TP-Link VIGI 8 Channel Network Video Recorder NVR1008H
VerifiedMPN: NVR1008H4 reviews
Not ready for market. Buggy – This product isn’t ready for market. Purchased April 2022 from Amazon. Updated to latest firmware on day of installation. Running version 1.0.5 build 210823 Rel.61765n Mine has locked up once, No vga/hdmi output, responded to pings, no VIGI app connectivity. Hard reboot restored operation. Connected to 7 cameras. 3 TP-Link Tapo c210 indoor wifi cameras, and 4 POE dahuas. All working fine, all flawless when watching their RTSP streams from inside my LAN with VLC.
When the nbn falls over, and WAN goes bye bye, which is a very common occurrence in Australia, the VIGI NVR1008H falls over locally. It then drops LAN connectivity locally to all cameras, the hdmi output screen (to avoid any confusion) shows no connection to all my cameras, while I can still watch their RTSP streams on VLC. Come on! This is a fundamental flaw! It requires a reboot of the NVR1008H to restore LAN connectivity to cameras. Even the TAPO app still seamlessly regains connection to the TAPO C210 cameras (TP-Link consumer cameras btw) on WAN connection return, AND still connects to the cameras over LAN when WAN is down. Oh and the NVR1008H won’t talk to the C210’s properly either. Identifies as TP-Link cameras, but after a reboot of the NVR1008H it will not reconnect for love or money to the C210’s. Manually configured to onvif they will auto reconnect after a reboot.
The only thing I haven’t tried yet is adding a 4G backup modem and having PFSENSE seamlessly fall back to 4G on nbn failure to test.
Oh and no Lan web interface or mirroring the hdmi output over LAN. Even just a RTSP stream of the hdmi out would be enough. Clearly the development team haven’t used security devices in the real world.
The VIGI NVR1008H isn’t ready for market. Security devices need to be robust. This thing sure isn’t. DO NOT BUY.
Purchased in at Amazon for $118.49.
Doesn’t play well with other cameras – Can’t get the system to trigger on motion detection. I’m guessing it is because I used Foscam onvif Poe cams. It is a noisy little box. Interface needs work. Can use limited controls remotely. Can view remotely. Compact unit and nice price point.
Purchased in at Scorptec Computers for $147.
Basically good, but can't operate over LAN – The TP-Link NVR1008H is a good unit that does what it's supposed to do. However, I can't give it 5 stars. The NVR is not able to be operated locally over the LAN, which I'd consider to be a basic feature. It either has to have a monitor attached (not great for limited space), or have internet access to the TP-Link cloud (not the best for security). Neither of these are ideal and I don't really understand why TP-Link would make this decision. Hopefully they can add this feature in a future firmware update to bring it to a 5-star product.
Purchased in .
First version woes – This is a brand new product, so at the moment it has some rough edges - if you are using non-TPLink IP cameras anyway (I use Hikvision cameras - which is a well known and quality brand) The main problem with it is that unless you are in timezone UTC+8, then you're out of luck, because this is what the NVR1008H will set all your cameras to - even though the NVR itself is set to UTC+10. If you live in Sydney, your cameras will be 2 hours behind (3 during daylight savings).
For home use, this might not be a problem, but for business use or where the recording may be used in court evidence, its a show stopper in my opinion.
Other than this (serious) problem, the recording functionality works very well and the motion detection is simple but functional. By no means does this NVR baffle you with options and configuration, like many computer based surveillance systems such as Zoneminder, Motioneye, Surveillance System or Shinobi (I've tried them all and more!). Take it from me, simple is better as long as it works - so this is a positive thing.
Camera setup is simple enough, it was able to find all of my cameras without issue - but make sure ONVIF is turned on for each one.
Playback is either by a screen attached direct to the NVR, or you can use a mobile app or a PC program. Both are decent quality programs that are documented with quality grammar, but still leaves some things unexplained. But still, its simple enough to work out how to use it.
Overall, would I recommend this? I would have given it 5 stars if it were not for the Timezone problem - with this problem, I'll only give it 2 or 3. Hopefully a firmware update will fix this problem with the software.
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Hi Greg, I am Sean from the TP-Link Marketing Team, many thanks for sharing your review. Would you kindly contact our technical team on 02 8677 1553 (9-5, Monday to Friday) in regards to your timezone issue? We are based in Sydney and have a test setup downstairs and are not experiencing this time zone problem, the team would like to help you get this rectified. Thanks for sharing your experience and your feedback with us.