DVR-C1104SEFD Standalone DVR (Black) (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

I was leary about the price, but my IP camera server died and I needed a low cost replacement. I ordered a 500gb sata drive from Amazon for $47 to go with this. I have four Swann Cameras connected to it.Bottom line is it works and was very easy to set up in terms of the hardware. As far as connecting to my android/setting up remote viewing, I had to resort to a youtube video...it has vonnic 1000 in the title and is easy to find. It walks you through setting up your router. This DVR uses a seperate "Media" port setting. The best apps I found for this DVR are IPcam (pro) and MEyePro. They work great.The Manual for this product is the typical Chinglish and largely useless, but fortunately it comes with a mouse and the interface is well designed and easy to navigate.Hardware setup: Easy. Installed hard drive with a few screws, attached cables (included with DVR), attached cameras, booted it up and it worked. Seems like it automatically did a quick (five seconds)drive format, and started recording. It really has alot of features and settings for such an inexpensive machine. I am not using PTZ (panTiltZoom)cameras so cannot speak to that feature.I was concerned about heat given the small size of the case and lack of fans, but after running with the case open for about 7 hours both the drive and the motherboard heatsink were just warm, not hot. Obviously you do not want to put this or any other component (stero, cable box, etc) on a tight space anyway. Since the case is all metal I'd say it probably dissipates heat nicely.On first turning it on it has an annoying alarm/beep system that goes off if you have a disconnected camera. I shut that feature off immediately.If you get it, here is the idiot's guide to getting started, free of Chinglish:1. remove cover and attach hard drive by screwing from the bottom. The four holes align with the bottom of the HDD.2. attach your cameras3. make sure the dvr is where you intend to keep it as the alarms go of when you wiggle the camera cables4. turn it on/plug it in, look at nice color bars for a minute, then right click on screen/camera images anywhere. This gives you the menu, which has a few layers but is easy to use.5. from here you can format the drive, though I think its automatic. Play around with the settings.6. make sure to set the video resolution to its highest (D1) as it defaults to a low res.7. find the "vonnic 1000" video on youtube and configure your router for remote viewing8. configure your tablet/phone app9. Enjoy watching your cats party it up while you work!! I have five.I will post a follow up in a few weeks.5/5/14 addendum: system is still working great, no issues at all.

I had been looking for an affordable DVR for my home security cameras. The camera receiver had been hooked up to the RCA inputs of my Hauppauge 2250 board but that meant I could record one less channel simultaneously. This fit the bill to record input from my security cameras. The directions that come with it are just awful but there is a decent youtube setup video if you search for Vonnic. Whenever I have a computer go out and it is not worth the cost of reviving I save the hard drives. So I had a 500 gig sata drive lying around to put into this thing with no added cost. The inputs on the back of this thing are NOT RCA inputs. They are BNC. So if your security camera receivers have RCA outputs you will need to get converters. I got a pack of 10 here on Amazon for a very decent price.

The instructions are a bad attempt at the English language. I could not get the dvr to record.. I got so frustrated that I just put in back in its box and am chalking it up to just a very bad purchase decision.

This is a bare bones unit. You supply the things that may make the unit function, a hard drive (with no space for another backup drive), an Ethernet external unit, a router, a monitor, a UPS, a mouse (supplied mouse did not work), cameras, cable, and a lot of time to search youtube, and the support website because the manual is useless. You are better off by purchasing an all in one unit with cameras and cable, and support. I would call this the beta test model.

the menu is unneccesarily complicated. the password protection often does not work, you can just pick up the remote and go in and do anything with the pass word; it worked at first but soon just stopped working, so no real security there. retrieving video is a really big complicated hassle..but it can be done for the cheap price the video quality is great and the adjustment features ect. are nice..I cannot complain.

This product does a great job, but it took me an hour to figure it out. The English translation of the manual is hard to read as much (not all) is understandable when you think about what they were trying to translate. However, the manual mostly is a collection of screen prints and a brief explanation of what the screen says, or helpful hints like "Click the stop button to stop".Besides network control, there are 3 ways to interact with this unit: console controls, remote control, or the included mouse. I found that the mouse was the easiest and only full-function choice, the others not so much. After plugging the unit in, I spent about an hour clicking through the different screens and options learning how this unit works. For the longest time, I couldn't get the unit to either record or play. Here is what I've learned:1. Recording: I used the option "Record Mode", setting it to "manual". Turns out it's not just an option, but also means to "start recording". Still my unit wouldn't record. Discovered that my unit does not recognize my 1 TB drive upon power-up, but requires a "Reboot" selection to find it the second time.2. Play: Once I finally got the unit to record, I wanted to play the recording but nothing would appear in the list of files. Through trial and error, I discovered that selecting the "Play" button causes the list of files will appear.3. Deleting files: can't figure out if I can delete files, other than selecting "format hard drive".4. Backup: The are two file options, .h264 and .avi. Couldn't get Windows Media Player or Quicktime to play the .h264 files. Running the backup option copies a "player.exe", but I'm not running an unknown ".exe" file on my computer. The .avi files work most of the time, but for better stability, I copy them into "Windows Live Movie maker", and convert them into ".wmv" files for the ones I want to save.I haven't tried using any of the network options, as our use is only for surveillance during business hours. Does a fine job, as long as the user doesn't mind self-teaching on how it works.