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What our experts say …

As digital video recorder technology matures, it is tempting to suppose that we will be seeing fewer innovations and development, but every so often a manufacturer manages to pull the odd surprise out of the hat. That's certainly the case with the AverMedia EB1004 BAK, a stand-alone, hard disk, 4-channel DVR, which at first glance looks like just another run of the mill product.

Closer inspection reveals a number of oddities, not least the fact that it is supplied without any hard disk drives, which presumably makes it cheaper, but also provides the installer with a certain amount of flexibility, to tailor a system to the end-user's requirements.

Many current DVRs have built-in networking capability, and indeed AverMedia has such a model in its current range, but the EB1004 BAK adopts a slightly different approach towards PC connectivity. A USB cable linking the PC with the DVR provides access to recordings stored on the machine's hard drive, which can be viewed directly or downloaded on a Windows 2000/XP computer.

At least that's the theory... More about that later. There is one other unusual feature: the unit has no cooling fans, and apart from a slight whine and chatter from the hard drive(s) it is really quiet in operation.

On the downside, what appears to be a concerted effort to cut costs has left it severely hampered by a lack of output connections, and this is also something we'll be looking at in more detail in just a moment.

The basic specification looks quite promising. The unit supports two disk drives, one inside the case, and a second one in a removable ‘caddy'. We could find no mention of maximum capacities in the specs or manuals but it is safe to assume that drives up to 120Gb, and probably a good deal larger can be used.

The EB1004 uses standard M-JPEG compression to record images and two operating modes are available. The oddly named ‘Each' mode records camera inputs separately at a resolution of up to 640 x 272 pixels at 7.5 frames per second, and ‘Quad' records the four camera inputs simultaneously at 320 x 112/25fps.

Maximum recording times on a 120Gb drive are quoted at between 44 and 2005 hours in Quad mode, depending on frame rate and picture quality (Best, Good or Normal), and from 71 to 3873 hours in Each mode. Recording can be continuous or scheduled. It has a simple motion detection facility and four independent alarm inputs (with one relay output). Archived recordings can be searched by date, time or event and it has both composite video and VGA monitor outputs, which brings us to the connection problem.

A single composite video monitor output is a bit of limitation, particularly as the instructions suggest that a VCR can be used to archive material. However, the most serious omission is the lack of loop-through outputs for the four camera inputs. To make matters worse, the four input sockets are grouped closely together. They also butt up tightly against the alarm connections - and it's not as though there's a lack of space on the back panel. This makes it extremely difficult to fit ‘T' piece connectors, should a loop-through for any of the cameras be required, for a spot monitor for example - though this is hardly a satisfactory solution, as the lack of proper termination can result in picture instability.

While we are on the back panel, it's worth mentioning that in addition to the five BNC sockets (four camera inputs and one monitor output) there is a standard VGA monitor socket, the previously mentioned alarm I/O terminal, a standard DC power socket (an external mains adaptor is supplied), and a slide switch for selecting PAL or NTSC operation.

For some odd reason the single USB (USB 2.0) socket is situated on the right side of the case, which may cause problems if the unit is rack or shelf mounted.

On now to the front panel and on the left side there is the lockable hard disk caddy. Beside that is a row of five buttons and from left to right they are Record, Menu, Up, Down, Select (the latter are for OSD menu functions).

Next to that is a group of five buttons used to select cameras and single screen or quad display, and to the right of that is what looks like a cursor button cluster; however, these turn out to be the playback controls. On the far right there is a pair of power on and HDD function LEDs plus an IS ‘window' for an optional remote control handset.

Setup and operation

Before the DVR can be used it is necessary to install one or more drives. A single drive can be fitted to either internal brackets (fittings are supplied) or the removable caddy. The drive in question can be almost any recent IDE/ATA device, 40 GB or larger, 7200rpm or faster; a list of compatible drives is available on the AverMedia web site. In either case the fitting procedure is fairly straightforward and well explained in both the printed quick-start instructions and more in-depth manual on the supplied CD ROM.

When the unit is switched on for the first time the user is invited to format the drive; this only takes a couple of minutes. After wit is ready to use and in normal operation the DVR will switch automatically to recording mode.

