Here is a very common question. How many TVL should the camera have to best use the resolution of my DVR? This is one of the most misunderstood relationships in CCTV. The resolution that the DVR records in refers to the SIZE of the image being recorded. So CIF resolution (360×240) and 4CIF resolution (704×480) refer to how large the image actually is. 4CIF is an image that is 4 times larger than CIF.