Discussion
Henry-F said:
See my reply further up the thread.
People are talking about having computers on all the time in order for their IP based systems to work. Maybe they are just setting things up incorrectly but I still maintain a totally stand alone CCTV system which has no impact on your computer or network storage device is preferable to avoid the risk of extra strain and work loads. As has been pointed out already on multi camera systems it may also be the cheapest option like for like.
We also suggest 24/7 image capture rather than motion only. By all means bookmark potentially important footage using motion triggering but a serious system needs 24/7 footage. Trigger patches for motion should be relatively small to minimise false triggers.
100GB of hard drive space won't go far on a HD CCTV system with a few cameras. We would suggest somewhere in the order of 500GB per camera. Our most common HDD sizes at the moment are 2TB in a 4 CH recorder, 3TB in an 8 CH recorder and that gives about 24 days rolling footage in the 4 CH, 18 days in the 8 CH at 6 frames per second with all cameras connected recording in 1080P.
The caveat I would add to all this is that we are striving towards CCTV systems which cover the outside of properties and give a genuine chance of identification should something happen. Typical distances for most systems are in the 2-20 metre range with our maximum realistic distance about 75 metres. If all you need is a metre or 2 from the camera then pretty much any HD camera will do the job.
I know our solutions work. A local group we have worked with have over 100 convictions, the most serious of which was a 3 life sentence conviction. We are keen advocates of communities grouping together to pool information after an incident but this can only be achieved with equipment capable of monitoring roads and pavements outside people's homes as well as the homes themselves.
What has disappointed me is seeing all the old tricks used in the equipment linked to on here. There's some great looking gear, lovely modern websites, wonderful claims but in pretty much every instance the supposed footage is taken by a professional using a digital SLR camera and an expensive lens. It is not footage from the equipment being sold. In my other life as a car dealer this would land you in prison. For some reason in the world of CCTV is common place and ignored.
I'm quite passionate about the subject because I came into CCTV from the perspective of a disappointed customer. I struggled to equate what I bought to the promotional material. I'm keen to help people understand what will and won't work for their specific requirements. That's hard when the industry is awash with lies and false advertising material to the point where it becomes the norm.
Henry
How come CCTV companies don't actually utilise Johnson's Criteria? And on the rare occasion they do, they don't even quote the lux levels that they were testing at!? (which they may argue is negated by use of IR illuminators, but it still doesn't provide an understanding of performance across all light levels).People are talking about having computers on all the time in order for their IP based systems to work. Maybe they are just setting things up incorrectly but I still maintain a totally stand alone CCTV system which has no impact on your computer or network storage device is preferable to avoid the risk of extra strain and work loads. As has been pointed out already on multi camera systems it may also be the cheapest option like for like.
We also suggest 24/7 image capture rather than motion only. By all means bookmark potentially important footage using motion triggering but a serious system needs 24/7 footage. Trigger patches for motion should be relatively small to minimise false triggers.
100GB of hard drive space won't go far on a HD CCTV system with a few cameras. We would suggest somewhere in the order of 500GB per camera. Our most common HDD sizes at the moment are 2TB in a 4 CH recorder, 3TB in an 8 CH recorder and that gives about 24 days rolling footage in the 4 CH, 18 days in the 8 CH at 6 frames per second with all cameras connected recording in 1080P.
The caveat I would add to all this is that we are striving towards CCTV systems which cover the outside of properties and give a genuine chance of identification should something happen. Typical distances for most systems are in the 2-20 metre range with our maximum realistic distance about 75 metres. If all you need is a metre or 2 from the camera then pretty much any HD camera will do the job.
I know our solutions work. A local group we have worked with have over 100 convictions, the most serious of which was a 3 life sentence conviction. We are keen advocates of communities grouping together to pool information after an incident but this can only be achieved with equipment capable of monitoring roads and pavements outside people's homes as well as the homes themselves.
What has disappointed me is seeing all the old tricks used in the equipment linked to on here. There's some great looking gear, lovely modern websites, wonderful claims but in pretty much every instance the supposed footage is taken by a professional using a digital SLR camera and an expensive lens. It is not footage from the equipment being sold. In my other life as a car dealer this would land you in prison. For some reason in the world of CCTV is common place and ignored.
I'm quite passionate about the subject because I came into CCTV from the perspective of a disappointed customer. I struggled to equate what I bought to the promotional material. I'm keen to help people understand what will and won't work for their specific requirements. That's hard when the industry is awash with lies and false advertising material to the point where it becomes the norm.
