REOLINK 36CH Network Video Recorder for Home Security Camera System, Only Work with 16MP/12MP/4K/8MP/5MP/4MP REOLINK PoE Security Camera, Integrated O/I Alarm System, No HDD Included, RLN36

For home I purchased a reolink NVR kit with 8 4k cameras (expandable to 16) in late 2021. I had 1 of the 8 cameras replaced under warranty over the 3 years. Sometimes need to reboot the NVR. (Not sure if it is caused by a glitch with our power...) The cameras are mounted under the eaves outside to protect from most of the weather. I purchased a new reolink camera that has zoom/focus. Found that the old reolink NVR supported the camera but NOT with zoom/focus. The old NVR is also 3 years old and out of warranty so probably better to purchase new..Purchased this system to get the new Reolink zoom camera operational.I also purchased:4G drive: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1JPYH2Z?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1Reolink switch: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BWHKQ5N9?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_titleWireless mouse: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EJH6Z4?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1Plugged the Reolink RLC-811A camera into the switch, and the switch into the NVR.Powered everything up and it worked similar to the old NVR via the NVR HDMI interface. (Had to enter the existing password on the camera when added)Turned off power and added the disk drive to the NVR. 2 cables and 4 screws to connect the new disk drive inside the NVR.Powered on and after 10 minutes was able to see some playback data.I purchased the original NVR system in 2021 because my 1080 camera NVR died, a police suspect was loose in our area and our street was having a 50% turnover in new neighbors.Found my new neighbors do not like to follow laws:- Loose puppies/kittens (Can you believe they had GPS trackers on them and let them run loose?)- Kids racing dirt bikes/ATVs on the street (one was 9 year old on adult ATV).- Neighbor yelling threats from the road (I am going to get you when you least expect it...)- Speeding cars/trucks- Constant staring at us or our property when they walk by. (Stalker)- Mowing our front lawn without permission.- Trying to cut up a fallen tree without our permission.- Leaving a rut in our front yard from trying to get their toy hauler RV in their driveway.- Kids trespassing on our property.- Recording conversion with neighbor when they made threats. (Need to tell them this conversation/video is being recorded so you can use it with lawyers/police. Neighbors also lie about what you said in the conversation)- Neighbor taking cell phone pictures at night of our property. (Probably checking for presence/location of security cameras)We needed the camera with zoom because we had some neighbors stopping their vehicle in the street and opening their window when we were out in our screen porch. (Are they flipping us the bird or taking video of us?)Also good for:- watching wildlife(deer/squirrels/coyotes/rabbits/opossums/raccoons/hawks- confirming deliveries- scaring away solicitors (We have some suspicious ones pull up and then leave when they saw the cameras)- Peace of mind when you hear a bump in the night.- Watching bad weather from inside (thunderstorms/wind/hurricanes)- Retracing your steps if you misplaced something ;-)- Falling branches/treesThe best interface is with the NVR which I have connected on an HDMI port on the TV and the wireless mouse.Also use the app on an android to monitor remotely and send recordings to my email.Love:- 24/7 recording- 4K video recording- Motion/person/vehicle detection. (Most of the time you do not have to waste time with fast forwarding.- Date/Timestamp on the videos- Separate network POE switch. I can run the camera cables in my crawlspace. Just one cable to NVR in the house.- Send snapshot video/audio to email address via cell phone app.

I mistakenly bought this thinking it had PoE, but realized its better that it doesn't. It has 3 bays for HDDs and I am running 12 TB of storage with 6 cameras, and ready to add even more. It has up to 32 channels which is more than enough even for a business. Been using it for 7 months now and I am very happy with Reolink products. I keep going back and forth if I want to switch to Unifi Protect, but Reolink just makes it SO EASY to use. Once you plug in a camera on your network, the NVR automatically detects it, it asks for its username and password, and then its added to your NVR. CCTV and Security doesnt get easier than this.

