24/7 Continuous Recording

We are very happy with our Reolink security camera system with the NVR. We got the system for some added security at home and to allow us to keep our eye on the dogs while we are away. We had a hard time figuring out why the back of our couch had started smelling like dog because we always block the whole couch when we are away. As you can see from the first picture, this creature laughed at our blockade and made her way to the back of the couch. Mystery solved. The system is very easy to use and intuitive to install and set up. I really appreciated the drilling template provided with each camera. This made it very easy to ensure that each camera was properly secured and that the cable hole was large enough. The plug and play nature of the cameras and NVR made it super easy for the total installation. The hardest part for us was figuring out the exact locations we wanted to mount the cameras and making sure we could route the CAT6 cable to them. The provided cables were all long enough to reach from one side of the house to the other (though some are a little snug). I was very happy that the provided cables had the length we needed and was glad to see that further distances are possible with just a longer run of cable. The NVR interface is a little clunky without a keyboard, but it is very nice to not require a keyboard for operation. The app is very streamlined and works great on both iPhone and Android. There is a slight lag with remote viewing, but is not noticeable in most cases. This likely has as much to do with our internet at home and wherever we are accessing the feeds remotely as with the system. The image quality is great in both daylight and IR modes. I have noticed (as other mentioned) that the motion detection is very sensitive, to the point that a leaf moving in the wind on our fiddle leaf fig set it off. I also like that you can adjust the motion zones and 'blackout' some areas to limit the detection of motion to the specific field of view you want. Finally, the customer service is excellent. When I first set up the system I appeared to have an issue with one of the cameras IR lights not functioning. It turned out to just be a setting I had changed during the initial set up, by mistake, for that channel/camera, but the service agent worked through several possible issues with me to make sure there was not a product failure. Overall, we are very impressed with this system and are planning to buy some additional cameras to add to the original four, for further coverage of our house. I would and have recommend Reolink to friends and family looking for a camera system for their homes.

I've had REOlink equipment for 3+ years now, and have waited until now to review after buying this latest system. Don't get me wrong, REOlink NVRs and computer/phone apps don't play well with other camera manufacturers and has caused me much grief over the years. But when using REOlink-ONLY equipment, their stuff is pretty bullet-proof. My latest system (NVR+8 cams) worked perfectly on the very first power-up.I have 20 cameras now, everything from RLC-423WS, RLC-423, and C1pro PTZs, to RLC-511 zoom, to 4MP bullets, to 5MP turret cameras, multiple NVRs, blah-blah-blah. I've personally wired 2000ft of CAT6 PoE to most of my systems, snaking through walls, attics, soffit, and even buried a few hundred feet of conduit to get all of the cameras and NVRs as inconspicuous as possible.That-said, here's the pros/cons to all of the REOlink stuff together, not just this item:REOlink CONS:- Doesn't play well with others- I think their inclusion of RCA-audio, reset-button, and power-socket is STUPID for an external camera that is made to be PoE (power-over-ethernet). I have to heat-shrink-seal every single one of those connectors on outdoor cameras (that's 54-connections I've had to meticulously seal)- Doesn't support HKvision encoding (used by virtually all of the doorbell cameras on the market)- Technical support is hit-or-miss; 80% want you to go away, 20% want to help, 0% actually do help- Both of my high-end recent cameras (RLC-423 and RLC-511) 4X-zoom cameras seem to have the same internal malfunction with focus... right-side is out of focus when zoomed-in and left-side is out of focus when zoomed-out- Most of their bullet and turret cameras have great quality, but such a narrow field-of-view that its hard to find good mounting locations (they are too zoomed for 8'-12' range use, which I argue is what most houses have indoors and outside for mounting locations)- Their motion-detection is based on pixels changing, not true motion-detection like Ring somehow accomplishes through infrared or other cameras with PIR-detection, so it is constantly going off for shadows and vegetation- The UUID-setup is so simple that it makes internet-security very questionable... if I can sign in from my multiple devices, other countries probably can too- Their cameras require you to turn on the active infrared-LEDs for nighttime use. They are NOT true nightvision like a passive FLIR would be. The