well the good news is i think i have most of this figured out....the bad news,i realize i am wrong on my thoughts posted above and still struggling with ips,fps,d-1,cif,4cif etc. i understand everything else about these dvr's but speeds and frame rates,i have logged more research time in the last 14 days than i have for the last 2 or 3 months...ok back to more reading...