Henry
Henry-F said:
Be careful using a network storage device as the basis for your CCTV system. The NAS isn't designed to run 24/7 and the hard drive won't expect to be filled to capacity then constantly over written which is what happens with CCTV. Premature failure is not always ideal !
Swann are a bit naughty with their marketing claims so not my favourite product range. In particular the claims they make for their cameras are laughable.
Most DVRs these days allow either remote access or access over your local network. We often find gaps in compatibility when testing or big variations in functionality across different platforms.With DVRs I think it's as much about who you buy from as it is the hardware it's self. Of course you need decent hardware but someone who provides good after sales technical support will have dealt with that because they don't want problems.
The best way of dealing with remote access is to port forward on your router. There will normally be 2 ports. The internet port, often 80 or 8080 and a data port. All routers and networks vary so you can't give general instructions but there are sites like www.port forward.com which are a good starting point. We offer a remote set up service via a screen sharing session for those unable or unwilling to do it themselves.
I would suggest avoiding universal plug & play solutions due to the potential for security issues and solutions involving a proxy server which will be very slow other than between 3am and 4am when everyone is asleep !
Feel free to get in touch or post if you need any specific help or advice.
Henry
I am in the process of getting a new alarm and cctv system for our home. Would you mind looking over a system we have been quoted on? Could I email the spec over?Swann are a bit naughty with their marketing claims so not my favourite product range. In particular the claims they make for their cameras are laughable.
Most DVRs these days allow either remote access or access over your local network. We often find gaps in compatibility when testing or big variations in functionality across different platforms.With DVRs I think it's as much about who you buy from as it is the hardware it's self. Of course you need decent hardware but someone who provides good after sales technical support will have dealt with that because they don't want problems.
The best way of dealing with remote access is to port forward on your router. There will normally be 2 ports. The internet port, often 80 or 8080 and a data port. All routers and networks vary so you can't give general instructions but there are sites like www.port forward.com which are a good starting point. We offer a remote set up service via a screen sharing session for those unable or unwilling to do it themselves.
I would suggest avoiding universal plug & play solutions due to the potential for security issues and solutions involving a proxy server which will be very slow other than between 3am and 4am when everyone is asleep !
Feel free to get in touch or post if you need any specific help or advice.
Henry
Edited by Henry-F on Thursday 26th November 09:12
Thankyou
foxsasha said:
I am in the process of getting a new alarm and cctv system for our home. Would you mind looking over a system we have been quoted on? Could I email the spec over?
Thankyou
Of course you can. Thankyou
I would suggest emailing it over then giving me a call when you have a moment so we can discuss what you want the system to do whilst looking at your property over the internet.
Henry
feef said:
The dedicated CCTV system I had before I started using the Synology used a hard-drive, and when I opened it up, it wasn't any special sort of hard drive, so I'm not sure what the difference is.
What storage media do most CCTV systems use if not hard drive?
It will be a SATA hard drive but it really needs to be an AV grade drive. Some manufacturers produce and market surveillance grade drives. These are designed to run 24/7 and are designed to have 100% data churn.What storage media do most CCTV systems use if not hard drive?
Henry
Evanivitch said:
How come CCTV companies don't actually utilise Johnson's Criteria? And on the rare occasion they do, they don't even quote the lux levels that they were testing at!? (which they may argue is negated by use of IR illuminators, but it still doesn't provide an understanding of performance across all light levels).
Because they either don't know or couldn't care so long as they are selling product. For those who don't know Johnson's Criteria tries to determine likely recognition or identification capability of a camera based on mathematical formulae. There's a bit on information from the Home Office HereI wear 2 hats. With my car dealing hat on if I say a car has done 30,000 miles and it hasn't I go to prison. With my CCTV hat on if I describe a camera with a 3 metre optical range as a 25 metre camera and even go on to use words like "crystal clear" absolutely nothing happens.
That is why I set up CCTV42. I bought a CCTV system, it didn't perform anything like as well as it was supposed to, I realised that everyone in the industry was telling the same lies and thought I could do better.
Identification isn't an exact science but we try to give a realistic guide. Our suggestions are based on actual results in the field rather than theoretical numbers. With the advent of HD CCTV great results are possible but not guaranteed. What is never going to work are solutions based around wide angle cameras. Sadly 90% of CCTV offered for sale uses ultra wide angle lenses including all the solutions linked to in this thread.
