Normally we don’t mention instruction books this early on, and on the occasions when we do it is usually to berate the manufacturer for their poor translation skills, awkward layout and design or inaccuracies. But credit where it is due, and it may not be the most lavish production we’ve seen, but the manual that comes with the Concept Pro VXM4 16 channel DVR is one of the best we’ve seen in terms of clarity, use of language, illustrations and attention to detail.
Now if you are expecting us to twist it around and say that it’s a pity they didn’t put the same amount of effort into their product – as is sometimes the case – you would be wrong, and setting up the VXM4 has been one of the least painful experiences we’ve had with a sophisticated multi-channel DVR, and believe us, we’ve tackled a fair few horrors in our time…
You won’t find us grumbling about any shortcomings in the features list either (and no, we do not have shares in the company…). It’s a true triplex design, able to simultaneously record and playback whilst allowing local and remote live viewing of all or any of the 16 camera channels.
Recordings and still images can be exported to CD (DVD is an option), USB memory stick or client PCs, if it is connected to a network or the Internet. Talking of which, it supports full remote configuration over a LAN or WAN (including the Internet), and it can send email notifications to specified users to warn of alarm events, motion detection, hard drive failure and so on.
The supplied hard drive is a 500Gb device and this can be supplemented with up to three extra internal drives up to a maximum of 1.5Tb. It goes without saying that recording times are as long as piece of string, but with typical mid-range frame rate, resolution and quality settings, the standard drive should give around 10 days recording time.
The DVR can be set to record continuously, or scheduled to respond to alarm or motion events and the image quality (four levels), resolution (352 x 288, 704 x 288 or 704 x 576 pixels) and frame rate (25, 13, 8, 6, 3, 2, 1 fps) can be preset on an hour-by-hour basis for each individual channel. The VXM4 has four audio channels and these can be assigned to any of the 16 video channels. Live audio can be remotely monitored over a network or the Internet, and as an added bonus it has a two-way ‘talkback’ facility, enabling audio transmission to a speaker-equipped camera connected to the VXM4.
To round off the features list – and remember we are still only on highlights – the DMX4 supports up to four monitors using composite, S-Video and VGA outputs, and the displays for up to four spot monitors can be programmed into the unit. Configuration settings can be stored on a USB drive or PC file, for backup or setting up other units. It also comes with a remote control handset, there’s a digital zoom and a full set of PTZ controls for a wide range of domes and cameras, using a number of popular protocols. There is a comprehensive set of display options (single and eight preset and user set multi-image layouts) and sequence modes, more than enough in fact to cover just about any eventuality.
The front panel is ablaze with rows of illuminated buttons – it really is a sight to behold in a darkened room! On the left side there is a bank of system control keys, responsible for navigating the on-screen menus, and there’s also a pair of USB ports for external memory devices. The centre section is split into two, with the CD-RW drive sitting above two rows of camera selector buttons and a set of three power on, record and network indicator LEDS. On the right side there is a large jog-shuttle dial and a set of playback buttons.
On the back panel there are two rows of BNC sockets for the camera inputs, their associated loop-throughs, and monitor outputs (plus one S-Video monitor socket). Beneath that there’s a row of five phono sockets for the audio inputs and output, two banks of spring terminals for alarm inputs and outputs and below that another row of sockets for USB devices, two D-subs for VGA output and serial comms, and finally sockets for the LAN connection and mains cable.
It’s a fair old lump, which is surprising given the amount of empty space inside the case, but this does mean that it runs reasonably cool, in spite of having only one case fan (in addition to the one built into the power supply). This also means it is also very quiet in operation. Inside the front of the case are the bays for the hard drives and CD-RW drive, behind that is one of the smallest motherboards we’ve seen (not much larger than a paperback book), and that’s connected by ribbon and power cables to a slim metal cased PSU and the back panel connection PCB.
The standard of construction appears to be very good indeed, and small touches, like neatly dressed and clearly labelled data cables, inspires a good deal of confidence and bodes well for reliability.
Setup and operation
Configuration at switch-on is automatic, and the DVR goes directly into record mode with a live display for all connected cameras. To enter the Setup menus it is necessary to login with an administrator password and PIN number, and this displays three options: System Setup, Recording Menu and Archiving.
Selecting the Setup menu takes you to an elegant-looking display window with sub-menus for Display (on-screen display, monitor, sequence and spot monitor set-ups), Camera (title, colour setup, PTZ setup, motion detector), Sound (audio input and buzzer setup), System (date/time, network, mail, system management, user management, control device), Event/Sensor (HDD event, alarm in/Out, buzzer, email notification) and Disk Manage (overwrite on/off, format).
The Recording menu covers Recording Operations (schedule mode, pre and post event recording times), Timer/Motion Setup (resolution, frame rate, quality and audio for each camera), Alarm Setup (same as Timer/Motion setup), and Panic Setup (same options again).
On the Archiving menu there are options to choose the storage device or medium, camera channel and event date and time.
It’s clear a lot of thought has been put into the design of the menus, to make them easy on the eye and simple to use, and we especially like the way that selecting a menu item displays all of the available sub menu options.
It’s all very intuitive, though it has to be said that any lengthy configuration jobs are best carried out with the supplied remote controls as trying to navigate through the multi-layer menus using the front panel buttons can be really hard work. Even so it’s still quite laborious, and at the risk of spoiling an as yet unblemished record, the designers would do well to consider adding the facility to make and change menu selections using a mouse.
Remote connection and operation through a LAN or Internet connection involves installing some client software on the PC (Windows only supported). This displays a monitor window with a full set of on-screen DVR controls. This broadly duplicates the physical controls on the front of the VXM4, including access to all of the setup and configuration menus. Some additional and possibly quite extensive configuration may be required if the DVR is going to be able to connect o the Internet and the steps that need to be taken, including some very detailed instructions, are included if the network is connected to a Netgear router.
Setting up a DVR with this kind of capability and network connectivity can often be a tiresome and frustrating business but the combination of clear and very well illustrated instructions, plus the excellent on-screen displays, really makes life a whole lot easier.
Normal day to day operations follows the same pattern – it’s much easier to drive using the remote control and pretty well everything does as it is told and requires little or no thought. The only area where there could be some improvements is in the Search facilities, which can involve a lot of button pressing (another strong case for mouse control). Playback using the Jog/Shuttle control is fine, though with a top search speed of 64x it is still a little slow for wading through long sections of a recording and another, higher speed, wouldn’t go amiss. But we’re nit picking now and the bottom line is that this machine is about as easy to setup and use as it’s possible to get.
Performance
Picture quality on the default mid-range settings is fine. In view of the relentlessly glowing review it has received up until now that might seem a little restrained, but the fact is the rather heavy handed MPEG4 compression and the relatively modest resolution options means that fine detail can be a tad fluffy, and strong colours are a little muted. That is not to say picture quality is in any way compromised, it’s not, and it stacks up well against the competition, but we have seen sharper, crisper images on machines in this segment of the market.
Audio performance is fine and perfectly adequate for recording speech and incidental sounds.