Using an Amcrest Smart Home Device with an Amcrest DVR

Most Amcrest Smart Home devices, excluding Smart Home battery cameras, can be viewed and record to an Amcrest DVR. This is possible by obtaining the IP address of your device from your network and adding it directly into the DVR. This allows the device to be viewed and for events to be recorded and stored to a DVR providing a hard drive is installed on the system. Please note, the Smart Home device must be connected to the same network as the Amcrest DVR for this to work. 

The device you are connecting to the DVR must be set up first using the Amcrest Smart Home app so it can be detected in the network. All device features, such as spotlights, sirens, or any other device-specific features will only be controlled using the Amcrest Smart Home app. For more information on how to add your device to the Amcrest Smart Home app, please refer to the quick start guide provided with your device, or to access similar articles for your specific Amcrest Smart Home device, click here.

For more information on how to add your Amcrest Smart Home to an Amcrest DVR, please refer to the information provided below. 

Note: The amount of devices you can add, per channel, is dependent on the number of channels your DVR can handle. This included analog cameras as well as IP cameras.

Adding the Device to an Amcrest DVR

Before adding your device to the DVR, ensure it has been properly connected to the Amcrest Smart Home app and is on the same network segment as the DVR. Ensure the device is on and ready to use before proceeding

Note: The instructions provided in this menu are performed in the local user interface, however, the same steps can be applied if accessing the DVR’s web user interface in a web browser. For more information on how to access the web UI for your device, click here.

Step 1: Log into your DVR and click on the Camera option located in the Management section of the Main Menu. 

Step 2: Click on Channel Type and select the bottom check box. This checkbox is related to the IP channels associated with your DVR. 

You can mix and match between analog and IP camera channels as well by selecting different check boxes in the IP field.

Note: You can only select channels from the bottom up in the IP field and can be switched back to Auto from the top down in the Auto field.

If you wish to set all the channels in your DVR to IP channels, click on the IP checkbox to select all.

Step 3: Click on Save and allow the DVR to reset.

Step 4: Navigate back to the Camera menu and click on Registration. 

Step 5: Click on Device Search to search for the IP address of the Amcrest Smart Home device you want to add and click on the enable checkbox to select the device.

Step 6: Check the device you would like to add and click on the Add button to add the Amcrest Smart Home to the DVR.

If the camera has an inactive status (red dot) the password may need to be updated

Updating the Password (Amcrest Smart Home Device)

Step 1: Click on the Edit button.

 

Step 2: Ensure your settings are properly set and enter the password for your newly added Amcrest Smart Home device.                                                                                                                                      

Step 3: Click on Save to save the settings to your newly added device. If all information was entered correctly, the indicator icon in the Status field will be green. If the status does not change to green, click the Refresh button. If the status is still red, verify the password is correct, refresh, and check the connectivity in the Amcrest Smart Home app.

Setting a Recording Schedule

Once the Amcrest Smart Home device has been added to the DVR a recording schedule can be applied. For more information on how to setup a recording schedule please refer to the information provided below.

Step 1: On the Main Menu, click on Storage located in the Management menu.

Note: Some older model DVRs may require you to click on the Storage option located in the Settings menu.

 

Step 2: Click on Schedule.

This menu allows you to configure a recording schedule. By default, Regular (24/7) and MD (Motion Detection) recording types will be activated for all days as indicated by the different colored bars.

 To choose a channel (or device) for which to configure, click the number next to Channel, then select either a single channel or All if you would like the schedule to apply to all channels currently connected to your DVR: 

The DVR will have the schedule for each recording type to record 24/7. Also note, that the DVR uses military time from 00:00 to 24:00 instead of 12 a.m. to 12 a.m.     

To edit a recording schedule, select a recording option from the colored boxes. Each recording option is color coded: Green: Regular (24/7 recording), Yellow: MD (Motion Detection), Red: (Alarm), Orange: MD&Alarm (a combination of motion detection and alarm recordings), and POS (not currently available on Amcrest devices). Select which recording type you would like to modify and then use your mouse to adjust the time via the time bar for your specific recording type.

Click the eraser icon to the right of any day if you would like to clear the entire row of blocks.       

To add or remove motion detection blocks to the grid, mark the yellow checkbox next to MD, then click individual cells or click-and-drag for multiple blocks:   

To the left of each day, there are small boxes which can be marked to ‘link’ days together. This is useful if you want to save time by instantly making changes to multiple days simultaneously.    

In the below example, Sunday and Monday are linked, so any blocks that are added or removed for Sunday will automatically and immediately reflect the same for Monday and vice versa:  

Another way to configure recording schedules is by manually setting time periods. Click the “gear‟ icon to the far right of any day to open the Period page:   

Here, the periods (Periods 1 - 6) will be in displayed in chronological order. You can set either Regular, MD, Alarm, MD&Alarm or POS, checkboxes. You can also copy the period settings over to other days by checking them individually or checking All. Make sure to click Save when finished.     

Now that you have finished configuring the recording schedules, you may need to copy these settings over to other channels (or cameras). By default, D1 (Channel 1) will be selected unless you immediately selected All in the channel window previously. Please note, you can copy these settings directly over to another channel by clicking Copy. 

In the Copy window, you can select individual channels for any cameras you have added to the DVR or select All. 

Click Save when finished.      

When finished on this screen, click Apply to save your changes.      

Viewing Recorded Events

Motion and general recordings can be accessed in the Playback option on the main menu. A hard drive must be installed to access and view recordings from this menu. To access the playback interface, click on the Video option located in the main menu.

In some older model DVRs, the Playback menu will be located in the Operation field by clicking the Search icon.

To view recordings from the playback menu, select the camera you wish to view from the Camera Name section by clicking on a checkbox next to the device.

A timeline of the recordings will appear in the interface.

Click the Play button (  ) to play all recordings available on the timeline.

All days with recordings available will be highlighted in the calendar portion of the interface with a dot.

To select specific days/months or years, use the navigation arrows provided in the calendar. A file list of recordings can also be shown by clicking on the File List icon (  ) located in the interface. Once clicked, a list of recordings will be shown based on the time the events were recorded.

Note: In the File List menu, “R” stands for regular/continuous recordings, “M” stands for Motion.

To play a recording from the File List menu, double click on the file you want to view. The recording will automatically begin to play in the interface.