Why not go with Costco NVR package?
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fenderman
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mostly form factor (no turrets), no varifocal or lens options (though some of their packages have varifocal cams) and limited model options like no starlight/low light cameras....
fenderman
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no, you can add other cams most of the time...compatibility will vary
Shockwave199
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Lacking? In a word, quality. Each piece of the kit lacks quality. The nvr might be ok but then along the way the fan craps out. The hard drive is almost always not large enough to archive a decent amount of time. 2tb hard drives recording 8 cameras constantly won't get you much arching. You really need 6tb at minimum to get some milage archiving HD cameras. The cameras IR will be the first thing to crap out too in these kits. And probably the worst thing is the inferior cables they give you. It's an absolute bitch running cables for this job. You want to have good cables. It's the most important part of the chain, imo. Cameras and nvr's can be changed easily. Cables though, not easily done.
Even with the pricier cameras and nvr's there can be problems. All this gear can be finicky. It's the nature of the game. You can set all this up and mostly forget it and let the system do its job. But there will be tweaks and glitches along the way. Buying quality gear helps to minimize it over the long haul. And personally I wouldn't buy anything less than dahua starlight 2mp cameras at this point. Exceptional images.
There's a moto I use in life- cheap is cheap, cheap is expensive. Boxed kits from big box stores are cheap or a seemingly 'good value' but my moto is....
Ymmv.
Even with the pricier cameras and nvr's there can be problems. All this gear can be finicky. It's the nature of the game. You can set all this up and mostly forget it and let the system do its job. But there will be tweaks and glitches along the way. Buying quality gear helps to minimize it over the long haul. And personally I wouldn't buy anything less than dahua starlight 2mp cameras at this point. Exceptional images.
There's a moto I use in life- cheap is cheap, cheap is expensive. Boxed kits from big box stores are cheap or a seemingly 'good value' but my moto is....
Ymmv.
rufunky
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More good points. Thanks Shockwave, i never really considered the cabling. I would assume most people would want to buy bulk cable and attach the ends them selves to minimize extra slack and prevent drilling larger holes than necessary when running them through walls to the outside.
Shockwave199
Known around here
Yes, but of course the kits have pre-made cables. I got good quality pre-made because I can get all the cables to the outside without drilling through exterior walls. Plus I didn't want to get involved with doing connectors myself.
I bought a Lorex system directly form Lorex, not Costco. The package consisted of an 8-channel NVR and 4 2MP mini-bullet cameras with night vision. Later I bought a 4-pack of 3MP cameras for 8 total. Some people may argue quality, but I am 99% certain that all of the equipment I bought is re-branded DaHua so with Lorex at least, equal quality to DaHua. Just private firmware. Speaking of firmware, there is one thing that is lacking with Lorex, and that is firmware upgrades. There are none. The firmware in the NVR is dated 2 1/2 years ago and there are no updates. The cameras are also mid- to late 2015 and again, no updates.
All of the cameras came with 100' pre-made cables, and the weatherproof pieces for connecting outdoor Ethernet cables. The problem with using them though, is that you have to clip the connector off from the outside end, put the cable through it, and put a new connector on. That isn't a problem for me since I have the tools and experience to do it.
I haven't heard anyone mention support. When I bought my Lorex equipment back in 2015, their technical support and customer service were pretty good. Somewhere down the line, they must have outsourced their customer service and it has turned into crap. In general, I hate CS anyway with the agents having to follow a specific script and no deviation. But I think the worst part is all of that condescending bullcrap they have to say to try and make you think they care. Just cut the crap and talk to me like a person. That is Lorex CS in spades. It is definitely offshore now, and everyone I have spoken to in CS speaks English with a strong India or Pakistan accent, but if you get off-script it seems like they don't quite comprehend what you are saying. If you can tolerate talking to someone that has specific lines to say, and then follows a script, you should be ok.
When they outsourced their CS, it caused some problems for their Tech support too. If you opened a ticket on the Lorex website it looked like no one ever even looked at it. If you called, you would get a message saying wait times are over 30 minutes, followed by if you would like a callback "do this". Well I would "do this" and never got a call back.
To be fair though, their tech support has improved quite a bit. I have had a couple of problems lately, and it has come down to replacing an NVR that was only a week or two away from warranty expiration, and just today got approval to have two cameras replaced that might be just passed expiration. They even provide shipping labels and pay the shipping costs. Kudos to Lorex for that. They respond to online tickets via email, and they seem to be knowledgeable. I have not tried calling them lately, but I hear that you can actually get through now.
So after all of this, the short answer is that the quality could be as good as other brands in the same range, but you should also consider support. Having someone local (meaning in the same country) could be a good thing.
Wayne
P.S. Speaking of the cables, man are they compacted. They are tightly wound and it took me two hours in the hottest sun I could get on a 100deg day to get them straight enough where I could pull them without kinking every 4 feet. The attached pic is a 30M (100-ish feet) cable with a 6 inch rule for scale.
All of the cameras came with 100' pre-made cables, and the weatherproof pieces for connecting outdoor Ethernet cables. The problem with using them though, is that you have to clip the connector off from the outside end, put the cable through it, and put a new connector on. That isn't a problem for me since I have the tools and experience to do it.
I haven't heard anyone mention support. When I bought my Lorex equipment back in 2015, their technical support and customer service were pretty good. Somewhere down the line, they must have outsourced their customer service and it has turned into crap. In general, I hate CS anyway with the agents having to follow a specific script and no deviation. But I think the worst part is all of that condescending bullcrap they have to say to try and make you think they care. Just cut the crap and talk to me like a person. That is Lorex CS in spades. It is definitely offshore now, and everyone I have spoken to in CS speaks English with a strong India or Pakistan accent, but if you get off-script it seems like they don't quite comprehend what you are saying. If you can tolerate talking to someone that has specific lines to say, and then follows a script, you should be ok.
When they outsourced their CS, it caused some problems for their Tech support too. If you opened a ticket on the Lorex website it looked like no one ever even looked at it. If you called, you would get a message saying wait times are over 30 minutes, followed by if you would like a callback "do this". Well I would "do this" and never got a call back.
To be fair though, their tech support has improved quite a bit. I have had a couple of problems lately, and it has come down to replacing an NVR that was only a week or two away from warranty expiration, and just today got approval to have two cameras replaced that might be just passed expiration. They even provide shipping labels and pay the shipping costs. Kudos to Lorex for that. They respond to online tickets via email, and they seem to be knowledgeable. I have not tried calling them lately, but I hear that you can actually get through now.
So after all of this, the short answer is that the quality could be as good as other brands in the same range, but you should also consider support. Having someone local (meaning in the same country) could be a good thing.
Wayne
P.S. Speaking of the cables, man are they compacted. They are tightly wound and it took me two hours in the hottest sun I could get on a 100deg day to get them straight enough where I could pull them without kinking every 4 feet. The attached pic is a 30M (100-ish feet) cable with a 6 inch rule for scale.