better cameras will make a difference however

the pal std is limited to about 600tvl (625 is the max lines but they are not all useable)

Just to clarify, it's a very common misconception that camera resolutions are limited by the CCIR / PAL standard; that is of course true in terms of 'vertical' resolution, but as almost all analogue camera resolutions quoted are in fact 'horizontal' resolution, whilst most CCTV cameras max out at perhaps 520 > 600 lines, there are many industrial and sub broadcast PAL standard video cameras that have horizontal resolutions that go up to 900+ lines res.

This Ikegami camera provides a reasonably good example, although as bullets go it's a wee bit on the large size

agreed i was talking vertical res, and an easy way to get horiz res is to look at the chip stats. Not always guaranteed but a good indicator, to achieve 900+ it would need to have over 900 horiz pixels

but 2/3" 3 chip... nice camera. We did a project once with a 3 chip hitachi 3 chip camera, crackin images (pre dvr's) but OMG what a price. Was about 3.5k for the cam only

but as Dr J says horiz res is important and this is why 2CIF looks a lot better than CIF.

agreed i was talking vertical res, ...

I knew you were B)

We did a project once with a 3 chip hitachi 3 chip camera, crackin images (pre dvr's) but OMG what a price. Was about 3.5k for the cam only

I had to modify and fit a remote control Sony 3 chip production camera in a hospital operating theatre, a long, long, long time ago.

Frighteningly expensive, horrendously heavy .... but at least the reds reproduced well

"The client has a few quid and is not happy with the recordings"

Is he happy with live images? If so then maybe it is the record settings of the DVR, the Dowshu can produce a good playback image from what i have seen so checking this maybe a starting point, it may be toned down to give the required record times.

As it is a school I presume they have limited budget (public school) so an upgrade to IP may not be possible at this time and as the system is 3 years old it may not have run its "payback period", if this is the case I would spend the 5K on upgrading the cameras and the capacity of the DVR and go for higher quality record settings.