What are the most Reliable DVR Systems?

[securityusa]

What is the most Reliable DVR System - Overall?
Low - Priced
Mid - Priced
High End

[DataAve]

Low - Priced Nuvico or avtech
Mid - Priced Sanyo or Promax (not the OEM)
High - End GE Security/Kalatel or Panasonic

This is an installers opinion. I only do commercial installs, so I only use mid and high. I will be going to do do side work on homes, so I will be doing low priced (budget) jobs.

[Crinsol]

Low-middle-high

Try Dedicated Micros. The new DS2 Plus line is very good. It has an embedded OS and uses both JPEG and MPEG. Very reliable units.

[Will]

My company just got rid of about 22 Dedicated Micro's units, and replaced them with March Networks 4410's. Great units.

March Networks Article (PDF)

The problem with the DM's is the software that is used to control the DVR's is that it's located on the primary harddrives. As harddrives get used, they fail. It's inevitable, it'll happen. But when that primary harddrive fails (the one with the software), that entire DVR goes dead. I've swapped out more DM's than I care to remember.

Those March DVR's have the software located on a ROM chip, not on a hard drive. Drive fails, pull it out, pop a new one in, done.

[N. A. Corbier]

Ok, now that sounds important. Especially when your dealing with Federal Rules of Evidence, where you need to secure the evidence (the media on the drive), by removing the drive from the DVR and swapping in a new drive.

I take the drive out, and the unit goes DEAD?

Does DM sell drives with the software loaded onto it? If so, I'd say that's built in secondary sale value. You HAVE to buy one from DM.

[Will]

Oh, not only does the entire unit go dead (if the primary hard drive is removed) but you cannot take it out yourself to put a new one it.

The entire unit MUST be shipped back to DM for hard drive replacement. They are the only ones who have the software that run the DVR's.

With the March's, you can, since the software resides on a ROM chip. The harddrives are plug and play, the only thing they are used for is storage, and that's it.

The only downside (if you view it as one, I don't) is the lack of viewing capablities at the unit's themselves. There are absolutely no controls whatsoever on the front of the unit, unlike the DM's.

On the DM Digital Sprite 2's, we got maybe 1 frame a second for 12 days of storage. On the March's, we're getting about 6-8 frames a second for over 60 DAYS of storage. Each unit holds about 1.2 terabytes of video.

Having used both, I can safely say March's are superior.

And, I apologize if this sounds like an advertisement...

[N. A. Corbier]

I looked at the DM site for their mobile, as Crinsol suggested, and noted that they've moved their software to a flash ROM, or perhaps a CF card.

Everyone's got a favorite brand. Do you know what compression and encoding the DM brand is using, and what the other brand is using?

[Crinsol]

N. A. Corbier: DM as the BX2 and TransView DVRs with hotswappable RAID 5 storage and the OS is embedded off the HD.

Hard drives do go bad and since most DVR manufacturers get the HDs from the same set of manufacturers, you can't blame HD failure on the DVR company.

DM is a very robust unit because it does not use a Windows based OS. It uses an embedded OS-the same that is used in 24/7 medical equipment. DM also records in MJPEG unlike MPEG that most others use. This means large file sizes, but a more reliable picture, IMHO. They also just released the DS2 line that will do both JPEG and MPEG. DM has the largest deployment of DVRs in the world and that says something.

DVR preference as a whole is a preference. I think the manufacturers have settled down a little and are finally putting out decent devices. The issue with most DVRs that I have is that if they are using Windows, they can and do get viruses, worms and spyware. We have been to many sites where the guard force uses the DVR as a PC to view/download all kinds of stuff! Not a pretty picture.

So our stance is this. If as a security integrator, we are responsible for providing IT security for our video headend, then we are going all IP and building our own custom server/storage. Going this way, we can create a rackmountable system with robust firewall/IT protection (including real time remote back-up) and 4 TB of RAID 5 for well under $8000.00. For us this means that we have more flexiblity in headend hardware and software and don't become dependent on manufacturers.

The DM TransView is a good set up for your mobile surveillance. Integral also makes a mobile unit as well, but have not deployed it.

Hope that helps!

[Crinsol]

On the DM Digital Sprite 2's, we got maybe 1 frame a second for 12 days of storage. On the March's, we're getting about 6-8 frames a second for over 60 DAYS of storage. Each unit holds about 1.2 terabytes of video.

Will, if you are using the DM BX2 with 1.2 TB of storage and only getting 12 days , there is definately something wrong. Maybe the file size is too big?

We had a set up with the units at 7 fps at 18k files and we got just shy of 90 days.

Hope that helps.

[N. A. Corbier]

Indeed, it helps. Why do I have a feeling that Dedicated Micros uses Embedded Linux as its kernel OS?

I carry a Windows CE 2.11 device (Its ancient, but hell, its cheap), and that's about the ONLY thing I trust not to get a virus that's windows based. Since the DVR connects via Ethernet, and would most likely be talking to a hub connected to a Nextel Data Modem over public internet to our servers...

I won't even be running Windows on the laptops. Its alot harder for someone who's computer literate but not a "power-user" to screw something up on a Linux based machine, running X-Windows with GNOME or KDE, than Windows XP Professional or whatever Dell's trying to sell you.

That, and I don't need a 3.0GHz processor and 512MB of DDR2 RAM in a laptop to run a word processor. (This is an exaggeration, but we've all seen the recomended system specs for MS Word 2003)

[Will]

On the DM Digital Sprite 2's, we got maybe 1 frame a second for 12 days of storage. On the March's, we're getting about 6-8 frames a second for over 60 DAYS of storage. Each unit holds about 1.2 terabytes of video.

Will, if you are using the DM BX2 with 1.2 TB of storage and only getting 12 days , there is definately something wrong. Maybe the file size is too big?

We had a set up with the units at 7 fps at 18k files and we got just shy of 90 days.

Hope that helps.

We were using DS2's, not BX2's. The picture quality was horrible.

[Will]

The issue with most DVRs that I have is that if they are using Windows, they can and do get viruses, worms and spyware. We have been to many sites where the guard force uses the DVR as a PC to view/download all kinds of stuff! Not a pretty picture.

The March DVR's uses Linux. Or Unix. Whichever it is, I can't remember off the top of my head, it's not Windows.

The Dedicated Micro's wern't Windows-based per se, I believe they had they're own software written for it.

I have that same problem not with the DVR's, but the computers we use to view the DVR's.

And another thing....all the DM's we would use only had 10mbps cards in them. The March's have 100mbps cards. What a difference that makes!

[pcarletti]

Tatung Opinions

Has anyone had any experience with Tatung DVR's?