What is a DVR?
Do I need to change my whole system when I move to digital recording?
Maintenance costs for a VCR are very high, is the maintenance cost of a digital recorder even higher?
What are some of the key concerns in determining what type of digital recorder is needed?
Do I need a UPS on a digital system?
How much information will I be able to save with a DVR recording to a hard drive?
Are images per second (ips) and frames per second (fps) different?
Is digital recording a reasonable alternative to analog recording?
How can I get a permanent copy of a video clip for evidential purposes?
How can I make sure that an important video segment is not overwritten?
 

What is a DVR?
A DVR is a Digital Video Recorder. The video is recorded and stored digitally on a hard drive. Analog systems store video on VHS tapes.
 

Do I need to change my whole system when I move to digital recording?
No. A conventional time-lapse recorder can be directly replaced in a CCTV system, giving all the advantages of digital recording immediately for simply the cost of the recorder. Your existing CCTV cameras may continue to be used.
 

Maintenance costs for a VCR are very high, is the maintenance cost of a digital recorder even higher?
One of the key advantages of digital recorders is that the maintenance costs are virtually negligible. The recording is made on a hard disk, and hard disks are some of the most reliable electro-mechanical products on the market. No routine scheduled maintenance is required.
 

What are some of the key concerns in determining what type of digital recorder is needed?
The type and use of the recording is critical. To simply replace a time-lapse recorder a single channel DVR is the obvious choice. For multichannel time-lapse recording with occasional event recording with network possibilities, the Divar is ideal. Extending the recording or archive time is usually by adding storage arrays.
 

Do I need a UPS on a digital system?
Absolutely, as a computer is being used to store the video a UPS will ensure the system does not go down with power spikes or during power some outages.
 

How much information will I be able to save with a DVR recording to a hard drive?
There is no definite answer. This will depend on how much motion activity there is based on pixel changes to field of view.
 

Are images per second (ips) and frames per second (fps) different?
Images per second and frames per second are both the same. They describe the video image that is stored.
 

Is digital recording a reasonable alternative to analog recording?
Yes, you can store many more images with more hours of recording on a small 80GB hard drive than on an analog VCR using E-180 or E-240 tapes, even using recorders in high density mode. With 160Gb or 320Gb disk units, unattended recording becomes a reality.
 

How can I get a permanent copy of a video clip for evidential purposes?
The best and most secure method is to archive the selected video via the Divar Multiple Divar control center. Together with the video an Archive Player is put in the archive location. The archive can be burned on a CD-ROM together with the Archive Player. Since the video is archived in its native format, together with authenticity information, the Archive Player can be used at any time to check if a video archive has not been tampered with.
 

How can I make sure that an important video segment is not overwritten?
The user can mark a portion of the recorded video as 'protected'. This video will never be overwritten. Protection of a video segment can be done both locally on the Divar and via the Multiple Divar control center over the network.