removable harddrive dvr system

[blowrabbit 0]

does anyone know of a high quality dvr that lets the user swap out the harddrive so you can take that drive and hook it up to a remote computer to access its contents , just as you would in a remote view functionality on say a ge dvr? the purpose would be to not loose any quality in the picture and to give the people or employees being observed less of a sense of "big brother" looking at them.

[VST_Man 1]

loose quality? Big brother? Do you mean that "big brother" would review that video at another location?

I use networked storage and a PC Based (video Insight). I can go in and review via client (local), internet (intranet), and swap the drive out if I want....which I don't. I allow it to record over.

[blowrabbit 0]

i take it by the lack of response that there are not any dvrs that offer removable hard drives to play at a remote location?

[rory 0]

talking stand alone embedded units i imagine. yes .... but you need the same DVR at the other end. Even with GE DVRs, you just grab the HDD and stick anothe one it. It doesnt have a removable HDD drive but it is easy to get to. Take it to the other DVR that is the same type and it would work. Alsqo, can use a PC Capture card with AmCap or VidCap and capture non compressed video and burn that to CD, using the video out from the DVR, or mOnitor as you play it back, for high quality non compressed video.

 

From what I can tell though, you are really looking for a DVR that records to Removable HDD, which you can take that HDD and play it back in a regular PC, such as AVI files. There's gotta be, but not sure which one. I can test this AvTech unit i have here, once i get a HDD for it. It uses a removeable HDD.

 

More than likely with any linux based dvr that saves files as AVI, as the HDDs are pc fornatted .

 

Rory

[loop 0]

You can do it with almost any cheap dvr which is based on vineyard chipset (most low-end) and has a removable HDD Rack. You'll need a USB to IDE adaptor, and the software from Vineyard. This is actually the old method of archiving to a PC.

 

USB to IDE Adaptor:

http://www.pcbee.co.kr/contents/news/na/34436.jsp

http://www.ezguide.co.kr/auto_page/01050600/6931.html

 

 

One Vineyard based dvr:

http://www.infinitycctv.com/docs/products/standalonedvr/?id=sdvr-4120

 

I have the software if you need it.

[birddogger5150 0]

I was looking for info on this exact subject myself.

 

So even if your standalone is network addressable and you can view the wavelet compression format recorded video over an Internet connection, you can not simply take the hard drive off site, connect it to your off site Windows PC, and use that same "remote access" software to view the video and back it up (either by capture or direct copy) to your PC's hard drive?

 

So the standalone's HDD is formatted solely for the DVR, and you can't simply open a window and browse the HDD's content on a PC and see convenient media files saved as familiar format extensions like AVI, MPEG, etc. to be copied and pasted at will?

 

It would seem that if you have the remote access software on your PC, you could still use it to access the video non-remotely somehow, at least by setting up the hard drive with an IP address locally, and then use a video capture application to save it in a PC-friendly format.

 

Also, regarding wavelet compression format - is there a unique filename extention for these files? Or are they actually saved as AVI's or some other familiar format?

 

Any information would be helpful! Thanks.

[rory 0]

It depends on the DVR.

 

The Embedded Stand alone units, have the software on chip on the dvr, and generally the video clips are not saved as AVI files on the hard drive. But it depends on the DVR. For example, you cant do it with the GE DVRs.

[birddogger5150 0]

My DVR is an AVC-776:

 

http://www.ostwholesale.co.uk/multiplexers9ch.htm

 

Do you know based on this if AVC's Wavelet Compression Format proprietary? Meaning no way no how would the contents of this HDD be directly accessible on a Windows-based PC without the DVR there to process it?

 

It does have RS-232/485 serial communications capability, for what it's worth.

 

It seems ludicrous to me to even offer a hot-swappable HDD without the ability to access the data on anything other than a second DVR.

[Thomas 0]

You can't just take a device and give it an IP address. You have to have something to handle the TCP/IP stack. It might be possible to mount the drive and trick the software into looking locally. This makes the following assumptions:

 

A) You can emulate the connection protocols between the remote/local system.

 

or

 

B) If you can get the drive into a machine readable format. (i.e. File system drivers.)

 

Most of the time the software is streaming the video, rather then giving a full read(server)/write(local) like a file transfer.

[birddogger5150 0]

So even with the RS-232 port, you would need an ethernet connection and addressable interface in order to access the video on a local PC, whether you're viewing streaming video or direct-access data files?

 

And if someone wanted to use their PC keyboard to control the DVR via the RS-232 port using the ASCII keystrokes listed in the manual , they would then need both an RS-232 software interface on the PC, and a separate video monitor in order to watch the video, since the PC monitor wouldn't be able to do this without the Ethernet connection required by the remote access software?

 

It seems like someone would've thought to design the software to allow local control, monitoring, and backup to a direct-connected PC, for those of us who don't like screwing around with front panels. As it stands then it sounds like the only way to really back up this video locally then is via videotape. Stupid.

[Thomas 0]

Except that one of the selling points is that the interface is only via the front panel. I don't know if your DVR stores the files in a PC readable form or not. I think I need to be clearer on what I ment.

 

To trick remote software into viewing locally, you need to be emulating the local server. Most of the time the software is streaming it.

 

To view the files via a file browser then you need to be able to read the format of the drive. For that to happen it needs to be in something like ext2, ext3, fat16/32, NTFS, ect. It's possible with embeded systems to not use any of these.

 

As far as transfering files via RS-232....do you have a few weeks?

[birddogger5150 0]

A few weeks no, but even with the slow baud rates I figured I could set it up to copy the DVR drive contents to my PC overnight or something. Either way, you just made one of my points - why is a modern day DVR depending on such antiquated and therefore largely incompatible technology to communicate with other devices?

 

Not sure what format the files are being stored in. I guess I'll have to direct connect the drive to my PC and see what it "sees" in there.

[rory 0]

My DVR is an AVC-776:

 

http://www.ostwholesale.co.uk/multiplexers9ch.htm

 

Do you know based on this if AVC's Wavelet Compression Format proprietary? Meaning no way no how would the contents of this HDD be directly accessible on a Windows-based PC without the DVR there to process it?

 

It does have RS-232/485 serial communications capability, for what it's worth.

 

It seems ludicrous to me to even offer a hot-swappable HDD without the ability to access the data on anything other than a second DVR.

 

just buy a second $300 DVR.

 

If u really need to know about that DVR, ill ask AvTech for you.

 

You are forgetting one thing though, there is no operating system on the hard drive, just video files recorded in their format.

[Sir Flannel 0]

Well, this might push the "quality" envelope, but Everfocus has DVR's with removable hard drives (EDSR series), and they have a utility that runs on a windows pc that seems to be able to access the drive. You'd just need a bay on your pc to put it in.. Never tried it, but it seems to be what you're looking for.

[birddogger5150 0]

You are forgetting one thing though, there is no operating system on the hard drive, just video files recorded in their format.

 

I know there's no OS on the hard drive, but I wrongly assumed that I could simply plug the hard drive into a PC and view the contents with their convenient 3 or 4 character format designations. Whether or not that format would be usable is another story. But it sounds like the PC may just look at it as an unformatted drive, in which case I'm SOL.

 

Guess I didn't think it through. I just assumed that in the world of digital media, everything was designed to be compatible with all the major operating systems to ease transfer, storage and editing.

[rory 0]

you may still be able to do so with linux embedded DVRs, once they record in a familiar format like AVI, ill check out the AvTech tonight and let you know. I know cant be done with GE DVRs as the hard drives are unformatted, but Linux DVRs generally let you format the drives so once it is a format that Windows can recognise should be okay? Ill ask them also.