copperjoe

I appreciate all of the sugestions folks, it has given me some things to think about, and if you have any more don't hesitate to pass them along. I'm still looking at both embedded and pc based......Honeywell has our state contract, but the local reps here are terrible and they jack the price up on everything it is almost unaffordable. I'm sure it's good quality, but it's hard to pay double and triple what we should normally pay (not an exaggeration) I'm still considering a Geovision.....I have 6 PC DVR's running here that I built with Geovision cards for some custom applications, but I just wasn't sure how their top-end cards would perform in comparison to a more "professional" system. I have really liked the cards and software....and as far as functionality, they have Intellex beat by a long shot. Thanks for helping. Joe

Hello; I am new to the forum. I'm a state police officer in the central US and I am in charge of the security for a small agency that lies somewhere in between a full blooded state agency and a public entity. We are a relatively small but secure entity and although I don't have to adhere to the same guidelines as the Feds for quality and retention, I do have statutory requirements for data retention. Several years ago I replaced all of my VCR's with Intellex DVR's. They were state-of-the-art at the time, but I have nursed them to about twice their life span. I recently completed a replacement of all 32 cameras, and now I am researching commercial grade DVR's. I have several computer feeds I am recording with home-built Geovision Card/PC applications, and the quality is OK, but for my video I am looking for something with at least 120 ips but preferably 240, close to a terrabyte of HD, DVR drive, a robust web interface and or remote software package, and I am not opposed to Linux based/embedded software. My only big requirement is that I need looping connections because I have 9 spot monitors around the building that run off of the loop out connections. I can go back to the Intellex products, but I have been disappointed with their software in the past, and I don't know if I want to continue on that route. Right now I run a 4mm tape drive on each unit to archive the motion sequences, but I am hoping a large HD will give me the storage without using a tape. I have also explored the option of storing to a NAS server. I have looked at everything from Marchnetworks, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, GE, Sanyo, Pelco, Honeywell, etc. I know you guys get bombarded with the dreaded "what do you recommend" questions, but in all seriousness I have been out of contact with the DVR market for so long I don't know where to start. I'm looking for recommendations for a good robust 'good' to 'better' DVR system. I will need one to handle at least 32 cameras, or 2 basic units handling 16 each. (I'm planning something between the $7,000 to $10,000 range for each, but obviously I would prefer to get eh best bang-per-buck I can) Thanks for the help Joe