There is no point whatsoever in comparing CCTV equipment based on numbers because the figures quoted and the way they have been calculated will be at worst false and at best extremely misleading. You mentioned lux levels. Probably the second most abused number alongside camera range. We put a piece on our website about Camera Low lux performance.
Henry ")
Henry-F said:
feef said:
The dedicated CCTV system I had before I started using the Synology used a hard-drive, and when I opened it up, it wasn't any special sort of hard drive, so I'm not sure what the difference is.
What storage media do most CCTV systems use if not hard drive?
It will be a SATA hard drive but it really needs to be an AV grade drive. Some manufacturers produce and market surveillance grade drives. These are designed to run 24/7 and are designed to have 100% data churn.What storage media do most CCTV systems use if not hard drive?
Henry
In my experience, there's no physical difference between the construction of the Red (NAS) and Purple (AV) drives, but the Purple have a different firmware to support AllFrame
In terms of reliability and performance for those of us with only a few cameras, I'm not sure there's much in it
feef said:
I'm most familiar with WD as I use their Red drives in my NAS
In my experience, there's no physical difference between the construction of the Red (NAS) and Purple (AV) drives, but the Purple have a different firmware to support AllFrame
In terms of reliability and performance for those of us with only a few cameras, I'm not sure there's much in it
All I can do is go on what the drive manufacturers tell us and WD are someone I have spoken to in the past both here and in Asia.In my experience, there's no physical difference between the construction of the Red (NAS) and Purple (AV) drives, but the Purple have a different firmware to support AllFrame
In terms of reliability and performance for those of us with only a few cameras, I'm not sure there's much in it
It doesn't matter whether you have 1 camera or 16 cameras, putting CCTV on something that expects to go to sleep when not in use means you keep it awake all the time and that increases the chance of a failure particularly if your drives are not those specifically designed for AV / Surveillance work.
Ultimately there are other reasons why I'm not a massive fan of IP based systems so it's not just the hard drive issue.
If all you want is a single camera that you can access remotely & you aren't overly bothered about detail over longer outdoor distances then IP has it's place but that isn't our customer base.
Henry
Henry-F said:
feef said:
I'm most familiar with WD as I use their Red drives in my NAS
In my experience, there's no physical difference between the construction of the Red (NAS) and Purple (AV) drives, but the Purple have a different firmware to support AllFrame
In terms of reliability and performance for those of us with only a few cameras, I'm not sure there's much in it
All I can do is go on what the drive manufacturers tell us and WD are someone I have spoken to in the past both here and in Asia.In my experience, there's no physical difference between the construction of the Red (NAS) and Purple (AV) drives, but the Purple have a different firmware to support AllFrame
In terms of reliability and performance for those of us with only a few cameras, I'm not sure there's much in it
It doesn't matter whether you have 1 camera or 16 cameras, putting CCTV on something that expects to go to sleep when not in use means you keep it awake all the time and that increases the chance of a failure particularly if your drives are not those specifically designed for AV / Surveillance work.
Ultimately there are other reasons why I'm not a massive fan of IP based systems so it's not just the hard drive issue.
If all you want is a single camera that you can access remotely & you aren't overly bothered about detail over longer outdoor distances then IP has it's place but that isn't our customer base.
Henry
The Red series for NAS and servers don't expect to go to sleep either
I've yet to see any of my servers running multiple websites go to sleep for even a second
As you say, there may be other reasons to avoid an IP system, but hard-drive choice isn't one imho (as long as the correct drives are chosen for the storage device in the first place, just not necessarily a specific AV drive)
I've spent 20 years in web development, database administration and run a hosting company so drive choice on my servers is something I'm pretty specific about
Please, I'm not questioning your knowledge or reasoning. The only question I would ask is why the drive companies produce a specific drive for use in CCTV systems.
It may well be that your server drives are more than capable, the problem is many people fit standard desktop drives into their NAS devices and for that matter their DVR recorders. We try to do the right thing so listen to what the manufacturers tell us.
We used to fit WD but tend to fit Seagate drives at the moment. We had some issues with larger WD drives. Seagate are very good and provide drives for us to test long term before offering them for sale. At the moment we are running 5TB & 6TB drives in a couple of DVRs.
With hard drives problems tend not to show up until quite some way down the line. Obviously we are trying to minimise the risk.
Henry
It may well be that your server drives are more than capable, the problem is many people fit standard desktop drives into their NAS devices and for that matter their DVR recorders. We try to do the right thing so listen to what the manufacturers tell us.
We used to fit WD but tend to fit Seagate drives at the moment. We had some issues with larger WD drives. Seagate are very good and provide drives for us to test long term before offering them for sale. At the moment we are running 5TB & 6TB drives in a couple of DVRs.
With hard drives problems tend not to show up until quite some way down the line. Obviously we are trying to minimise the risk.
Henry
Henry-F said:
Please, I'm not questioning your knowledge or reasoning. The only question I would ask is why the drive companies produce a specific drive for use in CCTV systems.
It may well be that your server drives are more than capable, the problem is many people fit standard desktop drives into their NAS devices and for that matter their DVR recorders. We try to do the right thing so listen to what the manufacturers tell us.
We used to fit WD but tend to fit Seagate drives at the moment. We had some issues with larger WD drives. Seagate are very good and provide drives for us to test long term before offering them for sale. At the moment we are running 5TB & 6TB drives in a couple of DVRs.
With hard drives problems tend not to show up until quite some way down the line. Obviously we are trying to minimise the risk.
Henry
Have you done any independent testing of the drives? I've found quite a few component manufacturers (not just drives) are eloquent with the marketing speak and assure of many differences in hardware, software and firmware, but when tested and examined more closely it turns out that it is, for the most part, marketing speakIt may well be that your server drives are more than capable, the problem is many people fit standard desktop drives into their NAS devices and for that matter their DVR recorders. We try to do the right thing so listen to what the manufacturers tell us.
We used to fit WD but tend to fit Seagate drives at the moment. We had some issues with larger WD drives. Seagate are very good and provide drives for us to test long term before offering them for sale. At the moment we are running 5TB & 6TB drives in a couple of DVRs.
With hard drives problems tend not to show up until quite some way down the line. Obviously we are trying to minimise the risk.
Henry
Henry-F said:
With hard drives problems tend not to show up until quite some way down the line. Obviously we are trying to minimise the risk.
Henry
Hi Henry, do any DVRs have more than one HD in them?Henry
With NAS its common to have at least two drives in a Raid set-up, so if one fails the other has live synchronised data. which means the drives could generally be crap, it really doesn't matter, what is key is always having a live backup no matter the quality of the hardware.
Add a cloud backup on top of that and even if your kit is stolen or destroyed you still have all your data and any cctv captures.
feef said:
Henry-F said:
Please, I'm not questioning your knowledge or reasoning. The only question I would ask is why the drive companies produce a specific drive for use in CCTV systems.
It may well be that your server drives are more than capable, the problem is many people fit standard desktop drives into their NAS devices and for that matter their DVR recorders. We try to do the right thing so listen to what the manufacturers tell us.
We used to fit WD but tend to fit Seagate drives at the moment. We had some issues with larger WD drives. Seagate are very good and provide drives for us to test long term before offering them for sale. At the moment we are running 5TB & 6TB drives in a couple of DVRs.
With hard drives problems tend not to show up until quite some way down the line. Obviously we are trying to minimise the risk.
Henry
Have you done any independent testing of the drives? I've found quite a few component manufacturers (not just drives) are eloquent with the marketing speak and assure of many differences in hardware, software and firmware, but when tested and examined more closely it turns out that it is, for the most part, marketing speakIt may well be that your server drives are more than capable, the problem is many people fit standard desktop drives into their NAS devices and for that matter their DVR recorders. We try to do the right thing so listen to what the manufacturers tell us.
We used to fit WD but tend to fit Seagate drives at the moment. We had some issues with larger WD drives. Seagate are very good and provide drives for us to test long term before offering them for sale. At the moment we are running 5TB & 6TB drives in a couple of DVRs.
With hard drives problems tend not to show up until quite some way down the line. Obviously we are trying to minimise the risk.
Henry
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/enterprise-drive-re...
Brother D said:
feef said:
Henry-F said:
Please, I'm not questioning your knowledge or reasoning. The only question I would ask is why the drive companies produce a specific drive for use in CCTV systems.
It may well be that your server drives are more than capable, the problem is many people fit standard desktop drives into their NAS devices and for that matter their DVR recorders. We try to do the right thing so listen to what the manufacturers tell us.
