Manufacturer & Distributor     904.805.1581
Register | Login          
0
  • No products in the cart.
Total:$0.00

CALCULATING HOW MUCH STORAGE YOU NEED FOR YOUR DVR

When designing your surveillance system not only do you need to determine the type and style of cameras or resolution will work best, you also need to figure out which recorder (DVR / NVR) will be both compatible and will hold the amount of video desired. Optiview is proud to offer a huge variety of storage solutions for all of your surveillance recording needs. Our recorders range from a single 6 Terabyte (TB) hard drive to up to 128 Terabytes (TB) of storage over 16 hard drives. Choosing your solution will be based on several generic variables.

 

The general rule of thumb is that you’ll want to calculate based on [X] gigabytes used per camera, per day, multiplied by the number of days you’re looking to have recorded at all times. These calculations are also based on having the standard H.264 compression (for both camera and recorder) and setting your recorder to record at VBR (variable bit rate) as opposed to CBR (continual bit rate) at full time. If you set up for 50% motion these numbers can be reduced by up to half. Read on or contact us to learn more.

CAMERA RESOLUTION COMPRESSIONFRAMES PER SECOND (FPS)AVERAGE GB USED PER DAY
1080P (1920 x 1080)H.2641535
1080P (1920 x 1080)H.2643040
4MP (2688 x 1520)H.2641552
4MP (2688 x 1520)H.26430*80*

* Recording 4MP at Real Time (30fps) is coming soon. Average GB use is estimated and will be tested.

OPTIVIEW CARRIES MULTIPLE SIZE HARD DRIVES:

  • 500 GB (discontinued)
  • 1 TB (discontinued)
  • 2 TB (soon to be discontinued)
  • 4 TB
  • 6 TB
  • 8 TB
  • 10 TB (coming soon)

Helpful hint: It’s better to spread storage out over multiple hard drives in case one fails.

If at any point in reading this FAQ you’d like additional information on how the variables affect the storage needed, or would like assistance designing your system, contact one of our Optiview account managers.

Example 1: 16 camera system at 1080P

16 x 1080P cameras, and you wanted 30 days of storage, your calculation would look like this:

  • 40 gigabytes x 16 cameras = 640 gigabytes per day
  • 640 gigabytes x 30 days = 19 TB (minimum needed)

To record 16 x 1080P cameras at 30fps your options would be either the HDVR161080-Q2 (2 hard drive spaces), the HDVR161080-Q4 (4 hard drive spaces) or the HDVR161080-Q8 (8 hard drive spaces).

If you need 19 TB minimum of storage then you have a couple of options.

  • 2 x 10 TB hard drives = 20 TB storage → HDVR161080-Q2 + (2) HD10000
  • 4 x 6 TB hard drives = 24 TB storage → HDVR161080-Q4 + (4) HD6000
  • 5 x 4 TB hard drives = 20 TB storage → HDVR161080-Q8 + (5) HD4000
Example 2: 16 camera system at 4MP @ 15fps

16 x 4MP cameras, and you wanted 30 days of storage, your calculation would look like this:

  • 52 gigabytes x 16 cameras = 832 gigabytes per day
  • 832 gigabytes x 30 days = 25 TB (minimum needed)

To record 16 x 4MP cameras at 15fps your options would be either the HDVR164M-T2 (2 hard drive spaces) or the HDVR164M-Q8 (8 hard drive spaces).

25 TB minimum of storage then you have a couple of options.

  • 7 x 4 TB hard drives = 28 TB storage → HDVR164M-Q8 + (7) HD4000
  • 5 x 6 TB hard drives = 30 TB storage → HDVR164M-Q8 + (5) HD6000
  • 4 x 8 TB hard drives = 32 TB storage → HDVR164M-Q8 + (4) HD8000
Example 3: 32 camera system at 1080P

32 x 1080P cameras, and you wanted 30 days of storage, your calculation would look like this:

  • 35 gigabytes x 32 cameras = 1120 gigabytes per day
  • 1120 gigabytes x 30 days = 34 TB (minimum needed)

To record 32 x 1080P cameras at 15fps your options would be either the HDVR32-Q4 (4 hard drive spaces) or the HDVR32-Q8 (8 hard drive spaces).

If you need 34 TB minimum of storage then you have a couple of options.

  • 8 x 4 TB hard drives = 35 TB storage → HDVR32-Q8 + (8) HD4000
  • 6 x 6 TB hard drives = 36 TB storage → HDVR32-Q8 + (6) HD6000
  • 5 x 8 TB hard drives = 40 TB storage → HDVR32-Q8 + (5) HD8000
  • 4 x 10 TB hard drives = 40 TB storage → HDVR32-Q4 + (4) HD10000

ADDITIONAL STORAGE SOLUTIONS

There is always more than one way to design a system and “better safe than sorry” is key when it comes to storage. If you need more storage than the DVR can hold you can add an external hard drive such as the ESATA8HDD. You could also use (2) DVRs in place of (1), such as (2) 16 channel DVRs instead of (1) 32 channel DVR which would enable you to potentially double your storage.