Anyone had any experience of using these?

I'm thinking of trying one out so if anyone has anything to say about them I would be glad to hear, I would be testing it out at my own home first by the way.

Paul

unless you buy an expensive one, sold through a wholesaler in the uk, with proper english speaking tech support, you do so on your own head!

Avoid pico 2000 products, everyone of these i have bought is either stolen, illegal copy or a beta oem version, beware!!!

if you go to the software manufacturer's website (search google) they will confirm wether it is legit!

pc dvr versus proper dvr.... in my opinion...

Proper dvr has watchdog function, ie will restart and reboot if fault occurs

proper dvr is more stable than a windows based system

better compression and usually better features on proper dvr

capability for remote modules such as alarm module, keyboard, monitors etc

proper dvrs usually have better and more reliable connectivity

I have used lots of different dvrs over the last 10 years, I prefer the DM DS2.

You get what you pay for...

Hope this is of help

James

Hi Guys

DVR Topic, something I can comment on. Yeah Hay.

I did a vear as tech support for a global DVR manufacturer, based on a PC. I never got to see many bespoke (real) DVRs till I left.

By all means try out the cards you mentioned, oddsocks, but dedicate them to one machine. Don't expect any type of lage data (video) input/output cards to work well whilst you are browsing the net or using other apps. Also, the product I worked with had its tech calls halved overnight by adding an Uninteruptable Power Supply (UPS). PCs dont like black/brown outs and anything made by Mr B Gates in America looks for anything to blame crashes, sorry hiccups, o.n

Bespoke DVRs are almost matching the feature lists that PC based systems provide so I'd choose one of these.

As I'm no longer blinkered to one or two products, I've seen shedfulls (technical term) of alternative DVRs either in the field or at serious gatherings such as IFSEC. Alarmbloke recommends the Dedicated Micros Digital Sprite 2 (to give its its Sunday name) and I agree. From ease of use and simplicity of setup, it has to be one of the best.

Regards, Steve :

hi i have been using dvr (pico 2000)at home for about nine months with 5 cameras using windows 2000 the only real problem i have had is the self cleaning of old files it won't delete them.

The sprite is quite a good little unit, ease of use etc.... BUT

I have encountered a problem TWICE on two seperate sites whereby the customer has called up saying 'Blank Screen',

got on site found screen displaying:

DISK ERROR.

After many various attempts to restore pictures, without luck, phoned DM and was advised nothing could be done on site, had to send the unit back DM.

unforunately did not follow up as to what the prob. might have been.

I would be amlost certain it would have been a power interuption, DM sprites dont link unintentional power breaks.

I am quite keen on the Videoswitch dvr's although they aint as cheap as they used to be now. There are some super dvr's available for the price now.

As for PC based, personally i would'nt bother as there are too many dvr's available to be worth my while otherwise.