AtoZDVR

Actually, DVR card does nothing to communicate for the remote connection. Application that comes with the DVR board utilize the network card (NIC) in the system to communiacte through it. In case of accessing through the web browser, it is the same deal that the software communicates through the NIC; however it also come with a web server in most cases. Therefore, from the remote location, whether it is local or over the internet, your DVR card is accessed through your NIC, which can have its own identity, IP address. Same for the Stand Alone. Currently it is a standard to provide remote access, but only few years back, many stand alone units offered networking as an optional with separate NIC module.

I strongly agree with soundy that the DVR board is still there and have advantages. One thing I would like to add is a basic concept of the embedded, stand alone, type DVR. Since it is embedded, it is built to perform exactly to perform feartures that was designed for. Therefore, in most cases, it uses optimized components such as embedded CPU and very condensed motherboard, and minimum required memory, etc. Reduced costs are based on such parts, and it will limit the capability and expandibility of the system. If such things are implemented with much powerful components, the cost will be jumping higher then PC based DVR, while it is still not as flexible as PC based. I think the stand alone will dominate market share and grow faster than PC based DVR, but PC based will be still required in niche market, especially where integrations are required. Allen

I think it would be the best to test it along with an analog monitor. You can try to hook up the video input from the DVR system to the regular analog monitor, such as a TV, when you notice the snowing issue. If you still see the snowing issue on the screen, it is the camera you need to replace. Depending on what kind of DVR board you are using, it could be different, but I have experienced the snowing issue when there was a damage on one of chips on the DVR board. Allen