connected through the WAN side. The other 3 I put on a Dahua NVR.
 

Flintstone61

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Thanks Brian...thus ends the mystery of line congestion in my garage......I pulled a Cat5e a few years ago and had an interesting path to get it from the attic in the garage to the Living room in the basement ( finished basement)
I promised to finish the Joint compounding the wall someday......in the front entry closet.
so all my cams are traveling that line to the BI machine.......and the negotiation in the switch relegates the cam stream from the NVR to lower tier of importance,,,in a sense.....the web pages at like 192.168.0.208:10800 for a Cam Gui,,,,load slow on some of the cams.....
anyway....maybe this will push me to put all the cams on the switch....and use Amcrest View Pro app in a different way...like adding single Cams rather than entire NVR's......just thinking out loud at this point....
 
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