Swann AdvancedX Wired 4K NVR Security System SWNVK-16ADVANX8D

One will TRY and keep this review as short as… Read more

possible, so bear with me.

....H I S T O R Y ....

My 5 year old 5mp SWANN DVR8-4980 (see my review in here) bit the dust 4 days ago, the system did not pick up the Toshiba hard drive! Not that Toshiba hard drives have a good name anyways! A sad loss, had great features, and will be sadly missed, GIVEN IT'S REPLACEMENT described in some detail below.

In keeping with being a loyal Swann customer, within the hour, I purchased a Swann 8 Camera 16 Channel SWANN AdvancedX Model NVR-16ADVANX system online on Saturday, Jaycar delivered it the next day, they set it all up, and one learned this SWANN AdvancedX Model NVR-16ADVANX system relies on its in built LED spotlights, It has NO "PIR" function. One must rely on either "human and vehicle detection" mode or "Motion" mode. They are your two BASIC choices.

WHAT HAPPENED TO SWANNs "PIR AND MOTION" MODE USED IN YOUR OTHER SYSTEMS SWANN!?

Nothing "ADVANCED" here, more like a manafacturing penny pinching cost cutting CUTBACK! This is a very BASIC system with skeleton features NOTHING "advanced" about it.

Here comes the fun part!

The spotlights on the Swann AdvancedX Model NVR-16ADVANX only work in the "Human and Vehicle detection" mode, meaning in "Detection" mode, the best mode for detecting and recording PEOPLE, hence, PROWLERS and perps, the built in spotlights WILL NOT WORK, will not light them up. May make sense within the Swann executiv branch, but makes no sense to those of us living in the real world outside SWANN developers in their "la-la land"! See pic below.

SWANNs AdvancedX Model NVR-16ADVANX Spotlights work in the "HUMAN AND VEHICLE DETECTION" mode, which human motion detection range does not pick up humans nearly as well as it does having it set in the "MOTION" mode, and in "motion" mode with sensitivity set on 8 (the highest setting), the cameras pick up people as soon as they enter the cameras coverage area. NO PROBLEMS in the "motion" mode, cameras work extremely well, picking up PEOPLE with ease.

Problem being the Swann AdvancedX Model NVR-16ADVANX having no PIR like their other products, higher settings in the "MOTION" mode picks up insects flying around and raindrops too, especially at night.

And why have this "HUMAN AND VEHICLE DETECTION" mode? People buy these systems to protect their homes mainly, and burglers dont park their cars in peoples driveways!

And, even with a 6k 12mp system if they are st^pid enough to park on the road close by, your cameras wont properly read numberplates at that distance anyway, and without clarity, without being able to read the numberplate, that footage cannot be used as evidence in court.

Cameras work fine for motionless cars parked close to the cameras in the driveway, but not in the street, and definately not while they are in motion. If the car is MOVING going by on the street you have BUCKLEYS getting the rego. So what is the use of having this "HUMAN AND VEHICLE DETECTION" Swann?

WHAT IS THE POINT?

Perpetrator vehicles are not driving around people's yards!!

Even in my weakened state, desperate to get the systems up and running to protect the property in case I end up in hospital (again) and with flooding rain expected in Townsville over the coming days, I have been "friggin in the riggin" something chronic trying to get the best settings for the "HUMAN AND VEHICLE DETECTION" mode before the rains come, or the HDD will fill up picking up thr rain if one was to keep it in the "ALARM" "DETECTION SETTINGS".

Please see the photo below depicting the best settings I have found for the Swann AdvancedX Model NVR-16ADVANX so far for maximum HUMAN pick up. I hope this helps SOMEONE out there that chooses to use the "HUMAN AND VEHICLE DETECTION" mode rather than the "MOTION" mode. Depends on how much HDD space you are willing to use.

Even with these settings, cameras will pick up cars and people sometimes, and NOT other times, especially at night or when it's raining. "HUMAN AND VEHICLE DETECTION" Settings too high, rain sets cameras off, settings too low adjusting for rain, cameras don't pick up people. An awkward balance!

After 3 weeks (as at 8/01 /2026), one is still grappling with these detection settings trying to get them right!

