Upgrade? Or Replace?

[Asec 0]

Hello CCTV forums,

 

I am employed by a mid sized hotel in the Twin Cities in Minnesota and have come accross this site while researching a new DVR system for the property. We are currently running a PC based DVR that was purchased about 4 years ago. Throughout the time we've had this DVR, we've encountered Power Supply Issues, Hard Drive failure, overall decrease in performance and less than great technical support.

 

The specs on this system:

 

Mobo - gigabyte GA-P35-S3G

CPU - Pentium D 3.2 Ghz processor

2 Gig RAM

DVR Cards - ILDVR 3000H4C+ (3 x 8 ch, 1 x 4 ch)

OS - Windows XP

GFX Card - Gigabyte GeForce 7200 GS

Hard Drives - Seagate ST31000525SV X 2

Seagate ST3750330SV X 2

Software - ILDVR v9.32

 

Over time, the DVR has become quite sluggish and we've been coming up with disk write errors on 2 specific hard drives. We have also been experiencing random system shutdowns, where for about a week, the DVR will turn itself off, sometimes it will turn on after waiting 3 minutes, other times we will have to wait about 20 minutes. This has not happened in quite some time though. While I thought it could have been due to overheating, I am pretty diligent about keeping the air intake filter free of dust and blow out any dust bunnies inside the case every 4-6 weeks, there usually aren't many.

 

The main issues we are having with performance are as follows:

 

Pulling up the playback search can take up to a minute to load, while reviewing playback, at times, we get very stuttered footage, moving 3-5 frames, then pausing for 1 second. Other times, when playing back on more than 1 camera, each camera will play 1 frame at a time while it waits for the next channel to play a frame. This is hit or miss, as sometimes the playback is quite smooth.

 

Switching from multiple camera display to bringing 1 single camera full screen has a 2 second lag, switching back to multiple camera will take about 10 seconds to refresh all the cameras. The reason this is a concern, is for the first year or so, all of these actions were instant.

 

I am faced with a couple different options, one is to purchase an entirely new DVR altogether and hopefully find a good company based in the midwest that will provide on-site installation and technical support. I am looking in to one such company that is offering an exacqVision 48 channel NVR - 4U system. quoted for about $16k

 

Another company I am looking at is based out of New York will not provide any on-site service is from Aventura. A 48 channel DHC Commercial Series DVR for about $14k or 2 x 24 channel DHA Advanced series for a total of about $12k

 

Considering the current server we have ran around $6 4 years ago, these all seem to be expensive options, but I do understand, you get what you pay for. I have been searching the web looking for feedback on both of these companies, and while i have not seen very much information on exacq, I have come up with a couple of negative comments on Aventura. I was hoping to find some more constructive reviews on both. This also leaves me looking for more options and open to reccomendations from this community.

 

The second option I am looking at, is possibly upgrading our existing server, if it would be worth it. However, having a company to back up my investiment seems to be the wiser path, as while I have some experience in building PCs, I understand that a DVR server is more than just a PC, and it is something I do not have a great scope of knowledge on.

 

I would appreciate any feedback and advice, Thanks in advance!

[brianparkes 0]

I assume you have already tried wiping the system clean and reinstalling everything. You could also just try replacing the hard drives. They may have become corrupted over the years. It would be a cheap(er) solution to try out first. You should be able to find new hard drives online for less than $100. Since it is a PC based system that worked ok originally, it isn't likely a software issue with the DVR program. Do you use the computer for any other tasks, or just for the DVR recording/reviewing?

[jxk716 0]

Our no name Korean 16 Ch. PC Based DVR experienced some of the vary same symtoms listed above. 2 new hard drives and it is like new. However it was time consuming to copy the C drive and set up the hard drives for thr pc card. We also found the SATA connection wires were non-locking and caused issues when not secured. Once we got everything installed we ran Ccleaner and Acoutics Disk Defrag/optimizer. Now, we have very few problems except for an occasional blue screen after giving replay a work out. The whole experience was enough to get a 3xLogic Hybrid; shipping soon.

[tomcctv 190]

Hi. just a few things for you to look at. are you looking at replacing all cameras as well ..... as you will need to if you spend $16k on a NVR.

 

 

Adventura. very good systems but again high costs but this is down to the analytics package.

 

 

if you are keeping existing cameras then you are best going hybrid. you can upgrade to ip at a later date or if you buy a 32 way you can expand your 28 cameras just by adding ip to your network.

 

we install this in all hiltons under our service contracts

 

http://uk.surveillance.aver.com/product/hybrid-DVR-SA6832E-RACK

[Asec 0]

Thank you for the responses.

