The Advantages Of Owning A Digital Video Security Camera
If you plan on investing in a security camera system then you may as well do it right from the very start and invest in a digital video security camera system. There are a lot of advantages of a digital video security camera versus a standard tape camera and many of those advantages can easily pay for the difference in price between the two. If you are finding a large price delta between standard video cameras and digital video security cameras then you may want to weigh all of the advantages before you make your purchase.
A digital video security camera can record in a much higher resolution than a standard video camera. If you are purchasing a camera for your security then you want the images you see on the camera to be something clear that you can use as opposed to a blur and unintelligible. A digital video camera records and a very high resolution and offers the same high resolution for close ups and digital playback where you want to isolate a part of the video to see more clearly what is going on. If you are buying this for your security then it makes sense to be able to benefit as much as possible from the images being captured.
Digital Storage
One of the huge advantages of a digital video security camera is that digital video storage allows you to store much more video in a much smaller place. If we are just talking simple semantics then a 2GB digital video storage card is about half the size of a credit card. Compare that to the size of a video tape and it is easy to see why a digital library is much easier to deal with. Plus you can hook up your digital video security cameras directly to your server and store the video directly to your hard drive. The storage options with digital video make it not only the smart choice but the economical choice as well.
Investing in digital video is a smart move for your home security system. The advantages over standard video tape will far outweigh any cost differences and the potential savings that digital video storage offer over standard video tape storage can also help the price difference close even more. So do yourself a favor and invest in digital video when you are buying your important home security video system.
The Advantages and Disadvantages to Using a Dummy Security Camera
We all know what a dummy security camera is – it is a security camera that is made to look just like its real counterpart but which actually is not able to record anything at all. There are both advantages and disadvantages to using a dummy security camera, all of which you should be well aware of before you go ahead and buy one to use inside or outside of your own home or office.
Advantages
One of the most major advantages to choosing a dummy security camera is that you will not have to spend nearly as much money as you will if you go for the real thing. Dummy security cameras basically max out at $30 tops, while real time security cameras can cost up to hundreds of dollars. So not only are you able to save more to begin with, but you also are freer to get more cameras, so that you can give the idea that more of your home is safeguarded.
Dummy security cameras are especially great to use if you mix them in with a few real life models, so that in case any would be thugs are somehow able to determine that a few of the cameras are fake, they will automatically assume that they are all and therefore are more likely to get caught on the actual cameras and therefore make it easier for you to have proof and report and identify them to the police.
Disadvantages
There are also many disadvantages to using a dummy security camera as well however, such as the fact that they are often very easy to spot. Especially for the experienced criminal, spotting a dummy security camera is a very easy feat, especially if it is a particularly cheap model.
As well, dummy cameras really do nothing but provide a false sense of security, as if your residence or business were to actually get broken into, you would have no form of proof and no way of finding out who was at fault. One of the biggest components of an effective security system is the active monitoring that it offers, and so without this, you are really at quite a loss.
There is also the important fact that once a dummy security camera has been discovered, criminal activity actually tends to increase even more than what it was before. It is believed that this is because a weakness in your security system has been exploited, and so criminals are only going to be that much more willing to take a chance on the rest of your security system as well.
DVR Security Camera Systems Make Locating Video Easy
For some of the clearest playbacks as well as ease in finding what you are looking for on a surveillance video, DVR security camera systems offer the best. Depending on your individual needs, using multiplexing components, there is really no limit to the number of cameras that can be connected and finding the video from an individual camera is fairly simple, provided you have the right identification process set up in your computer.
Cameras are fed into a multiplexing system that is connected through DVR security camera systems and played back through your home computer. The computer can be readily used for other functions as the cameras record onto the hard drives, which are part of the DVR security camera systems. In most systems, at least two hard drives are installed in each of the units, with a capacity of about 300 gigabytes, for a total of 600, and can be set up to start recording over existing video when the drives are full.
Once hooked up and configured for your computer, playing back a recorded video is quick and easy. Simple choose the device and the individual camera, establish the time of the recorded video you want to view and choose play. The software used for DVR security camera systems should also allow for speeding through a video, going through a scene in slow motion or only viewing sections of the video in which activity has been recorded.
Save Video Clips For Future Use
In the event something illegal took place on the property, once the activity has been located, it can be saved to the computer’s hard drive or to a compact disk for sharing with the authorities or with the court. The images from DVR security camera systems are excellent when compared to those from a videocassette recorder and from the image on the computer, still photographs can be printed in full color.
While viewing the images on the computer screen, depending on the number of cameras connected to the system, the choice can be made for one and up to 16 cameras to be viewed simultaneously. When viewing and saving images from DVR security camera systems, it is possible to split the screen to show separate images at the same time and transfer those images for use in legal action later.
One issue with DVR security camera systems, some courts will require documentation to prove there was no digital enhancement performed to the digital images. Saving a copy on the computer as well as copying to a DVD can often deter any question about the validity of the image.