Swann DVR D1 recording looks like crap!

[zs1 0]

I just got a Swann DVR8-2550 with 4 cameras. The live view of each cam looks good. However, D1 recordings look like total crap. The image is very pixelated/blurry. CIF recordings look alot better. I don't understand what the problem is. I called Swann who sent me a firmware update, but that doesn't seem to fix it.

 

Is this DVR just crap at D1? I can live with the 7FPS at D1, but not with the crappy recording. Doesn't even make any sense as to why CIF would look better. Has anyone else seen this?

 

Got it at costco and well within the return policy.

[shankarsha 0]

Bro

 

Try to find settings that support DVR at 6FPS @ D1 at least, else return for good.

[givmedew 0]

Bro

 

Try to find settings that support DVR at 6FPS @ D1 at least, else return for good.

 

Did you read what he said or was that a typo? He just said he is doing 7fps at D1.

 

Now as far as that swann I am kinda in the same boat as you I have a swann 8ch dvr I am totally unhappy with. I got the one packaged with 4 of their "pro" cameras. I am buying 4 of my own cameras to add to the package 3 of which are already purchased. I bought 3 cameras that had 700tvl sony effio DSPs the image looks much much better with them.

 

I have the following setup up in mind

CH1 D1 14FPS no camera yet but this will be my best camera

CH2 D1 12FPS sony effio

CH3 D1 12FPS sony effio

CH4 D1 12FPS sony effio

CH5 CIF 10FPS swann pro

CH6 CIF 10FPS swann pro

CH7 CIF 10FPS swann pro

CH8 CIF 10FPS swann pro

 

now in your situation you only get half the frames to play with so if one of your cameras is not as important you may want to switch it to CIF to get more frames to the other cameras. This is especially true if one of the cameras can not support facial detection of any kind. For example I have several cameras that mounted outside second story looking down and out they tell me if anyone is on my property and if a crime takes place in my home they will show me where the person came from and where the person went to so I only need to see a rough image. The higher end cameras that are at ground level will get the peoples faces.

 

So if you like I said if you can sacrifice one of those then you can increase your frame rate.

 

BUT

 

I don't think that is your problem. I think it is either swann being crap which I am beginning to notice or your cameras being crap which if they are the swann pro cameras than this is true!

 

What I would recommend you do to test your DVRs capabilities is the following.

 

Connect a DVD player or something similar to your DVR through composite to bnc the DVR comes with one anyways so just use that. Play that into CH1 and set CH1 to have the max framerate at D1 setting all the other channels to 1FPS CIF

 

This will give you close to an idea of what the best scenario is. Now although it is only 480TVL coming out of your dvd player it is 480 perfect lines with a great image.

 

If you want try also recording and playing back the same in CIF mode.

 

I am going to do the same myself just to see whats going on.

 

My problem with swann is that I feel that the GUI, web server, and software included is alpha/draft quality something you would put together just to start developing and testing your units not something you would ship as a final product to a consumer.

 

I can not get IE, Firefox, Safari or Chrome to open the internal web server properly. I just get to a page that says swann at the top with a blank white area below and then my DVR usually locks up and restarts!

 

perfect

now my guess is that yours

[zs1 0]

Yep, it came with the "Pro" cameras, though they don't look too terrible. I only have one other camera to compare to, a Sony CCD Super HAD, which does look better, but not a world of a difference. I'll pick up some EFFIO cams to supplement, got any recommendations?

 

The frame rate isn't the problem, nor really is the camera quality. In live view, the cameras look pretty decent. But when viewing a D1 recording, the image is very blurry, like its too much compression or too little bitrate, probably the later. CIF recordings look better in quality. I didn't expect this sort of side effect of the cheap dvrs. Most of the manufacturers don't list the bitrate used, so you can't really compare. And I agree on the menus and such. They aren't horrible, but not as 'finished' as I expected.

 

I'm taking this one back to Costco, and ordered a QVIS Apollo HD 8 channel, which will be here tomorrow. I think that will be a much better unit, and have much better video quality. Looking at the sample on youtube of a Zeus unit (with a long range cam) you can easily see individual leaves in a tree across the street swaying around. Trees on this Swann look like large green(ish) blobs. If I ever have to identify the tree that robbed me, I'd have a major problem.

[Soundy 1]

Costco doesn't sell "Pro" CCTV equipment.

[rory 0]

swan is as UN PRO as it gets