erieslabhunter

Forgive my ignorance, but after several hours reading I am very stuck on this concept. Is this a given on these DVR systems? I am not a security guy by any means, just a guy trapped into some labor. Because no other parents in the country school my kids attend know how to edit video, I have sort of been roped into something. A few people have seen some of my editing (football games and such) and have asked that I do the A/V stuff for the school musicals. It is very difficult syncing multiple cameras on the editing timeline, so I am trying to find a way to record all streams at once - into separate files if possible. If I can get the ok to mount some higher quality cameras in the auditorium, I think this type of system would be wonderful. Story explained, would an 8 channel or 16 channel DVR record each stream at 25-30FPS at the camera's fullest resolution? My confusion is just due to what I have seen on TV about CCTV with the split screen (is this the "quadraplexing, duplexing, triplexing and pentaplexing?) lower resolution stuff. I don't need to see 8 cameras on a monitor, I simply want to be sure to capture all channels and edit later. Sorry for the long explanation, I just want to be very clear about why I am asking and what I am looking for. Just looking to be pointed in a closer direction.

Glenn that is a great idea, but is in fact what I am using now. I have a small click-popper thing. After all cameras are rolling I click the clicker. It is still very difficult however when 2-3 cameras are being operated and not simply on a tripod. There are MANY clicks during the shows, and lining them all up is quite difficult. I was sort of hoping to just have them all roll the whole time. Then the worst of the worst news was suggested to me... a security supplies vendor asked me if I knew that most of these DVR's produced files with vibrant timestamps and most have file formats that are proprietary so as to inhibit tampering. Meaning the files are uneditable. That has just crushed my plans and I am back to square one, finding a way to capture multiple devices on a PC, with both analog and IEEE. Very disappointed at the moment. Thank you all for your help, and suggestions. If anyone has any other ideas, I am following the thread and will be back regularly to read the forums yet, I have learned alot here and am grateful.

Stereo direct from the school's stereo PA system. Never done it yet, future hobby possibly, would love to play with F:R Fade eventually - but not yet. No audience reactions, possibly down the road will do an alternate audio track but not this year. I thought I could do with what I had but can't find a way to get multiple signals to record at once on a PC based laptop. There is absolutely zero return, if the school were to try and sell the final DVD's for a couple dollars, that is profits to the music boosters. When I am done with the project I intend to donate all the equipment to the school in hopes that they develop an A/V club to carry on the the works and future projects. All editing is done in Sony Vegas, so yes I prefer uncompressed raw AVI. I am willing to build a computer to the specs, just not purchase a 'ready to go' 'out of the box' system for $10k, nor will I spend $4200 on a Mac. If a computer can do what i am seeking for a reasonable amount all around, as in both hardware cost and software costs. I will not pay $2,995 for ANY software package. That is all I have time to reply to since I have not looked at the links offered completely yet.

While reading another post, I got very curious on how this type of system would work on the G4-LTA. As mentioned in my last post I am looking for a way to capture from multiple cameras for a high school musical. Setting this pre-motion capture to say 10 seconds, then monitoring on a quadview LCD all sources, could this work as a primative rough edit? For example, I notice a solo starting with the best view on camera #2, I could simply click 2 on the remote and it would have recorded the first few seconds I have missed? I guess it all still varies based on the stipulation that all 4 channels capture at the same time. Just trying to find anyway possible to save myself some work. Suggestions?