List Price: $895.78
Sale Price: $518.00
Today's Bonus: 42% Off
This might be an OK buy for someone who really likes to fiddle around with software, and treat learning the user interface as a mystery game such as MYST, figuring out puzzles and such. I believe the hardware is pretty decent, and so if you are inclined to spend time learning the software you could end up with a pretty usable DVR.
My journey started with receiving the DVR without the promised 1TB drive. My first call to customer support (to be far from the last!) got the drive sent out and a week later I had it, installed it, and plugged everything in. I was hoping to control the unit remotely using the supplied PSS software. This software, obviously written by a Chinese technophile, is filled with all sorts of cryptic options. You can do anything with this software if only you can figure out all the hidden places the related functions must be controlled from. The seller has tried to make life easier by offering lots of online videos to walk you through procedures -but these shouldn't be necessary. Don't even bother wasting time with the manual it is unusable.
Being the MYST type, after several days of playing around I finally got the unit working almost how I want it. (The secret is to left click the DVR in the Device list, the right click the IP address that pops up, and navigate to "Advanced" which has a hidden sub-menu called "Device Config" -no, I'm not making this up.) Everything else on the very cluttered interface is mainly just distraction from getting to this core menu where most of the actual configuration takes place.
Rather than a new video game, I recommend this unit as just as entertaining, and you'll end up with something useful if you can crack it.
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