WholeHome

Currently available on Newegg for between $219 and $269

Why review this item?

Primarily because it is currently the lowest cost security DVR available and many have been wondering if it worked and whether it would accomplish their goals. Turns out it is also a good opportunity to see how one of these DVRs works and the various options and features available.

Out of the Box experience:

Good packaging – this is the first device that has ever come “fully wrapped – in fact vacuum sealed. Packaging was in normal Styrofoam – and it all appeared “safe” – which is all you are really looking for. First impression was that there was an unusually small amount of documentation – everything must be on the CD?

8 Channels for around $200 is a great deal almost no matter what quality it really records or what the UI looks like, but let’s dive in, starting with the hardware and contents:

The CD

– what can I say except that the first impression is that I’m in trouble – no label of any kind – someone just bought generic cd-r discs, burned them, and threw them in the package. OK a little leniency because of the price point, but for the extra $.02 they could have at least labeled it to look professional:

Rest of the contents – looks good – I really like external power supplies – gives me maximum cord control and keeps some of the heat away from the rest of my components – check!

Simple Remote control – well laid out and English is all correct – check!

Very nice front and back panels – well laid out, controls as well as lights are easy to see and understand and it all matches the remote. Inputs and outputs on the rear panel are also well laid out and easy to read.

The alarm input/output is also industry standard, so anyone that has ever purchased a DVR will immediately recognize the layout.

Very nice to have a mechanical power switch as well as both VGA and S-Video outputs. Note that this particular DVR has the option of 720p out – seemingly pointless given security camera resolutions, but nice to have the option nonetheless.

My first mechanical issue, however, was that the front panel came partially detached – it appeared to be snapped on, but regardless of what angle or pressure I applied, it would not snap back on. Upon closer examination, it appears that it is actually screwed on with two small plastic straps that both broke in transit. Having done a considerable amount of mechanical engineering recently on BOCS, I can say with authority that this particular attachment system is highly flawed – the strength of these particular straps is clearly not adequate to securely hold on the faceplate in transit. My plan is to simply glue it in place later – it is imperative that it be secure since the DVR will be controlled by buttons on the faceplate.

Moving on to internals:

500GB hard drive included – SATA – and a WD at that.

It is interesting that the VGA output is laid out as if it were an option – a small plug in card that sits over the main board – not sure why – VGA seems like the industry standard for dedicated DVRs although in a home application, composite video and network control are beginning to dominate. Only concerning thing is that the video encode chip only has a stick on heat sync with a body fan that does not even blow directly on it. So, either this is going to be some not so great video or heat will be a long term issue – stay tuned.

Functionality:

Boot: fast – approximately 20 seconds from power to video display. Irritating that the alarm buzzer sounds for a bit while booting, but after hooking up a couple cameras and applying power, I immediately got video. As you can see, it comes up by default in full grid mode (to a monitor plugged into composite video out right next to the DVR) – that is my basement and upstairs living room on cameras 1 and 2.

Video quality locally is pretty good – small window, tiled, but all the features can be made out – keep in mind this is local video and pre-compressed though.

This means that as a simple tiler, it is doing well. It can easily be hooked into the BOCS system and whole-home security cameras on every TV is merely one wire away. It will be great to be able to see the front door, 4 or 5 rooms, and a couple pics of the backyard all on one screen on my 50” plasma and the bedroom TV simultaneously. CHECK!!

UI:

A collection of UI captures are below – overall, not bad. Everything is intuitive and fast to set up. IP address and all the network details are easily set up from the remote control. Frankly, better than most US companies. I’m impressed.

Even the motion detection screen is straightforward – you go to any particular camera view, place the cursor in the top left of the area you want to select for motion detection, hit select, then move it to the bottom right corner of the preferred area and hit select again – the system draws a nice box for your motion detection area. Simple, yet in many applications you have unusual or multiple areas on screen you want to detect – My favorite is a grid system where you get a nicely gridded selection on screen and you select any area(s) on screen you want to detect. This is especially helpful when you want to exclude specific moving things but include many other distinct areas on screen. So a + for simplicity, but a big – for flexibility.

Dynamic DNS!!

Motion Detection “Block” selection

One more note on functionality – something not well documented, at least on the newegg site: This DVR supports Dynamic DNS – and can be set up right from the remote control.

DDNS is a nice little system that will let you get to this DVR from the internet even if you are a Comcast subscriber and your IP address changes every day. It maintains a link with a free outside service and allows you to set your own domain name and assign it to the dynamic IP of your broadband connection. Very nice. Normally, you have to run this on another PC in the house, but for standalone applications, this makes everything easier.

The PC application:

Initial installation is straightforward and comes with both a real application and an active-x control so you can access the DVR from any web browser. Within, seconds, again, it was at least up and running.

Right off the bat, though, a few problems:

1) You have to manually connect every time you open it or switch to the viewer from the DVR function and re-enter the password. It would be really nice to have some way to save the password at least. Picky? Perhaps.

2) Controls basically mimic the remote control – you cannot click on the menu/popups onscreen – this is basically just a pipe of the video output and a relay of the remote control. This makes things easy to understand but a pain to control. Pressing right 6 times to enter a password seems a real pain given that I have a mouse and keyboard (neither of which is recognized)

3) DVR playback controls – none are functional – unless you install the right player – there are 4 included on the CD with no instruction as to how to choose the right one.

4) Playback is straightforward as long as you choose not to record all the time and rely just on motion detection. Then when you playback it only displays the camera where motion was detected and only for the motion duration plus the delay (I had 10 seconds set) – nice but a couple of skip buttons would have made finding the events much easier. Poor interface on this one.

5) Stabilty – Out of the box, the unit (mine anyway) was completely unstable. It would lock up and reboot almost every time it began a recording (motion detection or manual). I solved this by reformatting the hard drive. It apparently does a quick format as it only took about 30 seconds, but that solved all stability issues.

Video Quality:

For network connection as well as DVR recording, the system uses motion jpeg – not the best encode type, but with good cameras and putting record quality on high (no problem with motion detection and a 500GB drive) it is good enough to catch a good pic of that intruder. License plates, for instance, might be tough to pick out without careful camera aiming, and good lighting.

For a basic system, this is about the best you are going to get under $500. In fact, the next better quality system I’ve seen runs in the $1500 range. I would say that meeting expectations

Whole-Home distribution:

My next step was to route the video signals home-wide so I could see all the cameras on any TV. The BOCS system is ideal for that – with composite video output right from the DVR as well as the DVR being capable of receiving IR signals, it allows whole home viewing AND control (so I can scroll back and see intruder events from any TV. )

General qualifier here, I work for a company that distributes the BOCS system although I would have used it regardless…

The hookup is pretty simple, BOCS takes composite video in (you need a BNC to RCA adapter) and the system comes with a little stick-on IR emitter that attaches to the front of the DVR so the BOCS remotes can control it.

So, the end result is all the cameras on every TV in the house – here is the resulting picture displayed on my 50” plasma – note that for this review I only have two of the cameras hooked up. Unfortunately, my camera does not seem to be able to capture a good (non-washed out) picture of the plasma screen, but the quality is really good. I’m headed to put the other 6 cameras up this week.