Network video recorders - How to choose a good network video recorder

A Network Video Recorder (NVR) is an IP based device that receives video streams from a network IP cameras and stores video on HDD.

NVR allows is the simultaneous recording and remote access from other PC.

Typical tasks are:
-Flexible recording and playback capability
-User-friendly GUI
-Intelligent Motion Detector
-PTZ control

There are two types of NVR: “hardware NVR” and PC based NVR (PC + NVR software)

Hardware based NVR does not have a dedicated keyboard and LCD monitor. It has only one real advantage: hardware NVR is less complex to install in comparison to a PC NVR. But many hardware NVRs have MS Windows inside.

So in many cases it is better to use a good modern PC + special NVR software

Using a link above you can find more about existing but not expensive NVR software.

CCTV Forums

Here is our collection of popular CCTV Forums where you can find answers for your home video survellance questions.

To find the most popular CCTV forum we have used Alexa website ranking. The first 2 web sites have almost equal popularity. The other are less popular, but anyway some important topics can be found there.

CCTV Forum
http://www.cctvforum.com

Network Camera Reviews
http://www.networkcamerareviews.com/forums/

IP Camera Forum
http://ipcameraforum.com

Doktor Jons Forum
http://www.doktorjonsforum.co.uk/forum/

The Security Installer
http://www.thesecurityinstaller.co.uk

Where to buy IP camera online

Here In this article we have made a short review of online retailers where it is possible to purchase a network IP cameras, IP video servers, and other surveillance and network equipment.

Global sources:

IPCameraSupply.com – division of VoipSupply
Actually they offer the biggest choice of IP cameras and they offer almost wholesale prices for retail quantities.

Amazon.com – famous online retailer
Apart from books they sell all other things, like IP cameras. In this particular selection you can find most popular models.

Ebay.com – N1 internet auction
Sometimes you can get really interesting prices for new cameras.

SpyGear4U.com – Spy and surveillance equipment
Here you can take not only the cameras but all sorts of spy equipment, including hidden cameras, nanny cams and others

Visage PC Surveillance / Realcode Development

This is actually not video surveillance but PC surveillance software.
This software captures all user activities on a PC. Similar to the surveillance camera, it takes screen snapshots at the time interval you specify.

For sure you can later watch all captured screens like a VCR. It also captures date about all applications run, all keystrokes and records all web sites visited by the user. You can set up a recording schedule to record activities only at the specified time of the day or day of the week.

Developers of Visage Surveillance is RealCode

ONSSI Prosight vs Milestone XProtect

Today I downloaded ProSight video management software from ONSSI.

From first look it looks exactly like Milestone product.
From second look it is the same.
Even supported cameras list is the same.

So actually it is just a rebranding.

iCatcher Console v3

One year ago we have made a test of iCatcher console from iCode. Now version 3.0 of i-Catcher is out.

iCode declares following changes:

Previous software was an interesting one. So we put version 3 on the top of our testing queue.

Software from Coreopsis

Recently we have received a request to test and write a review for a new software from Turkey.

Specification is short, but we are looking forward to test it with our cameras and to measure such parameters as FPS and processor load.

Specification of Coreopsis software (from coreopsis website):

– Highest Performance for Real-Time Monitoring and Recording. – MPEG-4 recording with 7 levels of compression – Local and Remote System configuration based on ASP.NET technology. – DirectX Technology for better display. – Three different recording mode (Continuous, Triggered Motion Detection and Software Motion Detection Recording ) – Hot Playing (Auto Full Screen) – Real-Time FPS* control. – FPS Functionality

More IP surveillance software to test

We have found more software for IP cameras to test:

# Software name Manufacturer
1 VisualHindsite RFC Services
2 CamUniversal Crazypixels
3 MMS Digital Video Recorder 1.0 Intertraf
4 CamSurveillance Marc Schneider
5 IRCAS Alarm 3.4.5 Ircas
6 CamLan Crazypixels

29 March 2006

New CCTV trend: NVR – Network Video Recorders

With coming of new era of network IP cameras new word became more and more popular – NVR.

Word DVR has been used for years in video surveillance to mean a device taking analogue PAL video signals as inputs, digitising
internally, and recording them to hard disc.

Network cameras do not use PAL but instead deliver their video already in digital form over the network, requires something quite different – a “fit and forget” recorder that works like a VCR did, but compatible right off the
network with the network camera types you want to use. NVR is a box with an ethernet and a mains inlet connection only.

There are lots of network appliances in IT – firewalls, routers, managed switches, traffic shapers, load balancers, file
servers, all sorts – and NVRs are just new joiners, to that well-established territory.

No-one in IT would expect to have to reboot a firewall, just as noone in CCTV expects to have to reboot a monitor.

This is key to user’s expectations, and is why an NVR needs to be a network appliance, not just a desktop or server PC.

A good NVR will connect seamlessly to lots of different camera types and should offer you networked viewing tools which give you both multi picture and full-screen viewing of any of the cameras.

16 March 2006

DebianAdmins: open source video surveillance software?

Interesing article about open source video surveillance software for linux is published on debian-administration.org

How to implement video surveillance on debian PC?
Interesing article about linux open source video surveillance for and do-it-yourself instructions are published on debian-administration.org

25 Feb 2006

Top 20 Home Surveillance Software: