Lorex Edge LH314321C4 Internet Access DVR and 4 Camera Surveillance Bundle
- Complete kit including one 320GB Security Certified SATA HDD DVR with H.264
- 3D Graphics for crisp, color rich high contrast video & Pentaplex technology enables remote internet control of DVR functions
- Connections: 4 BNC inputs, 2 audio line-in RCA inputs, 2 audio line-out RCA, 4 alarm inputs, VGA, LAN connection
- Scheduled, Continuous or Motion Detection recording settings at 60 frames per second
- Includes: 4 Color Cameras with 60 Extension cable for each, Flex IR Controller, Power Supply & Mouse
Product Description
Introducing the Lorex “Edge” High Performance Surveillance Solution for home or business. The 4 Channel (camera) DVR features easy local setup or advanced Network connection for internet access anywhere anytime, supported by FREE Lorex DDNS service. Equipped with a 320GB Security Certified SATA surveillance hard drive, the DVR can support up to 1TB of storage. VESA mounting enables this unit to attach to the back of a PC monitor, flat panel TV or wall mount as well … More >>
Lorex Edge LH314321C4 Internet Access DVR and 4 Camera Surveillance Bundle
At first I was impressed by this system… but after constant trouble with this thing, I’ve had it. Some of the problems with it:
* Camera quality is very low:
* Cannot make out license places or faces unless they’re looking into the camera.
* The camera has a lot of fringing…
* Camera switches in and out of B&W mode erratically.
* The IR floods do not throw enough light to be useful.
* The video connectors are exposed and I can’t see how they’d last very long outdoors.
* VGA output only? Why?
* Video output can’t use widescreen monitors.
* I can’t get the firmware updated despite following the directions in the manual.
Rating: 1 / 5
The DVR was easy for me to setup but I had to buy a wireless bridge so I could it use on the network. I able to monitor my cameras while I am at work . You can also set it up to send pictures to an email address, which is nice to keep historical data.
Make sure you are familiar with being able to forward ports from your router to the DVR.
The cameras are not the best. They are functional during the day but do not before very well at night.
Cabling is kind of a pain in the butt if you do not have a clear path to run the cables through. I had break out the drill, which was not an issue for me it just made the install take a little longer
I rate this system 3 1/2 stars. That being said I would recommend this system as good entry level setup
Rating: 3 / 5
OK, since I will say from the outset that since this unit really is designed more for the small store owner, this will be a more serious review! Store ownership is serious business.
So here we go…
It took me about 15 minutes to unpack the product and another 15 to make all the necessary connections. The connectors are color coded, which makes it easy to setup. I then consulted the Quick Setup Guide to verify that I had not missed anything.
The only issue I had was finding a suitable display to use for the setup. Since the device has a network port, I expected to be able to configure and use it over the network, similar to using other network devices such as a wireless camera. I did not find any indication in the manual that this is possible. Not only that, but I only had a DVI cable for my display, so I had to search around for a VGA cable. Once I found a VGA cable, I was able to connect it to a monitor and was able to continue.
The system boots up very quickly. You see the Lorex logo and hear the faint hard disk drive spinning. And after a few seconds, the system was up displaying all 4 camera feeds. I continued to follow the guide. The next step was to setup date and time, but the system had already updated it via the network, which was a pleasant surprise!
I tried the remote control initially, but opted to use the mouse instead. The interface is easy to navigate. It does not look like the most modern interface, but it is simple to use, which is more important than fancy effects. The left mouse is used to select an option as usual and the right mouse button acts like a back button, which is nice. The system also beeps each time you click, giving you immediate feedback which I personally liked a lot.
Issue number 1:
There is no hover text, which makes icons and options a bit harder to decipher. Some of the options are self explanatory, like the wrench icon which is for the setup menu. But other options have icons that are not very intuitive. For example, the backup menu has an icon that looks like a USB thumb drive. At first I was thinking how can I backup up to 320GB of data onto a thumb drive? It makes sense once you read the manual which states that you can backup individual recordings to a thumb drive up to 8GB in size.
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The basic options are easy to configure. But the more advanced options, like scheduled recording or recording options, required me to consult the instruction manual.
Setting up access from a PC requires installing and configuring QuickTime. Once QuickTime is configured according to the guide, you can access the DVR using a web browser. The web interface is called DVR Netview. The guide specifies Internet Explorer (IE), which worked without problems. I tried accessing the DVR using FireFox 3.0 and it did not work at all. All I got was the content of an HTML document. I got the same results using Safari from my Mac. The manual states that FireFox is supported but you need to install the IE-in plug-in, which I did not attempt. Note that even if the DVR Netview site loaded properly on non-IE browsers, some function will be missing because it uses ActiveX controls.
Issue number 2:
Another thing that was not clear in the guide was which user ID could log into the DVR Netview site. The guide lists 2 IDs and neither worked. A screenshot in the guide showed another ID being used. Consulting the instruction manual clarified the issue. There are separate ID for local and network access. Following the instructions on the manual worked fine. Let me reiterate: keep the manual nearby!
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From the DVR Netview I was able to view live video from all 4 cameras. It has a top message bar that lists active cameras, alarms and motion detection. The interface has 4 main options: setup, live video,playback and backup. The backup feature uses Active X, which worked fine from IE. You can also setup Dynamic DNS to access the system from the Internet. This requires that you signup for a free account on Lorex’s website.
