Defender 4CH DVR Security System w/500GB

Our neighbor's house was broken into so I decided to pick a up a home surveillance system - but I didn't want to break the bank to do so. After lots of research, I settled on Defender. For the price, it's a great buy. If you're looking for high resolution, quick online access, PTZ technology - look elsewhere. But if you want a VERY affordable product that it easy to install and set up and will give you some serious peace of mind, this is a great choice. It arrived on time and in fine condition. I installed it within an hour or two. It will require you climbing around in your attic. One or more reviewers have commented that the cameras are not weather resistant. This is true. But in my case, all my cameras are installed under roof eaves, so there's built in weather shielding there. I ran the cables from the back of the DVR (installed near the TV in my master bedroom) up into the attic and out to the four cameras positioned around the outside of the house. It was a pretty simple process, but don't plan on doing it on a hot day. Mounting the cameras themselves was a cinch. The real challenge in all this is in setting up access on your computer. The much greater challenge is setting up online access. If you want to install a surveillance system, hook it to your TV and the DVR which ships with the product, then just plan to dig up the footage after your house gets burglarized, then don't worry about the complexity of the networking setup. But I was eager to set up service so that I could watch from work. I managed to run a CAT5 ethernet cable from the back of the DVR to my computer and get it running just on a LAN, but I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to get access to it on the WWW. Fortunately for me, I have a friend who is a wiz in this area, and he ended up taking care of it for me. Despite the various online videos which claim to coach you through the setup, if you're buying this product so that you can have online streaming access to what's happening in your yard, plan on having a computer tech person do the real work, because it's just too involved for the layman. That said, my friend set it up, and while it doesn't work on Blackberry (surprise) it does work on IPhone, and imagine my delight when we sat at dinner out one night and watched what was happening around the house. Neat. Plus, it's all set up online as well - so I've got the laptop running at work with the four channel view up during the day. Very reassuring. As far as picture quality goes, I think it's great. I mean, it's no HDTV, but it's quite good. The night views are particularly good, given that it would be pitch black in my back yard and yet I'm able to see quite clearly. These cameras have alreadly solved a few mysteries for me, including what was getting into my cat's food (raccoons and possums). On balance, if you want a decent home surveillance system but don't want to drop a bunch of dough, this is a great choice.