Would NTSC CCTV Cameras Work If I Connected Them To My Desktop Using a DVR Card?
March 13, 2010 by admin
Filed under CCTV Cameras
I was going to set up a home security system by using my desktop.
I have been researching that if i was going to use wireless cctv cameras i would need a wireless DVR Card that connects to my desktop.
But the question i’m asking is that, would NTSC CCTV Cameras work on my desktop connected via a DVR Card ?
Thanks In Advance
Tom
This depends somewhat on the DVR card which has to be able to handle the NTSC video signal in order to capture it and send it to the recording software.
The advantage of NTSC is you will get a higher frame-rate relative to PAL video. For a security system installation, this can be crucial because sometimes you just need that one extra frame to identify someone for example. So essentially you’re putting more eggs in your basket for a better chance of getting the perfect shot of the suspect.
Note: If you want to monitor the cameras from a TV for example, you might run into problems with NTSC since you are in the UK and most TVs will only support the PAL format. If you are just concerned with monitoring from the desktop computer, there shouldn’t be a problem. The graphics card will be able to playback video regardless of whether it is NTSC, PAL or some other format.
This depends somewhat on the DVR card which has to be able to handle the NTSC video signal in order to capture it and send it to the recording software.
I would say most CCTV DVR cards do support both video formats, but I’m not an expert in this area. Here are some cards which support both formats (at least the ones I checked):
http://www.cctv-camera.cc/product/dvr_cards.asp
The advantage of NTSC is you will get a higher frame-rate relative to PAL video. For a security system installation, this can be crucial because sometimes you just need that one extra frame to identify someone for example. So essentially you’re putting more eggs in your basket for a better chance of getting the perfect shot of the suspect.
The advantage of PAL is you will get a somewhat higher resolution (576 vertical lines compared to 480). This can be better at resolving detail that NTSC cannot, but you have less eggs in your basket so there are fewer chances to get that perfect shot.
Note: If you want to monitor the cameras from a TV for example, you might run into problems with NTSC since you are in the UK and most TVs will only support the PAL format. If you are just concerned with monitoring from the desktop computer, there shouldn’t be a problem. The graphics card will be able to playback video regardless of whether it is NTSC, PAL or some other format.
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