Excellent product. Putting in a hard drive was super easy; used some balun connectors, put up some 3rd party cameras, downloaded the 2M Pro app and everything was good to go! Very straightforward and easy to use. Great product.
John Doe –
Rated 5 out of 5
Tran TD –
My cameras working very good with 2M 1 DVR. 2M for Android or Apple IOS working very well. I can setup the APP used IP address or scan UPC.
Tran TD –
Rated 4 out of 5
Ernie Sharp –
This is a good product with a steep learning curve. There is another reviewer that talks about setting IP addresses and messing with ports. None of that is required. The APP is easy to use, and we have even replayed footage of the house while we were on vacation in Europe.
We installed this camera system 22 months ago. In that time, we caught our lawn pest service putting the warning sign in the yard and the bill in the door, but not actually putting down chemicals. This got us a refund which paid for the cost of the system. We used to think there was not crime in the neighborhood, but have since had the cops ask us for video of a home burglary and two auto burglaries. The picture attached to this review is of a burglar trying to steal my truck out of the driveway. He wound up stealing a gun and a car from some of my other neighbors. The cops used the video to help catch the guy.
Installing:
There was a good bit of trial and error in figuring out how to set up motion detection and other features. This took a couple of days of having my wife walk around the yard while I adjusted settings. Overall, the part that I dislike the most was running the cables through the attic. It’s hot up there. I still think this is a better choice than wireless, as my cameras are more secure. Your mileage may differ on that. The bundle of cables from my 12 cameras looks a bit untidy, even with cable ties to hold them together.
I installed a 4 TB drive. With motion detection, this allows my 12 cameras to record for about 2 months before having to write over the old video.
Picture quality:
The IR illumination that is built in to the cameras is not very good. This causes the pictures at night to be grainy and unclear. To solve this, I bought some IR illuminators and wired them into the 12 V system of my landscape lights (the power supplies and cables for the cameras don’t carry enough amps). The pictures are much better with the extra illumination. You still can’t see faces at night from more than about 20 feet away. License plates are only readable from about 25 feet in daylight and 15 feet at night.
Also:
The cameras can be “stunned” at night by a person who knows they are there. All they have to do is shine a flashlight being held next to their face at the camera, and their face is not visible. This is common to all night camera systems.
The system gets pretty hot, and the fans included with it are loud and not very effective. I put an extra fan on the case that blows air into the case, and replaced the CPU fan with a quieter one.
Summary:
Overall, the system works well, and we love the extra security it provides. It has a few minor issues, but once you know what they are, they are easily overcome.
Ernie Sharp –
Rated 5 out of 5
Rizwan Rasheed –
We had a HikVision DVR stolen from an installation. To replace it, the local installer/dealer wanted well over $2000. Looking around on 2M I found HikVision DVRs for less than $500 but the rumors are that these are gray market units that are locked to certain regions. I was done with HikVision after this. Sounds like ridiculous markups by the ‘authorized dealer’.
So I ordered the 2M DVR. I installed a drive into it (the only one I had laying around for the moment) and started it up. After some initial configurations (username/password/email account/unlock patterns, etc.) it worked immediately with our analog cameras. Then I tried to connect to the HikVision IP camera.. Anyway, after struggling for a few hours I got it to work. I reached out to technical support and they were trying to be helpful but the call center I was connected to had TERRIBLE CONNECTION to the internet, so their phone systems (assuming VOIP of some sort) were jittery and I could not hear everything they were saying. I got no help as a result. So I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how to connect the 2M to the HikVision camera and was able to get it working. So yes, this machine does work with certain (if not all) HikVision cameras and other cameras that support ONVIF.
I am very pleased with this product and highly recommend it to others. You need a good amount of experience with networks/computers (would not recommend for the faint of heart) to understand all this stuff. Since I have 25+ years experience as a network systems administrator, I was able to understand my way into how this thing works and have replaced the over-pricedn DVR . Thank you 2M! Feel free to contact me if you like at f/rizwan602 .. thanks!
Rizwan Rasheed –
Rated 5 out of 5
Justin –
So far so good. I upgraded from an elec which I absolutely hated and could never get to work outside of my house to view on my phone. This one set up to my existing cameras easily and had no problem looking at video on my phone anywhere. Doesn’t come with hard drive but I would rather put my own in than the cheap ones that usually come in these things.
Justin –
Rated 5 out of 5
Amy Losee –
Replaced another company’s product that has 5 letters whose product literally died without warning the night we had a theft. Took the HD from that unit, dropped in this one, was was quickly up and running. BNC connectors fit a little funny on this unit, had to wiggle them just a bit to get them on, but they fit snugly and the camera images came up immediately.
Before purchase I contacted support to ensure our ***** BNC cameras would work with this unit, and after reading them the model numbers they assured me they would. Afterwards had issues with the windows console and emailing proximity alerts, but Arthur from 2M in tech support did a great job via remote access and had the issue resolved very quickly.
Very pleased with unit. Will purchase again from this company no question.