You cannot perform all the administrative configuration options from the DVR Netview. You will need to access the system locally to perform certain configuration tasks. And the interface, while usable, is not very user friendly. It is also slow to load, even over the wired LAN. It was due to the first time I accessed it, as subsequent access were more responsive.
Once everything is setup, the system will record continuously. The system can be changed to record until the hard drive is full or to record based on events. There are 3 types of events: motion, alarm and video loss. You can then search for these event when playing back recordings. I setup the system to record motion events. You can set the amount of time to record once the event is triggered. You can also select motion sensitivity and the areas of the captured images to monitor for movement. I did not use these options. Using the default worked as expected. One missing feature I really miss is the ability for the system to send an email message with an image of the event. Stand-alone network cameras have that feature.
Accessing the system locally, the recordings can then be listed under the List option, which shows all the recorded events. You can filter by event type and camera, making it easier to narrow down the list incase you have many recordings listed. Clicking on an event brings up the playback menu to review the recording.
Issue number 3:
Another missing feature is the ability for the DVR Netview to list events and allow you to play them back over the network. Without this option it is not possible to know what date and time to playback to review recorded events. This is a big oversight because without it,the remote viewing software is mostly good to view the live feed.Otherwise you will find yourself randomly playing back segments in hopes to confirm that no events were triggered. Having the email feature would help the remote viewing software immensely because you could then set the playback around the time the event is listed on the email.
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Overall, though this is a good product. It’s small, quiet, and integrated. It is easy to setup and use. Even with the aforementioned shortcomings, I was able to setup a camera monitoring system that records events based on motion. The system’s local console works well. The remote viewing software needs some features to make it useful, but even then I would recommend this to someone looking to setup and use this system locally. Just bear in mind this is probably overkill for a “normal”-sized house, and would definitely be more useful in a small store.
4/5.
Rating: 4 / 5
I reviewed many camera systems before deciding on this one. The good reviews and features I were looking for at a reasonable price are available in this package. I needed good night vision, motion detection, continuous recording, and the like. This provided all of that.
I appreciate the ease of setup here. Even without instructions one could put this together with no problem. If you can put the round peg in the round hole, the square peg in the square hole… then you’ve got it. Piece of cake.
While the camera quality is not awesome, it’s decent enough. The night vision is some of the best I’ve seen in any security package that I’ve been exposed to. Day vision looks more like a webcam.
But my enthusiasm was seriously cooled when dealing with the software. It’s complicated where it shouldn’t be, the design is poor, it’s cryptic, and has some bugs. For starters, many of the system’s functions are represented by symbols instead of words, and often times the symbols don’t represent what they’re supposed to mean very well. Next, the control is terrible. Using a mouse, I could not figure out how to change a setting or parameter. I could select it, but not change it. Can you believe they want you to use the MOUSE WHEEL to implement changes? This makes no sense and is totally backwards. If we’re using a PC device to control it, why not make it work like a PC?
And of course, the hard drive continues to fill. Despite the fact that I’ve deleted everything on it, it continues to show full. It will continue to record, but I’m now at all times in the dark about how much space is remaining because the software inaccurately reports remaining disk space.
In any case, if you need a full featured system and the lowest price you can get, look no further. If you don’t want to spend a lot of time learning the system, I’d look for something more user friendly.
Rating: 3 / 5
Considering the review I gave a previous Lorex webcam product, I didn’t have much hope for the Lorex Edge LH314321C4 as a whole. Overall, I was extremely impressed, however, like any good product, you need to plan this out before you start bringing out the power tools.
Each camera has a 60 foot cable to plug back into the DVR, which means you need to put some forethought into where these are all going before you start. The camera’s aren’t wireless (I can’t stress this enough). As weird as this sounds, you need a Belkin F3H982-25 Pro Series High-Integrity VGA/SVGA Monitor Replacement Cable (25 ft.) to actually do something with it. I guess their idea was that you’d buy a dedicated LCD monitor to view this, which might be a good idea. The box can mount on a monitor’s VESA bracket on the back of the monitor. However, it’s been my experience that very few monitors have independent stands, so this might just end up sitting normally.
The installation of the camera is pretty easy. In fact, it’s pretty foolproof. All the mounts are included. The cameras look and feel pretty sturdy and are made for both indoor and outdoor use. Once plugged in, the cameras are VGA (640×480). The quality of the images are pretty decent. For the price, I can live with it. Of course, I would have liked HD video and audio, but then again, you have to remind yourself that the $600 for this type of system is actually a bargain. The recording can be scheduled or set on a timer and the motion detector can be set to trigger recording.
The second part is that this is “network ready,” meaning you have the ability to watch remotely over the internet. This does require a physical network cable connection to a router or switch. For some reason, I had to manually assign IP addresses, subnet mask and gateway. I would have hoped that the router would have been able to pick these up via DHCP. Configuring the box for remote viewing was a bit more tricky: You have to define QuickTime streaming ports, Bitrate and more. Lorex also gives you a DDNS entry, so that you can go to a static URL instead of trying to remember the remote site’s IP address (even if it changes, like mine.) In short, it’s a real pain to get this set up for remote viewing.
Still, I’m not too upset. The Lorex Edge LH314321C4 is a pretty cost effective way to monitor a home or business. It could use some serious polish when it comes to getting the network components to work better, but if you’re not relying on remote viewing, then this isn’t a big deal. The downsides are that this system can’t expand beyond the four original cameras, which, depending on your needs and budget, this might be a non-issue. The lack of a VGA cable isn’t a show-stopper, but you might want to consider a dedicated display for this.
Rating: 4 / 5