2x16 vs 32 ch DVR

[Eastcoast 0]

Hi

I was looking at a 20 camera install using B/W cameras and room for expansion.

Is there any advantages to using 2 16 ch dvr's in place of a 32 ch?

[kensplace 0]

Yes, there are lots of advantages to using 2 16 channels instead of one 32 channel.

 

The main one is if you get a failure of the 32 channel machine you are dead in the water, no cameras being recorded at all. Whereas if one 16 channel goes down, you still have the other one, and can if needed rearrange the cables so you are still recording the 16 most important cameras.

 

If technical, and the machines are out of warranty years down the road, having two machines (one working, and one that died) makes it much easier to find out what part is broken, as you can substitute parts from one to the other to test before ordering.

 

Secondly, you will have two sets of controls, 32 cams is a lot for one person to handle.

 

Thirdly, the data is stored on two machines, meaning if a hard drive fails, you only lose the cams on that machine, so if you are careful about making sure each machine covers some of what you need at least you will have some footage in the event of a failure.

 

Fourth, in the event of a burgler trying to steal the dvr, it will be twice as hard to find/unplug/carry two machines instead of one.

 

Plus its likely two good 16 channel machines will have better frame rates than one machine trying to handle 32 cams, but I gues that is dependant on what you get at the end of the day.

 

Also, if you need to experiment or train someone, whilst the system is live, with settings, you can use the dvr with the less important cams on to experiment, instead of playing around on the machine with all 32 cams on, and risking getting it wrong and messing up all 32!

 

Upgrades/maintainance, same as failures, with a 32 cam machine they all go dead if you need to shut down to upgrade anything, or whatever. On the 2 16 cam machines you can do them one at a time, leaving one machine still recording.

 

Plus you have double the monitor outputs, double any remote capabilities, double everything really with two machines instead of one.

[scorpion 0]

I have always done stand alone DVRs and have not much experience with computer based DVRs and I am wanting to head down this road.

 

I thought you could put two 16 channel cards in to one motherboard?

 

Kensplace, I agree with 100% on making systems with as much flexibility, and endurance as possible. Look at the space shuttle, they have a backup for every system.

 

Assuming you can put two cards in to one machine your advantages still work.

[Eastcoast 0]

Thanks for the info sounds like as I suspected that sharing the cameras over to machines is the better choice.

[nroberts 0]

why would you want 2 dvrs instead of 1??? If you tried hardware compression H.264 you wouldnt say that. Just make sure its hardware compression then you can have 32 channels 30/30 fps per channel. so basically your reasoning is wrong. try avs/uriel h.264, thats the way to go.

[kensplace 0]

Ok lost me, can you explain how each reason is flawed if you use a single 32 channel hardware compression dvr?

[Gracef 0]

In a word,the image quality of 2*16ch dvr is better than 32 ch dvr,in fact ,you can plug two 16ch dvr in one pc.