problem with the infrared-LEDs is humans can see your camera and bugs are attracted to the lenses- There are plenty of cameras on the market with more optical zoom. 4X is frankly not enough for me in most cases, and most of their outdoor cameras start off with too much zoom to begin-with (no wide angle)REOlink PROS:- Their stuff plays well with their own equipment, better than every camera company I've tried- Their Apps magically work really well, whether on the same wifi-network or cellular or Internet-remote- UUID setup of apps is effortless- PoE setup of cameras with NVR is effortless, so are their WiFi cameras (as long as on same network)- Cameras have really good control of bandwidth-type adjustments (frame size, frame rate, KB/s)- Their motion-detection is fairly-decent; detects all movement (which is a pain with sun/shadow/bushes)- Their cameras have internal memory slots, incase you want localized non-NVR playback capability- I think their night-vision is actually pretty spectacular, but it requires the red-IR-LEDs to be on (and visible)- All of their stored videos have .MP4 codecs compatible with Quicktime and PC/Mac operating systems- All of their systems (NVR, phone, computer-MAC, computer-PC) work the same way, set-up is the same- I've had some cameras outside for 3+ years and they have held-up well to rain and sunI wish their customer / technical service people were more capable. Every time I talked or emailed them, it felt like I was speaking to an intermediary... like they weren't the company that actually designed the hardware. Frankly, I'd pay more and be more pro-REOlink if they gave a crap. Their ultimate response is basically always the same: our stuff works together and if you want to try something else, don't call us. And basically, they're right.

I bought this system to put in my moms house that was going to be unoccupied. She needed to move due to medical issues but we weren't ready to sell the house. I live in another state and couldn't be checking in on the house regularly and I was worried about it sitting there with no one in it so I bought this system and set it up so I could keep an eye on things from my house. It has been fantastic, everything is still working perfectly several months later and I haven't had to tweak or reboot or mess with ANYTHING in that time. That is exactly what I wanted in a system and after researching many options I chose this Reolink system and I am glad I did.PROS:1) RELIABLE. Like I said, this was my top priority. There is no one physically at the property to be rebooting cameras or messing with settings. I needed something I could set up and then it would just work and this system has achieved that goal.2) Local storage, so no monthly cloud subscription required. This was also a huge priority for me. I don't want to be paying $10 or whatever per month and having all of the video sitting on the cloud. I wanted it stored locally, and have the ability to pull up and review the video remotely on my phone or computer. Again, this system meets all of those needs.3) Good picture quality, in day and night.4) Easy setup. Instructions were clear, and everything I needed was included. I did buy a couple of extra 100 ft ethernet cables because I knew I was going to be placing a couple of cameras pretty far from the NVR box. I placed two outside at the front and back door, and then two inside.5) Playback is easy, I check in on my phone regularly and its easy to locate the moments when there is someone at the door, etc. It can identify pets vs day/night transitions vs people and puts a little icon in that spot on the timeline so you can go right to it and see what it was.CONS:1) The cameras are POE only, so you have to run an ethernet to each camera (can't be wi-fi only) but at least that one ethernet cable provides the data and the power connection. However, if you are going to be installing cameras outside or somewhere else where it is going to be challenging to get an ethernet cable to keep that in mind. There is no option to connect the camera to the NVR using wi-fi only. I will say though, that having the cameras be POE adds to the reliability. It means there are no concerns about the wifi signal being weak or your wifi router doing something screwy and the camera dropping connection.2) The adapter cable where you plug the ethernet cable into the camera is unnecessarily bulky. It's already hard enough to get a really "clean look" on these cameras since they are wired, unless you're willing to drill a lot of holes and run the cables behind your walls. Having a bulky connector on top of that just makes it look more unsightly. Luckily for my use case, I didn't care too much about the appearance since no one is even living in the house. I just needed it to work.BOTTOM LINE: If you want a camera system that can be hands off, and allows you to remotely view the recorded video, and doesn't require a monthly cloud based storage subscription... this is probably the best system you can currently buy for your money and it comes with everything you need.