We used to fit WD but tend to fit Seagate drives at the moment. We had some issues with larger WD drives. Seagate are very good and provide drives for us to test long term before offering them for sale. At the moment we are running 5TB & 6TB drives in a couple of DVRs.
With hard drives problems tend not to show up until quite some way down the line. Obviously we are trying to minimise the risk.
Henry
Have you done any independent testing of the drives? I've found quite a few component manufacturers (not just drives) are eloquent with the marketing speak and assure of many differences in hardware, software and firmware, but when tested and examined more closely it turns out that it is, for the most part, marketing speakIt may well be that your server drives are more than capable, the problem is many people fit standard desktop drives into their NAS devices and for that matter their DVR recorders. We try to do the right thing so listen to what the manufacturers tell us.
We used to fit WD but tend to fit Seagate drives at the moment. We had some issues with larger WD drives. Seagate are very good and provide drives for us to test long term before offering them for sale. At the moment we are running 5TB & 6TB drives in a couple of DVRs.
With hard drives problems tend not to show up until quite some way down the line. Obviously we are trying to minimise the risk.
Henry
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/enterprise-drive-re...
However I would expect a desktop drive to be a bit more robust in handling changes in temp and dealing with physical knocks as that's the nature of the domestic environment so is more suited to devices like a backblaze box
There is also the angle that backblaze have an interest in demonstrating that consumer level drives are suitable for their devices to keep the TCO down for potential customers, making them more attractive
Brother D said:
feef said:
Henry-F said:
Please, I'm not questioning your knowledge or reasoning. The only question I would ask is why the drive companies produce a specific drive for use in CCTV systems.
It may well be that your server drives are more than capable, the problem is many people fit standard desktop drives into their NAS devices and for that matter their DVR recorders. We try to do the right thing so listen to what the manufacturers tell us.
We used to fit WD but tend to fit Seagate drives at the moment. We had some issues with larger WD drives. Seagate are very good and provide drives for us to test long term before offering them for sale. At the moment we are running 5TB & 6TB drives in a couple of DVRs.
With hard drives problems tend not to show up until quite some way down the line. Obviously we are trying to minimise the risk.
Henry
Have you done any independent testing of the drives? I've found quite a few component manufacturers (not just drives) are eloquent with the marketing speak and assure of many differences in hardware, software and firmware, but when tested and examined more closely it turns out that it is, for the most part, marketing speakIt may well be that your server drives are more than capable, the problem is many people fit standard desktop drives into their NAS devices and for that matter their DVR recorders. We try to do the right thing so listen to what the manufacturers tell us.
We used to fit WD but tend to fit Seagate drives at the moment. We had some issues with larger WD drives. Seagate are very good and provide drives for us to test long term before offering them for sale. At the moment we are running 5TB & 6TB drives in a couple of DVRs.
With hard drives problems tend not to show up until quite some way down the line. Obviously we are trying to minimise the risk.
Henry
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/enterprise-drive-re...
I have enterprise SAS disks in storage systems and they rarely fail. Usually start to get failures at 5 or 6 years but these are disks which have spent their life being thrashed, not desktop drives. I wouldn't let a domestic SATA drive through the door, regardless of its colour or claimed abilities, they will fail well before an enterprise SAS, just look at the manufacturer quoted MTFB.
BGARK said:
Hi Henry, do any DVRs have more than one HD in them?
With NAS its common to have at least two drives in a Raid set-up, so if one fails the other has live synchronised data. which means the drives could generally be crap, it really doesn't matter, what is key is always having a live backup no matter the quality of the hardware.
Add a cloud backup on top of that and even if your kit is stolen or destroyed you still have all your data and any cctv captures.
Some DVRs have more than one drive but they tend not to be set up as RAID storage. The multiple drives are to increase rolling storage time.With NAS its common to have at least two drives in a Raid set-up, so if one fails the other has live synchronised data. which means the drives could generally be crap, it really doesn't matter, what is key is always having a live backup no matter the quality of the hardware.
Add a cloud backup on top of that and even if your kit is stolen or destroyed you still have all your data and any cctv captures.
DVRs are different to NAS in that you have a relatively short term storage of maybe 3-4 weeks which is rolled over. Your NAS tends to store things on a very long term archive basis.
