Defender HD

Most horrible app. Most horrible surveilance system. Does not keep connections either the app or the cams. Had it for 4 years and never worked. I was so stupid for not returning the system, somehow I was hoping that it'll eventually work. How wrong was I? Never ever purchase a Defender system, take it from a frustrated user. A complete waste of money and time.

5/16/22 update. App is worse than ever before. There has been no improvement since the last time rating this app. App has problems. App constantly cuts off or has to be reset to get it to work. Even have to reset the receiver just to get it to maybe work for a minute or two. Once working and you stay on the app it works ok but still will sometimes just close for no reason.

Terrible App. Never loads and always hangs up. I have 3 different camera systems ( home, restaurant 1, and restaurant 2.) 3 different systems and this is by FAR the worst! I'm not going to promote the other 2 but I will say that this system works when it feels like it. You have to close it and re-start it at least once or twice ( usually 4 or 5 times and it connects when it feels like it) My other 2 systems are just one click and within seconds I'm connected. This program is Terrible

After almost 10yrs and my 2nd system from Defender, I now know that Tech Support does not know how to make their app work like expected. Many years of trying different things, apps and Modems. With very little luck. Whenever I need it, it won't work. Ring Doorbell had a sale, we bought one. It works 100% of the time! We love it! The Defender system, well, not so good. We will keep it, it will work fine as an in home system, as long as you don't expect to use Mobile Viewing, should be fine.

It really feels like a web app that has been shoved into the Play Store. The UI has tons of slow animations, it's cumbersome to navigate and crashed three times in 15 minutes of use. Ultimately I just wanted an easy way to back up a large amount of video data without using a usb drive. This app won't do that! Time to find a different company because it's 2018 and this app and the DVR firmware feels ancient, and I want to be confident in the software that is keeping my family safe!

The app works fine on my private network system, but I cannot get it to work on external Wi-Fi systems, as I did with my old app for the same system. That's disappointing! Update, I have been in contact with the manufacture and they claim after having no service through their app for remote viewing, that they are still working on the issue. That makes my $800 system 100% useless. Not happy with this at all!

The spinning circles drive me crazy, I don't believe it's ever come right up, I've got to constantly hit the device and select all over and over, there are times that it has taken me OVER 10 minutes to get the system to come up on my lg v30+ Android phone, at a minimum it takes at least a minute. And the playback is basically useless, it is very choppy and freezes forget about speeding it up. I have to do all of my reviews/playbacks on the unit itself. (The old Clearview system comes right up)

It seems like development for the Defender HD app is not of any concern to the company. The last update was well over a year ago, and while the May 2018 update did work out some issues, the app is still buggy. If I open the app, I need to close it completely, not letting it run in the background. If not shut down, the app does not work the next time I try to use it; the DVR will be just missing from the app. At other times, there are multiple instances of the DVR in the app that don't work.

App is totally useless. Very slow and fails to connect 70% of the time. Very difficult to use the playback function as it constantly resets itself to the beginning while scrubbing. Beware! The app will not work unless you give it access to your camera and microphone and does not notify you when it is using them. There is no longer support for viewing camera feeds from a browser.

Can not get cameras to display. The app opens and says connected shows what cameras are connected but will never show a picture. This is actually not a very user friendly product. The interface is clunky And difficult to select a time frame. Have never been able to select anything but all events. The only good things about this complete system is the DVR and the image on the camera. I DO NOT RECCOMEND this system there are others far superior at the same price point.

App constantly crashes and is unreliable. Doesn't work properly for Android. Defender is aware of issues on Android phones and does nothing to fix the issue. Replying to this rating is not fixing the problem and I don't have time to contact you to work you through a problem on your end. It's simple, I open the app try to use it and it constantly crashes.

This app is extremely inconsistent. When it works, it's great but its really hit and miss most times trying to connect. When I really need to check the cameras, I have usually have to start and restart the app several times to finally access the cameras. I have the app on both my iPhone and Android phone and it's only marginally better on my iPhone.

App worked great at the beginning. Somehow it started adding devices until we had 3 in the menu. Then the Firmware update showed. I finally gave up and downloaded the update and went to install it only to be told my firmware was up-to-date. Now the camera has quit working! Even though the app wasn't working right, at least the camera still worked and recorded. Now it isn't. Very disappointed

App crashes SO SO much that it is basically useless. We have great internet speeds on both ends, so that isn't the problem - I think whatever codebase used for streaming video and playback can be definitely improved. Also some basic features are missing. Oh well, guess you get what you pay for 👀

Would not buy this product again. Seemed ok at first, now the app crashes and only works 5% of the time. It's garbage completely garbage they need to do some major work on this app. I guess that's why the app reviews are so low. Still no improvements, I've remove the app reinstalled it still the same, I have a new phone still crashes all the time. It's time for defender to read there customers reviews and fix the problems.

Its a good app when it comes to checking in on your Serveillance and playback but I do wish there was a way for automatic file storage overlap on the app and not just on the dvr. It would be great if it was possible to get everything automatically saved and then overlapped just like the dvr so that way if anything ever happens to the dvr itself you would still have access to the footage 2 weeks back and all of your saved extra files. Maybe a cloud integration into the app.

Keeps crashing and cant connect to my cameras and my wifi is top notch. Defender leaves you hanging with no connection when you're away from home and wanting to check on things, but cannot connect via the phone app to the DVR interface. The software update I've tried to do is clunky and 8 bit DOS like and never finishes. Now, after a year since the install, two of the cameras have a purple tint in color day mode. I am disappointed in my purchase and timely install to say the least.

wireless cameras do not connect but a very short distance (<50 ft). Cannot get app to work on my phone. Tech support was no help. I registered it when I bought it, and now it didn't recognize my email, so no way to reset my password. Some cameras work, and some do not regardless of distance from the base. I would not recommend this.

This system is not very good. The App always crashes which causes it to go offline. I have it at my office 8 cameras and at my home 4 cameras. They are NOT reliable at all, by the time they send a screen shot picture to your phone, its been a hour already. Which happens every day. Doesnt always catch things that are visable which shoud not be a problem. Don't buy, spend a little more and purchase a more efficient security system. Also very hard to get live telephone support from Defender.

I've had this software program about 5 years. This is the most frustrating security camera system software that I have ever seen. It only works when it wants to and the Clear Vu software is @#$&. No tech support either. Mine is hardwired and the router is within viewing distance to the main box so that's not the problem. I'm buying a different system and do NOT recommend the defender system that has to use software downloaded like Clear Vu or the defender software Defender HD.

GARBAGE!! Just when I thought it couldn't get worse.. the new app update took away HD viewing option. Makes sense.. ty to Defender again for a useless system. Also 1 of 6 cams failed after a year. Contacted support(have email) and them told me sorry the system i bought from defender is discontinued now. Please look for a compatible camera on Amazon. Really!? Lol great business model. 👍

We have wireless cameras, don't recommend them. Looses signal, sometimes have to reboot system. Customer service, not so good! They only answer .... what's in the FAQ's, or they don't know. Go wired, no problems! Our home is brick...hard to get a signal...had to extend the antenna nearer to the router! Cost us a good bit of money for this fix!

It would be nice if the channel feature works the way it should. I have a channel 4 HD1080 but when i add my device and save it using my wifi the channel setting goes to 8 and fails to connected. Only when i hard wired does it goes to channel 4 and connect to my router.You did not address the 8 channel default settings im getting. An yes the system comes with a wireless antenna for wireless.