Difference in DVR Resolutions

DVR's (Digital Video Recorders) are capable of recording in different resolutions. If you would like to know the meaning of DVR Resolutions, you have come to the right place to learn about it. You will have the ability to log into your DVR and choose which resolution you would like to record in. Most DVR's have the ability to record in CIF resolution (352px x 240px) at the maximum frame rate provided by the DVR and will allow you to record in higher resolutions as well as long as you drop down to a slower frame rate. The next size up resolution most DVR's are capable of recording in is called D1 or 4CIF which is 720px X 480px. One example is when you're recording at CIF resolution at 30fps, if you choose to change the resolution to 4CIF you may only be able to record at 7.5 frames per second. You will have to decide which cameras you want to set at what resolution for each camera on your system. Also be sure to always remember that what you see on the monitor may not be what your DVR is actually saving to the hard drive. Most DVR's will display at the highest resolution on your monitor, but will record at much lower resolutions depending on your settings.

The amount of frame rate you choose versus what resolution you can record at is usually determined by how powerful the processor is on the DVR and how much it can handle processing. For example, if you are recording at 30fps at CIF, the hard drive in the DVR is saving 30 images at 360 pixels by 240 pixels every second. The higher the resolution you choose, the more processing power the DVR needs to process these images.

Here are some examples of the different resolutions our DVR's are capable of recording at. They have been scaled down to fit this page so please be sure to click on the images to view them at full resolution size.