You can set up IP systems to upload to cloud, there are issues surrounding amounts of data from multiple camera systems and on going cost. There are also questions being asked about obligations under data protection and how that works with CCTV. The laws are a bit odd and fluid. What Europe decrees and how that is actioned in the UK can be out of step at times.
Ultimately there is no right or wrong solution when it comes to CCTV. We have technology which works for us and our customers and we can come up with a solution for pretty much any scenario. I can justify why we choose the technology but others may beg to differ.
What is unquestionable are the lies and misinformation bannered around by people selling CCTV, big names with some fancy looking gear but they are ignoring the simple laws of physics. I've already talked about high quality DSLR images being passed off as supposed footage. That's inexcusable to me. People then wonder why they can't get prosecutions. All the technology in the world won't work if your basic image is flawed and that's how I see a lot of IP, Wifi type solutions. It isn't all about megapixels, it's about how many of those pixels hit the target.
Henry
George111 said:
Brother D said:
feef said:
Henry-F said:
Please, I'm not questioning your knowledge or reasoning. The only question I would ask is why the drive companies produce a specific drive for use in CCTV systems.
It may well be that your server drives are more than capable, the problem is many people fit standard desktop drives into their NAS devices and for that matter their DVR recorders. We try to do the right thing so listen to what the manufacturers tell us.
We used to fit WD but tend to fit Seagate drives at the moment. We had some issues with larger WD drives. Seagate are very good and provide drives for us to test long term before offering them for sale. At the moment we are running 5TB & 6TB drives in a couple of DVRs.
With hard drives problems tend not to show up until quite some way down the line. Obviously we are trying to minimise the risk.
Henry
Have you done any independent testing of the drives? I've found quite a few component manufacturers (not just drives) are eloquent with the marketing speak and assure of many differences in hardware, software and firmware, but when tested and examined more closely it turns out that it is, for the most part, marketing speakIt may well be that your server drives are more than capable, the problem is many people fit standard desktop drives into their NAS devices and for that matter their DVR recorders. We try to do the right thing so listen to what the manufacturers tell us.
We used to fit WD but tend to fit Seagate drives at the moment. We had some issues with larger WD drives. Seagate are very good and provide drives for us to test long term before offering them for sale. At the moment we are running 5TB & 6TB drives in a couple of DVRs.
With hard drives problems tend not to show up until quite some way down the line. Obviously we are trying to minimise the risk.
Henry
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/enterprise-drive-re...
I have enterprise SAS disks in storage systems and they rarely fail. Usually start to get failures at 5 or 6 years but these are disks which have spent their life being thrashed, not desktop drives. I wouldn't let a domestic SATA drive through the door, regardless of its colour or claimed abilities, they will fail well before an enterprise SAS, just look at the manufacturer quoted MTFB.
Does anyone know whether it is possible to buy different lenses for the Hikvision cameras? I don't mind taking the cameras apart and invalidating warranty etc but I can't find anywhere that sells replacement lenses
http://www.amazon.co.uk/HIKVISION-DS-2CD2032-1-Nig...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/HIKVISION-DS-2CD2032-1-Nig...
Henry-F said:
BGARK said:
Hi Henry, do any DVRs have more than one HD in them?
With NAS its common to have at least two drives in a Raid set-up, so if one fails the other has live synchronised data. which means the drives could generally be crap, it really doesn't matter, what is key is always having a live backup no matter the quality of the hardware.
Add a cloud backup on top of that and even if your kit is stolen or destroyed you still have all your data and any cctv captures.
Some DVRs have more than one drive but they tend not to be set up as RAID storage. The multiple drives are to increase rolling storage time.With NAS its common to have at least two drives in a Raid set-up, so if one fails the other has live synchronised data. which means the drives could generally be crap, it really doesn't matter, what is key is always having a live backup no matter the quality of the hardware.
Add a cloud backup on top of that and even if your kit is stolen or destroyed you still have all your data and any cctv captures.
DVRs are different to NAS in that you have a relatively short term storage of maybe 3-4 weeks which is rolled over. Your NAS tends to store things on a very long term archive basis.
NAS are, as their name suggests, Network Attached Storage, it's not a backup tape or a simple backup device that is written to once a night and left forever, it's used as online, realtime storage as much as the harddrive in the desktop and laptop machines in use
Certainly, when NAS devices were expensive and relatively new technologies to the consumer market, your assertion that they are used more for archiving would have been true, but these days, they are in use as much as the desktop drives of the machines accessing them
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