What DVR can you recommend me?

[Mw Roofline]

I've got 8 cameras all wired up to a central location in my garage. I've also wired in a Cat5e cable from my broadband router and there is a power supply.

Can someone recommend me a decent DVR please? I'd rather spend a bit more for better clarity/recording etc as the cameras were expensive. Due to the cost of the project it's actually taken a year to get to where I am now and money saved for the DVR. I have no idea how much a good one is, I've saved 1k.

Being a roofer, the wiring of the cameras through the soffits and fascias were a piece of cake but I haven't much of a clue how DVR's work much, a friend of mine can access his cameras from his i-phone, I'd like to do that too as some weekends I work away.

Thanks very much. Matt

 

[ImayKnow]

Matt I am looking at upgrading my DVD. I want more frames per second when recording. I currently have 100 fps which can be shared over my four cameras. The higher fps the clearer the recorded picture is. The image will look good when viewing live, but with low fps the recorded image will be poor.

I was considering getting an 8 camera dvr to give scope for further expansion but I am now unsure as when I viewed the Orion 4 channel DVD on cctvdirect.co.uk I noted it actually offers 100 fps shared across 4 channels (ie 25 fps per channel) at D1 quality, whereas the Orion 8 channel DVD only gives 100 fps shared across 8 channels at D1 (or 15 fps). Therefore the quality of the recording will not be anything like as good on the 8 channel DVD as that of the 4 channel one.

If you don't use all channels than you can increase the fps on the channels that are used.

 

[ImayKnow]

Matt although £90 more expensive, this looks a much better piece of kit, available in different channel ( the number of cameras that can be attached).


http://www.cctvdirect.co.uk/products/XDH4-Compact-DVR-Real-Time-Internet-&-Mobile-Ready!!.html

Don't forget to add the hard drive you require. For 8 cameras you would be best getting the largest size.

I am going to get one!

 

[Mw Roofline]

Matt although £90 more expensive, this looks a much better piece of kit, available in different channel ( the number of cameras that can be attached).


http://www.cctvdirect.co.uk/products/XDH4-Compact-DVR-Real-Time-Internet-&-Mobile-Ready!!.html

Don't forget to add the hard drive you require. For 8 cameras you would be best getting the largest size.

I am going to get one!

Do u have a trade login for that site mate?

 

[EightyTwo]

Hold on!

The maximum frame rate for normal video is 25 frames per second. Reducing this makes the video "jerky" but doesn't affect the quality. That will be set somewhere else in the menu.

You can change the number of pixel in each frame (X by Y) and the amount of compression. The number of pixels can be described as 'cif' or '4cif' rather than 768x575 (which can be a bit confusing) and the compression/quality as low/medium/high/best (or something like that). If you have maximum frame rate, pixels and quality, your disk will fill up quickly. Personally, I like to have lots of pixels and good quality with fewer frames (say, 6 fps).

It's true that really cheap dvrs will share the low grade video codecs between channels but you can always use camera 1, 3, 5, 7 to get round this. Let's face it, your cameras will be looking at the same, unchanging things virtually all the time! I like detail in each frame so go for the higher resolutions.

 

[ImayKnow]

But cif will give you a lower quality image than Half D which in turn will be a lower quality than D1. You not only get jerkiness at lower fps but also the image quality deteriorates particularly if the recording has movement, say washing on a washing line - it will be an awful recording!

To answer the OP 82, what do you recommend?

Sorry Mw, I doubt anybody would share login details, it could allow you order against their trade credit account!

 

[EightyTwo]

I'm not trying to be sniffy but we don't really install cheap DVRs. The last couple I installed were the Dedicated Micros "SD Advanced" - the 'low cost' version of the Digital Sprite 2. But they're a couple of grand...

Our wholesaler has some Chinese DVRs branded under the name of PSG (Professional Security Group) which we've used in domestic installs. They seem to be okay. But there are now so many cheap DVRs out there... I remember when IFSeC (the trade show) had a small section in one corner called the "CCTV Village". These days, you struggle to find Intruder or Access Control in the ocean of CCTV!!

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.