Digital Video Recorder Buyers Guide(Part 2)

How do you get video footage from the DVR to the Police?

Being able to easily give video footage to the Police when an incident has occurred is an important part of a DVRs role. Footage can be moved from the DVR to another storage device in a number of ways:

• VCR: most low end DVRs allow you to connect the DVR to a television and record the DVR footage onto a connected VCR.
• USB - Some DVRs come with a USB connection. This allows footage to be easily transferred onto a PC. If the PC has a CD writer, then footage can simply be burned onto a CD and the CD handed to the Police.
• Compact Flash (CF) Card some DVR?s come with the ability to record footage onto a CF card. The CF card can then be inserted into a PC or Laptop and played back.
• Networkable ? DVR?s that can be viewed over a network or the Internet via a PC can have their footage recorded straight onto the PC?s hard drive. If the PC has a CD writer, then footage can simply be burned onto a CD and the CD handed to the Police.
• Removable Hard Disk Drive ? many DVR?s come with removable hard disk drives. The hard disk is simply pulled out of the DVR and handed to the Police. A new hard disk can be inserted into the DVR to allow continued monitoring and recording.
• CD writer ? the best DVRs come with a built-in CD writer. This allows video footage to simply be burned onto a CD and the CD handed to the Police.

Can the DVR be viewed over a network or the internet?

Many DVRs come with the ability to be hooked up to a network or the internet allowing remote viewing from a PC with the appropriate software installed. Really sophisticated DVR?s (see the TeleEye range) have built-in webservers allowing the video footage to be viewed from any PC in the world via the internet.

Does the DVR have built-in motion detection?

Many DVRs come with built-in motion detection. This means that they continuously monitor the picture from the cameras and as soon as something changes (i.e. there is movement) they begin recording. This removes the need for separate PIR sensors.

What is the connection type for the cameras?

All of the IViewCameras DVRs come with industry standard BNC connections for the cameras. This makes the setup of the DVRs extremely simple - simply plug the cameras in and play.

Does the DVR do time and date stamping?

All IViewCameras DVR?s do time and date stamping on the video footage.

Will a DVR send me an email, text message, Pocket PC alert or picture message upon an event?

More sophisticated DVR?s will send alerts to you when an event (such as motion detection) occurs. Alerts can be sent via email, text messages and picture messages to your mobile phone or your pocket PC.

What does the DVR do if there is a powercut?

Although all of our DVRs will switch off when there is a powercut, more sophisticated DVRs will automatically re-start with the same settings they had when the power went off.

What are the different resolutions on a DVR?

Most DVRs have different resolution options such as 640 x 480 or 320 x 240. The numbers simply represent the number of pixels in the picture (length x height). Higher numbers of pixels means higher clarity on the picture. However, higher numbers of pixels also take up more hard disk space.

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