I have just finished setting up an 8 channel NVR with 4 5mp turret cameras. This will be my initial review that I will update after a few months of use.1. Installation and SetupThe hardest part of installation is routing the cables. First thing you need to do is take some time and carefully think about where you want all of your cameras placed. Once you know where you want your cameras, think about a central location in your house where you can route all the ethernet cables to the NVR.The actual setup of the NVR and cameras is incredibly easy. Then first thing you should do is sit down next to your router and test all the cameras and cables and do the initial setup of the NVR. I would also highly recommend that you update the firmware at this point. Mine came with an older firmware version and I immediately updated because there are some excellent improvements made on the newer firmware version. The Reolink website has detailed steps for updating the firmware, and it seems like the company is really committed to improving their product.If you are not tech savy, the setup should not be difficult. The instructions that come with the unit are not very detailed, but their support site has tons of detailed information and walkthroughs for setup.If you are more tech savy there are also some more advanced features like FTP, DDNS, email notifications, which are very cool and straight forward to set up.2. HardwareThe cameras and NVR seem to be of decent quality. They dont seem cheap, but they don't feel like anything special. The camera mounts are easy to install and the cameras are easy to adjust and feel like they will stay in place. My only complaint is that I don't think the cameras need a power input or reset button. They add extra bulk when trying to conceal the camera and they are useless. I think almost everyone is going to be using these with PoE and will feel the same way. You will probably want to somehow weatherproof the reset and power jacks coming off the cameras. I just taped them off with some electrical tape which probably isnt the best.As for the cameras and NVR quality, only time will tell how they hold up under constant use.The cat5 cables that come with the unit are definitely cheaper feeling and it may be worth spending an extra $100 on some more robust cat6 cables. I however went ahead and used the cable that came with the system. I did have to route the cables externally, so once again only time will tell how long they will hold up to the elements. I dont believe they are supposed to be UV or water resistant.One thing that is a really nice addition are the waterproof lids that come with the cables. I especially like that they can be installed without removing the heads of ethernet cable and re-crimping. I believe this was a design update they made to the lids because I saw another review saying that they couldn't be used without removing the rj45 jack. I also wish there were instructions included on how to install the lids, but once again their website does have instructions for this, though they are not up to date.3. Mobile and Desktop and Browser ApplicationsI run the application on both Android,Windows, and web browsers, and I find it to be fairly intuitive and easy to navigate. There are a few quirks but for the most part it does everything I need.There are definitely some improvements that can be made to the mobile app.First, you cannot rearrange the order of the cameras on the home screen in the mobile app. You can do this on the desktop and browser apps, just not mobile. Also it's important to note that the order of you cameras in the app are not dictated by the channels that you have them plugged into the NVR, but the order that you initially set up the cameras. This is just kind of annoying because the first camera I setup was pointing at my backyard, so now this is the first camera that shows up in the app. I would much rather it be the one pointing at my front door.Second, if you have motion detection setup and you receive a push notification, pressing on the push notification just takes you to the live view rather than show you the actual motion recording. This is something that I always liked about my Wyze cams which I replaced with this system.There also appears to be a significant lag in when motion events are available to view on the mobile app. I would often receive a motion detection notification, open the app, navigate to playback and select the option to "show alarm videos only" however that particular video would not be available. This is probably because the camera records in chunks (30mins, 45mins or 60mins) and the actual motion events don't get separated until the entire recording completes.4. Motion Detection and AlertsOne of the major drawbacks of the system is the motion detection. The motion detection on these cameras is pixel based rather than from a PIR sensor. This means that if your cameras are in areas with constantly changing light conditions, the motion detection will not be reliable. You can try to find a balace by tuning the sensitivity and motion zones, but ultimately I was just getting far too many false positives from the motion detection. I ended up keeping the motion detection on however, and just turning off all push and email notifications.5. Durability and ReliabilityUnknown6. Final assessmentThis is an excellent product and well worth the price. I got it at a significant discount so I feel even better about the purchase and I can easily look past its shortcomings. If there were two improvements I would want in this product it would be better quality cables included and PIR motion detection. If they offered a PoE camera with PIR I think it would make the whole system exponentially better. That said, as is, this is a more than adequate home surveillance system, that is dead simple to set up, but packed with some neat features and supported by a company that seems to be driving for improvement.

