Storesafe DVR

[FredB 0]

I was thinking of using a storesafe DVR for a job that is coming up but I have a couple of questions.

 

1. How many HD does the 16 channel use?

 

2. Can i buy one without the hard drive or a small one and put in a bigger one myself?

 

3. What's the best place to buy them? ADI or do you get a better deal buying directly from GE?

 

Also looking for a company that does high end wireless.

 

Thanks,

Fredrik

[AVCONSULTING 0]

Rory is the Guru on Store Safe, he'll probably drop in and answer your technical questions. I doubt if GE would sell direct to someone buying 1 or 2 pieces and even if they did you would pay more than ADI or one of the other main distributors. If you can buy wholesale you also might want to check out a few other Kalatel distributors for competitive pricing. Rory has a good East Coast source and I know a good West Coast source. As for a good wireless system check out Wireless Technology. They have some pretty good products. Here is link to their website.

 

http://www.gotowti.com/wti/index.asp

[rory 0]

Hi

 

You can only by direct if you become a distributor, which has itrs purchase requirements. Its not that much cheaper anyway. ADI would have the same pricing as the rest, best thing is to use a supplier in your area.

 

As for changing the hard drives yourself, it may be able to be done, we havent tried it yet. Only thing that I would imagine will not work is the built in wavebrowser and quickwave for burning to CD as that software is on the actual hard drive from the factory.

 

It comes with one HD by default.

 

That said, for a 16 channel system I would not use the StoreSafe, the DVMRe-CT is cheaper and has more features, more pps, and a better overall unit. If you want to save even more, the DVMEe-Z version is cheaper that the CT, and has similar features of the StoreSafe, ofcourse without the CD-RW. The storesafe is basically just a compact version of the DVMRe-Z with a CDRW built in; the print function is pretty useless so I dont even count that.

 

Most people have CDRWs or DVDRws in the computers and I have never had to use the built in one. You can also save recorded video over the LAN or WAN, and then burn to CD or DVD, or Flash.

 

The 4 channel StoreSafe is the only version I sell now, as it is cheaper than the others, and i can get over a month of real tine recording with a 40GB easy.

 

As for wireless, there is www.videotransmitters.com , pretty good selection.

 

Rory

[qman 0]

What about making an image of the original hard drive>?

[rory 0]

good idea, ill have to try it, on the next 4 channel I get, dont want to go digging into the DVMRe CT that I have as thats a $3700 machine, and different from the StoreSAfe anyway. Once it is a standard HD then it should be able to be done, just plug it into a PC as a second drive.

 

Ofcourse this all voids any warranty, but you could save some dollars on HD sizes by getting the 40Gb to start with.

 

Rory

[cesarg 0]

I don't thins is going to be possible to clone the internal hard disk or install by ourself another hard disk as they are formatted different than a Pc hard disk.

[rory 0]

ok thats possible. There is no actual OS on the Hard Disk, but like you said, would need to know the format, that the nucleus embedded OS uses.

[FredB 0]

So what do you do when the drive fails in a few years? Send it back to GE so they can put in a new drive or...

[cesarg 0]

Yes, that's the only way to make your DVR run again.

If you want to add a secondary hard disk you must send your DVR to the factory and they install it for you.

That's a problem when you deal with standalone DVR, if something fails you have to send to the factory and make them fix it.

But is very anusual that something fails, I have been working with them for some years and unti now I haven't had any problem with them.

They are very strong and reliable.

[rory 0]

In a few years, there will already be new technology so you can either send it back and let them update it for a small fee, or buy one of the newer products that will no doubt be out, as you would do with a PC. I replace my entire PC every year or 2. I have a few DVRs going strong after 2 years now. Have only had to update the Eprom once.

Edited June 1, 2004 by Guest

[rory 0]

Ive only had one problem so far, in shipping the DVR BNC ports were damaged, had to open it up but would have had to take the entire thing aprt to get to 'maybe' be able to fix the problem, decided to send for a replacement. Our biggest problem here is dealing with customs and shipping.

[AVCONSULTING 0]

The new Vitek DVR only uses the hard drives for video storage so you can actually change out a bad hard drive easily. It has networking, etc. In fact the factory ships the DVRs to Vitek with no hard drives and they load them in at the Vitek offices. Here is a link to check it out.

 

http://www.vitekcctv.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductID=181

[rory 0]

Thats what Kalatel DVRs do also, its typically only for storage, but if you want the WaveBrowser and QuickWave (for Built in CD on StoreSafe) then you would need to format the new hard drive with the same format as the original one. Theoretically it should not matter if all it is sending to the Hard Drive is video and you dont need the rest, the main thing is the warranty is more than likely void once opened, with all the brand name DVRs.

[FredB 0]

That's a Nuvico DVR. Wonder if they are cheaper to buy as the "Vitek Version" Wonder who the origional manufacture is?

 

http://www.vitekcctv.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductID=181

http://nuvico.com/product/detail.html?product_id=35

[Thomas 0]

It does matter if the drive is formated or not. If you take a raw, unformated drive and put it in there, at best it won't recognize it. Software has to be able to recognize/read/write to the file system. Usually this is done with drivers. It may happen that certain systems can read/write to raw, but that would be the exception rather then the rule.

[FredB 0]

The DVR usally recognices/formats the drive by itself on the DVR's we have been putting in. In the price range of the systems we are putting in ($4k -$10k) and the amount of systems we install, we don't have time to send a dvr back just to replace a hard drive.

 

I also looked at the Nuvico DVR's and they look pretty good with the usb out etc. I want to find out who makes them origionally.

[AVCONSULTING 0]

Nuvico and Vitek are OEM'ed by Pinetron. Same exact DVR with private labels. Pinetron is Korean and their web site is www.pinetron.com. They have excellent playback and with the USB port you can use CD/RW, DVD/RW or an external hard drive. Vitek will be importing the Nuvico and loading in the hard drives at their Sun Valley location. Nuvico puts their hard drives in at their Englewood NJ location. Since they are identical units the Vitek may be more convenient for you since they are in the Los Angeles area. I would guess that pricing would be the same from your local CCTV distributor.

[rory 0]

actually, reply on this from GE Tech Support:

 

"Yes the warranty will be voided as the serial number of the HDD(s) must match the serial number of the unit. We maintain records of this. However, as long as the HDs are the Maxtor ones recommended by GE it should work. There is no formatiing of the HDD required. The unit will auto-detect it and run. We write directly to the actual tracks and sectors so there are not partitions or FAT files, etc."

 

So it can be done.

[Thomas 0]

So the system is using an auto-format? I apologise, I haven't had a chance to play with a high-end dvr.