Lets simplify what these pixel "MINIMUM" and "MAXIMUM" settings mean, to save YOU the time and frustration I went through with these.

For the Swann AdvancedX Model NVR-16ADVANX the settings for "Min Pixel" and "Max Pixel" in Swann systems relate to motion detection sensitivity based on the object SIZE, not the overall camera resolution. These settings help reduce false alarms by defining the acceptable on-screen image size for an object to trigger a recording event.

Understanding Min Pixel and Max Pixel for the Swann AdvancedX Model NVR-16ADVANX

MINIMUM PIXEL: This is the smallest on-screen image size an object must appear to be in order to trigger motion detection. Objects smaller than this threshold (e.g., a huge truck far away, a distant tree swaying) will not trigger a recording.

MAXIMUM PIXEL: This is the largest on-screen image size an object can be and still trigger motion detection. This is designed to prevent false triggers from very large, close objects that might be irrelevant, such as a tiny bug flying right in front of the lens appearing as a massive shape on screen. The pixel values you set are relative to the camera's view, not the real-life size of the object.

One also found out these SWANN NVR-16ADVANX camera spotlights are WORKING DURING THE DAY! This is because this very basic system does not have the capability to distinguish between DAY and NIGHT!

And whilst one is on the subject of the spotlight on these cameras, it is soooo annoying, infuriating, that one must continually go back into the "RECORD" - "DETECTION" - "DETERENT" settings to keep turning on these spotlights!!!! It's like the sub-standard gizzards in the console keeps losing its memory with these settings or something! The spotlight on camera facing the back door has NEVER worked! See pic below of settings screen.

Every time I change settings within the "Alarm", "DETERENT", "SETUP" section, the light settings which boxes I have ticked, UNTICK, and the duration one had set on 30 seconds revert back to 60 seconds, REALLY "TICKS" ME OFF SWANN!

This model SWANN AdvancedX NVR-16ADVANX is fairly BASIC and it looks like SWANN is not really interested in updating the AdvancedX Model NVR-16ADVANX firmware too soon, judging by the comments of Technical Support this morning, even knowing it has forgotten to add features found in their older systems. I told the lady, that it needs to include the spotlight function in the "motion" mode because CARS do not zoom around people's back yards or gardens, the spotlights are needed to detect PEOPLE and PEOPLE ONLY, people are prosecuted for trespass NOT CARS! COMMON SENSE.

The SWANN AdvancedX NVR-16ADVANX refresh rate needs to be increased as well. This has not been addressed by Swann since Methuselah was in diapers. With all due respect Swann, get with the times. I feel this is because of what appears to be a sub-standard procesor, which I will explain further down.

The Swann AdvancedX Model NVR-16ADVANX has very basic camera screen viewing layout as well, (Bottom left hand corner) no custom layout with this model, unlike the 5 year old 5mp SWANN DVR8-4980 where you had the feature in the live camera viewing layout, having smaller camera viewing visuals around a large camera visual for viewing emphasizing the main area of interest, the main area you want to focus on and keep an eye on. See photo below showing exactly what I mean.

Also unlike my 5 year old 5mp SWANN DVR8-4980, you cannot hold left button down to move left and right or up and down when in full screen zooms? You now have a zoom square in which to control the zoom function using the mouse wheel whilst specifically in the area you want to zoom in on, you can no longer follow like with older models.

The zoom function in the recording playback on the Swann AdvancedX Model NVR-16ADVANX is nowhere as large in maximum zoom as it is in live view? Whilst on recording, in the "SEARCH" mode, once you have found what you need to transfer to a USB in other Swann systems you pause the play at the beginning and hit the SCISSORS icon then the file, but on this crazy Swann AdvancedX Model NVR-16ADVANX system, you pause the play and the scissors FADE OUT! You cannot hit the dim icon, IT WONT WORK!

Will only work whilst the recorded footage is playing, and by the time you go through the procedure, up to 5 seconds of evidence is LOST. And if you need that 5 seconds for evidence, well......

In the zoom mode, you zoom in on an object in LIVE VIEW (not playback) the whole scene veers to the right, on all cameras! See the video here on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/Xe6M4kwRNIM

*** Now I'll get into the "SEARCH" function. This is the function that lets you see what the console recorded, and what you NEED to transfer evidence footage from the console to a USB Why, WHY have Swann removed a function it has had on its other models for YEARS?!

