4 or 8 ch DVR?

[seasickstevie]

I'm about to purchase a DVR for 4 cameras. However I'm thinking of getting an 8 channel for the 'option' of possibly adding an extra camera or two later.

I just want to get my head around is there any disadvantage in having just four cameras on a 8 channel, as apposed to a 4 channel DVR?

 

[HERTS P&D]

I bought a 4 ch dvr, the man in the shop kept asking me if I was sure that I want only 4 cameras, now 5 years later I am looking to replace it to a 8 ch dvr.

Andy

 

[seasickstevie]

If you've had five years' use, I guess you could say it doesn't owe you anything.
But considering (according to various website prices) there's only something like £20 difference between a 4 & 8 channel, it seems to make sense to get the 8 channel to be 'future proof' (in this situation).

I just wonder if there's a 'downside' to using 'half' of an 8 channel?

 

[sparkymarka]

No but don't buy a cheap dvr eg swann as they only last around 12 months.

 

[HERTS P&D]

Sparky Mark, what make of dvr do you recommend to buy?

Andy

 

[seasickstevie]

Want one that's relatively intuitive to use. Put one in my Dad's a few years back, but you have to trawl through about four menu / sub-menu pages, just to review if someone's just walked up the path. Impossible for my Dad to navigate, and a real pain for me. So half the time you wouldn't even bother looking at it unless it was really important.

I'm hoping later DVRs are a bit easier to use.

 

[sparkymarka]

cheap end viola dvr not had issues with the range vxh higher end both from videcon have had some from dynamic cctv no issues come with a 3 year warranty,but it all depends on budget.

 

[EightyTwo]

Buy the 8ch and make sure that it's not recording the unused channels.

 

[ironsidebod]

Also check the max record frame rates, a lot of 8ch have the same max frame rate as the 4 channel, which then leaves you with half for each camera.

i.e. 4ch 100 FPS = 25 FPS per camera, 8ch 100 FPS = 12.5 FPS per camera.

The cheaper end of the Full D1 also seem more limited at when going to 8 channel.

You might not need/want to record 'real time' on each camera so it might not matter to you.

 

[EightyTwo]

The other trick is to check how many video codecs it has. If it has two, one might do channels 1-4 and the other channels 5-8. If it has four, they're probably split 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8. Either way, if you use channels 1, 3, 5 and 7, you'll get the maximum frame rate on all channels.

Whilst you may not need/want to record in real time (25 fps), it can be useful to record continuously at, say, 6 fps and then at 25 fps when the dvr detects motion. This way you can see a bit of everything all the time and a lot when things move. This will increase your recording time considerably but you will have to tinker with the motion detection settings and masks to get it right.