mensb 0 Posted April 20, 2011 Hi, I know a loaded question is "Which DVR is the best?" or "Which DVR should I buy?". It seems to me like asking "What car should I buy?". Its such a "preference" oriented question. But at the same time I would like a little advice to help guide me throuh the sea of information and ambundance of brands. My price range for just the DVR is about $400-$600 (8 camera DVR, for my house). I am considering these DVRs. Which should I scratch off my list given the requirements below (and general industry experience). In other words, given the car example, which would fall into category of comparing Honda to Toyota and which would fall into the category of comparing a Ford Pinto to a Toyota? The DVR list includes (and please offer other brands if I am missing something): Cantek CNB GE Security IntelliPix Lorex Nuvico Pelco My requirements are: -Motion record -Constant record -Schedule record -2wks of video (mix of motion/constant/schedule) -Ability to have the video saved/converted to something industry standard like mpeg4 -very high resolution (imagine all 8 cameras set to constant record); understand camera quality part of the picture, but if had the best camera possible attached, would like to be able to have high res video and then when viewing the video if I zoom in during playback or viewing a still frame would like to be able to see clearly (vs very grainy when low pixel rate) -Decent FPS per camera (imagine all 8 cameras set to constant record) -No need to PTZ functionality -Capability for monitor to directly hookup (VGA) -Capability for mouse to directly hookup -Remote operation and configuration via standard ethernet connectivity -Network access to view the cameras via a web browser -Network access to view the stored video via a web browser -iPhone access to the view the cameras -iPhone access to the view the stored videos -DDNS Any help navigating these waters is greatly appreciated! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
survtech 0 Posted April 20, 2011 A loaded question. There should be an option for "None of the Above". There are numerous other brands. For example, we've had good results with the SuperCircuits SC Black Hybrid DVRs and awful results with the Pelco DX8000 POS's (and I don't mean "point-of-sale"). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Soundy 1 Posted April 20, 2011 A Pelco in the $400-$600 range?? Last time I dealt with a Pelco DVR, it was a DX8100, and if memory serves, it ran around $5000. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted April 20, 2011 Typically anything in that price range wont be "great" recording quality, also real time recording in D1 would normally cost more for an 8 channel. Otherwise, couple of the brands listed are normally much more expensive than your budget. Most will probably do what you need though as most of that are basic features in todays DVRs. Save to industry standard though might throw a couple of them off. I like the Dahua DVRs for that actually as you save them as AVI and it can be played with any system that has H.264 installed (eg. Divx). Ive used the CNBs rebranded under another name, cant recall what it saves as, does all the other features though its 7fps max each channel in D1, while Dahua has D1 real time options. Havent used any of the others recently. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
QC444 1 Posted April 28, 2011 From experience, I would avoid Q-See if you need the system to send alert emails or FTP files because I never could get these functions to work and neither could Q-See Tech Support and believe me, I spent MANY hours on the phone (actually in chat) with them. If you do NOT need those functions to work, it's a pretty good system otherwise. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
