5 CCTV Storage Problems and How To Fix Them

CCTVs are the need of today's world that is swarmed with security threats. Fortunately, technology is getting advanced day by day. There are two main functions of CCTV surveillance. One is to capture what the camera sees in real- time, and the second is to store it for future reference.

In the past, this role was accomplished by tapes and followed by computer hard disk drives. The video surveillance market's rapid move towards the widespread adoption of IP-enabled devices and IT technologies has raised the need for special hard drives for CCTV storage.

While special drives ensure high write capacities, there are challenges with CCTVstorage due to customer awareness about them.

Let's look at 5 of these CCTV camera storage problems and how to fix them:

  • Low-Quality Recordings: Footage captured by even the most advanced CCTV camera can be blurry and grainy due to wrong storage drive choices, rendering your footage to be useless. Moreover, you might not depict anything clearly if the object moves quickly or in a dark environment. All this is due to the underlying technology being outdated and distorting the captured images while storing.
  • Unsecure Surveillance Footage: Recording data that remains on the device cannot just be stolen by a miscreant but can be tampered with. You can digitize your videos and use a WiFi or hard-wired web connection to transmit them online, enabling you to avoid tampering. It translates into you always having access to the footage you need from anywhere. Plus, it would be best to never worry about running out of storage space.
  • Incompatible hardware and software: Storing and retrieving CCTV footage data becomes essential. For on-site footage storage, that means having the necessary servers, storage devices, power systems, and network connectivity. All these equipment hardware and software needs to be in tandem for effective storage. The key is to know the current and longer-term surveillance storage requirements and corollary activities such as data archiving and recovery.
  • High storage costs: Storage costs can be an important part when deciding to invest in CCTV security cameras. Did you know that selecting the correct resolution, frame rate, and recording mode can change your CCTV storage costs by 20x? For example, for CIF resolution, 5fps, motion-based recording using H.264 codec for 90 days, the total storage required is approximately 100 GB and costs USD 150. To optimize your requirement for CCTV storage capacity, we recommend you check the Storage Capacity Calculator.
  • Low storage recording capacity: A CCTV camera's recording capacity depends on many factors, including resolution, video compression, the number of cameras you use, etc. The longer period of footage is an important factor, as well. To optimize the CCTV camera storage capacity, you should adjust the camera resolution as well as set up customized recording modes. You can also utilize External HDDs by expanding your DVR/NVR storage with an external HDD


Needless to say, you should invest in special video surveillance storage for CCTV use, and plan for an optimized storage solution. We've got you covered if you want to optimize storage and budgets by bringing this CCTV buyers guide.

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