ANNKE8 Channel 3K Lite Security Digital Video Recorder with 1TB Hard Drive, H.265+ Hybrid 5-in-1 Surveillance DVR, Human & Vehicle Detection, Supports 8CH Analog and 2 IP Cameras for 24/7 Home CCTV

My old one from a different brand was broken after 5 years, it took less than 10 minutes to set this up connecting to my old cameras. So far so good, it has alot more features that seems very useful. This is a such a good deal, another satisfied customer. If something breaks or whatever, I'll update my review.

My old surveillance DVR quit working and I recently purchased an Annke 8 channel, 1TB DVR. It was very easy to set up and get working to my already existing cameras. After getting the DVR up and running I needed help to set up my app on my cell phone. Geraldine from Annke was so patient and amazing to work with and get my app working. Thanks again for the help!!

Bought this when our old DVR went out and needed to replace it. It was an easy plug and play swap out for our old one. I've not played with setting up any zones or such, so can't comment on the fancier stuff. But the DVR works great with default settings, and the phone app works great with it. It has been a welcome upgrade from our old DVR.

My previous security DVR died last year and I've been dragging my feet in finding a replacement. This one works great and was easy to set up. It doesn't have wifi so make sure you're close to a network cable outlet. The only thing that keeps it off my 5 star list is that it requires a separate power supply to activate the cameras. It was built into my last DVR. This was not a huge deal, but it's something to consider when purchasing so you can bundle your purchase at the same time.It has a setup for 8 cameras total. They are easy to view from the TV or a smart device with the app. For the price and overall functionality, it's hard to beat.

UPDATE: Lowered from 2 Stars to 1. I bought the 8mp annke system after this one didn't work as advertised. That one was even worse. Writing a review for that one next. Stay far away from Annke brand. You'll get one response from customer service per day in broken english. They'll give you pictures of where to click and on what menus - but they do not match the system. For instance: they say "Click the 'page' icon and then go to blah blah blah" But there IS NO page icon. The user interface they're trying to coach me on is different than what I have. Different firmware or something. I don't know.UPDATE END. ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW.There is more bad with this setup than good. My main concern is that I can't backup video files in an easily viewable format. I've been fiddling with this for days now downloading all different players and converters and I've yet to play a video on my PC. How are the police supposed to examine the footage??? They're just coming to hang out in my living room to watch the monitor here? And what if I find the criminal and take him to court? How do they view the footage? This is a very simple feature that should take priority. Contemplating returning it since a LOT of the features just flat out don't work:CONS- There is no USB slot in the front of the system. Making it a pain to plug in a thumb drive to backup files. Something this dvr REALLY doesn't want you to do apparently...- The DVR records in weird 15-30 second chunks. I need to backup hours at a time. Impossible when every clips is 15 seconds... (see image)- It SAYS you can backup files as AVI. But you really can't. Broken feature. See images.- The H265+ might be incredible. I have no idea. I can't view it on my PC. Even after trying to download several players and converters as recommended by their customer service. I can only view video ON the DVR itself.- It's VERY difficult to search for a specific time. It just doesn't work. It shows a list of literally one thousand 15-30 second clips. All jumbled and out of order. How am I supposed to find a specific hour? I can't.- I can't export AVI clips. I understand the quality might not be as great. But if you CAN'T VIEW the H265+ mp4 files then who cares how clear it is? My home/cars gets vandalized way too often. I upgraded to this 5mp clearer set up to hopefully help police identify them. The police in my area are just bad. Lazy. I can barely get them to view my shoddy AVI files from my previous system. I will NEVER get them to download a specific player and install it in their computers there in order to just view MY security camera footage. Even if they were technically capable of it, which they're not, they're just too lazy to go through all that. They'll just say "The files wouldn't open". So, again, what good is this system if you can't show people the videos? Just so I can see with crystal clarity the guy who destroys my property and be upset about it?- Smart view: supposedly shows you a timeline of your recording. Regular is blue. Motion detected in red. So you can save time by skipping to areas where motion is detected. Very cool feature.... if it worked. It doesn't. There was no red on my timeline (there were a lot of cars going by). It works the same as regular playback.- Timeline displays time in 24hr format even though I set it to a 12hr format.- The instructions given to me by customer service don't apply to my dvr. They're telling me to click options that just aren't there.PROS- The rewind is very smooth.I'm really frustrated with this system. Custom service was no help with my issues. So much of this just doesn't make any sense. Why can't I output in AVI even though it says it's an option? Why can't I backup more than 2 cameras at a time? Why can't I backup hour long blocks? It feels so broken...

[6/16/23] Day 1To be completely honest, I wasn't expecting much especially at this price. To my surprise, this is a nice and feature rich DVR. I have mine set to record 24/7 but you can set motion detection recording only if that's your style. User manual is clear and detailed, not a common sight with cheap Chinese brands. You can set email (only if connected to internet, ethernet only no wifi), audible, and visual alarms for events. One weird thing I noticed is that theres no way for the DVR to be turned off while it's plugged in, if you shut it down from the GUI it will prompt you to unplug the DVR, why? Not an issue but just weird. Saw someone else have problems with Swann cameras working, but my PRO-642 960H cams were plug and play, no additional configuration required. The DVR picked up the format, resolution, bitrate, framerate all automatically. I can't comment on motion detection and false alerts, but they're there if you want them. Overall I'm very happy with my purchase.[6/28/23]So far so good. 100% uptime with all of my cams constantly recording. Still very happy.[9/13/23]Drive has filled up and is overwriting old footage, this is desired behavior. Just mentioning it because it has caused playback and seeking through video to become sluggish. It's a hard drive, so this isn't really too surprising. Other than that it's still running and recording 24/7, it has had about 20 minutes of downtime in the past 3 months and only because of circumstances unrelated to the dvr. This is my final update. If something significant happens I'll report here but other than that I have nothing else to say.

Great little dvr unit.Takes abit to set up and get use to the controls,but once you do its so easy.Have 28'monitor and app set up on phone,and on wifes phone also.Works with my other systems camera,lorex.plug and play set up.You have to do basics,name each camera,set up motion zones,thats about it.On monitor it automatically opens camera that has motion,then goes back to all 8 views,has push notification for people or cars,does not go off on bushes or leaves movements.I have 3 pugs and it picks them up when in yard.Very quiet,no noise from unit.Installed feb 2025