HomeGuard Wireless Full HD CCTV Kit review

HomeGuard launched in 2007, a Chinese language model which sells a broad vary of safety gadgets in 30 territories that features the UK (after being reintroduced right here this 12 months). The corporate has put collectively this all-in-one answer for simple and immediate four-way surveillance appropriate for a small to medium-sized enterprise.

The HomeGuard Wi-fi Full HD CCTV Package (HGNVK88304) contains of 4 waterproof bullet cameras with Wi-Fi constructed into each. There’s additionally an NVR (community video recorder) with 1TB of inner storage, negating the necessity to take out a subscription for a cloud-based recording service.

HomeGuard has even included the screws it is advisable connect the digital camera brackets to a wall or ceiling. This method can be expandable to eight video channels by buying as much as 4 extra IP cameras.

The will be both wired, or wi-fi with immediate Wi-Fi connectivity, and video is captured in Full HD because the product identify suggests, which makes the worth of £499.99 (round $660, AU$910) look virtually too good to be true.

Design

The 4 bullet cameras are a well-recognized kind issue and seem well-made with their metal casing and metallic hinged brackets. They measure 182 x 64 x 64mm and weigh 363g. A metallic hood retains the solar’s glare and the worst of the rain away from the glass lens cowl, and the cable runs contained in the metallic tube of the bracket to make the design pretty tamperproof.

The one weak half is the plastic antenna of the Wi-Fi module, which is crucial for supplying you with a reasonably huge (900m) Wi-Fi vary. Every digital camera has two cables dangling from it, one for energy and one for Ethernet when you choose to not depend on Wi-Fi. They aren’t suitable with PoE (Energy over Ethernet) so you will want to make use of the 12V energy provides – which have frustratingly quick cables.

The NVR is a plain black field that comprises a 1TB Seagate arduous drive and a Wi-Fi module for connecting as much as eight cameras. It appears like a router at first look, and you will want to place it fairly near your current router with a view to join the bundled Ethernet cable, which is relatively quick.

The plastic case is relatively flimsy and once we pressed the reset button on the entrance, it caved in. The button nonetheless labored completely properly, luckily, but it surely’s clear the NVR doesn’t have the identical degree of construct high quality because the cameras.

On the rear of the NVR you can find ports for connecting your router and monitor (by way of HDMI or VGA), an influence supply, and two USB gadgets. One in every of these gadgets is the bundled mouse which is the way you management the GUI by way of a monitor, and the opposite is for backing up recordings onto your individual exterior USB reminiscence.

Options

Every digital camera has an IP66 score – which means they’ll address being drenched by rain – and the LEDs clustered across the lens allow a claimed evening imaginative and prescient vary of as much as 30m. Their decision is 1920 x 1080, which is spectacular, though the body price is just 15 fps (frames per second), which sounds relatively limiting, whereas the sensor is a measly 2-megapixels.

The NVR is fitted with a 1TB Seagate drive, as talked about, which might file as much as eight days of steady footage on all 4 cameras in commonplace definition. Nonetheless, we’d suggest that you simply file in HD, so when you want more room, you possibly can match your individual SATA drive of as much as 4TB.

Dwell footage from the 4 cameras will be seen on a monitor or TV in as much as 1080p decision, and through the use of the included mouse to navigate the on-screen menu, you possibly can file H.265 knowledge onto the inner arduous drive.

Setup

Putting in the HomeGuard equipment is especially straightforward due to using a smartphone app, helpful QR code readers and Auto-Pair expertise – or no less than it must be. We discovered that the iOS companion app couldn’t learn the QR code printed on prime of the NVR, which meant we couldn’t go any additional utilizing the app.

Nonetheless, the NVR additionally generates a QR code which seems in your monitor and this time, the HomeGuard app acknowledged it, so the remainder of the set up was a breeze. With Auto-Pair making an immediate Wi-Fi connection between the NVR and every of the 4 cameras, you don’t have to kind in any passwords. It’s only a case of connecting their energy leads and positioning.

The interface is navigated utilizing the bundled mouse and we discovered that it wasn’t particularly user-friendly in that it took us a while to work out the right way to set all the parameters and recording schedules.

The iOS and Android apps are a bit of extra intuitive though nonetheless plagued by features that don’t apply to this product. The identical apps are designed to be used with techniques that embody two-way audio and lens motion, that are of no use to those specific cameras.

Efficiency

Often, wi-fi CCTV techniques take some organising and tweaking to get going, however the HomeGuard system labored as anticipated proper out of the field. The default mode is commonplace definition, however when you change to HD utilizing both the app or the on-screen interface, you will notice 4 pretty brilliant and vivid photographs out of your 4 video feeds. You possibly can view one display screen at a time, or all 4 in split-screen, and you may zoom in on any picture utilizing the mouse to attract a rectangle across the space you’re excited by.

Crucially, this method can file at 1080p decision, which is the minimal you need to take into account when shopping for a surveillance system – however that doesn’t imply your safety cam footage appears like an HDTV broadcast. The picture right here is blocky, pixelated and really juddery. It’s ok to see the element you want, however no extra.

HomeGuard claims that you may learn automobile license plates, and you may, however solely in daylight and provided that they’re inside about 10m. Even then, the picture is so vague that it’s arduous to decipher, whereas when you look out of the window your self, you might learn the numbers and letters at a look. With a transferring automobile, you don’t have any likelihood.

In low gentle circumstances, the outcomes are worse (naturally) and the claimed 30m evening imaginative and prescient is one thing of a stretch. Night time-time footage is black and white, automobile quantity plates are nothing greater than a white rectangular, and it’s troublesome to inform males from ladies, not to mention acknowledge the face of anybody passing by 30m from the digital camera.

The picture high quality is proscribed not solely by the digital camera’s very small sensor (2MP) but additionally a really sluggish body price (15 fps). Transferring objects like a strolling particular person are given an odd staccato impact. Now, we’re not anticipating a movie-like image efficiency, however most cameras claiming Full HD high quality look higher than this.

That mentioned, the HomeGuard system labored pretty properly general and captured video that’s ok for surveillance functions, as long as you aren’t anticipating a lot element in your in a single day footage.

The companion app is healthier carried out than many different CCTV techniques and it offers you fast entry to recordings when you’re away. You possibly can entry them in your PC too, though doing so on a Mac browser is a bit more convoluted.

Ultimate verdict

Total, the HomeGuard Wi-fi Full HD CCTV Package is a really quick and inexpensive strategy to defend your premises with out the expense of an expert set up, or a cloud subscription.

The whole lot you want is within the field and with Auto-Pair making all the wi-fi connections for you, it actually is straightforward to arrange. It’s fairly straightforward to make use of too, thanks largely to the companion app, and 1TB of information storage is nearly sufficient for most individuals’s wants.

The cameras file in Full HD, though their high quality is proscribed by small sensors and sluggish body charges, so don’t anticipate TV-quality playback. It’s simply sufficient for efficient surveillance.

Our solely different niggles are the frustratingly quick energy cables that restrict the location choices of the cameras, and the feeble reset button on the NVR, together with that unreadable QR code sticker. Nonetheless, these minor flaws aren’t going to cease us recommending the HomeGuard CCTV Package to any SMB seeking to set up its personal safety system on a modest finances.