34886 0 Posted July 28, 2009 I work at a county jail and have been the "admin" of our video system for the last 8 years. We started out with Integral Tech systems (4) and three 4 tape back up drives. Because we need to have whats not there as well as what is there, we record everything, and dont use motion detection to start recording. After a month I submitted a request and purchased 4 SRT-6000 VHS machines. Making a 5 minutes video went from all day to about 15 minutes, and we had sound to boot. All we have to do is change the tapes once a day. I never used the computer based digital recorder again. Fast forward 8 years. The administration got 100K to replace the old Sanyo VHS system. (I had been replacing the recorders when they died from eBay at about $100 each). We purchased 3 Dedicated Micros, BX2 systems with about 15 T bytes of disk. Now, to make a 5 minute video, it takes hours to retrieve and record to the CD. If I have a long one, I just found out the DVD recorder does not work with "selected time video" and I have to put it all on CD. The damn thing has failed the last three times I tried. I even downloaded to my PC and it will only convert half of the proprietary video to windows files, etc. It's been running now for three hours "creating image" for the 15 minute blocks I am trying to record to CD for the 50 minutes of video I need. No sound, crappy image, takes too long, hard to use, etc. By purchasing this great new digital system that runs on Unix or something great like that with all of this disk, I have stepped back 8 years. I have a small room full of VHS tape I can use to record over if I can find some new VHS machines, and can convince command staff, I would like to go back to tape. HELP!!!! RR Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Erron S. 0 Posted July 28, 2009 Oh man, your story is really a bummer. With features on the market now like 'smart search' and various analytics, finding something in a search should take seconds. At least on our machine it does. Highlight object, put in a date parameter, hit search. Burning that info to a disc takes less than a minute unless you're burning a ton of data. (30+mins of video or something) I know of a number of jails that have our systems (along with military applications) that love the operation and especially with megapixel cameras, they get what they are looking for. Have you looked at any of the newer technologies available today in the PC DVR/NVR market? It may time for you to shop again my friend. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dnieweg 0 Posted July 28, 2009 The problem is DVR's are too general for specific applications like interview recording and therefore kinda .. suck. Please check out http://www.interviewrecorder.com. This is the result of a joint project between 3xLOGIC and Sanyo (at Sanyo's request). 3xLOGIC wrote and owns the software and we currently sell it through a fantastic rep that came to us through our relationship with Sanyo. His name is Carl Bracken. If you check out the site, fill out the contact form and Carl can give you the full scoop on the product. I believe it is in use currently at over 300 sites in the US and it is just starting to take off. While I agree with my good friend Erron that our VIGIL solution is being used successfully in a great many interview applications such as jails and police stations, we would rather you use our specific interview recording application in conjunction with VIGIL simply because the experience will be so much better. Consider that in an interview application you really need these additional capabilities and that is what our Interview software does: • Simple VCR Replacement • Easy DVD Authoring • Easy export in standard AVI format while maintaing authenticated video • Case management with additional documentation • Fully accessible accessible across the network • An interface designed specifically for multi-user interview applications like police stations, etc.. • Specific search capabilities such as Unique Case Number, Offense Type, Investigators Name, Suspect Info, Interview Type, Location, Audience in Attendance, etc.. ..and the list goes on. Digital technology is great and can do a better job than VHS but the point is that you need to pick the right tool for the job. A sledgehammer is great for busting stuff up you but can't use it to hammer in finish nails even though they are both hammers. Cheers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
34886 0 Posted July 31, 2009 Thank you for your help. We are looking at an interview room recording system and I will check this out. RR Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
34886 0 Posted July 31, 2009 I do like the search, and view from various locations. I really dont need to live in the past but I am disappointed over all with digital. Even with the recording turned up, is still looks choppy and the video quality is not that great. The system we have is just over 1 year old. It's not out of date. With the huge disk, it takes hours to pull the video I need when I have to make a disk. With tape, you find the tape, fast forward or rewind (they even have search) then play and record. It's really quick and the quality is a lot better. RR Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dnieweg 0 Posted July 31, 2009 RR, Change is hard ... lol If your video looks choppy and the video quality is not great then I would have to disagree with you and say that your system even though it is digital and only one year old IS OUT OF DATE! There is no reason for video to look choppy today, in fact it should look better than the new 1080i HDTV if video quality is important (megapixel). Again, the Interview Recorder is built on a high-def hybrid DVR technology, but the software is entirely different and specifically designed to make it easy to capture, review and create DVD's of interviews with high-quality video and audio. You are just trying to use a basic "old" technology digital recorder to do something it was obviously no designed for. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VOSCOM 0 Posted August 4, 2009 There is no reason for video to look choppy today, in fact it should look better than the new 1080i HDTV if video quality is important. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
alasl01 0 Posted August 4, 2009 My friend, as some have said in here, there is no reason for a system to look choppy in todays market. Even embedded DVR's are capable of giving great quality systems and with the new Hybrids some can even handle up to 1.3 mega pixel cameras. Its important that before purchasing any system, you get a realistic demonstration of the system you are going to purchase. Just looking at specs now-a-day can be very deceiving and even buying some recognized name doesn't guarantee the quality. You need to do your homework and see what the issues are, is it your system, it can be your cameras. Setting aside the search issues, how many FPS are your recording at? How many Channels does the system carry? (32 channel systems sound great, but the processing power is just not there for all cameras to be at 15FPS in most systems. Remember analogs cameras just stram info, IP's process it but the higher the resolution you tend to give up in FPS. This is why it is sometimes good to hire an independent consultant that has no bias towards any system as he receives no money from any company and will find you the system that meets all of your requirements and not get sold on a good spec sheet and sales pitch. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
34886 0 Posted August 4, 2009 Well, the system is Dedicated Micros Bx2. We have three boxes with 2 TB disk, plus one box has two 6 TB RAID connected. We are recording at 25 PPS, six cameras per system. The demo system looked really good but you know how that is. There are a lot of settings for this system. The vendor has tried several things and it still looks a lot worse than tape. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted August 4, 2009 I used tapes before and I wouldnt go back for anything. Sounds like there may be something wrong with that DVR. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
