randman 0 Posted April 30, 2008 We have several DVR's that have a ton of storage (3 terabytes) on them. They are 16 camera units. We are getting 30 days storage, but only when we dial down the frame rate to 3 per second, and the compression level to Normal (3 on a scale of 1 to 5). Obviously, the quality we are getting is pretty bad. These are Point of Sale cameras, and we need to see more detail than we are getting. Does this seem right, or could there be another issue going on? What kind of storage should I expect to need to get 30 days at 6 frames with minimal compression? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PHAND 0 Posted April 30, 2008 What resolution? CIF, 1/2D1, D1? What compression scheme? MJPEG, MPEG4, H264? You are doing POS, are you doing an overlay as well? Are you recording continuous or just based on motion? If you are not recording based on motion, why not? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
randman 0 Posted April 30, 2008 What resolution? CIF, 1/2D1, D1? What compression scheme? MJPEG, MPEG4, H264? You are doing POS, are you doing an overlay as well? Are you recording continuous or just based on motion? If you are not recording based on motion, why not? Ok, let's see. I have no idea on the resolution or compression scheme. The units we are using are like the Toshiba Surveillax (sorry but I can't post the website for the unit as I'm still too new to the forum). I couldn't find anything online about those unit specifications. We are not doing overlay, and are recording continuous. Our stores are open very long, varying hours, so schedule based recording doesn't work for us. Also, motion based doesn't work because even when closed, our locations have activity 24/7, so they would record continous anyway. Any help would be appreciated. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jhonovich 0 Posted April 30, 2008 3TB, 16 channel, continuous recording, 3fps, 30 days is pretty bad. Even if we assume high activity, this is bad. I did a quick check on a number of storage calculators online and all indicate much higher storage duration. Also, my personal experience is that your storage should be much higher (3x to 5x greater). First guess is that your system is using MJPEG and that is causing the problem. Check if you are using MJPEG. If so, see if your system supports switching compression to MPEG-4. If so, switch setting to MPEG-4. Please let us know what you find. Best, John Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
C7 in CA 0 Posted April 30, 2008 Also I would check to see if the DVR's even support 3TB's of storage. For example I have read spec's on some DVR's that say it only supports 750GB of storage. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jhonovich 0 Posted April 30, 2008 I agree with C7. If you really have 3TB, you should at least have 6 hard drives (500 GB each). With 6 hard drives you shoold have at least a 3 RU unit if not larger or have multiple boxes. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
randman 0 Posted April 30, 2008 I agree with C7. If you really have 3TB, you should at least have 6 hard drives (500 GB each). With 6 hard drives you shoold have at least a 3 RU unit if not larger or have multiple boxes. These are very high end units, and we have additional external storage connected through raid assemblies. They will handle up to 12 terabytes of storage. My main concern is that my IT guy is telling me that in order to obtain 30 days of storage, with a decent frame rate (minimum of 6) and highest quality compression settings, we will need to upgrade all of the drives to 1 terabyte drives. I'm just having a problem believing that with the amount of storage we have right now, we have to dial the compression way up and the frame rate to 3 in order to get 30 days storage. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jhonovich 0 Posted April 30, 2008 Have you verified whether or not you are using MJPEG? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
randman 0 Posted April 30, 2008 Have you verified whether or not you are using MJPEG? The units are made by OpenEye. Their lesser units are mpeg4. We are using their networkable systems. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
survtech 0 Posted April 30, 2008 We still need to know the compression method used. There is a HUGE difference in storage requirements between MJPEG and MPEGx (2, 4, etc.). Roughly on the order of 10 times or more. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
randman 0 Posted May 6, 2008 Sorry it took me a while to find out. The units we use are branded from the supplier. A rebranded unit is the Toshiba Surveillax. The information I find for it says it uses Proprietary MJPEG compression. Does that help? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jhonovich 0 Posted May 6, 2008 Yes, it does help. Unfortunately, MJPEG or proprietary variations of it, are universally poor at maximizing storage duration. I would verify if it can support any other codec. From your description so far, it is unlikely it can. Assuming that it does not support another codec, you need to examine if there are any other settings for this proprietary MJPEG that can be tuned to make storage duration moderately better. Usually there are other settings that can be tweaked, they may not make things dramatically better but you might get a little longer storage. Unfortunately, from what you have described so far, the odds are that things will not improve much unless you replace the system (which I am sure would be extremely difficult to do). Please check on these steps and let us know what you find. Best, John Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
