Darren75

Here is another email that I found useful and confusing so any feedback on it would be great. I understand a little about compatibility and it is a huge issue in my opinion. I wonder about the accuracy of the statement about Dahua compatibility though. Dahua advertises their units to be “ONVIF Version 2.0 conformance” on their website. My limited understanding is that if it is ONVIF compatible it can use any ONVIF camera and that this is the industry standard for compatibility? The user that sent me this message definitely knows much more about this than I do so I probably misunderstand. If anyone can enlighten my I would appreciate it. Also, does anyone have an Avermedia or Logic model that they recommend? lots recommend dahua but most are DIYers who don't look at other out there. I see you have noticed FPS on some units ..... on a true NVR fps are done at camera and not at recorder like dahua. also a true NVR should be able to run any ip camera ..... the dahua cant. hence the reason its limited to fps and res depending on amount of cameras used. avermedia or logic and both very good system and are updatable some have been running for over 6 years. what is your budget ?? regards

I could be wrong but I really think that there are a lot of people that would benefit from a good discussion on NVR selection. I expected a lot more feedback from experienced users and installers on the plethora of brands. I did receive a few emails so in an effort to help others in the quest of the best NVR for the price I thought I would post some of them. Anyone with any good suggestions please post them here. I gave some desired requirements in the original post. Here is the first: Hello, this one fits all of your needs (besides budget I guess) Has also a built-in PoE: http://en.cbc-cctv.com/uploads/tx_n21download/NR8H_NR16H_en.pdf Kind regards The link isn’t working anymore but the unit recommended is a Ganz NR16H. You can find it by performing a google search. The unit starts at about $1800 with a 3TB hard drive and goes up from there.

Thanks for all the feedback. I appreciate everyone’s help. I had an interesting weekend. My budget may have gone up overnight. Friday night my wife pulled the car out of the garage so she could work on a project in the garage. Unfortunately, she left the car unlocked. While she was in the garage she heard someone in the car. She got me but by the time I made it outside they were gone. I found the center console open and my wallet and GPS gone. I got in the car to look for them as my wife called the police. On the street behind us my neighbors were outside. They saw two teens that got spooked when they noticed they were outside and ran off. After looking around we couldn’t find them. Their timing couldn’t have been better. I had several hundred dollars in my wallet because my wife wanted to get some furniture off of craigslist. Now she is scared and being the minister of war and finance she increased my budget. Continued help would be greatly appreciated because I still don’t know which brand and model to go with. Tommcctv - # of cameras – 8 would be bare minimum but leave me dead zones. I would like to install 11 with the possibility of expanding in the future. To allow for a nicer recorder I could even start off with less cameras. Luckyfella – With all the recommendations for Dahua on this forum I am remised at why they don’t have a unit than can’t do more than 240fps at 1080p. I really want something with a higher frame rate. I see a lot of NVRs on the market that claim they have a record rate of 30fps per channel at 1080p. I am new to this market so I don’t know much about the brands and whether or not they are junk or have inaccurate specs. Thanks again for your help.

Shockwave, Thank you for taking the time to help me out. I am struggling with a few things on the unit you recommend and other Dahua NVRs. Fist this unit only has a max frame rate of 240fps. If I ever got close to the 32 channel capacity I would be looking at 7.5 frames per second which is way to slow in my opinion. Even If I only used 16 channels that would still only be a frame rate of 15fps. Also, this unit is only capable of holding 2 hard drives. I agree with you statement about expanding hard drive in the future but this unit just doesn’t give you much expandability. Can you help me out with anything I am wrong about or maybe give me some more ideas? I know there are a lot of people on this forum that like the Dahua but I am having a hard time accepting a DVR with such a low frame rate per channel.

First, if I am posting this in the wrong section please let me know where I should be. I couldn’t find a section for NVRs. I am hoping I can get some help picking out an NVR. I have been reading quite a bit in this forum and other websites but unfortunately the more I learn the more confused and inadequate I feel in picking out an NVR. What I would like to have: 1 Preferably a 16 channel for expansion but 8 is a minimum. 2 Capable of recording in 1080p. 3 High frames per second around 30 per channel at 1080p. 4 Budget is hopefully less than $1000 for the NVR (and POE port if needed). 5 Hard drive expansion for 4 or more. 6 Dummy proof and easy to use. 7 Apple and android compatible. 8 Capable of recording sound on each channel. (I forgot this on my original post) Things to answer: 1 POE or not. If not what POE port do you recommend? 2 Where is a good place to purchase your recommendations? 3 What other considerations should I be thinking about? I have seen that Dahua is a recommended brand. Unfortunately, most of them only have a max 120fps at 1080p. Their 5000 series is 240fps at 1080p but that is only 15fps per channel on a 16 channel system which is half of my target point. I have ran across hikvision (or is it hik vision) but I am not sure of the quality. Any recommendations and guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help.