Agent DVR

I tried several free and pay DVR services for my cameras and I ended up with Agent DVR as my final choice. It's not crippleware but fully functional for a local network and intranet, it's only when you want to port forward in or use their app for notifications and a few other features thats where you have to pay for a subscription. This allows you to put the software through the paces and you can determine whether this is the right fit for you. Comparing it to other subscription services that made you pay per camera for service this allows as many cameras as your computer can handle. Ended up purchasing the next level up from the base of scription in order to assign users various permissions. The base subscription does not allow that but if you're the only user that might work for you. I'm setting it up for a small nonprofit so I have several users that want to view the DVR recordings. Also Agent DVR gives you find tune controls so that you can get it exactly the way you want it and can customize media recording locations and even save to FTP storage. The developer responds quickly to technical issues through Reddit and is working to improve the app even more. For a newbie user it may seem a little overwhelming at first but eventually you'll get the hang of it and how to customize it the way you want and what views you want to see and what alert you want to receive from which camera. Software works with a plethora of cameras including obsolete cameras like old d-link cameras usb cameras and my Hughes net 2132LES cameras so they can be given a extended life as well as custom urls for your cameras. Update: now supports local intranet cameras and paid subscription all in the same app, no need for home screen web shortcuts.

There are some minor tweaks that I would make to interface, but they’re mostly cosmetic. There are 2 things that the app does need: bring back the clear all function for alerts, show the number of unread alerts on the icon badge. Currently the icon only shows a 1 on the home screen whether or not you have 1 or more unread alerts. It does not update past 1. Otherwise, it’s easy to figure out how to get remote mobile access, set up onvif cameras with different live and record streams, setup views, groups, record and archive locations, auto purge functions, etc.

I appreciate how useful the software is even when free, and I wanted to use it for my security system, ideally accessible on my iPhone. So I paid for the subscription to use the mobile app and remote access. Turns out there is no mobile app, it’s literally just a browser.

I tried several free and pay DVR services for my cameras and I ended up with Agent DVR as my final choice. It's not crippleware but fully functional for a local network and intranet, it's only when you want to port forward in or use their app for notifications and a few other features thats where you have to pay for a subscription. This allows you to put the software through the paces and you can determine whether this is the right fit for you. Comparing it to other subscription services that made you pay per camera for service this allows as many cameras as your computer can handle. Ended up purchasing the next level up from the base of scription in order to assign users various permissions. The base subscription does not allow that but if you're the only user that might work for you. I'm setting it up for a small nonprofit so I have several users that want to view the DVR recordings. Also Agent DVR gives you find tune controls so that you can get it exactly the way you want it and can customize media recording locations and even save to FTP storage. The developer responds quickly to technical issues through Reddit and is working to improve the app even more. For a newbie user it may seem a little overwhelming at first but eventually you'll get the hang of it and how to customize it the way you want and what views you want to see and what alert you want to receive from which camera. Software works with a plethora of cameras including obsolete cameras like old d-link cameras usb cameras and my Hughes net 2132LES cameras so they can be given a extended life as well as custom urls for your cameras.

Will not even open the app stuck on eye loading screen

This app allows me to view my CCTV cameras remotely just fine, but if I were to leave the app and return it reports all my cameras are down when they are not. I have to open up recent apps and swipe this app away and then re open it to get it to properly refresh. Additionally, the UI looks like something found on a Windows 95/98 machine. A cleanup and modernization would be nice. It otherwise does its job. 3/5.

The computer software required to setup a server is deceptive and invasive. They make it extremely difficult to find the files by vaguely naming them.

Can’t see anything so what’s the point

The API key settings are lost every several hours. The directory write settings require you to make the directories first. The directory settings offer a UNC path but will not save changes if a UNC path is used. “Add path” replaces the primary path. No secondary paths can be added. If your API key expires, and it starts snowing, it is impossible to update the API key, disable alerts, etc. The green bars demanding a new key block the buttin, and tapping to make them disappear sooner still is too slow to get to the settings editor. You can either see movement, or filter snow flurries, but never both. With phone on silent/ do not disturn, this buzzes. Blocking notifications in the app does nothing, so buzz buzz buzz buzz all the time and it cannot be acknowledges nor stopped. Backgrounded, the app will keep givingbalerts, but the main UI will lose access to the server. You have to force close and re-open the app. Most functionality requires paying for a monthly subscription. No emails, no alerts, no saving anywhere else. “Confirm you want to do this”, but whatis “this”? Archive, delete, and cloud are tiny and right next to each other, all with the same confirmation text. Cannot scroll in files (aka videos) nor snapshots (aka still photos). Can only drag to select.

Now that the feed is working again, I can finally view everything. Overall, it still feels a little clumsy with navigation and UI since it’s just a wrapper around the web site, but the push notifications are nice.