Swann DVR8-3425

useless! – These cameras take great videos but are let down with rubbish software, notifications are unusable because of constant phantom detentions making them useless for security thats if you receive them at all! Show details

No customer service – Swann view online cameras worked great till they upgraded their app and now I can't watch my cameras remotely so theres really no reason to have them, and swann dont care they will not reply to any customer inquiries Show details

Useless – Absolutely useless, 7 out of 8 cameras are faulty, infa red night vision is useless, warranty claim is a total waste of time, DVR started beeping, hdd light flashing, have to reset manually I personally would not purchase another Swann item.

Poor quality images – 7 out of 8 cameras failed within 18 months. Even cameras that we're under the roof eaves and not exposed to heat or rain failed. The DVR itself plays up and does not overwrite once the HDD fills up so have to check every 2 weeks to make sure I manually format the HDD. Would never buy again from Swann. Show details

Total Rubbish – FOUR out of six cameras failed inside the warranty period. (Only ever cables 6 of the 8 available inputs). Customer support expected me to climb the ladder & read all the camera serial number to them for a claim. Not an easy task considering the tiny print on the labels. Then find that the serial numbers are not in fact unique, more like… Read more

batch numbers, so they have me checking again.

Given a claim number & to return the faulty cameras at my own expense.

Before had a chance to do this 3 more failed.

Unable to speak with support to get them added to the claim & now warranty has expired.

Swann support treats you like an idiot. as a technician, it's not hard to diagnose the issue when replacing a pixelated camera with a test one produces a perfect image.

Completely rules out the box cable & power supply's, but no, they still want idiot diagnosis, like switch it all of & on again. All the standard things a regular electronics technician would have already tried.

This system was bought following a theft, & now it's basically USELESS, just over 12 months down the track.

Was purchased from Bunning's for over $800.00 in August 2015, before winter 2016, 4 of the cameras had failed.

That's now 7 out of 8.

The way the cameras fail is to have extremely pixelated images, zero chance of any recognition in recordings.

Swann should only need sample images in order to process a claim, not the long winded overseas hosted process in place.

Edit:- To correct my review, I had the purchase price incorrect, the Item was on special at the time.

Purchase date was out a bit too. 13/07/2015.

Adding an invoice for verification of purchase.

Absolutely debris and discreditable technical support! Don't be the next victim – We purchased Swann cameras unit early this year, few months later Its out of action Network all run well,we even got the electrician checked and reckoned the control unit is faulty. Phone call to the technical support person who is not much a support. The person was unclear in explaining " troubleshooting" and kept on asking to check on… Read more

something that was not attached to the unit.

Why did I bother to speak to someone overseas while the problem is in Australia & left unresolved. I have few words for Swann product

Slow

Wasteful

Avoidance

Non-sense

Noxious

poor night vision – I purchased the dvr8-3425. Dissapointed with the poor night images I called swann tech for help but got the run around so I called the camera installer. After he viewed the images he made a suggestion which i tried and i'm happy to say it worked. When my outside senser lights are on, the image is really good. The light must be facing the same… Read more

direction as the camera (not shining towards the camera). For the price it's a good camera. Hope this helps others who have already bought the swann cameras.

Dreadful cameras - amateur software -poor support – Note: Some of the following problems suggest a slow network, but the network works well for all other applications. 1) Several times I noticed that an email was sent (an alarm triggered) at the change over time from “continuous recording” to “motion only recording” - no activity just an alarm. 2) Numerous times (hundreds) I have noticed that an… Read more

alarm is caused by the camera routinely (every 60 seconds or so) switching the infra-red off or on. (the picture changes from black and white to color, or visa versa). This has the effect of sending emails every sixty seconds. Eventually all the sensors for infra-red had to be disabled in order to get some functionality back. I have been advised by staff at Swann that this IS A PROBLEM that cannot be corrected. ie alarms will arrive at sunset and sunrise simply because the cameras are switching infra red on or off - this is totally unacceptable for a security system!!!!

3) Alarm emails arriving at my pc (using Win 8.1 and outlook 2013) almost never display the photo that is supposed to accompany them. The photos however are displayed when viewed on my HTC Android phone.

4) Restoring system settings from a USB stick has never worked, even after reformatting the USB stick to the recommended format (FAT32).

5) ** critical ** When emails and alarms are turned off during the day (staff moving around the office), the recording of "motion only" stops also - this seems to be a most peculiar arrangement and severely limits the functionality.

6) The support call centre is overseas and I found it difficult to get them to understand the problems. The result was that the DVR was replaced twice because the support centre did not know how the DVR software worked (or rather, how it didn't work).

7) The software offered for remote control of the DVR was criticised by the overseas support staff who said that support could only be carried out if we were on site with the DVR.

8) A number of controls on the various screens had to be questioned with the support staff in order to discover their functions (the user manual refers to operation at the DVR and not when using remote software).

9) Calls to Melbourne disclosed that the cameras are very tricky things to adjust sometimes (or similar words).

10) The time and effort required to dismantle and return this disastrous electronic abortion is too much. It can serve merely as a deterrent.

11) It is unreliable to attempt to play back more than ONE channel at a time. Doing so may cause some channels to simply NOT display an event. (using remote software).

12) Several times I have tried to view a video and the indicator shows that the video is being progressively displayed – but the actual display is blank or shows only a single frame (with a constant date/time).

13) In the playback screen there is an option to download video events. If two or more are selected, the “Progress” indicator climbs to 100% for the first one – then immediately jumps to 100% for the next one! Don’t leave the screen assuming you have downloaded two events because the progress indicator for the second event is false.

14) The remote software frequently refuses to leave the playback mode indicating "please stop playback first" - when nothing is being played back. The only exit is to "log off".