Aposonic A-BR18B8-C500 8 Ch DVR + 8 CCD 420 TVL Bullet Cameras + 500GB pre-installed HDD with H.264 Level Kit Solution, HDMI Port, Mac OS X App fully supported

Pros: Price, ease of setup, options in the software are very good.

Cons: Quality of the cameras, Quality of the cables.

Other Thoughts: I do video analytics as a profession, and I thought I would save a few bucks over Axis, Panasonic, Sony, Pelco, and a few of the other high-end cameras I usually deal with. The old addage that you "get what you pay for" rings true. I couldn't make out any real details on objects over 12-15 feet away. I got this because I have idiot neighbors, and there's no way I would be able to use this to identify anyone. Night viewing is far worse. I went to Aposonic's website, and got the real specs on the cameras, and they aren'treally rated for anything over 15 feet - though they are advertised here for 30 feet. I thought these CCD cameras would stomp some of the cheapo CMOS cameras out there - I was wrong. Indoor, close-range viewing is all these are really good for. Perhaps right over a cash register or something. In my opinion, steer clear - pay the extra money, and get a quality system.

Pros: I had bought this system to replace a Q-see system which I will never buy Q-see products ever again--Junk system with cameras always failing.
The Aposonic system has awesome quality of cameras both day and night with lots of functions with the DVR. I am able to wireless see my cameras anywhere I can get internet and also see them on my Droid Bionic. It will send emails to my phone upon alarms set up on system plus has a alarm output card to trigger house alarm. The manual can be a little confusing but if you go to there web site it really isn't that hard to figure out and set up. I don't think you can go wrong with this system and I would definitely buy another system for another property. Love the system, finally nice to have a descent system.

Cons: Manual needs better clarification for the not so tech savvy crowd. Also the app recommended for viewing on the internet needs some work. Other Apps out there works better but would be nice if they had a app for this system in particular than using other apps.

Other Thoughts: I don't think you can go wrong with this system.

Pros: This system was pretty easy to set up if you don't count going in my attic and drilling holes for cable pass through. (I hate the attic)
Some of the features that I really liked about it:
* auto record on motion
* IR night vision
* able to configure from Windows or using remote
* network with ftp / email support
* streams live feed through built in webserver. You can view this on a mobile device... that's how I oriented that cameras - moving them while viewing the video through my cell phone.

Cons: I like the autorecord on motion. There is settings to block motion detection in sectors (formed in a grid), but it is a bear to tweak the camera sensitivity settings so that it will pick up motion of a person walking about 30 feet away in the daytime and not have a lot of false motion detections at night.

Other Thoughts: I'm a linux user and spent quite some time getting trying to get the config software working using wine. I was unsuccessful (so far). I was able to set up an ftp server on my linux box to receive the video from the DVR. The codec is proprietary, so the video does not play the best on a linux machine. I see some missing and duplicate frames, the video is 2.5x too fast and there is no option to fast forward or rewind (mplayer sees video as streaming). Most likely could correct this by converting video, but I don't have all of the settings.

Pros: Easy to set up

Cons: Cheap Camera, You can even buy this replacement A-CDBI09S cam on newegg. Three of the cam wall-mount after being tight still moved. Two cams after being tighten fell out of the wall mount.

Other Thoughts: Don't waste your money on this unit. Pay an extra $75.00 and and get the next step better Aposonic A-BR18B5-B1TB 8 Channel H.264 Level Kit Solution. I have installed two of these units in other homes. Still working great. Cams and cam wall mounts are so much better.

Pros: Very good value for the money. The CCD camera's work very well. Configuring the DVR was relatively straight forward. I was able to get iPads, iPhones and Windows PC's configured to access the camera's too.

Cons: The wire bundles that come with this unit do not appear to have enough shielding to prevent ghostly images bleeding in from camera to camera. I bought new wire bundles and they were a LOT thicker with more shielding. That completely eliminated the image bleed but it cost me! Good wires are not cheap.

Other Thoughts: Although the wires were not adequately shielded, I doubt the competition is any better. This may not be a problem for everyone. My application had very long runs for the wires and some were close to each other.

Pros: Easy setup

Cons: none yet ...

Other Thoughts: Great system for the price. Package was delivered today (9/22/10) and installed. Very easy to setup and couldn't be happier. Will be buying more for other stores.

Pros: was planning to install CCTV equipment for my new store opened this June, as well as the old ones in other locations. I was looking for a device that is able to monitor more than one location at once. So I read through this unit's overview and found it is capable of what I was planning to do. I bought two sets of DIY kits with the same DVR, one comes with 8 cameras, the other with 5 cameras. Spent an excellent afternoon installing these units in my stores, and both of them work just great. I am able to view both stores in the same remote screen. As far as the video quality, those CCD cameras are giving me way better and clearer images than the old CMOS ones. I'm not an expert about camera lens and all, but they sure make difference. Now I am able to monitor these two stores of mine at home or on the road with my HTC Evo. Too bad they did not implement the great features on IE to mobile phones, but I just can't ask for more for this price. I also noticed that I could add more

Cons: None so far