 

The DVR ONLY runs the ILDVR server. As for the Hard Drives, last year we did replace a faulty HD and added an additional one. At that time, all of the storage HDs were formatted, but we did not format the OS Hard Drive or reload windows. I'll give that a go before we make any final decision on a purchase.

 

As for the NVR server, we do not plan on adding any IP cameras at this time. From what I've been told by the sales rep that came out to my property, the proposed Hybrid NVR that he wants to sell us will be able to connect all of our analog cameras. https://exacq.com/downloads/spec-A-4U-Hybrid.pdf

 

I took a look at aver and will be in contact with them. At this time, I'm keeping my options open and want to provide the best solution for my company to last many years down the road, even if that is upgrading our current PC DVR.

 

One thing that I did not mention in my original post, which I should have and would greatly impact the decision to upgrade the existing DVR, is the playback quality. Live viewing, for the most part, is crisp and real time, no stutters, some blur, which I know is due to the cameras themselves, but faces are discernable and lettering on vehicles and such is legible. Recorded video is 30fps, quite smooth but very blurry, faces are blurred and lettering looks like a glob of color. In many cases, still captured images of a moving person are near unrecognizable; I'd have a hard time recognizing a close friend of a captured image. Is this due to the quality of the DVR card?

 

Thanks again for your feedback

[camera-newbie 0]

While I can't comment on the picture quality issues you mention in your latest post, I can confirm that just about every Windows based system I've ever used needs to be completely wiped and re-installed every few years to clean the garbage out-- I don't know what it is about Windows but over time it just seems to get slower and slower and slower. I used to know someone that would wipe their system annually to keep things fresh. Also, disk drives can get very fragmented over time with large files having little pieces all over the place which can greatly slow things down as the drive must work harder to piece everything together instead of finding it all in one area of the drive. Running a defrag utility about 3-4 times would probably be a first (and cheap) step to do.. One utility that we used to have here at the company I work for (a large corporate environment) was Executive Software's Disk Keeper which was run daily to keep things defragged.. You might consider trying that first -- but I'd also invest some $$ in extra drives if you're going to stick with your existing hardware and of course make sure you do your backups!!

 

By the way, there are some great systems out there based on the Intel Z68 chipset that are way faster than your existing Pentium hardware -- I built a server recently that is very power frugal (you probably don't care about that) and super fast at the same time based on an Asus mobo..

[Soundy 1]

Second the suggestion for a 3xLogic hybrid - a 32-channel 960fps hybrid will run you about half the cost of that Exacq monster.

 

Also suggest adding an external RAID array to whatever system you use - we're doing 8x2TB, RAID6+hotspare on our recent sites, giving them upwards of 90 days or more. RAID6 allows two drives to fail without data loss, and the system will automatically rebuild using the spare if a disk fails.

 

I can confirm that just about every Windows based system I've ever used needs to be completely wiped and re-installed every few years to clean the garbage out-- I don't know what it is about Windows but over time it just seems to get slower and slower and slower.

A more efficient method is to image the system once it's built, then just restore the image if anything goes wrong. Takes about 15 minutes to put it right back to the way it was when first put into service, configuration and all.

[Dirk_D 0]

A more efficient method is to image the system once it's built, then just restore the image if anything goes wrong. Takes about 15 minutes to put it right back to the way it was when first put into service, configuration and all.

 

A vendor I used to use (AVS Uriel) did some sort of image on the main hard drive that would rebuild the software to the day it was sent out. Any idea on how they did this?

[Soundy 1]

PowerQuest Drive Image, Norton Ghost... now there are a lot of others that do it... Acronis, Paragon... even Windows Vista and 7 come with imaging backup apps that you can use to create a restore image after install. Store the image on a separate drive in case the system drive dies and needs to be replaced... some will create their own bootable partition for easy recovery.

[thewireguys 3]

I would strongly recommend a Avigilon solution with encoders. Less then half the price as the Exacq unit for a turn key solution including a external RAID array. Easy to add more encoders or HD/megapixel cameras. Better image quality (30FPS all channels if you need/want) and you can search weeks/months/years worth of video in seconds.

[ak357 0]

Second Avigilon !

[ak357 0]

Thank you for the responses.

 

The DVR ONLY runs the ILDVR server. As for the Hard Drives, last year we did replace a faulty HD and added an additional one. At that time, all of the storage HDs were formatted, but we did not format the OS Hard Drive or reload windows. I'll give that a go before we make any final decision on a purchase.

 

 

ILDVR used to use HIK cards

I used them few years back