Where Can I Buy Extra Nightowl 2k Poe Cameras
Nighttime Owl Photographic camera Review
Dark Owl makes a passable multi-camera surveillance system as long as y'all can tolerate a slew of cables. Learn how information technology fared during testing in our review.
Dark Owl
- Includes four cameras
- 1 TB local video storage
The Night Owl security camera system lacks convenience that bigger names bring, but isn't without its charms. Our testing revealed a system that's a skilful fit for pocket-size businesses or tech-savvy folks that don't mind stringing a few cables around the house. Notwithstanding, almost folks might discover the organization likewise much of a hassle to install compared to wireless cameras that are affordable.
Pros
1 TB local video storage
Many customizable settings
Adjustable privacy-mask setting
Works with or without internet
Includes 4 weatherproof cameras
Easy software setup
Cons
Long installation with wires galore
Limited mobile app controls
No Wi-Fi connection
Loud cooling fan on DVR
Scarce product documentation
Requires external display
Night Owl at a glance
What'due south in the box
- viii Channel DVR with 1 TB HDD
- DVR ability adapter
- 6-human foot HDMI cable
- half-dozen-pes Ethernet cable
- USB mouse
- Hd Analog 1080p PIR White Bullet Cameras (4)
- 60-foot video/power cables (four)
- Camera ability adapter with four-mode power splitter
- Mounting hardware for each photographic camera
- Safety stickers (3)
- Quick Setup Guide
Video quality and cameras
Video quality
Video quality is a tricky subject field when dealing with DVRs similar the one Night Owl uses. The DVR supports recording resolutions up to 1080p. Nonetheless, we suspect it supports a diversity of wired add-on cameras with lower resolutions as well. (Nosotros didn't test this, simply it'south true for most wired surveillance systems.) In our instance, the included cameras topped out at 1080p, which is standard for security cameras these days.
However, not all 1080p cameras are equal. With Nighttime Owl in particular, we establish the color wasn't great in dim rooms and just decent in bright spaces. Compared to wireless cameras like the Ring Stick Upwards Cam and Wyze Cam Outdoor, the quality doesn't hold upward considering those are easier to install.
If you view the video on a monitor connected to the DVR, it looks well-baked without any noticeable motion blur at a distance. Still, renters in apartments (like the small-scale apartment where we tested) might see a niggling motion blurring close to the camera with people walking directly in front of it.
When you watch a livestream on the mobile app, you tin can expect a short lag depending on your net speed. However, the lag was less apparent compared to a wireless photographic camera like the Arlo Pro 4, probably because there's no Wi-Fi involved on the sending end.
Compare Nighttime Owl in different lighting environments
Night Owl'due south daytime video quality with the lights on.
Night Owl's daytime video quality with the lights off.
Night Owl's nighttime video quality using infrared night vision.
Frame rate
A big advantage of Night Owl'south DVR is an adjustable frame rate, which you lot can gear up to as low as one frame per second (fps) and as high every bit 30 fps. At 30 fps, the movement is every bit smooth as you would expect from a Idiot box show but uses more than storage. In dissimilarity, lower frame rates don't require a ton of space, merely motility will appear stilted or inclement. The best rest for most folks is something in between at 12–twenty fps.
Pic settings
The system has preset picture settings for different environments: standard, outdoor, indoor, and indoor dim. We plant the indoor dim setting worked all-time for the stairwell location of our camera, which isn't very bright during the 24-hour interval without flipping on the lights. A well-lit indoor space calls for the normal indoor setting.
The outdoor setting has the opposite effect, since it turns down the brightness to recoup for sunlight. Standard is a full general setting that works in virtually environments, simply we recommend choosing something more specific if possible.
You can customize lighting settings to fit your needs using the Nighttime Owl DVR.
Across the presets, you can tweak private settings like brightness, contrast, hue, and saturation. This is mostly useful for people who desire to achieve something equally close to natural color as possible. For the rest of us, the presets are more enough on a security camera feed—nosotros're non making a picture.
Cameras
The four cameras in our Nighttime Owl system are weatherproof, so you tin can utilize them indoors or outdoors. Each photographic camera comes equipped with powerful infrared LEDs that give it up to 100 feet of night vision range. This type of dark vision is more effective than most Wi-Fi security cameras, which illuminate almost 25 anxiety on boilerplate.
We're not big fans of the cameras' narrow field of view (100º), which limits how much they can see. Although this is wider than you might see on other wired security cameras, it's narrower than the 130º boilerplate on about wireless cameras. Only having multiple cameras does make upwardly the shortfall a picayune.
Each photographic camera comes with a 60-foot video/ability cable, which is long plenty to reach nigh areas of an average-sized dwelling house—provided the DVR is in a primal location. Information technology's a good thought to secure the cables along the top of a wall, and you can buy a cable run or string cover to muffle them if you don't want to stress about hiding them (though information technology volition be pricey if y'all practice 60 feet for each camera). This protects the video/power cablevision and then information technology's harder to tamper with.
