SANSCO HD CCTV Security Camera System, 8 Channel 5MP DVR with (4) 3K In/Outdoor Dome Surveillance Cameras, 1TB Hard Drive (Vandal-Proof, Continuous/Motion Recording, Rapid USB Backup, Remote Access)

Summary:I've not had it long, but it seems a really good product. It came well packaged and protected. The summary instructions are fine and I haven't had to use the CD. The software menu isn't intuitive, but it's not too complicated to navigate. I clicked on most things and there are some things I have no idea what they do, so have just ignored them. Picture quality is very good both during daylight and at night. Cameras are robust and have a pretty good angle of view. Installation isn't difficult, but you might need to buy a big drill bit if you are planning on drilling through walls, to accommodate the plugs on the cables. The app is OK but could be a bit slicker. Settings of the alerts/alarms from the cameras takes a bit of trial and error to get right. Support from the supplier has been great.Overall:Product arrived on time and neatly packaged. All the cameras are individually boxed with all screws etc. Cables are neatly wound and secured. Following the advice of another reviewer I plugged the cables and connected the DVR in my living room to check they worked. This gives you an idea of how to navigate the menu, before you finally position the cameras. I recommend you do this. And load & configure the app.The DVR comes with a mini-mouse, but I found this inconvenient to use when I was testing, so plugged my own wireless mouse in which works fine and means you don't have to have the DVR on your lap whilst testing.The menu is fairly easy to use, but it's not completely intuitive. I haven't had to use the CD that came with the product and have clicked around and managed to get it working and set up, so it can't be too difficult.I found one of the cameras was a bit grainy when testing, but the picture quality is great on the others - both during the day and a night using IR. (I'll come back to the grainy camera).I left a couple of cameras connected with cables & cameras draped out of windows for a day or so. Mostly so I could see how the cameras worked, see what the angle of view is like and have a play with the settings of the alarms/notifications etc. This gave some ideas as where to place them around the house.Installation:I'm fairly competent at DIY and found the installation easy. But you do need to consider how & where you are going to place the cameras as all the cables must connect back to the DVR, which has to be near power and a TV with an HDMI/VGA connection. I didn't want cables draped or pinned across my house, so after a bit of thinking moved the DVR from the lounge to my study TV and decided that all cables would come though the garage into the study and connect to the DVR.Here is where you need a large drill bit! Each camera has a video connector that is about 1cm diameter; there is also a power connector and a plastic block on the cable. All this must go through a hole in your wall to connect back to the DVR. And if, like me, you have 4 cameras, then that hole must be large enough to take all the above, 4 times over. I ended up buying 25mm drill bit. You could obviously drill 4 smaller holes (1 for each cable), but I didn’t want to do that. When you are drilling the hole for an individual camera, you can get away with a smaller drill bit as there is only 1 cable, connector, power & black block thingy! But it still needs to be big enough to pass all that through. Once all the cables are through the hole, then the actual cable doesn’t take up much space, but feeding the connectors through is the tricky piece.Having drilled a few holes, you can position the cameras where you want. I pulled the cables through from the DVR and put the camera where I thought would be best. But I chose not to screw them to the wall at this point. Instead, I ‘duck taped’ them in place. This was just as well, because once you have seen the images you get, then you might choose to move them. This occurred with a camera I had at the front of the house. My initial position it covered all I wanted it to, but car movement on the main road and their headlights at night caused some problems (too many alarms). So, I moved the camera to another spot (again taping it temporarily), with the same coverage, but managing to block the road and it’s much better. You can change the alarm settings and the sensitivity, but I still got too many. A bit of thinking before you screw them to the wall is advisable.I also configured the app on my ‘phone and found that really useful to have next to you as you position the cameras, as you can’t judge the orientation of the image by looking at the camera. Being able to see the view you’ll get whilst you are up the ladder was imperative.Support:I couldn’t find out how to set up e-mail, so contacted the supplier and they quickly came back with instructions and a link to a YouTube video which was really helpful. I couldn’t get it working with a Microsoft address, despite having all the parameters correct, so switched to a G-mail account and it works fine.I mentioned earlier that I had a grainy camera on initial testing. When it came to put the cameras in place, I found that I couldn't get an image at all on it. A bit of swapping about of cameras, cables and ports on the DVR, I isolated it to be the cable at fault. I contacted the supplier asking what I should do and they were great and said they’d send me a replacement cable. It arrived within 2 days of my query which was fantastic service.I can’t fault their service based on the interactions I’ve had.All in all, really pleased I bought the system. Gives great peace of mind at a reasonable cost.

