[Updated] AMDV960H16 Not Recording But Records Fine On Computer

[sonjastechllc]

Hi,

I had replaced a couple of Swann DVR's with the Amcrest AMDV960H16 earlier this year because they weren't recording and losing video almost constantly. The AMDV960H16 worked without issues for about 6 months but have been experiencing the same issues the Swann DVR's were having. There isn't anything in the log except for Video Loss and I haven't received any HDD error alerts.

The cameras appear to lose video for about an hour 3-4 times a day without anything happening in that time period that may cause it to stop recording. It also has a 50% chance that the cameras will start recording after an automatic reboot but the cameras start recording when the DVR is manually restarted. Again, the only thing in the log is Video Loss.

Any ideas what would cause there to be so many video loss events and what can I do to narrow the problem for a solution?

There are 16 cameras hooked up to the DVR with a single 1TB drive installed.

EDIT: New Issue Discovered, Read Below. Above is the original issue but I feel that has changed now.

At first I thought the DVR was having video loss issues even though there weren't any video loss warnings. The other day I was monitoring the stream and while I could use playback to view the video being recording, about 20 minutes later I saw that the pack I was just watching, disappeared. It's as if when the pack ended, it failed to save. I checked the directory on the computer that was recording the same stream and all of the video there was saved without issues. This issue was persistent across all 16 cameras on the DVR and video was successfully captured across all 16 cameras on the computer.

This almost seems like the hard drive could be having an issue or there's a bug in the firmware. Unfortunately, I called Amcrest support and the only suggestion they could give me was to unplug the DVR for about 20 seconds and plug it back in.

Has anyone experienced this issue before?

Thanks,
Jason

[sonjastechllc]

I read on the Swann technical support forum that people with Swann DVRs were having issues due to a bug in the firmware when the daylights savings settings were enabled. Since the AMDV960H16 DVR is compatible with the Swann software and is nearly identical down to the settings in the DVR, I decided to disable the daylights savings and it has been 5 days since I disabled it and the recording issues have disappeared. I confirmed that this issue started in early November and it no longer appears to be having issues saving on the DVR.

It seems that the firmware bug present in some Swann DVRs may also be present in this Amcrest DVR. I hope this post may help someone in the future. I will send Amcrest an email and hopefully Amcrest can investigate this issue further.

[sonjastechllc]

Update:

The DVR was recording fine for about 2 weeks but have been experiencing the same issues over the past 2 days.