Home Security Cameras - Digital / Analog

In today’s world technology has come a long way in many different fields including surveillance and security equipment. Earlier years showed the introduction of video cassette recorders and how they brought a quality recording unit to the forefront of most security camera systems. As technology advanced the introduction of digital video recorders soon surpassed the video cassette recorder as the new alternative means to home security camera system recording. These days both the analog and digital recorders are still available to be used in most surveillance monitoring systems, although many people still have trouble choosing which one would be more beneficial for their installation. It is said that the digital video recorder or DVR is a better investment when it comes these systems, but the question still remains. Why choose a digital video recorder over a video cassette recorder?

The first benefit over a video cassette recorder a digital video recorder has is that because of the use of hard drives they are able to store more information digitally than that of the VCR. Video cassette recorders usually use about ½” tapes to store the information, and over time, can cause problems with deterioration and damage to the footage losing all important information.

Another benefit of why a digital video recorder is a better choice is that, except for its alarm mode, a video cassette recorder isn’t able to provide a quick search to locate the important information. Usually the whole tape is fast forwarded or rewound and this can take not only time, but money as well. Digital video recorders can usually offer a special searching tool that allows for the footage to jump to selected sections needed disregarding all un-important information.

One more advantage of a digital video recorder over a video cassette recorder is that it can allow you to easily manipulate the footage if needed to zoom in closer or to increase the clearness and quality of the images recorded. Because a VCR uses an analog format it usually records image quality at a lower rate than that of the original source making it harder to identify individuals if a crime has been committed.

Size is another major advantage when it comes to choosing between a digital video recorder and a video cassette recorder. Most standard sized video cassette recorders usually have a bulkiness about them that can take up a fair amount of room, especially when used in smaller sized rooms. Today’s digital video recorders are designed with smaller and more slim-line designs that can help to reduce the bulkiness allowing for more room within a location to fit the rest of the security camera equipment.

The range of features and options that a digital video recorder can offer can also be beneficial to the operator. Digital video recorders are able to offer the option of saving to other portable devices such as CD-RW’s, DVD’s, flash drives, Blu-Ray, and SD memory cards. With the range of saving options available, you can easily retrieve the recorded data and easily back up the file to view on multiple other devices such as computers.

One of the most productive features that offer the most benefit is that when connected with a computer camera system you can easily monitor your CCTV camera system remotely as long as there is a fast and reliable internet connection. With the use of a properly setup system, you can easily access your security camera setup at any time of the day or night by use of remote devices including cell phones, IP phones, Android devices, and iPad devices. This can prove beneficial when looking to monitor your CCTV home camera system from another part of the world allowing for you to easily go on holidays or business trips and still be able to access your system for checkups.

Over the years digital video recorder limitations have lessened with the evolvement of home security cameras. Years ago digital video recorders used to be limited to the size of the integrated hard drive. With advancement in technology, increases in hard drive space up to capacities of 1000GB (1 TB) or more are now readily available on most modern standard home security cameras making them a more productive unit. Although to determine how much footage will be recorded on the digital video recorder it will depend on the type of compression format that it holds and the image quality that the device has. Most standards DVR’s have an advanced compression ratio which can offer quality images at a reasonably small file size such as the MPEG4 compression. MPEG4 compression is the method of easily defining compression of visual and audio digital (AV) data. These different advancements have ensured digital video recorders are the more suited choice when looking into most security camera systems.

Overall, the choice between digital video recorders and video cassette recorders is ultimately up to the home security camera owner and user. But with the ever increasing advancements in technology a digital video recorder can prove more beneficial than a video cassette recorder because it is more versatile with its recording and playback options.