I don't often write reviews but I do believe this deserves one. I'm a very techy person and I got this CCTV as I've always wanted a system for a while now but haven't got round to it. I chose this one as it came as a complete set with the hard drive, I also preferred the dome style cameras.The cameras:-I was incredibly surprised by the build quality of the cameras. I wasn't expecting such good quality for the price But the cameras are solid metal and heavy- The image quality was again above expectations for this price. I could easily pick up number plates at the end of my property- The camera unscrews from the mount, which allows you to screw the mount in place, then add the camera. This prevents someone from unscrewing them.- The camera also swivels in all directions which was easy to do. Once it is in the right position you just screw it tight and it wont move anywhere!- It comes with three screws and also raw plugs if you want the camera mounted to a wall.- The camera has approximately 50cm of cable before the plug, This helped me massively as I installed my camera in the plastic overhang of my house. So the 50cm of cable sat inside the overhang of the house which was waterproof ,then from there i connected the main cable to the DVR.The DVR:- Firstly the interface is advanced but simple- It works just like a computer, it has a mouse and an interactive interface. Theres an option for almost everything- I set my cameras to record all the time, but also to record motion. I liked the idea of this as if the motion didn;t pick something up I could still watch the footage bacm. The playback bar also shows where motion was detected, this is marked in red (as seen in the photos) so you know exactly what time motion was detected- I liked how you can set motion zones so you can exclude certain areas where the camera wont trigger from.- There is also an option where if motion is detected on one camera, you can set other cameras to start recording too- There is an option to notify you by phone if there is motion and also if the camera feed stops or is covered by something like spray paint- Without writing everything you can do, theres enough features to do pretty much whatever you wantOther good points- It comes with a remote control to control the DVR, also comes with batteries- DVR is small which is good to hide in your house somewhere- I contacted support and they replied quickly- Came packed really well!A minor negative:Only three screws came with each camera but there was four holes. However, I juts used the three screws at that seemed plenty enoughIn conclusion:I'd definitely recommend this as a CCTV systems. The quality for the price is brilliant and does everything I needed it to do

I wanted a simple DIY security camera system, and based on the description and reviews this seemed to tick all the boxes. One of the cameras didn't work properly and this was promptly replaced by customer support. It was easy to set up, picture quality is very good, and the app that needs to be downloaded onto your phone works fine but isn't perfect - there's an advert that you need to click past to get access to your cameras, very occasionally it refuses to connect to the system, and it's disappointing that the English translation hasn't been sorted out ("buffering, please later"), which makes it look a bit amateurish. The main problem I've had with the system, though, is the motion detection: you can set the camera to "Alarm Record", which highlights the recording in red when motion is detected, but even on it's lowest sensitivity setting it's ridiculously sensitive - the playback is full of red, and I can't see what's set it off! Perhaps it's me, but it seems rubbish. So I don't rely on this feature but simply use it to view remotely what's going on, and have the HD recording as a back-up. Customer service is great. Overall then, a good buy for the money.Update: the app has been updated so that the aforementioned language issues have been sorted (maybe somebody from the company actually reads these reviews?!). After noticing for a while that the time on the live stream/recording was slightly off and thinking that I hadn't set it correctly, I also now have realised that it's the harddrive system itself that is at fault - after a few weeks it's running about 25 minutes fast. So be aware if you actually need to use the time to locate a particular bit of footage.