Compro TN4230 Outdoor PoE IP Camera Review

User Interface & Setup

When it comes to setting and monitoring the camera, there are a number of options that Compro have to offer. The first option as we found with the T60W last year is a direct management page that is accessed through Internet Explorer by entering the cameras IP address. The home screen that comes up gives us a clear view of what the camera can see with a series of quick access options to take snapshot recordings and images.

In addition to the live view, the web management pages give access to each and every configurable option that the camera has to offer as well as maintenance options for upgrading the firmware and configuring the network adaptor.

The second monitoring option that is on offer is Compro’s C4Home mobile application which, once again, we have experienced with the TN60W. The mobile app is one of the key advantages that Compro’s cloud IP cameras have to offer, with the ability to remotely view the camera and control basic functions from anywhere in the world.

Although the TN4230 does offer up a 1600 x 1200 resolution, mobile streaming is reduced down to 640 x 48, but the same field of view is given so things are not all that bad. The drop in resolution allows for 30fps broadcast at up to 3Mbps.

Over the mobile app and the web interface that we have seen before, the TN4230 comes with a full copy of Compro’s own desktop management software; ComproView. This bit of software acts as a gateway to monitoring all of your IP cameras in easy to use interface, with the capability to have continuous video surveillance recorded to a local or network attached drive.

At most, the application can display live feeds from up to 32 different cameras in a variety of different layouts and modes. This is idea for shops and businesses for example, where security is a key asset to the business operations.

With the ability to record many different video streams to a server or local storage device, searching for a particular clip can be a potential nightmare. Fortunately ComproView has this covered with a simple pop-up screen which allows you to tack back through hours and hours of footage to display a particular clip. Footage is recorded to a proprietary format in one hour segments each taking around 750MB to 1GB of storage space, although this can be exported as required to MP4 when required.

In addition to the video management, there are a multitude of other settings to tweak and tune, including individual camera settings (to save logging in to each camera separately)