To say the front panel control arrangement is confusing would be an understatement; it goes against all of the usual conventions, making it difficult and time consuming to operate the various menu functions. Since it is a ‘simplex' design (it can only do one thing at a time), it is necessary to switch from Record to Stop mode in order to access the on-screen menu.

This opens with nine options (Camera Select, Record Select, Record Mode, Record Framerate, Video Quality, Record Schedule, Sub Menu, Hard Drive Setup and Sensor Setup). Most of them are fairly self-explanatory; the first two items determine camera selection and recording. Record mode switches between ‘Each' and ‘Quad' operation and Record Framerate steps between 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 25 frames per second. Record Quality offers a choice of Best, Good or Normal, and Record Schedule sets the pattern of recording over a 24-hour period in one hour blocks.

The Sub Menu provides five additional choices: Password Change, Time Set, VGA Setup, Motion Setup and Password Setup. The DVR has a single password to prevent access to the menu, VGA setup covers a range of common monitor resolutions and refresh rates. Motion setup deals with camera selection, motion sensitivity (10 steps) and motion record time (5 to 30 seconds

in 5 steps). Unfortunately there are no on-screen indications that it has been triggered and no provision to mask or select areas of the image. This makes it unsuitable for monitoring high traffic areas or outside locations, where it would be liable to spurious triggering.

Returning to the Hard Drive Setup item on the main menu, there is the option to enable/disable overwrite mode, when the disk is full, plus displays showing HDD capacity and space used. The hard disk format functions for the installed drives are also included in this sub menu. Lastly the Sensor Setup menu has options for selecting record time, alarm output time and alarm input enable or disable.

In order to access and display recordings on a PC it is necessary to install a viewer program and the necessary Win 2k/XP USB drivers. These are supplied on the CD-ROM. Again this is relatively painless and software installation appears to go fairly smoothly, but we did experience a succession of glitches that usually resulted in the DVR locking up whenever the USB connection was initiated. The situation isn't helped by some really confusing diagrams and charts in the CD-ROM manual, which appear to contradict earlier parts of the instructions regarding hard drive Master and Slave jumper settings, and it makes very heavy weather of hard drive identities. This can leave the user or installer confused as to whether they are using Drive A or B, HDD 1, 2 or 3, or drive I or II, and whether or not the data cable needs to be reconfigured, depending on the seemingly endless permutations. The instructions are also unclear as to what mode the DVR needs to be in when accessing data from the PC. In short it's all a bit of a mess that needs sorting out.

On the brief occasion we did manage to get it to work - and we're still not quite sure how we managed it - the PC viewer program displays the connected camera inputs, and from a button on the player window, the DVR's Event list. Recordings can be selected and displayed on the computer monitor in real time or a variety of playback speeds.

It should also be possible - though we never managed it - to save a recorded sequence on the host PC as an AVI file, or ‘capture' a still frame in BMP format and print it out. It is difficult to say without further testing where the problem lies, however on the two otherwise perfectly well behaved XP PCs we tried it on there were no apparent conflicts with the USB driver and it would appear the problem lies with the viewer software or the DVR's firmware.

Performance

Ignoring for a moment the various operational quibbles, the DVR's core functions, namely recording and playing back video, all work quite well, and image performance in both the ‘Each' and ‘Quad' modes, on the ‘Best' quality setting, is comparable with most of its current rivals. Full screen images reveal plenty of fine detail, contrast and brightness are reasonably well balanced, and colour fidelity is fine.

What the manufacturer says ...

The EB1004 BAK is a real time stand alone DVR.

Designed to sit comfortably in the rapidly expanding home-user/small business market segment, the EB1004 BAK is a cost effective, easy to install security system that cuts out the need for monitoring, at only £379.00.

The EB1004BAK is the only DVR on the market to support a VGA output, which is exclusive to AVerMedia!

Its versatility is increased further by the option of using additional hard drives to expand recording capacity, and a USB 2.0 interface that allows the unit to be connected to a PC for backing up footage.

An optional I/O box also enables users to connect 4 sensor inputs and a relay output to make the EB1004BAK the centre of your total security solution.