ZOSI 8CH Full 1080P High Definition Hybrid 4-in-1 HD TVI DVR Video Recorder CCTV Network Motion Detection for Surveillance Security Camera System Real Time Recording Mobile Phone Monitoring

I purchased this to replace an existing DVR. I had been using a Defender system. I wanted a higher resolution camera side interface, and I got that. I lost a few features in the process. These are features I want in a DVR Camera. So, to the Pro's and Con's....PROs:* It is higher resolution that the system I had* This was pretty easy to set up on my network and get access to the system externally.* I got the browser to work without inhibiting security to do it.CONs:* When this system is played back from any of the Apps (PC, Iphone or Android, I tried all 3), there is no way to limit the video playback to motion, you cannot see motion unless you turn off all other recordings.* When playback viewing, there is no sync playback* When playback viewing, there is no way to scale the timeline.* It appears that the DVR must connect to the Zosi service, then you connect to that, you are not connecting to the DVR via these apps.* When connecting to the DVR via internet, the connectivity is very fragile. Some times cannot get to the DVR, other times the connection is hit and miss at best.In the end, if I cannot see or limit playback to motion detection, this is a no go. Great picture, though. This is going back.

Amended 8/17/20 the saga has continued with email after email asking me to check the same things over and over. I can only conclude that their equipment is bad and that they use this tactic to discourage returns. I will NEVER do business with this company again and would advise anyone looking for security cameras to look elsewhere --my original post follows -- The 8 port unit came out of the box with a bad port, I kind of let that slide because I only have 7 cameras. I proved that the problem was in the unit by switching the wiring connections from a working camera to the port that I believed to be bad. That camera stopped working but when it was switched back to it's original port it began working again. After numerous emails asking me to check the camera and check the wiring and perhaps the problem is a bad camera over and over, I finally gave up. It was easy to see from the misunderstands and the language that the real problem was that the person responding to my complaints had a very weak grasp of the English language making accurate and/or meaningful conversation virtually impossible.

While this does record video and sort of detects motion there are huge drawbacks in doing anything with the video once it is recorded. I have 1080P cameras and cannot steam them to my IOS phone nor Computers in 1080P. (Wired or wireless.) The lower resolution cameras work in HD mode in the IOS app but not any 1080P cameras. Even Zosi Brand!!The most frustrating part of the entire unit is that you can't take the video off of the DVR and expect to do anything with the file! It is supposedly an AVI file but there aren't any players that will play the file but a couple and you certainly cannot get any file conversion to work well enough to get the files to a more universal format.(ie: No way to share the videos what so ever!)

I purchase commercial DVRS for my company, but for my home I wanted something less expensive that I could setup myself without going through a certified reseller. I found ZOSI. I was skeptical at first, but it arrived quicker than I expected. It is compact and simple to hook up. Honestly, I did not need the video for the hardware hook up. The app however was another story. I accidentally downloaded the wrong client viewer app, and struggled with it for about a week. I finally broke down and emailed support late one night. Within 24 hours, ZOSI support solved my problem on the first reply. Great little DVR, even better customer service. There should be a star rating for customer service up there. I would buy ZOSI over and over again.

Debated on 4 stars but decided that wasn't fair because of the price, this is great for what it costs. I had a Q-See system go out on me recently and it was something with the motherboard not powering the hard drive. I think I paid over $700-$800 at Costco at the time and only had it for 1-2 years. Not wanting another cheap system I started checking into upgrading my DVR to a POE IP camera system but needed something in a pinch so decided for $60 what do I have to lose.Got the unit, plugged in the coax cameras, monitor, LAN, etc. and everything came right up. The interface is as good or better than the Q-See was. I have a static IP at my business and configuring the Q-See for remote viewing was a nightmare of port forwarding. This one has a type of P2P login that I was skeptical of because you have to register but it came right up and the client is lightweight. I haven't tried to go the straight IP route yet.My Q-See had a 2tb hard drive that when I pulled out was full of old video. The ZOSI recognized the drive and asked to format it which only took a minute.I view on an iPhone and mac using the apps. The mac app is only showing me SD which is bad quality but the iOS app is allowing a SD or HD option. All in all it will take some getting used to because it's different (the software on all these is questionable at best) but for $60 this is fantastic.** 1-month update ** So I had to drop it down to 3 stars. My above overview stands with the exception that within the first week the unit experienced video degradation on two of the ports (see screenshots). Even switching the cameras and cable the problem stayed to the two ports (actually the first two ports only) and didn't follow the cable/cameras. I can say that ZOSI was very responsive and sent a new unit. Installed the new unit and for the first day everything looking good then the same issue came back. Admittedly, I have the DVR installed in a DVR lockbox and the monitor sits on top of the box so maybe there is some sort of interference but not sure. For $60 I will move the unit around to see if I can get it to work. ZOSI was still responsive and willing to try and troubleshoot. If moving the unit around fixes it then I'll post a new update but even if this does fix it there is something up with the unit that makes it susceptible to interference. It really is odd that two units experienced the same issue on the first two ports.