DVR Security System Review

The Defender Sentinel 4 package includes a digital video recorder and 16 Defender Spartan 1 security cameras. Before looking at the DVR lets take a quick look at the capabilities of the cameras, these have a black finish and are suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. The cameras have a sun shade to prevent glare and they contain a ¼ inch color CCD image sensor, the cameras have a resolution of 420 TV lines. The cameras have a focal length of 3.6mm and they have automatic white balancing.

The cameras have a shutter speed range between 1/60 – 1/100000 seconds and they contain LED’s to improve image quality when you are recording video in low light levels. The LED’s have a 15 foot range and there are twelve of these inside each camera, they cameras have an outer casing composed of anodised aluminium and they use an NTSC video signal. The cameras included with the system are adequate and each one has its own camera mount, the drawback with the cameras included is that they do not support audio.

For storing the images captured by the surveillance cameras the DVR has an internal hard drive, this is manufactured by Seagate and can be removed from the system easily. You will have to power down the DVR in order to change its hard drive, the one included with the DVR has a 320 gigabyte capacity, if necessary you can upgrade the DVR’s hard drive and it accommodates those that have up to a 500 gigabyte capacity.

Video recorded by the Sentinel 4 can also be stored on CF memory cards, the device has a built in CF memory card slot. The memory card may prove useful for transferring video footage quickly between the DVR and a PC, at maximum you can insert memory cards that have up to a 4 gigabyte capacity. PAL and NTSC video signals are supported by the Sentinel 4 and the system has a maximum recording speed of 30 frames per second. In NTSC mode it can record at a maximum resolution of 704*240, in PAL mode its maximum recording resolution is 704*288.

Defender include a CD with the DVR containing software that you can install on Windows based PC’s, this enable you to turn the PC into a monitoring station. The DVR also comes with Ethernet cables and it has an Ethernet port so you can connect it to your broadband router. Connecting the DVR to the Internet enables you to monitor the cameras attached to it while you are miles away from your home or business.

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