How to interpret specs on analog DVR?

[mc510 0]

Newbie here trying to get up to speed for possible purchase of a simple, low-cost home surveillance system. I gather that encoded/stored analog video is often much lower quality than live video but have no idea how to evaluate the quality of a DVR from its specs.

 

For example, Costco's $300 4 channel Q-See 720p system includes a 1TB DVR that seems to claim 30 FPS recording of 720p, but doesn't specify if that's on all 4 channels. Is FPS the main thing that suffers in stored video, or does resolution of individual frames suffer as well, and any way to judge that from specs? In general, what do you look at to evaluate the quality of an analog DVR?

 

System - http://www.costco.com/Q-See-4-Channel-HD-720p-Security-System-with-1TB-HDD-and-4-720p-Cameras.product.100151663.html

 

Spec sheet - http://qsee.custhelp.com/ci/fattach/get/233950/1416270864/redirect/1/filename/QC904.pdf

[jazzar 0]

its probably 30 frames shared across the 4 cameras so will be 7 pics a second per camera.

the pro stuff Pelco hybrid dx4800 will record 400 pics a second over 16 cameras at full d1 resolution.(25 pic /sec /cam)

at the end of the day 7 pics a second is probably fine not going to lose much unless looking for slight of hand in a casino or a number plate travelling at 70mph.

you should look at the quality of the recording ie cif 2 cif 4 cif or d1 along with the hard drive size and resolution if 720 or 1080 etc.