Having a surveillance system without a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) is kind of like having a car without tires. It may look good, but it's hardly ready to live up to its potential. Furthermore; having a DVR that isn't capable of storing enough of your surveillance footage for later review; isn't worth much either.
There are a few different ways that DVR's store and backup your surveillance footage; we will take a quick look at a few of them.
DVR Storage
Hard Drives
Most all basic DVRs will use a hard drive (same as in your PC) to store and catalog your surveillance footage. Depending on your surveillance system these HDDs can fill up with video quite fast; so it is a wise idea to talk with your surveillance provider and make sure you get a big enough hard drive to be able to review your footage at a later time before it's overwritten.
SD Cards
A lot of newer covert DVRs are now opting to use SD cards for their video storage. SD cards are generally found in digital cameras, and they store smaller amounts of data than an HDD.
DVR Backup
Unless you plan on having law enforcement officials come to your facilities to look at your DVR; you will need a way to export and bring your footage to them.
CD/DVD Burners
CD/DVD burners are a common backup device used on DVRs; this way you can burn the surveillance footage you want to a disk, and bring it with you to view on a DVD player. This is acceptable for small to medium file sizes; however it can be limiting with larger video segments.
USB Backup
If you have a portable flash drive, you will like this form of backup. All you have to do is hook it up to your DVR's USB port and export the video for playback on another device. Portable flash drives can range from 4GB to 64GB+ in size; so you will have plenty of room to backup your footage.
Alternative
If you don't have a form of backup for your DVR; there is still a possibility of showing the video to the police without having to bring them to your facility.
If your digital video recorder has network capabilities; you should be able to set it up to be remotely viewed. This way you can simply have the police dial into your IP address and view the footage from their station.
In the end you want to make sure that when the time comes, and you need to provide sufficient evidence against your trespasser, burglar, etc.. you will be able to do so. By making sure you have an acceptable way to backup your footage and enough space to store it; this won't be an issue.
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