More recently, the DVR was a curiosity, which they were proud of and which was far from affordable for everyone. But times are changing, and now in almost any car shop you can find a dozen types of such devices. If you decide to purchase a car DVR, we will tell you how to choose this device.
Before making such an important purchase, ask the seller a few questions about the functions of the registrar. The presence of some features of this device will give you the opportunity to avoid many problems when a difficult situation arises on the road, or when communicating with traffic police officers. So, what you need to pay attention to first of all when buying a car registrar.
Viewing angle
If you decide to choose a DVR in the car, then one of its most important indicators should be considered the viewing angle. The wider the viewing angle, the less clear the picture will be. It is important to remember that most of the manufacturers of these devices indicate the so-called diagonal viewing angle, and it differs significantly from the real viewing angle, and in a smaller direction. If possible, try to find a device whose viewing angle will be within 120-140 degrees. These figures are considered optimal so that the registrar not only perfectly sees the road and what is happening on it, but can also record these events with high quality.
Camera resolution
The most important feature of a car DVR that allows you to determine which DVR is better is the quality of its recording. It is determined by the recording resolution (for example, 176×288 or more), as well as the image recording speed, that is, the total amount of frames captured per second on all video channels. An example would be 100 fps for an 8-channel DVR. This parameter can be deciphered as 12.5 frames per second on each channel. Real-time mode means recording at 25 frames per second, which corresponds to the video signal in PAL format. In order to increase sales, the manufacturer often tries to indicate the maximum speed, but in reality, at such a speed, the quality will suffer, and if the maximum resolution is specified, the shooting speed will suffer.
Functionality
Another important factor that allows you to decide which DVR to choose is its functionality, that is, the ability to perform several operations at once. Recorders can be divided into duplex (performing 2 operations at once), triplex (respectively, 3 operations) and pentaplex (5 simultaneous operations). To make it clearer, a pentaplex DVR can immediately transmit a picture from its cameras, record an event and play it back, archive the available information and transfer it to a remote device using the network.
What do we actually write in?
It is equally important to ask in what format the car registrar you like is shooting. To date, there are three of them – MJPEG, MPEG-4, H.264. Describing them briefly, we can say the following. MJPEG is already quite an outdated format, data takes up a lot of space, the quality of shooting leaves much to be desired, and the devices themselves that record video in this format have a low price. MPEG-4 is more modern, in comparison with the format described above, the shooting is better, and it takes about 10 times less on the memory card. And finally, H.264. This is a logical continuation of MPEG-4, which has improved color reproduction and improved picture clarity. In addition, the data takes up half the space on the memory card than MPEG-4, so when choosing a device, try not to save too much and take more modern recorders.
We have described only the main features that good DVRs should have. Their list is growing almost daily. This includes video recording at a certain time interval, the ability of the device to automatically turn on and off when the engine starts and stops, audio and video outputs for connecting the recorder to a computer, the ability to support memory cards from 32 gigabytes, and archive data to external media, such as hard drives, and much more. You will surely successfully cope with the task of choosing a registrar and purchase a device that can help you out in a difficult situation.