$314.99
Price: $314.99
(as of Sep 24,2023 04:26:55 UTC – Details)
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Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2020
The product is not so good; Software is buggy. Customer Support is great.
Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2020
First of all, I’d like to give 5 stars for the Customer Support, specially a person named Steve, for his efforts of trying to help solving issues I faced with this product. He really did his best to sort out problems; I really appreciate that.
About the product: I had to jump through bunch of problems, spent lots of time and frustrations to get to the product to work. First issue I faced: Out of the box, the screen showed bunch of vertical stripes and after several mins, it went broke (see my attachment). I sent an email to Customer Support, got a response quickly with steps to trouble-shoot, but nothing worked. So, Customer Support sent me a link on amazon for a replacement of NVR with a cost of $1, which is great; I don’t mind 1 buck.
Excited when receiving a new NVR as a replacement; powered it on, screen worked; that’s a good news. The second issue I faced: the menu didn’t work, which didn’t allow me to set up anything. Righ-click on the mouse to pop up the menu: any selection from the menu will send me to login popup, then click OK from login popup sent me back to the camera main screen. Righ-click > selection from the menu > login popup > OK button > back to screen; and that’s the cycle it goes. Emailed back and forth couple times with Customer Support, the issue still existed.
I bought this product a while back and didn’t set it up till now. I couldn’t return it. Before deciding to throw it away, I tried one last thing: I opened up to the broken-screen NVR. It turned out that one side of a small black lock that locked the cable from the graphic card to the screen was broken. The lock was loose and so did the cable. I fixed that and I had the screen back. Then, NVR couldn’t get ONLINE. This time, rather than emailing and waiting, I sent a text message a Customer Support through Skype. After messaging back and forth several times, I chatted with Customer Support, (Steve, nice guy), to get things sorted out easier. I was asked to install couple desktop-sharing software so that they could telnet to NVR and installed fixes. After they installed fixes; my NVR is ONLINE.
I haven’t installed cameras out side the house yet to be able to write a review about camera. The camera installed indoor seems to work good, it’s kinda close to the NVR and the router though; so the signal is good.
Reviewed in Canada on August 24, 2022
Nice Images; Poor Audio: System Failed
Reviewed in Canada on August 24, 2022
Update No 3: The system never put out any audio. Interacting with SMONET CS was frustrating and unsuccessful. The Video Display has now FAILED completely after 3 weeks of use. Now I have all the work of un-installing the cameras and finding packaging.
My thanks to Amazon for accepting the return of this system for credit. I’ll keep looking for a suitable camera system.
My original review and subsequent Updates are below.
The SMONET system was easy to set up although my locations are difficult and installation was a lot of work.
The range, with the dual antennas is better than any system I have had before. The images, especially the Infra Red in the pitch dark are very high quality and if motion is detected while in infra red mode, the cameras generate a floodlight so that a colour photo can be captured.
The App associated with the system is very good although I was disappointed to find that the system will not connect to the internet via WiFi but needs an Ethernet cable (in my case a 40 ft one) but that done, I can connect to the system with my phone or tablet anywhere I can receive internet.
I am very disappointed to learn that as I suspected, my system does not have audio output.
The audio icons appear on the screen but no audio comes from the device.
I know that the App receives audio. I also know that purchasing a “line in” speaker as suggested by SMONET would not help because I checked the “Line Out” of the Display/NVR and there is NO signal there.
Perhaps I was expecting too much?
The Customer Service Team at the vendor was very helpful but after much investigation were unable to resolve the issue.
My previous system had audio that was such POOR quality, that I was unable to use it. Voices were not understandable. The frequency response was so poor that all I really heard clearly were police/fire sirens.
I had hoped, that with 2022 technology, I would have something I could use.
But the audio quality from the SMONET APP is also poor.
Voices, even from people standing right under the camera are still not understandable.
I will live with this because removing the installation at this point to return the system to Amazon would be far too much trouble and I’m not optimistic that another brand would have better audio.
Update No 1: After asking me once again if I had an icon showing the audio (about the 6th time) and again offering me a “speaker” to plug into the dead audio output port (for the 3rd time) the Customer Service Team decide to offer me $30 for my trouble.
I took the money. It does not even cover my time interacting with the SMONET people but it’s a token.
Perhaps they will actually feed back to the manufacturer that the system was shipped without testing the audio. But at a $30 payout, I really doubt it.
Update No 2: After having explained the lack of audio, either through a speaker or through the “Audio Out” jack on the unit in both e-mails (several) and over the phone, I received another call from SMONET and my Friendly CS troubleshooter said they had read my Amazon review and wanted to remind me that I could plug my headphones into the Audio Port to hear the audio!! I asked how many times I had to repeat that there was NO signal coming from the Port. He replied that they had been in touch with the factory and they advised him to tell me that I could “connect a headset” to the Audio Output to hear the audio.
It’s like speaking to a rock.
I’m afraid I’ve had it with this kind of nonsense and will no longer be taking calls from SMONET, It seems appropriate, but not fair to reduce my rating for this product but other than a total lack of audio except via the App, it works well.
Reviewed in Canada on September 13, 2023
Reviewed in Canada on September 10, 2023
Reviewed in Canada on August 14, 2023
Reviewed in Canada on June 29, 2023
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