Motion Only V Continuous Recording

[arfur mo]

The only reason we are used to low frame rates is because multiplexers and VCR's couldn't handle much at all, with the technology of DVR's being able to record real time and the prices of the equipment falling all the time why not make the most out of it?

Hi Rich,

you make a good point imo, it will depend on the site risks as with any job would, i think we need to concider perhaps not even 95% (my guestimate) of most CCTv recordings are ever used in court, much is used to check on staff attendance for instance.

i have a CCTv system on a Gold Shop, gives superb imaged from good camera's and even though it has caught many thieves eaily recognisable on the DVR, the owner is reluctant to have the bother having the Police involved and subsequent time lost in statements and court cases, just to see the 15 year old get a suspended or community service sentance and not even get the cost of the stlen items back.

he play's back and finds the thief then prints it off for his rogues gallery and uses this to warn staff and other local traders to watch for the culprits. you can understand his stance as even the Poluce are lethargic with tracking down young or 'not known' offenders, seems sometimes they are just overwelmed with the numbers.

so i favour event recording with pre and post periods, the 'post' recording (i use 20 seconds) stops the charley chaplin effect and reduce's the risk of small movements being missed, like bag snatched under a coat.

hard drives are beng made ever bigger and prices are falling, my first PC had a 30 meg hard drive and thought a 'massive' space then, today i have a 4gb USB stick., at what point we enjoy the space against a risk of hard drive failure has to be calculated.

if you use full 24 on recording it eats hard drive space so making the main unit more expensive, while the recordings i'd venture are 98% of the time are non interesting events. LJDs leviathan (say what you will them) has to its credit a superb and very fast search routine, i'd assume there are other makers who have somthing simular. this type of routine it's the way to go imo especially with 24/7 recording.

for those who have not seen it a section of the image can be searched as depicted by a window drawn over the object, any movement in that area is then popped up as a thumb print, allowing you to click forward and back very quickly. having used it a load of times now, it is always jaw dropping to anyone watching how quick 'the expert' zooms into an incident, especially 'the watch was there Friday, i noticed it gone on Tuesday' assistance type calls.

not out for a war whos right/wrong just my oppinions

regs

alan

[arfur mo]

Ain't that the truth

Whatever happens in terms of long term technological developments in the presentation of video recorded evidence, unless there is some consideration towards standardising submission protocols, it's quite likely that evidential recordings will increasingly be challenged in court on a minor technicality, and that's not really in anyones interest (other than perhaps the defendant ).

and the bleeding heart liberals - and the lawyers of course

regs

alan

[Gopher]

if you use full 24 on recording it eats hard drive space so making the main unit more expensive, while the recordings i'd venture are 98% of the time are non interesting events. LJDs leviathan (say what you will them) has to its credit a superb and very fast search routine, i'd assume there are other makers who have somthing simular. this type of routine it's the way to go imo especially with 24/7 recording.

for those who have not seen it a section of the image can be searched as depicted by a window drawn over the object, any movement in that area is then popped up as a thumb print, allowing you to click forward and back very quickly. having used it a load of times now, it is always jaw dropping to anyone watching how quick 'the expert' zooms into an incident, especially 'the watch was there Friday, i noticed it gone on Tuesday' assistance type calls.

not out for a war whos right/wrong just my oppinions

regs

alan

Hi Alan,

Had a Dowshu on test and well the search facility is superb you can go from a full day to a 10 second segment in about 4 clicks as it shows the first frame in every hour, then the same for every 10 minutes , then down to minutes and finally 6 frames at 10 second intervals, all point and click supberbly easy to use as you would expect from a unit of this calibare, the price isn't for the faint hearted I do know that much.

[arfur mo]

Hi Alan,

Had a Dowshu on test and well the search facility is superb you can go from a full day to a 10 second segment in about 4 clicks as it shows the first frame in every hour, then the same for every 10 minutes , then down to minutes and finally 6 frames at 10 second intervals, all point and click supberbly easy to use as you would expect from a unit of this calibare, the price isn't for the faint hearted I do know that much.

Hi Gopher,

using a form of drill down sounds a nice alternative to LJD's Leviathan offering, i'd assume it would score heavily if looking over a long period for a stolen item that was once fixed, or a hole knocked into a wall. it would be good to do a one along side comparrason.

i don't know about anyone else but most service calls i seem to get are over how to search the records, they are fine when you hand it over, make all their notes hand written but 6 weeks later all is forgotten even with old style VCR systems, and you end up going back. possibly this is more by panic or terror they will break something and wipe the recordings.

so just anything that is end user easier to operate has to be better. to their credit LJD do supply a DVD showing how to use the Leviathan, but its now a bit out of date on some of the features, like taking a backup for evidence to CD. in fact its the worst operation to exsplain imo, so i now suggest they backup to a usb pen drive, then use Nero on adesktop machine to produce any CD's.

i'll run a new topic on DVR's, their ease of operation for the end users for the model rather than blasting the particular makers, just to see what others like. and i bet there is a feature or 2 loved on cheapy machines and hated on expensive ones, or good idea's which died because the maker went under.

i'd ban COP bashing thugh, i think thats been hammered to death.

regs

alan

[Matt the Teckie]

Hi chaps,

The DS2 has a cool system called Multimode recording that I reckon sits between motion only and continous recording.

You can programme the machine to background record using MPEG4 compression from 4CIF to QCIF (per camera) at anything up to 100pps global. Whenever motion's detected, the machine switches over to MJPEG recording at (usually) a much higher pps rate.

As I'm sure you're all aware, MPEG4 data makes up for it's general lack of resolution with very small file sizes therefore saving loads of hard drive space and inpacting far less on a network. MJPEG is generally more accepted as a denser image and more easily accepted as evidence.

Just a thought.