When people shop for a suitable DVR for their surveillance system, they often wonder about various features and how they might apply to their situation. Sometimes, they know what features they’re looking for, while other times, they aren’t always aware of the more common features. So, to help set things on an even footing, this article will provide information about the more commonly used, wanted, and available features that most DVRs have.
Motion Detection
This feature is almost as old as the DVR itself, and it is one of, if not the most commonly requested feature. Motion detection simply allows your DVR to trigger its recording functionality whenever there is apparent motion on the screen within the video feed.
This feature is extremely beneficial for several reasons. Still, the number one reason is to prevent erroneous video files from clogging up your system and making it much harder to locate particular video segments. This is especially true if you’re unsure of the exact time an incident might have occurred, as you will then have to search the hours of constantly recorded footage. Sub-features that help regulate and add to this main feature often include motion sensitivity and image masking.
Motion sensitivity is how much motion is required before it will trigger a motion-activated recording sequence. For example, the sensitivity may determine whether a leaf blowing will set it off or if you’ll need something more substantial, like a truck passing by.
On the other hand, image masking is used to determine zones in your video that you may not want motion detection to be activated in. For example, if you have a tree in the corner of your video constantly being blown about, you can mask that part of the video, and it will not activate the motion detection. Furthermore, even if you mask part of a video feed for no motion activation, it will still record the entire video feed if the other areas activate due to motion, so you don’t need to worry about having sections of your video cut off should it start to record.
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Networking and Smartphone Support
A networkable DVR allows remote access from computers within or outside a network. The next logical step after this feature was the ability to access your DVR over your Smartphone. So when a DVR claims to have Smartphone support, not only can it be networked, but it can also use an app on your phone to watch, adjust, and configure your DVR.
To fully realize this feature’s capability, you’ll need a few things. You’ll need a stable and reliable internet connection (preferably a cable connection for larger bandwidth and reliability), a configurable router that allows port forwarding, and a phone that supports DVR APPs (most Smartphones do).
Email Notification
Email notification, in a way, is a sub-feature of both motion detection and networking. The short and sweet explanation behind email notifications is right in its name. Email notification is the ability of your DVR to send out an email to any address you specify should motion detection or a scheduled email be activated. When it sends out the notification, most DVRs also send a snapshot of the current video that activated the motion detection. This can be quite beneficial when catching something as it happens. Still, depending on the motion in your videos, you may want to reconsider this feature, as it can fill up your inbox rather rapidly. Additionally, having a network connection with internet access would help make this feature work.
Schedule Recording
This feature tends to confuse people the most just by looking at it, but once explained, it could become one of the most beneficial tools in your DVR arsenal. Generally, when you go to Schedule Recording on your DVR, it will show a list allowing you to input particular times and dates for all your cameras. This list is a guide you can craft into a specific recording schedule. Say you want to record your 1st and 3rd camera on Sundays at noon but only want your 2nd and 4th camera to record on Wednesdays at three. With schedule recording, you can turn this example into reality and specify many more times, dates, and configurations that fit your particular applications. So, as a final example, if you wanted to record only certain shifts at your factory, you could specify the DVR to do so, and you can even have motion detection turned on during non-scheduled recording for any miscellaneous activity that might occur when you’re not expecting it.
Classifications – DVR vs. NVR vs. Network DVR
As a final thought, instead of going over any more features (as we’ve covered the major ones), let’s quickly discuss the different classifications given to what are all essentially DVRs. A DVR is short for a digital video recorder, and it’s the term used in analog or HD-SDI surveillance systems where a direct connection from the camera to the DVR is used. An NVR refers to a network video recorder. Although these sometimes have direct connection capabilities, they are primarily used for recording cameras connected to the network, such as IP surveillance systems.
A Network DVR is simply a DVR capable of using a network for features such as remote access, Smartphone support, and email notification. Sometimes, this will be referred to as an NVR, but it’s not the same thing in reality. For the most part, network DVRs and NVRs exist nowadays in the surveillance world, and finding nonnetwork-capable DVRs is becoming quite rare.