All Systems, CCTV Accessories, Cable Extensions, Coaxial Cable, Fiber Optic Cables
John Doe –
Excellent product. Putting in a hard drive was super easy; used some balun connectors, put up some 3rd party cameras, downloaded the 2M Pro app and everything was good to go! Very straightforward and easy to use. Great product.
John Doe –
Tran TD –
My cameras working very good with 2M 1 DVR. 2M for Android or Apple IOS working very well. I can setup the APP used IP address or scan UPC.
Tran TD –
Ernie Sharp –
This is a good product with a steep learning curve. There is another reviewer that talks about setting IP addresses and messing with ports. None of that is required. The APP is easy to use, and we have even replayed footage of the house while we were on vacation in Europe.
We installed this camera system 22 months ago. In that time, we caught our lawn pest service putting the warning sign in the yard and the bill in the door, but not actually putting down chemicals. This got us a refund which paid for the cost of the system. We used to think there was not crime in the neighborhood, but have since had the cops ask us for video of a home burglary and two auto burglaries. The picture attached to this review is of a burglar trying to steal my truck out of the driveway. He wound up stealing a gun and a car from some of my other neighbors. The cops used the video to help catch the guy.
Installing:
There was a good bit of trial and error in figuring out how to set up motion detection and other features. This took a couple of days of having my wife walk around the yard while I adjusted settings. Overall, the part that I dislike the most was running the cables through the attic. It’s hot up there. I still think this is a better choice than wireless, as my cameras are more secure. Your mileage may differ on that. The bundle of cables from my 12 cameras looks a bit untidy, even with cable ties to hold them together.
I installed a 4 TB drive. With motion detection, this allows my 12 cameras to record for about 2 months before having to write over the old video.
Picture quality:
The IR illumination that is built in to the cameras is not very good. This causes the pictures at night to be grainy and unclear. To solve this, I bought some IR illuminators and wired them into the 12 V system of my landscape lights (the power supplies and cables for the cameras don’t carry enough amps). The pictures are much better with the extra illumination. You still can’t see faces at night from more than about 20 feet away. License plates are only readable from about 25 feet in daylight and 15 feet at night.
Also:
The cameras can be “stunned” at night by a person who knows they are there. All they have to do is shine a flashlight being held next to their face at the camera, and their face is not visible. This is common to all night camera systems.
The system gets pretty hot, and the fans included with it are loud and not very effective. I put an extra fan on the case that blows air into the case, and replaced the CPU fan with a quieter one.
Summary:
Overall, the system works well, and we love the extra security it provides. It has a few minor issues, but once you know what they are, they are easily overcome.
Ernie Sharp –
Rizwan Rasheed –
We had a HikVision DVR stolen from an installation. To replace it, the local installer/dealer wanted well over $2000. Looking around on 2M I found HikVision DVRs for less than $500 but the rumors are that these are gray market units that are locked to certain regions. I was done with HikVision after this. Sounds like ridiculous markups by the ‘authorized dealer’.
So I ordered the 2M DVR. I installed a drive into it (the only one I had laying around for the moment) and started it up. After some initial configurations (username/password/email account/unlock patterns, etc.) it worked immediately with our analog cameras. Then I tried to connect to the HikVision IP camera.. Anyway, after struggling for a few hours I got it to work. I reached out to technical support and they were trying to be helpful but the call center I was connected to had TERRIBLE CONNECTION to the internet, so their phone systems (assuming VOIP of some sort) were jittery and I could not hear everything they were saying. I got no help as a result. So I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how to connect the 2M to the HikVision camera and was able to get it working. So yes, this machine does work with certain (if not all) HikVision cameras and other cameras that support ONVIF.
I am very pleased with this product and highly recommend it to others. You need a good amount of experience with networks/computers (would not recommend for the faint of heart) to understand all this stuff. Since I have 25+ years experience as a network systems administrator, I was able to understand my way into how this thing works and have replaced the over-pricedn DVR . Thank you 2M! Feel free to contact me if you like at f/rizwan602 .. thanks!
Rizwan Rasheed –
Justin –
So far so good. I upgraded from an elec which I absolutely hated and could never get to work outside of my house to view on my phone. This one set up to my existing cameras easily and had no problem looking at video on my phone anywhere. Doesn’t come with hard drive but I would rather put my own in than the cheap ones that usually come in these things.
Justin –
Amy Losee –
Replaced another company’s product that has 5 letters whose product literally died without warning the night we had a theft. Took the HD from that unit, dropped in this one, was was quickly up and running. BNC connectors fit a little funny on this unit, had to wiggle them just a bit to get them on, but they fit snugly and the camera images came up immediately.
Before purchase I contacted support to ensure our ***** BNC cameras would work with this unit, and after reading them the model numbers they assured me they would. Afterwards had issues with the windows console and emailing proximity alerts, but Arthur from 2M in tech support did a great job via remote access and had the issue resolved very quickly.
Very pleased with unit. Will purchase again from this company no question.
Amy Losee –