Why Choose Digital Surveillance Cameras Over Analog?

As home and business security moves into the next generation, it can only be expected that the growth of digital CCTV camera systems would explode.

Digital surveillance cameras play a very similar role to their analog counterparts that have been around since the sixties. Mounted in strategic locations, they enable the owner to monitor areas that are otherwise vulnerable in a home or business.

The digital nature of these new cameras, however, makes is possible to do so much more than analog security camera systems could ever do. Digital CCTV cameras and systems offer much more advanced combinations of recording power as I explain below.

How Digital Surveillance Works

By installing a surveillance capture card in your computer, you turn your computer into a digital video recorder. This gives you the highest quality video compression as well as the lowest storage requirement. The video output from your digital security camera is digitized, making possible an impressive array of benefits.

Benefits of Digital Security Cameras

One of the most popular features is the ability to view live streaming images from a computer or cell phone anywhere in the world. You gain access to your cameras and recordings by logging into your system by a secure username and password over the internet.

Another powerful feature of your digital CCTV system is the ability to easily search your recorded video feed. Rather than rewinding and fast forwarding through videotape to find the time or event you want to view, you can navigate right to that point in the recording.

You can even program your digital security camera to focus specifically on some situations that it sees and ignore others. For example, you can program it to stop recording when nothing is moving in its field of vision, or record with reduced resolution. You can program it to notice and send you an email or phone notification if something that is supposed to be there is missing, or notify you if it detects something that isn’t supposed to be there.

With multiple camera systems, you can program your digital surveillance cameras to alert another cameras to pan over to its area for another view of some unusual activity. You can control all these actions of your cameras manually, in real time, while viewing the video recordings from your computer, as well. You are only ever limited by the software and hardware you decide to purchase.

Disadvantages of Digital CCTV

Digital surveillance systems are not completely without their drawbacks. The files generated onto your computer’s hard disk by your security cameras can quickly fill up a hard drive. However, hard disk storage these days are very cheap, so it is wise to install the biggest hard disk you can afford. Also, the ability to program your cameras to stop recording when no movement is detected will save you huge amounts of hard disk space.

Is a digital surveillance camera system right for you?

Digital security cameras certainly offer you unparalleled flexibility and powerful features. And they offer these things with the convenience of being able to monitor your digital CCTV system from anywhere in the world. If you’re looking for a truly professional-grade system to protect your home or business, a digital security camera system is definitely one to consider.