You can also find an infrared motion sensor on each photographic camera, which triggers move recording and notifications.
Recording options
We're fans of the recording options in the Night Owl DVR because they can help you capture everything or maximize your recording time. Hither are our favorite recording features in no detail club.
Continuous recording
A massive hard drive in the DVR stores upward to 1TB of video, enough for eight cameras to each record continuously at 1080p resolution for over a day. With eight cameras, y'all can cover a variety of places effectually the firm like the playroom, kitchen, or fifty-fifty the backyard. If you go with a lower resolution or fewer cameras, you can await the organisation to last much longer.
Movement recording and move zones
Motion zones on the Night Owl DVR.
Unless y'all desire comprehensive footage, we recommend staying abroad from continuous recording in favor of motion recording. Motion recordings also help yous avoid sifting through hours of empty footage, which is more than tiresome with every additional camera.
We love that you lot tin choose how much time the camera saves video before and after a motion recording activates. This means that the photographic camera keeps upwards of xxx seconds or more and so you don't get a clip with simply fractional motility. This surpasses the Pre-Curl feature on the Ring Video Doorbell 3 Plus, which saves only four seconds of video earlier the motion alert—all without a deject storage subscription.
The cameras also have the selection to fix move zones where recording and notifications trigger only when motion happens in the designated zone. This is ideal for ignoring areas with little security value like your pet's favorite bed.
Privacy mask
Set privacy zones using Nighttime Owl's privacy mask feature.
The cameras that come up with the system aren't e'er like shooting fish in a barrel to position the manner you want them, which might exist a problem if yous don't want to tape views of your neighbors' yards. But you can fix upwardly a privacy mask in the DVR bill of fare to literally black out whole sections of the video feed then cameras can't come across it.
This is also neat for placing cameras inside the home where you might want a fiddling more privacy like blocking out doors to bedrooms and bathrooms in hallways.
Schedules
You can set up recording schedules using the Night Owl DVR.
You tin can schedule when each camera records down to the hour and day of the week. While this is mostly for business concern owners looking to tape during sure times, it tin be great for homeowners with a anticipated schedule. You cull betwixt motion recording and continuous recording so the DVR tin fit most needs.
Mobile app
The DVR does all of the heavy lifting for managing settings and storing video. This leaves the Nighttime Owl X mobile app as less of a control center and more of a companion characteristic than a typical wireless security photographic camera'due south app is.
It has most of the hallmarks you'd await, like remote viewing live video, video playback, and basic notifications on your smart device, but it doesn't give yous whatsoever control over the camera'due south settings or AI like facial recognition.
Alive video feed
Screenshot of the Dark Owl 10 app'due south livestream feature.
The Live View tab of the app allows you to view one or multiple cameras in a variety of layouts. This is specially useful for checking upward on multiple cameras at in one case, something that isn't very common amidst cameras from Arlo and Ring, which crave you to preview video feeds individually.
Night Owl tin can testify you multiple cameras at once because the DVR packages the video streams before sending them beyond the cyberspace to your phone.
When you select a specific camera in the app, you lot tin can access a simple carte du jour for recording, audio, playback, video quality, and brightness/contrast settings. Here are a few things that stood out:
- No video-transfer fuss: We like that the recording feature doesn't save video to your DVR, but directly to your phone, which cuts some of the trouble of transferring the recording later on.
- Internet bandwidth conservation: The video quality setting for the live view defaults to SD, which helps salvage cyberspace bandwidth. You tin can easily toggle to the HD setting for a more detailed look at the camera feed.
- The playback button is ideal for focusing on a unmarried camera's history instead of all cameras and devices in the app's principal playback carte du jour.
The wired cameras we tested didn't support audio, so we weren't able to test the Night Owl app'southward two-manner audio or sound quality.
Playback
The master playback menu in the Night Owl X app has a search function that shows which days have clips for you to view. Since this Dark Owl product doesn't employ cloud storage, yous stream these clips directly from the DVR. There are simple sorting options by device, motion clips, and all clips.
If you find a prune you similar, yous can download it to your phone. It then shows upwards on the Saved tab, where you tin can share it with family and friends. This carte doesn't allow you to delete clips from the DVR, just it's still user-friendly for saving fun videos for the memories.
Notifications
The notifications on this app are very rudimentary; yous only get them when a camera detects move. You tin can customize which cameras trigger a notification, but there'south not a sensitivity option in the app (simply the DVR) to say how much motion activates them.
Installation and setup
Installation
When you lot consider them separately, none of Night Owl's components is difficult to install. But the number of installations ultimately makes this system a flake of a hassle for the majority of people. In all, information technology took us almost 45 minutes to set the DVR and a single photographic camera. We didn't try to hide or secure the video cablevision, so you tin await to spend another 15 minutes or longer getting it in place.
You need a spare computer monitor or TV to utilise this organization—we recommend finding a used model if y'all don't already take 1 lying effectually since it's easier to have a defended screen. As long as information technology has an HDMI or VGA port, you won't accept problems setting it up.