My system has now been in use for about 2 months. Here is my install experience. I tend to read lots of reviews and do lots of research before buying items like this to avoid install issues / disappointments. All systems seem to have their own install challenges, particularly when it comes to remote viewing.My NVR is connected via ethernet cable to one of the ports on my ASUS wireless home router. Once all cameras were mounted and connected to the NVR, I was viewing the cameras on a dedicated 20" monitor I bought for viewing without having to go through any complex setup processes. Monitor, by the way is connected via a VGA cable. There is also an output on the back of the NVR for HDMI out, and I bought/ran a 50' HMDI cable from that to a 55" TV in my bedroom. Both monitors can be used simultaneously. It is nice to see what is going on outside on a large TV in the middle of the night.When it came time to go outside and do the final aiming of the cameras, I downloaded the reolink app (free) onto my phone (in my case an android phone), and the app, without prompting, then searched for the system on my home network (which my phone was already connected to via wifi). It asked for my NVR name and password, which I had changed from the default one it came with during initial setup. Once that was input from my phone, I was instantly viewing whichever camera I wanted.How does this work for remote viewing is a question I can't answer - it just worked. When away from home, I start the app on my phone, whereby a prompt asks if it is okay to view this over cellular data (in my case, T-Mobile mostly 4g speeds). I click "yes" and am connected to whichever camera I want to view - no stutter or lag. Remote recording and still photos can be triggered from within the app with ease. Movie and still photo quality is as advertised - quite excellent. Night vision is what is expected - a little more gray than I like, but camera settings can be tweaked.Now, want to view/playback NVR onto a home desktop computer also on your home network - that can be done. In my case, it took several attempts to get that connection established whereby I don't recall changing configuration settings from one attempt to the next - it didn't work at first, until it just "did". I'm not new to the world of building my own PC's and handling my own networking either, so I am up for most tech challenges, but this part tested my patience a bit and wished it would have been as easy as it was to get the cameras viewable on my phone.I would buy this system again, and am recommending it to others.

This is an amazing security camera set. I'm comparing this security NVR and cameras in its price range, image quality, and ease of use.I've installed enterprise security camera systems for my company at multiple locations and know a thing or two about them. With that said, this system was to be installed in a small restaurant. Surprisingly, it was cheaper to get this system and add additional cameras than to buy a 8 camera system.Camera installation was pretty simple with single POE ethernet interface on each camera, it's plug and play for all cabled cameras. There's no need to run separate power or anything. Since these are static mounted cameras pointing in 1 direction that will never move, I didn't see any issues with pointing it in the right direction. However, the way it mounts, swivel, and adjustment is very clunky and requires a little more force than I like to adjust them.NVR setup was a breeze. You need an external monitor. I used both an HDMI display and a long VGA cable for display. HDMI for the office and VGA for the front of the house display, which works great. Programming is all done through the onscreen keyboard and mainly mouse-clicks. Once it's connected to your network internet, download the app on your smartphone, the sync phone app is easy with a QR scan of the barcode on the NVR. Wireless on the NVR to your network internet is NOT available due to too many variables that can interfere with remote viewing performance and it's not available. You don't need to create a ReoLink account, but you should to get the warranty and additional warranty for your system.Image quality is pretty good in my opinion. Make sure you're recording at the MAX quality rate to maximize your investment. Oh and the NVR comes with a 2TB builtin HDD, so you'll have a good month of recordings before they get overwritten. There is no PTZ on these cameras, and again are static, set and forget cameras. There's no zooming in, tilting, or zooming and placement of the cameras are important to capture important events. The images are significantly clearer than 1080P, 2MB, and 4MB cameras. These are 5MB cameras and without boring you with the details, google the differences. The MB should indicate the amount of pixels encapsulated into a single frame, IF you're using the BEST image quality. There's no need to get the BEST camera system in the world and degrade the image quality for saving space or performance, if you can't see what exactly what happened.Overall, this is a great entry priced system that has the right performance for the needs. Additional cameras can be added to the NVR within the ReoLink family, including the C2 Pro wireless PTZ camera. So far so good once you have everything setup.

