Hard Drives Made for Video Surveillance
Recording multiple channels of HD video requires a hard drive that can keep up with the work load. Our Purple Series hard drives are designed specifically for surveillance video recorders. They can keep up with the work load, assuring reliable and smooth video recording at all times.
The video recorder stores the video footage on internal hard drives. The size of the drive and the recording options determine the total number of days the system can store. There are several variables that affect the total number of days a hard drive can store.
The variables include:
- - # of Cameras
- - Recording Resolution
- - Frames Recorded per Second
- - Compression Format h264 or h265
- - Continuous or Motion Activated Recording
Frames
The number of frames per second you record for each camera can affect the video quality. Live video is 30 frames per second, Hollywood films are shot at 24 frames per second. If you can record less frames per second then you can have more stored days. 15 fps saves hard drive space but produces a slightly choppy or robotic motion in the video. 20fps is the best bang for you buck, the video is smooth and 20fps requires 33% less hard drive space compared to 30 fps. If you are attempting to capture moving license plates, you will need to record in 30fps, otherwise the plate capture will be blurry.
Compression
The security industry has settled on two video compression formats. They provide the ability to record high quality video into smaller compressed data files. The first used was h.264 which is standard now and all video surveillance recorders support this format. Recently h.265 has been released which reduces the file size up to 40% compared to h.264. Clearly the compression format you use will affect the total number of stored days.
Recording
Each camera can be programmed to record continuously on motion activation, schedules or a combination of the two. Expect to double your stored days if using motion activated recording compared to continuous recording.
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