totalstu

Hi, Nice forum you folks have. Lucky that I stumbled upon it. We are a distrubutionj company with a large warehouse. We have 32 cameras and 2 Pelco DVR's (7000 and 7100). We feel it's time to replace and upgrade the DVRs. We want remote capabilities, though not via the web but rather by IP. We want larger storage. 2 local companies have come and proposed solutions. One wants to replace the Pelco units with 2 Bosch Divar DVRs. They would have 600GB drives and DVD writer. The other company proposed Pelco 8116 with 1TB storage each + DVD writer. The Pelco seems to be PC based as the device is quite large, like our current Pelco models. The Bosch Divar's are small. The 2 systems are within a couple thousand dollars of each other but I must say they aren't cheap. We are not really that versed in this whole DVR world, being that we are a distrbibution company so I would like some advice/guidance as to which of the above would be the best solution or is there something else that would be better. Look forward to the replies. Thanks

My recommendation would be Nuvico, though I guess I should wait until demo'ng the others. I just can't see paying twice the price, if not more, for the Bosch or Pelco. We are thinking about getting 2x 32ch's as opposed to 2x 16ch's as we may be addding on to our building. My thinking is to take 16 camera's from each building (old and new) and run those into one dvr and take the other reamining cameras and input into the other dvr. If one DVR goes down for any reason we'd still have 16 camera's in each building recording.

So we had a demo of the Nuvico AP-D1600 last week. It was done at our ofice, connected to our camera. Demo went well. Picture quality is much improved over that of our old Pelco 7000. Seems pretty easy to use, etc. We like that it came with 1TB storage with room for 3 more TB drives. We have yet to demo the newer Pelco (8100) or Bosch Divar. Hopefully we can get them to demo using our camera's. Even then, with the price they want to charge it may be difficult for them to get our business.

I hope someone in Canada carries these so I can go see one in person. I've sent them an email asking if there is a Canadian reseller.

After some reading I'm not sure Speco is the way to go. Though the price is right The Nuvico Apex AP-D1600 Series looks interesting.

So a third company came and quoted. They are like 1/3 of the price of the other two. This quote is using Speco DVR's. http://www.specotech.com/cart/products/downloads/specs/tnseries0508.pdf Time for some more reading.

The RTA/D1 looks intersting. I'm certainly liking it price wise. Can I find this in Canada is another question. Again, I'm hoping a fellow Canadian chimes in

Ok, I wish I had answers to your questions Frame rate and resolution: Not sure what we get now. How do I go about checking? What should we be aiming for? Remote: Rather than visiting a website we would want the few users we allow to connect via IP. Requiring those with access to be connected via VPN. Recording days: I'd say maybe a month. Is that realistic? Cameras: Don't have much info other than they are Pelco Dome cameras of some sort. They been here for like 5 years. We just had them serviced. They are all clean and some had power supplies replaced. The company that did the servicing (Frisco Bay) says they are good cameras and that new DVR will help in getting us better picture quality. I figure they must be good otherwise they would have tried to sell us new cameras as well. I guess we'll find out Hope this helps. Thanks

I don't really have the time to learn. If the quotes would have come in at what we think is reasonable we wouldn't really be looking further. We'd demo both and see which we like best. At 10k+ per DVR we were caught off guard. It seem pricey but I don't know. The current system was in place before I and the ops manager were here. The company that was servicing them is no longer in business. Sonitrol does our alarm/security so that is why we contacted them and someone turned us towards Frisco Bay so that is why we had them quote. Its possible these prices are reasonable. I'm sure both are good devices. Are there better, and for less. Hmm............... Hopefully a fellow Canadian will chime in here Thanks

With the strength of the Canadian Dollar you would think prices would be somewhat comparable. When our dollar was worth like 40% less I could almost understand the descrepancy.

The two dealers are quite reputable. Actually, I believe both are owned by Stanely. One is Sonitrol, the other is Frisco Bay. Sonitrol does our security at the office/warehouse as well at our branches. Both are basically at like 20K for 2 DVR's installed, etc. That seems pricy, though what do I know. I'm in Canada where everything seems pricy. Our two biggest issues witht he current setup is no remote capability and if I have to go and make a video clip of something the sofware is crap. Takes over my whole computer and when finished I need to reboot. I'm also lead to believe picture quality will be better with the new DVR's. Frisco Bay offered to let us go see and demo their solution. Sonitrol hasn't but I'm sure they would if we asked. I'm in the IT department. Biz is busy like usual. We're in plumbing/heating, etc. Lot's of contructing going on. You'd think heating would be slow at this time of year but it's not. I guess they use the summertime to repair/replace for the coming cold season. Thanks

Just to add to my post, I found this interesting. The proposed Bosch Divar's originally were quoted with 320GB drive and no writer. I asked for pricing with the larger driver (600GB) and writer and was quoted like $2500 more per DVR. Can that be right? I can buy a drive and writer at a computer store for like $200. Are thses drives some sort of special drives? Thank