One refers to the amount of cameras (preview boxes) you can tick to add to main timeline onscreen at one time. Please see photo below.

In the older set top consoles, namely my SWANN DVR8-4980 that just met it's maker, you could click several boxes at once, even have all 8 camera preview boxes up on the screen with the timeline below so you can watch the trespasser go from one camera small preview screen to the other, EASY, easy for recording, easy for double clicking and watching in full screen view!

NOW, you can only click ONE box at a time for full screen view of ONE CAMERA, on a big screen, rather than seeing all ticked box screens at once.and have to go through the annoying time consuming rig-ma-roll of going back unclicking the previous square, so you can click the new square to watch the trespasser enter next camera, and so on.

Now one will explain my comment above relating to the consoles processor.

In My 5 year old 5mp SWANN DVR8-4980 one replaced with this Swann AdvancedX Model NVR-16ADVANCEDX, whilst in the "SEARCH" function, one could click on the the area of the timeline one wanted to view, the response was INSTANT and with only ONE CLICK of the mouse. Now with this newer Swann AdvancedX Model NVR-16ADVANCEDX not only do you have to click several times to get to where you need going forward, its even WORSE when you have to go back in the timeline!! I thought it was the mouse, but after trying SEVERAL mice, gound IT WAS NOT. Its the processing power.

A REAL PAIN SWANN!

WHY DO THI$?

Something else YouTube professional review influencers neglect to tell you!

Swann needs to rename this from SWANN AdvancedX NVR-16ADVANX to BASICX.

As usual, In keeping this review of the Swann AdvancedX Model NVR-16ADVANX fair and balanced, one must add that the crisp picture quality is true to a hard wired 4k CCTV system one expects, and with the recording "MAINSTREAM" bitrate set to 8192 in the "RECORD" settings, the playback quality is clear and crisp, perfect for submitting as evidence which at the end of the day is the whole reason of having a security system!

One will explain the benefits of using the highest bitrate for recording on this this Swann AdvancedX Model NVR-16ADVANX, especially in 4K.

In camera settings "RECORD" settings "MAINSTREAM" and SUBSTREAM" bitrate controls the video quality vs. the file size/bandwidth, acting as the data flow rate (bits per second) for video; a HIGHER bitrate means more data, resulting in clearer, more detailed CLEARER footage but uses more storage/bandwidth, while a LOWER bitrate saves space but can lead to pixelation or blurriness, requiring you to balance quality with recording time and network usage for main/sub-streams.

IN A NUTHELL, for Best Quality: Set a high bitrate (default is usually good) for mainstream recording. Higher bitrate setting is best for presenting in Court.

Mine is set at 8192 bitrate and 3840 x 2160 Resolution in "MAINSTREAM" and 4096 bitrate and 1280 x 720 Resolution in "SUBSTREAM". THEY WORK REALLY WELL! I use SONY 4k 86' and 75' HDR BRAVIAs as monitors for both my Swann AdvancedX Model NVR-16ADVANX and Swann MaxRanger systems. The resolution in the live view is beyond GREAT!

In the "MAINSTREAM" SETTINGS IN THE "RECORD" MENU, I have set "CBR" in stead of ""VBR".

This is why...

CBR (Constant Bitrate) uses a fixed data rate, good for predictable bandwidth but can waste data or pixelate in complex scenes; VBR (Variable Bitrate) intelligently adjusts data flow, using more for detailed/moving scenes and less for static ones, resulting in better quality/smaller files but less predictable bandwidth. VBR is usually better for storage and quality, while CBR offers consistent bandwidth, ideal for live streaming.

Also, even with the highest detection settings in the "HUMAN AND VEHICLE DETECTION" mode, this system filters out light and moderate rain, something the "MOTION" mode does not do especially lacking the PIR feature.. This is a good thing too! Could be better with a PIR function though.

The console is very solid in construction and has some weight to it, very well made, and NOT plastic, a rarity for what comes out of China, and being of metal construction has its benefits too! One was surprised.

Another plus is the Swann AdvancedX Model NVR-16ADVANX cameras. They are solid and seemingly well-constructed, appear to keep out unwanted rainwater, a big thing locals consider when purchasing ANYTHING outdoor in Townsville.

