i'm installing mine in S. America. I don't require integration, just an appliance that "works." Research on these chinese units in advance is difficult, since many of these "look" the same from the outside, but actually have different parts "behind the covers."
Here's another one. I found this one, improved price/functionality than the one I just bought, two days after I purchased mine
http://www.cctvhotdeals.com/store/standalo...o-recorder.html
This is another company that answers the phone and is located in the US. Always a plus in my book.
A few thoughts on functionality:
Most of these chinese units are good for home/small-office. They are not, and should not be mistaken, for pro-grade. They won't integrate with home-automation systems. Never-the-less, they typicaly provide good functionality at very reasonable prices. "Security" doesn't necessarily require a high fps rate or the best video quality. If you want to record the nanny caring for the kids, you probably want a high recording frame rate (eg: to track whether they are "shaking" the baby) and can tolerate lesser video quality (you know who the nanny is, you don't need to see the face to figure out who) If you want to monitor a small business, you want better picture quality (to see a customer's face), but lower fps are fine. (most people don't run like tom cruise in MI2... 5 fps is more than enough in most cases). Unit resolution and features never fix problems with camera quality, camera location, camera focal length (zoom), or lighting. For example, to monitor cash in a cash register, you need a properly aimed camera at the correct zoom. That's far more important than recording at D1 quality. As for D1 quality... well, I'm not quite sure why you need it... These units aren't TiVOs
That looks even better, definitely post and let us know how it works over the internet.
Once again, this is the unit I purchased:
http://www.cctvsecuritypros.com/onewesaisu8c.html
Update on bench-testing. I connected two cameras (one mid-grade/pro-grade honeywell, one cheapo swann). I'm comparing this to my kodicom 8 camera ebay board running warez.
unit starts up out of the box.
fan is a bit loud (doesn't always run), but not intolerable. Don't mount the unit in the master bedroom
monitor thrugh VGA and two BNC connectors. One my requirements was multiple physical monitors
PC integration using active-X plug-in. I like that I can reconfigure via web (another requirement)
playback method is a bit funky. It stores blocks of time in "files" and you playback the entire "file" one at a time. You "find" a block of time.
recording quality is measured in: normal quality, good quality, better quality, best quality. I can't translate that into more objective measurements.
you cannot rotate individual camera images (rotage, flip, or mirror)
installed the PC software... couldn't find the unit. Will play with this more, later.
BTW -- I have a digitized version of the manual, if you want to see it, send me a PM with your email.
