Myth No.18 ~ 'DVRs are just as good as NVRs'

Although DVRs undoubtedly offered big advantages over old analogue video recorders, they were never perfect. The newly developed NVRs are superior to DVRs in several important ways.

The DVR is not an all-digital networked technology. Although it had many advantages over the old video cassette recorder, it still uses analogue cables, which can be expensive to run and which can distort image quality.


As mentioned previously, video images are degraded whenever an analogue signal is converted to a digital signal or vice versa. And, because there are fewer conversions involved, the digital signal transmitted directly via the network to a network video recorder is vastly superior to an analogue camera recording to a digital video recorder.


IP surveillance using NVRs gives users and installers all the advantages of a DVR, plus many more benefits. It is scaleable, from one to thousands of cameras in single camera increments (no 16-channel steps as with DVRs). And with much greater flexibility, you can choose any frame rate for any camera.

Because most premises are already wired with twisted-pair infrastructure, with IP CCTV the need for additional wiring is removed, or greatly reduced. A single IP network connecting and managing the data, video, voice etc. provides much greater efficiency.

Remote accessibility offers IP CCTV users huge operational advantages. Any live or recorded video stream can be securely accessed and controlled from any location, worldwide, over wired or wireless networks.


In many cases, an IP surveillance system has proved to be less expensive than an analogue solution. With open and standard network, server and storage hardware, there is more competitive choice for buyers. The costs of installation and maintenance can also be reduced.