Our TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award winner of the best home security systems is the do-it-yourself surveillance kit provided by SVAT. This is an exceptional video security system with almost every camera and DVR feature we looked for. It is tied with Security Labs, its competitor, for the most fully-featured home security camera with the highest resolution at 720 x 480. Its DVR contains all of the features we found in the number one product’s system, including its large hard drive and compatibility with mobile devices.
SVAT Electronics is known for its extensive supply of do-it-yourself video surveillance systems and video-related consumer electronics. This manufacturer promotes their products as “truly DIY,” providing all of the accessories and instructions that allow you to set everything up yourself with no professional assistance. Even though this home security system’s ease of use doesn’t quite live up to its self-promotion, with a respectable cast of customer support options and a high quality camera, this system moves up to the number two spot on our comparison.
SVAT’s home security systems fall short of competitor Lorex due to slightly lower-quality customer support and its slightly less easy-to-use system setup. The race between these two products was very close, being decided by only a few minor factors. It overtook Security Labs by offering a greater variety of customer support options and maintaining high marks in our other categories.
The SVAT home security camera was one of the most impressive devices we reviewed for this comparison. It combined both a full feature set and the highest resolution we’ve seen on a surveillance camera. At an image resolution of 720 x 480, the picture recorded by these cameras equates roughly to the picture you’d see on a standard DVD. This is the best picture we were able to find in all of the products we reviewed, placing these SVAT home security systems near the top.
The home security cameras included with the SVAT video surveillance system also record in color, switching to black and white at night for greater image clarity. These SVAT cameras, like Lorex home security systems, also include built-in infrared LEDs that activate at night. The light produced by these LEDs is invisible to humans, but the cameras can see and record these waves, giving them a form of “night vision.” This ability makes it much easier to catch criminals in the act when they are most active: at night. Unlike its competitors, however, these LEDs only extend about 15 feet from the camera lens. These lights deactivate during the day to preserve energy.
To further preserve energy and the home security system’s hard drive space, these residential security cameras utilize motion-detection technology to activate recording. You can choose to allow this function to turn your cameras on when an object that is large enough trips the sensors. This conserves energy to the camera as well as space on the DVR’s hard drive. The SVAT motion sensors can be a bit oversensitive at times—triggering when a car on the street passes too close to the sensors, for example—but in the end, this is a function that improves the system on the whole.
The SVAT home security systems exhibit exceptional adaptation to the H.264 compression used by its competitors. They advertise that this ability can allow you to record video—at minimum resolution and with only one camera—for an entire month without rest before filling up the available storage space. This method of compression is very efficient, maintaining a smaller file size than the MPEG4 alternative while preserving image quality.
The home security system’s DVR is compatible with both computer monitors and television screens via its included VGA connectors. It includes multiple ports, allowing you to connect two televisions and a VGA monitor simultaneously. The usefulness of this feature is limited, however; setting up multiple observation points using each screen would be impractical, as it would require copious amounts of extension cords. Still, you can choose to split the video feed into sections, allowing you to assign a camera to each attached monitor. This larger view of each home surveillance camera’s viewpoint may help you more accurately identify a thief.
Though SVAT’s compatibility with mobile devices is impressive, it does not equal that of competitor Lorex. With SVAT home security systems, you can download mobile apps for iPhone and BlackBerry but not for devices using the Windows Mobile or Android operating systems. Even with its limited set of options, this feature is exceptionally useful. The DVR’s feeds are network-transferrable, meaning that you can both watch the feeds through a compatible mobile device or from any computer with an internet connection. SVAT makes it easy to keep tabs on your home or business from any location.
As mentioned above, SVAT prides itself on the ease of use of their home security systems. It performed very well in this category, but there are a few issues that detract from its overall usability. It is very easy to set up; even those without extensive technological experience will be able to install and configure this video surveillance system. Advanced features like configuring motion detection schedules and email notifications are detailed clearly in the manual. Occasionally, a feature is not explained in detail, leaving the consumer to figure out the puzzle. Overall, the system is simple and intuitive, but a few minor difficulties dropped their score slightly in this category.
SVAT provides customer support for its home security systems via a variety of different avenues, including the rare and useful live chat option. The option was occasionally offline when it stated that it should be operational, but we were still able to use the feature and obtain answers to a few generic questions. If the option is not available when you need help, telephone and email support are also available on their website. Documentation on the product is present in an online FAQs section and in the included user manual.
The SVAT video surveillance kit is one of the best home security systems we were able to identify. With an exceptional home security camera and a solid set of DVR features, this do-it-yourself kit boosted itself up to one of the top spots on our comparison. If you’re looking for an affordable security solution for your home or business, this may be the system for you.
