Two Newbie Questions about NVR (benefits?) and Camera on-board abilities.

[Snaffy]

I thought I'd try and put two questions into one thread to keep things compact, and also as they are related to each other.
Please for give me if they sound like dumb questions, but I'v wishing to absorb some basic knowledge at the moment



1: All the smart/clever thinks a modern HikVision camera can do. Clever detection of things etc. Is all the built directly into the camera, and the camera does it all itself, or are some of the more clever aspects of perhaps things like types of detection "Worked on" by the power of the NVR software?

2: The may sound stupid, but what are the main benefits of using an NVR over simply using SD cards in the cameras?

I know it means you can view multiple video streams, and have a central place to adjust/work on your system
But when it comes down to simply connecting to a camera, seeing what's recorded, getting notifications, live viewing a camera.
What are the main benefits of hooking them all up to a NVR.

I know which model I would go for (be nice if there were new models coming as I understand they'd been out for a long time now in computer terms)
But I'd really love to fully understand all the benefits of having them all connected to an NVR as opposed to just stand along cameras, and running some PC software when you want and leaving the SD cards to hold the footage.

 

[fullboogie]

NVR's are relatively cheap. They centralize all the settings on your system. Easy local and remote access. Tons of cheap on board storage. Direct access on a monitor, which is great when wifi is down. I'm leaving out tons of stuff. Get one.

 

[Snaffy]

NVR's are relatively cheap. They centralize all the settings on your system. Easy local and remote access. Tons of cheap on board storage. Direct access on a monitor, which is great when wifi is down. I'm leaving out tons of stuff. Get one.

Thanks, yes they sound like a good idea to pull everything together.

I'm still wondering if an NVR (A HikVision one in this case) actually does anything additional, with regards to features, or something else, as opposed to mostly being a simple storage box for the video.
I would assume, the compute power inside a NVR is much higher than in the actual camera's which is why I was wondering this.
Or if everything, all the "Intelligence and visual quality/effects" are totally done by the camera's themselves, and there is no gain in this respect from an NVR.
It's just a storage/viewing device to pull it all together, but it does not actually "Do Anything Extra" so to speak.

 

[Kyle]

The main benefit of an NVR is the scalable and centralised storage aspect mentioned, it's cheaper and simpler to store footage from several cameras to the HDDs in an NVR rather than on to memory cards in the individual cameras which have a more limited storage capacity. The largest SD cards will max out at 5-7 days storage per camera which doesn't suite those who want to be able to archive footage for extended periods.

NVRs are also the more secure option for a couple of reasons. The first is the fact it allows you to locate your storage inside and away from the cameras, so if something should happen to the camera then any footage is still retrievable, not the case with storing to an SD card. NVRs also give the option of using multiple HDDs, which allows you to set up your storage to simultaneously save a backups to the extra drive to protect against storage failure (called RAID).

In response to your first question in the original post, an NVR won't give you additional smart features, these all come built in and fully functional in the cameras. They do, however, make the handling/configuration of these smart features easier. They also usually come with alarm and audio IN/OUT ports which allow you to connect all sorts other security equipment to your system, to either trigger, or be triggered by the smart events on your cameras. You wont lose any of the cameras' performance or visual quality by not using an NVR though, they just allow for an expansion of the things you can do with your setup.

 

[Snaffy]

Thanks you for the excellent explanation as to the benefits, and also the information that I was looking for that related to where the "brains" of all this was stored. For some reason I mistakenly had in my mind the NVR Software/Hardware was enhancing what the cameras could do esp when it came to detection. thank you for clarifying this is not the case.

 

[Kyle]

You're welcome

A wise old poet once said that "a man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying... that he is wiser today than he was yesterday."

 

[Snaffy]

You're welcome

A wise old poet once said that "a man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying... that he is wiser today than he was yesterday."

Oh yes, totally agree with you there, and I have and always will say, I am very happy to be proven wrong.
What benefit could there be for myself in continuing to be incorrect on anything.
If I ever post incorrect details on anything It's always very welcome for someone to point out why I'm incorrect.

Or course, there are opinions, viewpoints which are not so much fact based, but just a personal opinion and we are all entitled to those

Here is an opinion for example. Reolink make a nice little indoor 5mp IP camera, with a 3x optical zoom for a very reasonable price.
I'd be hard pushed to be say anything else is better for the image.
Do I wish HikVision made the same type of device. 100% yes, but as far as I know they don't. So in my opinion right now this new Reolink, despite strong anti-reolink views that some hold, is hard to beat.

As an aside, I do wish others would start improving their indoor cams now. Tech is moving on.

If anyone knows of a indoor Camera with a better quality image, then I'd love to know.
Ideally WiFi that can be connected to work with a NVR