What's the difference between a security camera DVR and a security camera NVR? Good morning,
everyone. Mike, from CCTV Camera Pros here. In this video, I'm going to discuss some of
the similarities and differences and when you should consider buying a DVR versus an NVR.
So let's first start out with some basics. I'll assume that you really don't know anything about
either of these products and you might be confused because some people online
use NVR and DVR interchangeably. Generally in the surveillance industry,
when you are referring to a DVR, digital video recorder, you are almost always talking about BNC
cameras or CCTV cameras. Cameras that use coax video cable and BNC connectors on the ends.
Generally, when you're referring to an NVR or network video recorder, you're referring
to network IP cameras. IP cameras that work over network cable, such as CAT5 or CAT6.
DVRs have BNC video inputs. NVRs, if they have built-in PoE,
they have built-in ethernet ports, which is an RJ-45 connector. That connector that
looks like it's just a standard network connection like you use with a computer.
So another important point is some DVRs are actually hybrid like our Viewtron DVR.
You can actually use both BNC cameras on it as well as IP cameras on it, it's hybrid. It's also
referred to as hybrid because it supports multiple video standards on the BNC connections. So older,
closed-circuit cameras, they use analog CVBS video format, but over the years, multiple high-def
formats have come out, that also works over coax cable and BNC connectors, and our Viewtron hybrid
DVR support pretty much all the standards. So you can use analog cameras. You could use AHD cameras,
you could use HD-TVI cameras and you can use HD-CVI cameras all up to 4K resolution on Viewtron
DVRs. Viewtron NVRs only support IP cameras. So you can't use BNC cameras on an NVR.
There is an exception to that. Technically you can use what's called a video server
and plug one or more BNC cameras into a video server and then connect the video server to the
NVR. But that's not typical for most people and it's not a practice that we always recommend. We
recommend it sometimes and I'm not going to get into the details of when in this video.
So if Viewtron DVRs support BNC cameras and IP cameras, why would you even want an NVR?
It would seem on the surface that if the DVR is hybrid and supports both it's the most flexible
so why not just go with that? That's a question we get every day here at CCTV Camera Pros
and here's the reason. So, the number one reason
that I would recommend a pure NVR system, pure IP camera system, using our Viewtron products
over DVR's hybrid is if you want to use the AI software, that's built into our Viewtron NVRs.
The AI software has functions like people recognition, facial detection, facial recognition,
vehicle detection, and license plate recognition, and automatic number plate recognition for
basically license plate surveillance. Our DVRs, although they can support
all of the Viewtron IP cameras, unfortunately, the hybrid DVRs
do not support the AI software. The AI software is built into both the camera and the recorder and
the DVRs do not have that functionality. If you want the AI software, you must use a Viewtron NVR.
The second reason, and probably not quite as important, that I would recommend an NVR or over
a DVR is the higher recording frame rate that the NVRs currently support at 4K resolution.
4K cameras right now are limited to 20 frames a second, and the NVR support up to 30 frames. So
they'll support the 20 frames that are coming from 4K cameras.
Whereas the Viewtron DVRs right now, they support eight frames a second at 4K resolution.
So if it's important to have full 4K resolution for you at a higher frame rate than eight frames,
which for most people honestly is not necessary, that's why this is not as
important in my opinion, then go with the NVR. The other reason why you might want to go with
an NVR over a DVR is if you already have CAT5 or CAT6 network cable run to your camera locations,
and you're used to using IP cameras, just go with the NVR. Plus the NVR has built-in
power over ethernet. So the camera's just get run right back to the back of the recorder. There're
ports on the back of the recorder that provide both power and connectivity to those cameras.
Whereas if you're using the hybrid DVR, the hybrid DVR does not have built-in power
over ethernet. So you do have to use a separate network switch to run all the IP cameras back to
and put that network switch on the same network as the hybrid DVR. So a bit of
a logistic difference or network typography difference between the two. The NVR,
the IP cameras get hardwired to the recorder using PoE with the hybrid
DVR. VIP cameras go to a PoE switch and that PoE switch is on the same network as the DVR.
So if you have a new installation, if you're running cable fresh, you don't have any cable run.
I would recommend running CAT6 or CAT5 cable so you can use IP cameras and if you need to use BNC
cameras, the good news is you can run BNC cameras over network cable using video balance. I'll link
in the description to video balance if you're not familiar with those, and those enable you to
leverage CAT5 and CAT6 cable for BNC cameras. Another point I want to make,
the video quality is about the same. There's very little difference in video quality if you compare
one of our Viewtron 4K BNC cameras to a Viewtron 4K network IP camera. I could put that up on the
screen here side-by-side and you would not know the difference. But again, if that IP camera is
one of our AI models, the differences, if you hook it up to the DVR, you're not going to be
able to take advantage of the object detection software that's built into it. You'll get the
same resolution on the BNC camera, but to take advantage of the AI analytics, you have to use the
network video recorder. So quality is the same. On the flip side, let's say you have a bunch of
coax cable infrastructure built out. That's typically a big investment to put that cable
infrastructure in place. A lot of times, the labor to put cable in is more expensive than
this equipment. So if you have a whole bunch of coax cable already run, and you don't want to
make the investment of switching out that cable to network cable, the BNC 4K cameras, 1080p,
and four megapixels, they are excellent and we recommend them all the time. Again, the
main difference is if you need the AI software. If this is just about resolution for you getting
the best visual resolution, leverage your coax cable and just upgrade your recorder
and your cameras to HD, of course, I recommend the Viewtron systems, they're excellent, but that's
a very cost-effective way to upgrade from an old analog system to the latest HD video surveillance.
If you want to learn more about this stuff guys, we have a whole bunch of videos that demonstrate
the 4K resolution cameras, both BNC and IP. Four megapixel resolution, both BNC and 4K and 1080p,
4K and BNC on our website and on our YouTube channel.
If you want to learn more about DVRs versus NVRs, and I'll also link to a bunch of more information
at this location, you can visit www.cctvcamerapros.com/viewtron.
Thank you for watching.