gimili

I have some panasonic WV-CW500 cameras for my shop and a Pelco 4500 16 Ch. dvr. Personnally I am not impressed at all with the quality. As soon as you increase the resolution to max on the dvr it forces you to drop the fps down to 3. I am looking at this one instead: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/739224-REG/AverMedia_NEH5216HP_16_channel_Hybrid_Embedded_Linux.html. With the Pelco 4500 with so called crystal clear quality you have a max resolution of 704x480 with 3 fps and video/stills seem pixilated and grainy IMHO. The live video on the main monitor is much better than the recorded video on the Pelco. Perhaps I need to tweak something? The quality on the spot monitor is also poor but that may be due to the length of the cable or the vga converter for the lcd monitor. There is no way I can see plates. Perhaps by zooming and a lot of luck. If anyone has any other suggestions or advice I would appreciate them also?

Thanks for the info. I have the quality setting on highest which I assume would be the lowest compression. With the highest resolution you can only select 3fps.

Can you give me some examples?

That link was very helpful to understand fps. Thanks a lot! I am guessing compression is my problem. Is there a compression level or type that would yield video where faces are not grainy?

Thanks for the tip. I am new to this and very green. Is there no dvr that can record decent analog? Is 7.5 fps sufficient?