Newb question ~ Why do you put SD cards in IP cameras?

Prinler

Prinler

Getting the hang of it
Apr 6, 2017
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Yeah, I know.... noobie.
So I see these cameras all have SD card slots. They use it for edge recording but even that im feeling a bit daft after reading a few articles.

Doesn't the NVR - in my case blue iris - record all of the video?



Prinler
 
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Its not recording when your NVR has to reboot for updates/maintenance, its not recording if someone attempts to steal your NVR.. and its not recording if it has any kind of hardware/software failure..

Murphy's law demands redundancy..
 
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Prinler said:
Yeah, I know.... noobie.
So I see these cameras all have SD card slots. They use it for edge recording but even that im feeling a bit daft after reading a few articles.

Doesn't the NVR - in my case blue iris - record all of the video?



Prinler
Click to expand...

If you do not have a NVR/Blue Iris system you can use many cameras stand alone and record locally to the SD card.

If the camera is a WiFi camera having local storage is great for when WiFi problems occur.

If the HDD in the NVR / BI system dies or if the NVR/BI system is stolen, or the switch / network dies you can still have local storage on the camera which maybe useful.

Thus having local storage can be useful for redundancy or for setups where you have only a couple of cameras and only want to store locally and save money by not purchasing a NVR/BI system.
 
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I am thinking about installing reasonably priced but quality SD cards in only the cameras which are most critical to 24/7 recording.
( nayr iirc uses the samsung branded cards and has had good luck - so I plan to pick up some 32-64GB ones for a few cameras when I see them on sale )
 
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Oh wow, so its recording on the camera at the same time recording on the NVR/BI! That's huge compared to my analog systems.
So when I reboot my BI, the cameras record to the SD, does it then send to the BI when its back online?
Is that what edge recording is?

What type of memory do you use and recommended size?
 
Prinler said:
Oh wow, so its recording on the camera at the same time recording on the NVR/BI! That's huge compared to my analog systems.
So when I reboot my BI, the cameras record to the SD, does it then send to the BI when its back online?
Is that what edge recording is?

What type of memory do you use and recommended size?
Click to expand...

Good question:

I am not certain if there is an appropriate handover and handshake for failover situations.

I do know that options will depend on the software/firmware that is running on the camera and servers.

For example I have read ( iirc ) that some cameras can only send their video stream to one location, others to multiple ( as they have multiple streams they can send ).
( local, NVR, NAS, cloud .. )
 
with a Dahua NVR and Dahua Cameras it has an Automatic Network Recovery feature that will retrieve footage off the cameras automagically and fill in any gaps in timeline that it can..

BlueIris does not have this functionality, but you can always go in and manually download the video off the camera if it captured something while your NVR was down..

Perfect Example happened to me a year or so ago, I took my NVR down at midnight to install a 6TB WD Purple in it.. I have the NVR sitting in my lap when I hear my home automation system announce: The Mailbox was just accessed, I look over at my display of all my cameras and see my PTZ zooming in on some asshole in my mailbox.. Called the cops and they were here in 2mins as there were hundreds of mailboxes that got broken into at the time, but I had absolutely no recordings because I was attempting to expand my recording capabilities... Murphy is an asshole like that.

You dont need really big cards, usually a 32GB is enough for 24h of h265 and thats enough for most backup purposes, any catastrophic failure you should be aware of within that timeframe.
 
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I test all my SD cards with h2testw. A good simple test program. There is a significant number of fake cards.
 
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I only put an SD card in one camera just to see how it worked, but as prices continue to drop, I'm definitely thinking of adding them to a few more cams. Slickdeals.com has been showing lots of deals on good quality cards pretty cheap recently.
 
nayr said:
Its not recording when your NVR has to reboot for updates/maintenance, its not recording if someone attempts to steal your NVR.. and its not recording if it has any kind of hardware/software failure..

Murphy's law demands redundancy..
Click to expand...
This is a wonderful comment that made me open my eyes. Thank you for this.
 
I just ordered one of the WD purple SD cards to install in my cameras. can't wait to try them out.
To the OP. If some one were to steal your NVR, you have footage on the camera - unless they steal them also but that would be very unlikely.
 
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