The ethernet cables are the bees' knees too, making installation so easy I was told. They have waterproofing connectors for where they connect to the cameras too, I am told. Best thing, they are readily available in several lengths, and I will be replacing them every 6 months as 4 of mine are OUTSIDE on the roof which made it easier CHEAPER and quicker for them to install the system.

And something else Swann could look at as an accessory, selling HEAVY DUTY weather resistant ethernet cables starting at 20 meters.

Not only would you have SWANN customers buying them, but others too! A durable cable people can just throw on a tinned or tiled roof to connect console to camera for quick easy installation.

Great for people who want temporary (or permanent) camera installation without having to drill holes or climb in a ceiling etc.

That is what one would call CONVENIENCE and add a degree of simplicity to installation hassels for many, THINK ABOUT IT.

And,

WHEN THEY WORK and the system does not FORGET the settings to KEEP THEM ON, the spotlights are certainly bright enough to do the job too, it is a much-needed feature! THEY ARE GREAT! A feature that UNFORTUNATELY only works in the "HUMAN AND VEHICLE DETECTION" mode.

My God Swann, this could be a great system if you guys implemented common sense in a future firmware/software upgrade, if they ever do one. Time will tell... Also, if Swann introduced WIRELESS mouses/mice as part of their systems it would leave competitors for dead! Fancy including a mouse with a very short tail... They are so cheap these days too. Something for Swann to think about.

=====UPDATE===== One has just purchased an OPTUS modem and to my surprise, when I plugged in the ethernet LAN cable from console to modem, the Swann AdvancedX Model NVR-16ADVANX picked up the the network IP, Subnet mask and Gateway without me having to sweat over it! One simply downloaded the app and am using the FREE VERSION to access cameras on mobile and tablet, tablet being preferred choice for larger viewing screen. Still trying to work out how to add the Swann MaxRanger...

Don't forget to add your Email details in "EMAIL CONFIGURATION" and VERIFY, very important step!

Anyways, with all the above being said,

What has happened to SWANN? It saddens me greatly, a once trusted reliable quality brand producing a product like THIS, cutting back on features to maximize profits, yet producing a fantastic, and I mean FANTASTIC product like their MaxRanger?

I bought my first swann "do it yourself" system just after the Sydney Olympics, and now, sadly I announce that this may be the last Swan system I will ever waste my time on. I'm not a spring chicken any more, I dont have the time or energy to waste.

By skimping on quality and features, features Swann have had for many years, the company has literally "lost the plot", with a Corporate American styled emphasis based mainly on cutting back on quality and features to increase their bottom line, sorry, but that's the TRUTH from someone who has stuck with swann for all this time.

THIS IS HOW I SEE IT.

You wanna compare "beauty and the beast", see my review in here for Swann MaxRanger, an EXCELLENT product, makes you wanna cry!

++UPDATE 31 JANUARY 2026++

Incredible!

If you have the Swann AdvancedX detection settings on "HUMAN AND VEHICLE DETECTION" you cannot disable (untick) "PICTURE TO CLOUD" "or "VIDEO TO CLOUD" settings! They are preset, and all your footage is being uploaded to SWANN cloud, nothing we can do to stop it unless we set detection settings to "MOTION".

The ticked boxes in "DETECTION" "ACTIONS" are in grey, and boxes cannot be unticked, yet in "motion" mode, the four squares below (depicted in photos in ones review on Swann) ARE unticked because those four cameras are in "MOTION" mode. YOU CAN UNTICK THEM!

Even in "DEVICE" "CLOUD STORAGE" settings, there is no way of stopping my images or videos being sent to Swann cloud! One spent ages trying to communicate with a Swann tech support (expert) lady yesterday evening, and we went through "processes" trying to disable to UNTICK these pre set settings stealing my data, at a rate of, so far, 400 gig a week!

SHE COULD NOT HELP ME....

In fact, the other "expert" she had online never even got back to her in the 15 minutes we were on the phone!

These people should know everything about the products they sell, THEY DON'T!

And one is using MOBILE DATA! THIS IS A DISGRACE!

I will keep you updated a I learn more,

THERE IS MORE TO COME!