Difference between DVR and NVR

DVR and NVR serve the same end: storing video from the patrol, reception and the perimeter. The difference is how the cameras reach the recorder. Mixing the names in the request leads to a quote for the wrong system.

Palo Security supplies DVRs, NVRs, IP cameras, CCTV kits and disks. The lines are Hikvision, Dahua, Axis, Avigilon, EZVIZ and Bosch. The platform can be Genetec. Model, the number of cameras and the archive time are set in the quote.

The DVR

The DVR sits on site and the cameras connect to it. Video enters the unit and is stored on that recorder’s disks. It suits a site that already has that kind of camera, or a request that wants the set at one point.

The NVR

The NVR records IP cameras. The cameras sit on the site network — switch, cable, sometimes Wi-Fi. The recorder sees those cameras on the network and keeps the archive. With no network on site, the NVR does not see the cameras.

They are not the same unit

• A DVR expects cameras wired to it. An NVR expects IP cameras on the network.
• The number of cameras and the archive time set the disks in both cases.
• A CCTV kit in the request closes the contents — cameras, recorder and the rest — according to the site, not from an invented model.

What is already on the ground

If the site already has cameras on a DVR, the request can extend that recorder or move to IP and an NVR. Those are two paths. If the site has no video yet, the quote chooses the set: IP and NVR, or DVR, according to the area, the light and what needs to be recorded.

The control room sees what the recorder delivers. MDVR in the vehicle is another recorder, in another article.

What to say in the request

1. How many cameras and where: door, perimeter, parking, indoor.
2. Whether a DVR, NVR or IP cameras already exist on site.
3. How many days of archive you need to keep.

We do not invent the kit. The site and the archive define the recorder. Tell us the site and we prepare the quote.