You can record to your VCR or DVD, to your computer’s hard disc drive, to an SD card or to a Swann digital video recorder (DVR). DVRs can be set to record on movement, alarm activation or set for permanent recording and many have features that allow many different levels of recording quality.  Some of our packages include a DVR with a hard drive; others come without a hard drive, allowing you to purchase and retro fit the size HDD of your choice.  Many DVRs can also be viewed from a remote location via the Internet.

What is a ‘Digital Video Recorder’ (DVR)? 

A typical DVR looks and operates in a similar manner to a VCR, except that it will simultaneously monitor and record surveillance from a number of cameras that are connected to the unit.  Video captured from these cameras is recorded to a hard disk placed inside the DVR, and can easily be displayed on a standard television screen. Some DVRs may also be connected to a computer so that you can monitor an area across a local area network (LAN) or from a remote location over the internet.

How do I record to my computer’s hard drive? 

By means of our PCI card and software; the card is inserted into a spare slot in your PC and the software installed via a CD.  You can then either monitor up to 4 cameras per PCI card or add extra cards to a maximum of 4 which will allow you to monitor 16 cameras.  The PCI card and software allows you to view the cameras on your PC monitor and record images to your hard disc drive.  You can personalise the setup using features such as record on movement, alarm activation or you can setup for permanent recording.

What if I have a laptop, not a PC? 

Simple – just use our USB 2.0 Guardian instead; it does everything the PCI card does, but plugs into the USB port rather than living internally.

How long can I record for? 

This is affected by a number of factors, which are (a) the size of your hard drive, (b) the number of cameras in your system which could be anything from 1 – 16, (c) the resolution and the quality of recording required, (d) frame rate – 25 fps (frames per second) per camera is “real time” as you’d see action on TV.  Reducing frame rate saves recording space, and total frame rate is split between the number of cameras on your system.  As a general guide, 4 – 6 FPS is suitable for most applications. (e) compression methods – JPEG, MPEG or MPEG4 all give different file sizes.

What if I just want to record to my VCR or DVD recorder? 

You can do this easily and without extra equipment if you just have one camera.  If you have more than one camera, you’ll need an extra piece of kit called a Quad Processor.  A VCR or DVD recorder can only record one feed, and each camera on your system is a feed; the cameras plug into the Quad Processor which then acts to split the screen into 4, to allow you to view and/or record up to 4 cameras at once.

How do I view my cameras remotely? 

Using an IP camera (such as the Swann Max-IP) or non-IP camera via DVR with a LAN connection (such as the Swann DVR4-Net Plus).