We previously owned an Amcrest DVR and upgraded to this Reolink NVR. At this point I have drank the Reolink coolaid so I'm not sure how objective this review is but here goes...First the client software:So, some sticky fingered people stole a trailer from us and our first reaction was to go over our video footage to find the pictures for the police, but the process was agonizing with the Amcrest client software. About every 2 minutes the software would just stop playing and report "Playback Error", AND THEN it would forget it's position so we had to write down the time period on paper to keep track of it. Also, the camera's would constantly switch between 4:3 and 16:9 like every 30 seconds making watching the video even more agonizing! Now you might be thinking network, hard drives, etc right? Wrong, we took the drive out of the Amcrest, put it in this Reolink NVR on the same network and all these problems went away. The Reolink client software remembers where we were watching, doesn't drop out, doesn't switch aspect ratio, and doesn't have a load of other problems the Amcrest client had, like the TINY font the Amcrest would default to on my 4k monitor that made it unusable on that computer. The Reolink client software isn't a panacea of wonderfulness but it is so much better then the Amcrest that I will NEVER even consider Amcrest again.The biggest issue with the Reolink client is you can't go fully headless. Some of the system settings and camera set up options just aren't available on the client so you have to have that connection whether you like it or not. Amcrest could set up everything on the client. I went with a HDMI over cat5 to get the 100 feet of distance I needed from the NVR location...and a blue tooth mouse.I agree with another reviewer who said "It's all about the software" and it really is, and for my money the Reolink has much better software.Expect to use Reolink cameras. We had a mishmash of other cameras (none of which ever worked with the Amcrest) and had hopes that some of them would work with the Reolink NVR. NOPE. NOT ONE! One even crashed that #$%&! thing! The Reolink authentication for ONVIF appears to have serious short comings. Disabling all security got us logged in to one camera but that is what precipitated the system crash. Another expensive camera just won't connect, it works fine with software based NVR's on the PC but not with the Reolink (or the Amcrest). We got rid of it to, I'm sick and tired of 20 different pieces of software to view various cameras. Anyway, that was a major disappointment, we bit the bullet and just have been replacing all our cameras. That includes our Ring doorbell which is saving us 3 bucks a month has all the bells and whistles of the Ring gets recorded locally (which ring could never do) and has a better image then the ring. So maybe this review would be better titled Reolink vs The world! We like the Reolink doorbell so much (which also integrates with our Homeseer automation system) that we are getting two more for the back doors and replacing an over priced battery powered thang that has never worked or integrated with the system.NEXT: We have a second building that had its own Amcrest junkware which we have removed, and ran a cat5 line to the Reolink NVR so now all our cameras across the entire property are integrated into a single source and we can look at them all from one piece of software that we can bring up on any device, laptop, PC, phone, bring it up on the TV if something suspicious happens at night. Needless to say we are happy campers.One of the reasons we went with this NVR is the 48 terabytes of hard drive wonderfulness that keeps months of recordings for us. Provided by 3 12 terabyte hard drives, on my nickel...now we're cooking with gas!Okay so that's it, the Reolink software is just better, is the hardware better? The Amcrest was reliable hardware wise, and we just haven't had the Reolink long enough to determine how the hardware will hold up...

Overall the features of this NVR are good for recording Reolink cameras and playing back video. You have the option to select the events you want to see, people, vehicles, animals, or all motion. The set-up is easy. The one feature that caught me by surprise was that the NVR acts as a DHCP server and reassigns the attached cameras to its own subnet. This causes issues trying to to use rtsp.The software has a defect, when the NVR is rebooted, cameras randomly do not reconnect, which are on that subnet. WiFi cameras always reconnect, just the wired cameras have the issue. I sometimes have to unplug and replug a camera several times to get it to be reconnected to the NVR. I have multiple camera models, and this issue happens with all of them.Update: March 31, 2025 - The reconnection issues have been resolved. Support had me upgrade to the most current firmware. Also, I reconfigured my LAN so that all of the PoE switches now connect directly to the back of the NVR. All of the cameras reconnect now just fine after a reboot. The latest firmware also has some nice enhancements. I am changing my rating to 5 stars.