Swann CCTV DVR

[bobhowe]

Hi My Swann CCTV DVR has been running constant for 8 years and it has developed a few faults it frozen up on Friday so I rebooted it and kept booting up an restarting on its own for about 2 hours and not displaying the date and time now its working ok but it freezes up if you try to format the HDD but its still recording ok and you can play back recordings an still remote view form the mobile phone could it be capacitors starting to fail ? king regards Bob

[Murphyv310]

How long is a piece of string Bob?
Without dismantling it and doing tests its purely a guess.
If its the PSU then voltages need to be checked and ripple on the various caps with a scope or with an ESR meter when powered off. If any of the PSU caps look distressed then yes its possible that is the only issue.
If the item was expensive then yes its worth looking at but considering its age and if it was cheap then think about a new one. No idea who would look at it TBH, not me as I don't get involved with this type of work now.

[bobhowe]

Hi Trevor thanks for reply if I change the DVR I will have to change 8 cameras as the resolution on new DVR are different lucky i managed to buy an identical model as were produced from 2012 but I want to get the old unit fixed for back up kind regards Bob

[ppppenguin]

I don't understand why you would have to change the cameras. New CCTV DVRs can take more modern high resolution security cameras but should default to ordinary video if that's what's being fed to an input. It's only recently that I found out about AHD and TVI, two methods of sending high resolution analogue video over standard co-ax. I haven't looked at what kind of technical wizardry they use to do this.

The most modern security CCTV kit uses digital conenctions with PoE (Power over Ethernet). Each camera just needs a standard Cat 5 (or better) connection.

Unless there is some very good reason to keep it, the old DVR is scrap. It has to run reliably 24/7 so there's little point in reviving an old and ailing unit.

PS: Just found this, comparing the various HD analogue technologies. https://shopdelta.eu/test_l2_aid752.html

[Murphyv310]

A friend of mine just bought a four camera system with 1tb HDD, very high resolution for £165.

[Radio Fixer]

Sounds too cheap Trevor

Think you have to be careful as better ones fit HDDs made to to run all the time and the cheapo units just a big standard drive.

Also the User Interface on many / most is dreadful and being as its not used much is a swine to get your head around when you have to. So that needs checking out before buying.

Gary

[Murphyv310]

His has been up for a week now. He's very computer savvy and it's got a 1tb HDD designed for continual running in CCTV systems. Linked to his phone perfectly and you can add up to 8 cameras with reduced resolution.
The cameras are connected via cable.
He sent me a picture of night vision results and it's spectacular.
I'll get the make and model off him.

[bobhowe]

Sounds too cheap Trevor

Think you have to be careful as better ones fit HDDs made to to run all the time and the cheapo units just a big standard drive.

Also the User Interface on many / most is dreadful and being as its not used much is a swine to get your head around when you have to.  So that needs checking out before buying.

Gary

Hi thanks for all replies I agree with Gary some DVRs are not very user friendly that is why I like Swann DVRs as there are very easy to set up and I am using a remote CCTV grade WD 3TB HDD in an external caddy . Hi Jeffery that is another reason why I used the same make and model DVR as I have explained and Swann is very user friendly you download the app to your phone take a picture of the QR code with your phone and you are set up to view remotely on your phone no complicated port forwarding on your router kind regards Bob

[Murphyv310]

Interesting comments.
It was a Swann my friend bought from amazon, had a discount hence the price!

[bobhowe]

Hi Trevor for the price Swann is good value is as standard it is fitted with a WD 1 TB CCTV grade HDD as some makes have cheaper PC HDD as Gary correctly in post 6 the cheaper drivers are not designed to run 24/7 kind regards Bob