Hard Drive Space Saving in my Recorder

Hello, and thank you for checking out our article “Hard Drive Space Saving in my Recorder” You may be asking yourself how to do this because you don’t seem to have enough footage for your needs. There are a few factors that cause hard drive space to be used up faster. The first is resolution and bitrate, the next is the number of cameras recording, and the last is how often they are recording. Since your hard drive space will be used to its maximum no matter what, your goal isn’t actually to save space so much as it is to make better use of it. Here are some ways to do that:

Reduce Image Quality via Resolution or Bitrate – You can lower the resolution on one or more cameras, or try lowering their bitrate.
Purchase a Recorder and cameras with Better compression – Video data is compressed using codecs when it is recorded. Most recorders do this using the common h264 codec. However, our newest top of the line recorders and cameras feature hardware-level H265 encoding. This reduces the amount of data needed to record at 4k by a whopping 60%.
Limit recording times – As mentioned above the system will record 24/7 by default. Since every second recorded is more data used, one way to limit data use is to limit the times when you record. This can be done via the scheduler, and there are a few different ways to do this.
1. Motion Detection – you can set the system to record on motion detection only. This will make it so that the recorder only records data if there is a suspected event that needs attention.
2. IVS rules – similar to motion, or alongside it, you can have your cameras record only when tripwire or intrusion box rule lines are crossed
3. Direct Scheduling – you can directly schedule your cameras to record only during certain times and days of the week.
Upgrade or add Hard Disks – Lastly, if none of the above options are acceptable for your circumstances, but you still need more footage time the only option is to either upgrade your hard disk to a larger one or add more of them, Most recorders we carry can support more than one disk.

That about covers it for what causes hard drive space to be taken up quickly, and how you can get more footage out of your existing set-up. If you’re in the market for a new hard drive, check out our CCTV HDD selection HERE. For more information on our products, services, or what we can do to help you get wholesale rates on the best CCTV equipment in the industry- call Techvision USA today at 561-288-1541.