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July 8, 2013
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I recently put in one of the Ultimate Mini 16 channel DVRs with 8 cameras currently connected to it. One of the things I would like to accomplish is mirroring the recordings to an offiste device. If someone breaks in, the first logical thing to do when you see cameras is find the DVR and take the hard drive. I would like to still be able to access the video of the situation even in this scenario. Is something like this even possible with this unit? If so, what's the best way to do that?
Also, I was messing with backing it up to an external drive. It seems to break the files down per camera, per number of minutes you set, but 120 minutes is the highest you can set that option. But it won't allow you to do more than 1024 files at a time. So basically backing up a whole month of one camera is impossible. Also, the backup files aren't compressed and any smaller than how they exist on the drive in the DVR. Am I missing something here, or is this just how the thing works? Backing up more than a couple days at a time is nearly impossible. Especially all 8 cameras.
Thanks for your help/thoughts.
Brian
March 9, 2013
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HI Brian,
There are many ways to accomplish what you want to do. None of them are perfect, but maybe one will work for you. First, everything is going to depend on your available UP bandwidth from the location the DVR is in, unless you want to create your backup from inside the same network which would be the best solution for bandwidth issues.
The first option I like the best is for you to have either a dedicated computer using our video management software. I would create a task that has all your cameras being recorded at all times. If you are doing this from outside the network, I would recommend configuring the software to connect using only the substream which will give you smaller, easier on bandwidth files, but will also reduce the quality of the video being recorded. You can locate this computer anywhere in or outside of your network, bandwidth permitting.
You can also do the exact same thing using one of our NVRs. Our NVRs have the ability of connecting to the individual camera streams from our DVRs and it can then be recorded to the hard drives in the NVR. This would likely be less expensive than using a computer.
You can also set up the DVR to upload via FTP based on a trigger. For example, you could connect a motion detector or door sensor to one of the alarm inputs of the DVR, put it on a schedule for when you are closed and if someone trips those inputs, your DVR can automatically send video via FTP to an external server either inside or outside your network.
You can also put a second DVR in the ceiling or another location and either loop out of the original DVR or even better, split the camera cables so the cameras are recording in two different locations.
July 8, 2013
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Makes sense using the software to record the cameras in real time to another PC, whether onsite or offiste. I initially was looking just for the redundancy onsite, but then happened to think in the scenario above, most likely they'd be looking to yank any computer equipment, and this redundant PC would probably go along with it. What kind of upload bandwidth do you think would be required to run this recording offsite?
For the NVR option, you are basically saying I could connect that to say my home network, and configure it to connect to each of the cameras on my system at the office and essentially be a mirrored offiste DVR at that point?
What about my other inquiry about the files the DVR creates and their sizes and number of files? Any thoughts on that? Or is that just the way it is?
Thanks again!
March 9, 2013
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You can get the bandwidth use down pretty low if you want. Using the substream, you can squeeze it down to around 75kbps per camera. So 10 cameras would use around 750kbps. However, at this low bandwidth, the video will be poor quality. The better quality, the more bandwidth you will need.
As for the NVR, yes, that is exactly how it would work. Again, there is no magic pill when it comes to bandwidth. If you do this outside the network, you will need enough bandwidth to handle the quality you select.
For the file size, I will let one of the technicians answer that question.
July 8, 2013
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Got it. Interesting options. I have a 35MB Down / 10MB UP cable connection here at the office. Running speed tests randomly, I seem to pretty consistently be getting that 10MB Up too. It may be worth me setting up a PC at home and running it for a day to see if anyone complains.
I like the thought of the NVR though. I may talk to my guy that sold me this system about going that route.
I look forward to hearing from a tech on the other thing because that makes archving absolutely brutal.
March 27, 2013
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Correct the way that the backups are done are no more than 1024 files at a time. This is limited to preserve CPU Utilization on the DVR.
July 8, 2013
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So when backing these files up, there is no way that it compresses them into smaller file sizes? If I have a 2TB drive in the DVR and it holds about 30 days, I would need a 2TB external drive just to hold the previous 30 days? That seems very odd to me. It just straight copies off the files as they are, size and all?
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