superstardeejay Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 We're a little disappointed with our current DVR, a budget Defender unit. After upgrading our cameras to 600TVL types, we aren't getting the resolution on rec/play that we think the camera deserves..it records in CIF which is no doubt 300-odd lines. It is already at max record quality and frame rate. Can anyone recommend a DVR that will do better on the resolution and won't break the bank? We are looking at 8 cams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digitalwitness Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 I will others make recommendations on which DVR due to perceived conflict but I just wished to clear up a few things. CIF offers approx 264TVL 4CIF (or D1) offers Max 528TVL, 600TVL cameras will not show benefit on a DvR monitor or in recordings. A good quality DVR will show acceptable quality at 2CIF where cheaper ones need to go to 4CIF but with that can suffer interlace problems. There are many variables but if you wish to get a quality picture you need to purchase a quality DVR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james.wilson Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 as dw above. won't break the bank What are you thinking of as a budget for such a machine? securitywarehouse Security Supplies from Security Warehouse Trade Members please contact us for your TSI vetted trade discount. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 4CIF (or D1) offers Max 528TVL, 600TVL cameras will not show benefit on a DvR monitor or in recordings. so how can you take advantage of 600 + TVL cameras - IP encoder? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adi Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 I understand the mathmatics of the max D1 res (528) and using 600/650 tvl cams. Anything more than 528 is a so called waste, but it seems to me through comparing different installations over the years, is that if you give the dvr the best possible picture / highest res you can, it helps in getting a better play back. Garbage in / garbage out senario. I know better quality kit overall is the key and how the good the dvr is at storing the info. Is there any truth in my theory, or is it anything over 520 tvl is a complete waste of time? Also live image will be better depending on display. I really can't be ar**** with it anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digitalwitness Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 so how can you take advantage of 600 + TVL cameras - IP encoder? Would depend on the capture resolution of the encoder but IP does not follow the same rules as it does not need to conform to the PAL or NTSC standard. Makes you think though, all the fuss over 600TVL camera and now 700TVL and even 800TVL cameras are becoming more popular. You will see a new breed of DVR shortly referred to as 960H, these DVRs go above D1 and can record upto 720TVL. Sounds good but prepare yourself for a another flood of marketing bull, I see 960H DVRs listed now and although they can record an additional 200TVL over D1, they have no additional power to deal with the extra resolution so static pictures will be better but images with a lot of movement could even be worse than their D1 counterpart. H264 is an extremely complex compression with something like 12 different profiles but 3 main ones, Baseline, Main and High. The results between these profiles varies hugely but so does the cost of implementation, for example, Blu-ray is based on High but most DVRs (especially cheaper ones) use Baseline. Thats the simple version, it gets much more complex with versions within profiles, Mbps, etc. and thats without taking differences in how each manufacturer decides to apply the H264 tools available to them but the point is, two DVRs carring the a similar H264 label can be hugely different in performance and cost of manufacture. Anything more than 528 is a so called waste, but it seems to me through comparing different installations over the years, is that if you give the dvr the best possible picture / highest res you can, it helps in getting a better play back. Yes, I thought the same way at one point "the more you throw at it, the more you get out of it" but now believe its more down to poor or exaggerated specs. In other words, the higher the claimed TVL the closer to an actual 528TVL you should get (varies between manufacturers ofcourse). TVL is another minefield though, example: a D/N camera with say 600TVL in colour mode and 700TVL B/W mode, some manufacturers will call this a 600TVL camera, others will call it a 650TVL and others a 700TVL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superstardeejay Posted April 28, 2012 Author Share Posted April 28, 2012 something under £300 I reckon. The problem is that there seems to be a hundred or more different bobby-no-brand chinese stuff about that is 'nearly' but not-quite all good. www.960h.co.uk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james.wilson Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 300 quid you need to lower your expectations then. Your not going to get anything near decent for that, that is proper low end. I wouldn't spend less that 600 - 700 on a 4 way machine much less an 8 or 9 way securitywarehouse Security Supplies from Security Warehouse Trade Members please contact us for your TSI vetted trade discount. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterJames Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 something under £300 I reckon. The problem is that there seems to be a hundred or more different bobby-no-brand chinese stuff about that is 'nearly' but not-quite all good. I install CCTV for a living and pay more than that for a DVR, if CCTV isnt that important to you why are you bothering at all?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
breff Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 IMO you need to spend at least a grand for a decent 8 channel machine with enough storage The opinions I express are mine and are usually correct! (Except when I'm wrong)(which I'm not) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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