Argus Surveillance DVR 4.0

Argus Surveillance DVR can help you install a video surveillance system. The program supports connecting to an unlimited number of wireless cameras, analog cameras, powerline cameras, USB cameras, IP cameras, frame grabbers and TV boards. The product is not too difficult to use and comes with an excellent user guide; however, it could have been made even easier by redesigning its interface, which, unfortunately, looks old-fashioned and jumbled.

The tool starts its own web server, which runs silently from the system tray. This means that it can be accessed from any browser, provided you deactivate some Internet security settings to allow running ActiveX controls (which will not be necessary if you are using the browser coming in the program’s installer). In addition, this allows you to access your cameras from multiple computers simultaneously, even from a remote location. It is worth mentioning that, in this regard, accessing the camera signal from a portable device, such as a smartphone, is also supported. Similarly, the tool lets you adjust zoom level and tilt each camera separately. Luckily, you can configure each camera’s name, video quality and resolution as well as screen parameters.

The program can record from both video and audio sources. Besides, recording can be continuous, scheduled or triggered by motion detection events. It is good that you can adjust motion detection in such a way that false alerts can be avoided. For this purpose, it is possible to select specific areas to monitor and set motion thresholds. Likewise, when motion is detected, the program can be set to issue various types of alarms, which include sending captured images by email, sounding an alarm, recording video and even sending an SMS message to a given phone number. A recent addition to the program’s features is the face detection, which I am sure most users will appreciate. This feature by itself can make it stand out from the competition.

The tool supports various compressed video and audio formats, which saves a lot of storage space and allows more hours of continuous recording. And not only that, it also comes with a format converter to ensure compatibility with other playback devices.

The product is very solid in terms of protection. First, the program can be set to run as a system service that can be locked with a password so nobody can stop or access it without authorization. In addition, this includes using a multi-level password protection, which allows setting different clearance levels. Second, data travel through the network in encrypted form, unavailable for third parties. Finally, the camera footage may be automatically sent and stored on a remote FTP server; so, unauthorized users will find it harder to erase these recordings.

All in all, Argus Surveillance DVR is one of the most complete software of its type. It allows an unlimited number of cameras of various types that can be securely accessed from practically anywhere. And again, face detection is definitely one of its greatest assets. Its only drawback, in my opinion, is its graphical user interface, which certainly needs improving.