10
Recording
Time Stamp:
Will print the time and date to the corner of
the footage captured on this channel. Very useful if you’re
planning on using any of the footage from that channel to
prove that a certain event happened at that time.
Switch:
Turns channels ON or OFF. If, for example, you have
a single four-channel PC-DVR connected to your computer
but only three cameras attached, turn off the additional
channel to save on system resources.
Record Mode / Frame Rate:
Shows the associated recording
modes and frame rates for each channel. A tick in the box
means that the channel is configured to record in that mode,
whilst the frame rate indicates how many images per second
will be captured by that channel when triggered by that
recording mode. Where multiple recording modes are active
simultaneously, the highest frame rate will be used up to
a global frame rate (that is, all channels frame rates added
together) of 25fps.
Camera Security:
You can set various levels of security for
different channels - only users with that level of access or
higher will be able to view said channels. There are three
levels of security access available: Normal User, Power User
and Administrator.
Record Quality:
Changes the ‘bit-rate’ of the recorded
video files. A higher quality setting means the video is using
a higher bit-rate, leading to better looking images with more
detail in them. Higher quality videos use more hard drive
space than lower quality ones.
The PC-DVR has four recording modes:
Manual Recording
•
Scheduled Recording
•
Motion Detection based Recording
•
Alarm (Sensor) Recording
•
Manual Recording
will record everything from the selected
channels until manually stopped. Though it seems that manual
recording may be a popular recording mode, it is not: constant
recording uses too much hard drive space too quickly to be practical
for most applications.
Scheduled Recording
will have the PC-DVR recording only at
certain times of the day. This is a good option for monitoring a busy
street outside your home/business overnight, or in other situations
where motion or alarm based recording is impractical, without the
full hard drive usage of manual recording mode.
Motion Detection based Recording
will trigger the PC-DVR to record a channel whenever something is actively moving
in view of the camera. The sensitivity of the motion detection can be configured, in addition the area in the picture where
the PC-DVR looks for motion can be defined. The combination of specific motion detection criteria and reduced hard drive
usage makes motion detection one of the most popular and successful recording modes available. However, the sensitivity
and motion detection area must be set correctly and with care for the system to function properly.
Alarm (Sensor) Recording:
For those with the PCI version of the PC-DVR (the USB version does not have alarm inputs). If
you have an external alarm system, this can be connected to the PC-DVR to trigger recordings. Attaching an external alarm to
the PCI version of the PC-DVR is an advanced feature of the unit, and recommended for intermediate to advanced users only.
You can assign recording modes to individual channels via the
Record Setup Table
, located in the Basic Configuration screen.
Tips and Tricks: Multiple Recording Modes
You can assign one recording mode to a channel
easily enough - but there’s no reason to stop
there.
Multiple recording modes can be employed on
the same channel simultaneously. For example,
you could record from 9am to 10am every day,
and also whenever the PC-DVR detects motion.
In addition, you can select different frame rates
for each recording mode. This means that you
could, for example, record a very low number of
frames constantly, and then increase the frame
rate upon an alarm being triggered.