I had one camera dead on arrival, I contacted customer service to get a replacement, and they make you jump threw so many hoops you can’t get any help.I am very tech savvy, and had no problems setting up all the cameras myself. When one camera arrived dead, I tried to get a replacement. Naturally, they wanted to troubleshoot it first.They sent me various links to guides, I followed them all and the camera still did not work properly.Next they asked if my firmware was up to date. My unit is set to auto update, and when I clicked the manual “check for updates” button, it said it was up to date. They told me I was wrong, and sent an attachment to download and manually update it. This caught me off guard, as it seems like their auto updater should have got any available updates. This part annoyed me because I know if it was someone like my older parents handling this, they probably wouldn’t know how to manually download and update firmware.After manually updating to the firmware they sent me, my camera still did not work. They gave me more steps to troubleshoot, and kept saying I must be doing something wrong. None of their suggestions have solved the issue.At this point I figured “nothing helped, they will probably send me a replacement now.” NOPE! They wanted me to make a video recording of the entire troubleshooting process and email it to them. Reluctantly, I made the video, only to discover that the file was way too large to upload to the email. I told them this and they told me I have to upload it to a website that allows bigger uploads.After running into issues with the video, they said they need to call me to troubleshoot over the phone with me. Then I find out that they’re in some foreign country, and their business hours don’t line up with mine.So after failing to get on a call with them, they closed the ticket and haven’t gotten a replacement for the faulty camera.The motion section is horrible. I have spent way too long trying to fine tune the detection, and I finally just turned it off. I set the detection envelopes so that it had to detect for 5+ seconds, and I was getting false detections repeatedly. It got to the point where it wasn’t even worth trying to use it. I have a Ring camera as well, so I just let the motion detection of that alert me.Garbage customer service; and when dealing with security cameras it’s not worth the hassle when you spend that much on their product. Save yourself the heartache and go buy a Ring.

Two break-ins and one failed break-in were the motivator to get a home camera system. Many of the home camera systems are from names I've never heard of, Reolink was one of those.Over the course of several days I searched Amazon for all of the different options out there. Cloud based, NVR based, Resolution, Form Factor, Camera Viewing Angle, PoE, etc. Ultimately I settled on this kit from Reolink with 4 of the RLC-420-5MP cameras in the box. I also added 4 RLC-410-5MP cameras to get the other angles around the home that are important to me.The NVR is a really well thought out device. It has an integrated PoE switch. The cost savings alone from not having to buy injectors or a PoE switch just for the cameras was significant. I knew I wanted to run physical Ethernet to the cameras because I didn't want to deal with solar or batteries. Plus, the NVR is on a UPS (which is a must in Florida) so the cameras and NVR will continue to run in a power outage scenario for about an hour. The NVR itself was simple to set up. All I enabled in the UI was UPnP and then with my mobile device, used the Reolink app to scan the QR code on the NVR. Within seconds the app was connected and instantly worked inside on WiFi and everywhere I've taken my phone. It was SO simple, I was shocked. My expectations were to spend hours configuring remote access, but Reolink has done all the hard work. It has been VERY reliable.The quality of the cameras is outstanding. Even though these cameras I chose weren't a "convenient" 16:9 ratio (I think it's closer to 5:4) - what's important is the level of detail the 410 and 420 cameras capture. They have a very wide angle and even at distances of 70-100 feet, I can zoom in live or recorded and objects are clear. This was important to me. We all have watched the 11 o'clock news and saw video footage of robberies and all you could really see was some perp in BlurryCam detail. But not with Reolink. They're great. I couldn't be happier with it. Night vision also has no problem illuminating a very wide area like my backyard or a small area like my utility room - as if a bright incandescent light was shining on the area. I also love the dynamic brightness option on the cameras - it does a phenominal job at night making dark objects bright and bright objects dark enough to see details that would otherwise end up too dark or too bright.I like the ability on the NVR to set motion schedules - the ability to set different motion sensitivity levels at 4 different times of the day. Also, you can mask out high motion objects like trees so it doesn't trip the motion sensor as often. Other details that made me happy include the camera name & day/time customization - you can set it on different parts of the screen per camera. Also, I like the ability to record sound with the video.The only real substantive changes I'd make to the NVR is to support hard drives larger than 4TB. Also, I'd like to integrate the NVR with home automation. For example, when I arm my home alarm, I'd like to be able to tell the NVR to enable certain alerts/push notifications, and turn them off when I disarm the Alarm.Originally I viewed this as a risky purchase with only a few Amazon reviews to base a choice upon. However, I was so happy to set that skepticism aside as I started using it and setting everything up.