Costco Lorex NVR with 8 HD/4MP Cameras

[GaryOkie]

This system from Costco Wholesale for $700 seems like really good price for an NVR with 8 HD IP cameras for home security use. Is this Dahua-based system any good? I realize I may need to change out the power supply fan due to noise. But other than that, anything about this system I may regret?

There is just one review online on it and it was terrible! So I'm definitely needing some additional opinions.

Thanks!

 

[looney2ns]

This system from Costco Wholesale for $700 seems like really good price for an NVR with 8 HD IP cameras for home security use. Is this Dahua-based system any good? I realize I may need to change out the power supply fan due to noise. But other than that, anything about this system I may regret?

There is just one review online on it and it was terrible! So I'm definitely needing some additional opinions.

Thanks!

Most any package system will be a huge compromise. The 2.8mm lens on these are generally useless outdoors if you care about ID'ing someone.
You want to know who did it, not just what happened.

4mp will perform worse at night then a comparable 2mp. The capabilities of the NVR will most likely be very limited.
I'd say the one review is probably fairly accurate.

Dahua 2MP Starlight Lineup
Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z)

 

[GaryOkie]

really appreciate the advice Looney2ns! I've already asked Andy/Empire for some quotes. Spending quite a bit more, but clearly - investing in Dahua Starlight-based camera system is the way to go.

 

[tahoegeek]

I had a really bad experience with a Lorex system. I bought their high-end 16 channel system and I had to deal with one disaster after another. The NVR would continually reset itself to the factory default, including the admin login. There were periods of time where anyone knowing the default username/password could have easily accessed my system. Several cameras died due to poor quality RJ-45 connectors on the dongles hanging off the cameras (yes, I weather-proofed them, but that didn't help). Cameras would mysteriously disappear from the setup and need to be manually re-entered. Customer support was worthless throughout the process. I finally gave up on the NVR. I repurposed the cameras that still worked and added them to a Blue Iris set-up. Over the next year, a few of those repurposed Lorex (Dahua) cameras died. 18 months later, only 6 of the original 16 cameras are still functioning. That said, those 6 cameras are performing well. I would strongly urge you to stay away from the Lorex brand. I have a ton of other Dahua (non-Lorex branded) cameras in use and have only good things to say about their reliability.

 

[votive]

@GaryOkie - go the Andy/Empire route. Costs compared,you will get less cams but the Starlights...whoa, they are worth it.

They are built like a brick bog house.

With a little light such as house lighting etc, they can stay color. With no light, they still show the best night view I've seen for the money.

I've had Lorex from Costco way back and very recently LaView from Amazon, which was returned to go with Andy after finding this site.

 

[aristobrat]

really appreciate the advice Looney2ns! I've already asked Andy/Empire for some quotes. Spending quite a bit more, but clearly - investing in Dahua Starlight-based camera system is the way to go.

The Dahua's are definitely a bit more, but they have the newer Sony STARVIS image sensor inside. This sensor is bigger and captures more light per pixel than other sensors. This makes the low-light image quality soooooo much better than the grainy mess that most other cameras produce...

 

[Jimerb]

I have this installed for about a month now.

Good:
* Connects easily to the cloud and I can view remotely without opening any ports on my router or port forwarding.
* Pictures are very clear. You're not viewing 4k in the normal course of viewing. For bandwidth reasons it is downsampled. If you caved to a usb drive it would be 4k. You can configure the sub stream though to be high quality.
* Night vision works good.
* Cabling is very good. Nice weather proof cat5e cables.

Bad:
* The app seems new. It's a bit buggy. Sometimes the video doesn't start and you have to select it again.
* The timeline navigation is buggy at this point. It's hard to navigate to the exact time you want on the timeline. It jumps around. (Can easily be fixed with an app update)
* No sound
* Cannot play in a browser. you need the software which also seems buggy.

So overall, i'd say nice hardware. Improvements are needed on the software side. I'm pretty happy with my purchase so far. In costco, they extend your warranty 2 years giving you a 4 year warranty! nice.

 

[GaryOkie]

Thanks a bunch Jimerb for sharing your experience with this Lorex system. I also see someone else posted another very positive review on the Costco site just today. This is sure a tempting price for an 8-camera system now that I know you've had a good experience with it despite some software issues.

However, I am now even more swayed by Loone2ns and aristrobrat's comments regarding the Dahua Starlight cameras. I ran a simulator comparing the field of view from the standard 2.8mm lens versus 3.6mm and 6mm (or varifocal) that I can order the Starlight's in, and whoa - huge difference! They are able to essentially optically zoom on the areas of the house I need secured, such as the long narrow sides of the house with a gate at the far end (6mm), or an inside corner where a ~90 degree field of view (3.6mm) is much better suited.

This ipcamtalk forum provided a really good education for me as all the inexpensive IP cameras I've bought from Foscam, et.al,in the past have all been wide angle and I really didn't appreciate what a varifocal/larger lens would bring to the table when configuring a security camera system for specific areas.