Amcrest 4K POE Security Camera System with 8Ch PoE NVR (4) x 4K Turret IP POE Cameras (3840×2160) Pre Installed 2TB Hard Drive NV4108E-IP8M-T2599EW4-2TB

[Update 1/30/2024]. I bought the four camera 4K NVR system with 2TB drive, and I added three more cameras for a total of seven cameras recording 24×7, I was only getting about 4 days of storage on the NVR. I recently replaced the 2tb with a Seagate SkyHawk 10TB (ST10000VX0004), it was crazy simple. I have about 16 1/2 days of recordings and another 2.5tb free. I’ll probably get around three weeks. I think with a four 4K camera system and a 2TB drive, you’ll get about a weeks worth of video at max resolution.There is a feature to FTP video’s to offline storage, but once there, you do not have an integrated video browser/viewer and you do not have an automated way to remove video’s when they get x days/weeks/months old. I could do it if I really wanted and probably make it work, but I would rather have a larger hard drive. The 10TB is the max they say they will support, I’m not sure of what the real limitation is, support wasn’t very technically helpful on that. There is a single cable and while you may be able to rig another power cable (Y power adapter) and additional drive cable, I’m not sure the firmware/software will understand spanning two drives. I was really impressed, installed new drive, turn it on and viola, it installed itself, re-added the cameras and my settings. VERY NICE!!![Original Review]Bought this a few months back. I have used multiple different manufacturers systems (Zosi, Blink, Ring) and the interface were garbage and/or the night vision wasn’t very good, and/or missed motion detections. This Amcrest system has both a phone, console and web interface and they both work really well. I purchased an 8 channel NVR with 2TB and it came with four 4K camera’s. The day and night are great on them. I just added a Relink RLC-823A 16X that has 16x Optical Zoom. In the screen shot it is the Amcrest 4K on left and the right is the optical zoomed in Reolink. Digital zoom works, but optical zoom is 1,000 times better. Took a bit to figure out how to put a non-amcrest camera on the NVR, but it works! You have to first plug it into your network (and power outlet) and then through phone or web interface, directly on the camera, go through the set up, but then under settings you have to turn on the ONVIF support. Once you turn that on, just plug it into the NVR and it adds it. With the NVR, you get POE, so power cable is not required.I need to clean off the camera lens, I’m getting a little glare at night from large dried water spots on lens.Cameras are heavy (IE: well constructed). The housing is metal, the camera ball is plastic, but seems strong. The “reset” button is in the most idiotic location if you need it. (take camera down, unscrew cover plate, press and hold button, reassemble, reinstall, re-align camera pointing angle UG! DUMB!). Another vendor has it on the end of the cable split outs with a cover on it. I’ve only had to do it once per camera after installing them.Amcrest support is decent, they actually answer the call and work with you, but just like any place, it depends on who answers the call and the depth/knowledge they have.I ended up putting some black electrical tape at the bottom of the camera’s face to hide the red light (IR) to reduce bugs/motion at night. You can’t even see it.I have motion notifications going to my phone, it doesn’t use the pretty name for the camera, it uses channel number, probably a way to change that, but I haven’t found the time to look harder for it. I get a crap load of motion notifications due to bugs flying by, bee, spider web moving in the wind, etc. I can adjust the sensitivity down, but then I feel like I’ll miss real motion. I need to invest some time playing with it for near and far motion and see if I can tune them.I have not used any of the “AI” features.If you understand image resolution via camera, vs TV, vs computer, vs Phone, etc, you can skip this feedback.Also, very important. Image resolution understanding is a must if you are trying to look at fine details in the recording. For instance, a 4K camera, on an HD TV, shows well, but it’s dropping pixels. The same 4K to a high res non-4K computer monitor will look good, but you can’t zoom in on it like you do a phone 8megapixel photo. What it shows on console and web interface is one thing, what is streamed to you phone is even lower resolution (looks great, zoom not so great). If you save/export/backup a recording or snapshot, then plug that into a 4K TV, it has finer details. Don’t get me wrong, the resolution is great, but if you are looking on your phone and try to zoom in for a license plate that is semi-far away, you won’t be able to read it. You may need to export recording/photo for real resolution (assuming the display you are using to look at it can do the 4K), or you may want to add an optical zoom camera to pull in more details from further away.The mobile app is pretty good, easy to use, lots of features. I can view the motion recordings, do all kinds of settings on the cameras/system. It was pretty well thought out for features/functions needed by the enduser, but it could use a little UI reorganizing.If I had to do it all over again, I’d buy it a second time.