The wiring setup on our examination DVR.
The Night Owl DVR didn't have a congenital-in Wi-Fi connection, and so it was necessary to identify information technology near our router to connect to an Ethernet port and so we could use the mobile app. This isn't an absolute requirement, but you want to avoid long cable runs if possible—they easily increase installation time.
After hooking upward a suitable monitor and router connectedness, you can add together up to 8 cameras (our organization came with iv, but I installed but one since I'm in a small apartment). If y'all buy a kit, each of the cameras comes with a cable that provides both ability and video connections.
Connect the video cables to the dorsum of the DVR and the ability cables to the four-way camera power supply—then connect everything to the cameras.
We used a paperclip to temporarily mount our test Nighttime Owl photographic camera but you should use the included mounting screws.
You can mount cameras in their last locations if you like, only make sure your cables reach outset. The manual recommends installing the cameras at least seven anxiety above the ground for the best view. Since these cameras don't have a wide field of view and are but adjustable on a vertical plane, it can be hard to signal them at the intended target.
Once you take everything connected, plow on the DVR to jump into setup.
Setup
Compared to the lengthy installation process, Dark Owl's setup is simple and quick, taking about 5–20 minutes to complete (depending on how much you arrange each camera). Upon powering up the DVR, a Startup Sorcerer walks yous through the following steps:
- Create an Admin Account, password, and recovery email.
- Linking the DVR to the Night Owl Ten mobile app—y'all'll demand to create another account with a dissimilar password and also input the DVR's Admin password to grant admission.
- Adjusting camera settings and positions using the mobile app—y'all don't need the mobile app for this, merely it saves you running to and from the DVR's monitor after each adjustment.
Customer service
There was very little documentation in the box with our Nighttime Owl equipment. The quick setup guide is helpful, but information technology doesn't become into the specific details about what each of the DVR's features does. The Dark Owl support website provides more data, simply yous need to know exactly what to search for unless you desire to endlessly browse articles and videos.
To set up more advanced settings on the DVR, it's helpful to do a Google search since the mechanics backside this security system are like to other wired surveillance systems from other brands.
Y'all can straight contact Nighttime Owl via the email address and phone number on the back of the transmission. But the company suggests trying the self-serve resources and live chat on the support page starting time.
Here are some Nighttime Owl support articles nosotros plant helpful during our tests:
- Initial Setup: Wired DVR
- Camera Troubleshooting
- Photographic camera Compatibility Nautical chart
- DVR / NVR Troubleshooting
How Night Owl compares to the contest
*Amazon.com list cost equally of 03/26/2021 at ix:32 a.m. (MT). Read total disclaimer.
Final word
Night Owl cameras aren't the best on the marketplace, merely they're good enough for most folks that want a multi-photographic camera surveillance system. The installation process isn't piece of cake, simply information technology'due south par for the grade with wired camera systems. Based on customer reviews, we don't think yous'll go much out of Nighttime Owl'south tech support, but the arrangement functions well enough with a little patience.
If yous desire to learn nigh cameras that we recommend for the majority of people, pop on over to our wireless cameras review.
How nosotros reviewed
We installed the Night Owl photographic camera system and a unmarried photographic camera to examination this organisation's effectiveness over the course of a few days. We stuck to i camera because the flat where we tested isn't big plenty for others without putting cameras in bedrooms and other private spaces.
Our testing focused on four areas:
- Video quality
- Recording options
- Mobile app
- Installation and setup
The Night Owl DVR during testing.
The Dark Owl DVR we tested was part of the THD Series, which isn't for auction on the Dark Owl website anymore. But the software and setup process are like across wired Night Owl products, and then there shouldn't be much divergence if you choose a newer product.
Still, the company offers multiple mobile apps depending on the model (Dark Owl Pro, Night Owl Connect, Night Owl Hard disk drive), so y'all should ever use the i recommended in the user transmission.
Bank check out our testing methodology to learn more about how we rank and review products.
FAQ
Some Nighttime Owl security cameras crave a Wi-Fi connectedness, especially if you cull one that works with Night Owl's cloud storage plan. But most piece of work without Wi-Fi thank you to local storage via a DVR, NVR, or microSD card.
Whatsoever internet-connected device is vulnerable to hacking. Yous can protect yourself by setting a strong admin password on your Night Owl system and an equally strong (merely different) password on your Night Owl online business relationship—try using a password manager to generate 1. Night Owl doesn't offering two-factor authentication like many other brands.
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*Amazon.com list price as of 03/26/2021 at 9:32 a.m. (MT). Production prices and availability are accurate as of the date/fourth dimension indicated and are subject to change. Whatsoever price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the fourth dimension of purchase will apply to the buy of this production. Safewise.com utilizes paid Amazon links.
Certain content that appears on this site comes from Amazon. This content is provided "as is" and is bailiwick to alter or removal at any time.
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