How Much Video Can My H264 Security DVR Hold?

Use the following form to get a general idea of how much HDD space you will need for a security DVR using H264 compression.

	H264 Security DVR Hard Disk Drive Storage Form How many days (total) of video do you plan on storing? Total number of security cameras recording? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 What is the frames per second (FPS or IPS) setting on each camera?   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 How many hours a day are you recording? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 How many days of the week will the DVR usually be operating? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 We suggest this much storage space:   NOTES: FRAME RATE: 1 FPS (or IPS) is the lowest frame rate possible. 30 FPS (or IPS) is the maximum rate (real time). 1 FPS is the frame rate commonly associated with older analog surveillance systems (VCR based). You can always rewind or review your recordings at higher speed. Most people find a frame rate of 3-5 per second is sufficient and will not miss any activity. REAL TIME (30 FPS): Most people discover there is little need to record in real time. Some installations have regulatory reasons to operate at 30 FPS/IPS or faster (government facilities and casinos, for instance). Residential surveillance installations rarely - if ever - require that frame rate.   Frequently asked questions concerning security DVR files and drive size (storage space): Does the type of camera effect the size of the video file? Yes. Color cameras and higher resolution cameras provide more data so file sizes will be slightly larger than B/W cameras and lower resolution cameras. The form assumes color cameras at 420-line resolution. Do good cameras make better video files? Yes. A "good" camera will provide a clean signal that is free of data artifacts and noise so the file created by the DVR does not have to store the noise and non-essential data, making overall files sizes smaller (again, this usually won't make a huge difference in the calculation given above). Will audio increase file size? Yes. You may want to add a few Gigabytes (2-50, depending on total number of days) if you want to store audio as well as video. All of our security DVRs feature at least one audio input. Audio data is stored along with video data in the same file. What's the easiest way to maximize storage space? Set all cameras to record using motion detect functions. That way you'll only record video when something is happening. This simple suggestion will increase your storage space dramatically. After all, there is little useful information in recording an empty room for 15 hours. All of our security DVRs can be programmed for motion detection.