Q-See QSC26416 16 Channel H.264 Pentaplex Network Digital Video Recorder (No Hard Drive)

What customers say about Q-See QSC26416 16 Channel H.264 Pentaplex Network Digital Video Recorder (No Hard Drive)?

1. 17 of 17 people found the subsequent review helpful

   
   Why did I buy THIS DVR amongst so many?, April 3, 2008

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   HMMWV “God, Country, Corps” (santa clara, CA USA) –
   
     
   
     

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   This review is from: Q-See QSC26416 16 Channel H.264 Pentaplex Network Digital Video Recorder (No Hard Drive) (Electronics)

   Update 11-24-2008

   Q-see continues to show strong as the price leader but recently (10/08) released a finely tuned software upgrade for this unit. You go to www.q-see.com and select standalone DVRs, select this model, and go to firmware, download the .zip file, unzip it and place the 3 Megabyte firmware file on a USB memory stick by itself.

   Plug that stick in the back of your Q-See QSC26416 and select the menu -> Utilities -> upgrade firmware and select from USB stick. It takes 3 minutes to do it and then you must reboot.

   When done you have a really new look and feel to the internet browsers. Previously you got 4 cameras as 4 equal squares, now you can have 6 cameras, 1 huge square that is vital and 5 smaller squares around it that are not as vital. Support for 16×9 monitors is even included now.

   Additionally here are extra configuration capabilities in this release. I highly recommend this manufactured goods with the new firmware and am glad to see that q-see is supporting their H.264 line of DVRs with added features and updated look and feel. You’ll also appreciate the fact that now you can place as many as 6 camera feeds with exceptional quality into a single dsl line upstream bandwith to view at the office so you can watch your dog, cats, etc at home even as you are at work. If you see something weird, just double click on the small window and it blows it up to full screen which is another new feature that really comes in handy. Altogether Q-see has set new standards with the 26416 box. Their continued support of their firmware is much appreciated.

   (original review is below)

   Choosing a DVR is a very private choice. Some people want to use their computer and place it turned on 24/7. Others want a simplified all-in-one box. Some need 4 cameras, others need 8 or more.

   This was my reasoning for the 16 channel no-hard-disk q-see logic.

   #1 – no hard disks – why? Well – because I can buy a terabyte on sale locally at the computer store for $150. If I bought a terabyte of disk space from the DVR manufacturer it will cost more than that!. This logic also allows you to install 8 hard disks to use up all those laying around your computer shop which is a fantastic deal if you have spare hard disks.

   #2 – it handles PTZ and handles it in the least. This means I can plug the box into my house’s network, and log into it from work or a friends house or even on the road with my laptop and steer the 2 PTZ cameras I bought to look around my front yard and back yard. The box handles everything – no software is required and I just click everywhere I want to look, and can zoom in 270 times to see distant activity (but I don’t recomment much more than 50X zoom)

   #3 – with 16 inputs, I can monitor indoor and outdoor cameras. You also get extra features with more cameras. For example, if an clock radio is triggered, the DVR is smart enough to use the internet to send the clock radio video offsite to a remote server at work or a friend’s house in case it is stolen in a robery. Pretty clever feature – but it is only in their high end products. Granted, not all of my 16 ports are in use, but they were cheap to add

   #4 = This DVR fully supports audio. Here is both a video and audio connection for every camera, as well as a PTZ hookup if you must so desire. Audio can be recorded, and when played back you can mix the 16 tracks to hear what you want. Keep in mind you must supply the audio logic of microphones to make this work, but the DVR supports it

   #5 – dual outputs – the DVR outputs to a VGA monitor, and in my spare parts bin I had an ancient 15″ LCD VGA monitor which made a nice lightweight low power solution. It also has a NTSC video output so I can hook it to my huge TV spare input and flip to a second output here. Each output can be configured with one, 4, 9, or 16 images on the screen simultaneously – all live and in full pledge.

   #6 – no sacrificing in recording. For example, some DVRs make you give up cameras or frame rate. A recorder with a 120 FPS recording rate can record 4 cameras at 30 FPS (4*30=120) – but if you connect 8 cameras to it, then you can only record at 15 FPS which looks jerky. This DVR can record full 30FPS on all 16 cameras simultaneously.

   #7 Infrared remote control. Hear something outside in the yard at night? turn on your PTZ camera and steer it with your IR remote to see what is going on. Pledge simplicity.

   #8 Backups to anything. With a USB port you can save events that were recorded to USB stick, to a usb CD/DVD r/w drive, etc. It’s up to you on how you want to store images it captures.

   #9 USB mouse – you can plug in a usb mouse if you want to

   #10 clock radio interface. The unit interfaces with my house clock radio logic so that if motion is detected by the clock radio, even if it is not turned on at the time, the DVR…

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