The bench test 2 - Bridging the formats

What our experts say …

JVC developed the VHS format way back in 1974, and it has reigned supreme as the video surveillance recording system of choice for the best part of a quarter of a century. In that time VHS has seen off at least half a dozen rivals but now, in spite of several valiant attempts to prolong the format's life, including Super VHS and latterly digital/data VHS (D-VHS), even JVC now appears to accept that analogue video tape recording has come to the end of the road.

JVC hasn't completely abandoned VHS, and its current line-up includes a novel S-VHS/recordable DVD video recorder, but rather than bury its corporate head in the sand and struggle on to the bitter end, it has embraced hard disk digital video recording with a range of products that includes two new DVRs. The VR-609 and VR-616 are advanced multi-channel designs and the JVC heritage and wealth of experience in this market are clearly evident from the formidable range of features.

The emphasis is on functionality rather than innovation though, and the VR-616 - the subject of this Bench Test - is a 16-channel recorder that follows the current trend for long recording times.

The standard 240Gb capacity, divided between two fixed internal drives, provides almost 2000 hours at the slowest frame rate/lowest quality setting, and there's the option to add a third drive, installed inside a removable caddy to facilitate backup, archiving and data transfer to a suitably equipped PC. Network connectivity is also available as standard for remote viewing and recording, plus email notification.

Recording rates of up to 50 frames per second are possible using high quality 'wavelet' compression, resolution is 720 x 288 pixels (PAL recording mode) and we're pleased to see there's a single audio recording channel.

It has an impressive array of single and multi-screen display options, picture zoom, motion detection and a comprehensive assortment of search and playback functions using a convenient jog/shuttle control.

There's a set of alarm facilities, and it can control JVC PTZ or dome cameras directly or via a joystick System Controller. An infrared remote handset, which controls most main functions, is supplied with the unit as standard.

The 616 is effectively future-proofed too, with a well thought out set of expansion ports that include two USB sockets for external backup drives and solid-state memory modules and a 'FireWire' (IEE 1394) connector for an external hard drive or CD-RW drive. The whole caboodle is controlled by an embedded version of the Linux operating system, which has an excellent reputation for stability and reliability.

It's a businesslike design and, at 32 X 88 x 431mm, the case is no larger than a conventional surveillance VCR. The front panel is split into three areas, with the camera selector buttons, playback controls, menu and function keys on the left side, the jog/shuttle dial is in the middle and the flap on the right side opens to reveal the removable (and key-lockable) hard disc caddy.

The rear panel has two rows of BNC sockets for the camera inputs and loop throughs. In the top right corner there are two RJ-485 sockets for LAN and system controller connections and a pair of USB sockets for external data storage.

A row of multi-pin connectors handles PTZ camera comms (RS-485) and alarm inputs and outputs, and below those are the FireWire port, VGA monitor and S-Video output sockets. Three more BNC sockets carry the composite video outputs for two main monitors and a spot monitor and a pair of phono sockets are used for the audio input and output.

Setup and operation

Connections to the outside world shouldn't pose too many problems, and the instruction manual covers a lot of ground and is reasonably easy to follow.

Nevertheless it would benefit from a little reorganisation, as it jumps somewhat unexpectedly from cable installation to remote PC operation, then back to basic setup procedures for no apparent reason.

The latter revolves around a set of on-screen menus. The main (optionally password protected) menu screen opens with seven choices: Camera Setup, Recording Setup, Alarm Setup, User Define Screen, Audio Setup, Menu Setup and System.

Camera Setup leads to three sub menus. Camera Controls displays a set of buttons for PTZ functions; Camera Details includes setting the camera ID and picture adjustments (brightness, contrast, saturation and hue); and Pan/Title Model is used to select the PTX protocol (JVC or Pelco) and baud rate. Menu selection and setting changes are made using a set of four cursor buttons and the jog/shuttle dial.

The Recording Setup menu also has three sub menus. Manual Recording sets the frame rate, picture quality and audio recording option for each camera. Recording Schedule covers setting daily recording times and quality for each camera and Alarm Recording has adjustments for pre and post recording times and the motion detector setup. This can be configured for full screen or a defined area (16 x 16 grid) with controls for altering target sensitivity and sensing speed.

Alarm Setup displays two sub menus, the first for assigning a name or ID to each alarm input, the second for configuring alarm links and setting 'events' (disk full, password change, video loss and motion).

On the User Define screen the installer or operator can specify the camera numbers and display formats on eight preset templates, and Audio Setup has a slider for setting audio gain, and switches for audio bypass and the video channel used to record sound. The Menu Setup screen has a drop-down menu for choosing the operating language (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Chinese), and slider adjustments for the transparency of the status and menu displays.

The final System Setup menu has no less than eight sub menus. The first two are for the System and Alarm logs; sub menu 3 deals with HDD Management with details of the installed drives, 'Overwrite when full' and 'Clear Log' switches, and an option to display a 'Disk Full' message.

Sub menu 4 is for setting the VR-616 Backup options, defining the time period of the archived recording, the channels to be recorded and selecting the backup media (HDD or CD). The Auto Select menu sets camera sequencing on the monitor displays, and sub-menu 6 is used to select the Spot Monitor cameras.

An Administration menu covers network setup, date/time setting, passwords, covert channel, email notification, configuration setup (allows settings to be stored on a USB memory module), and lastly, setup, lock and ID options for a wired and wireless remote control.

Remote viewing on a network PC can be carried out from a standard web browser by entering the DVR's IP address, though it appears to have a preference for Microsoft Internet Explorer. It's possible to display the 'web' page generated by the VR-616 using the increasingly popular Firefox browser, but we were unable to view actual images. If, as seems likely, this is a page coding or compatibility problem, it should be fairly easy to put right with a software upgrade, and it would be well worth doing, given this browser's improved security and performance.

In addition to camera selection and single/multi display, the browser window also has a set of PTZ controls and playback functions. Browser viewing proved to be somewhat erratic at times, and after playing back a recording it wouldn't revert to a live view mode, displaying an error message that another user was connected and only one session at a time was permitted.

Alternatively live and recorded images can be viewed using software supplied with the DVR on a CD-ROM. As well as live view, search, playback and PTZ functions, footage can also be downloaded from the VR-616 and recorded on the client PC's hard disk drive.

This can be a slow business, taking several times the actual duration of the segment being recorded, and replay is through a separate 'DVR' window, rather than the main viewer utility, and this only allows one channel to be seen at a time.

Recordings copied across the network are in the native 'wavelet' format but there's an option to convert files into the more widely supported AVI format. This consumes vast amounts of disk space but it does mean that recordings can be played back on Windows Media Player and most other movie viewers.

An option to convert to MPEG or M-JPEG would have been welcome too, and this would make it easier to copy recordings to CD-R/RW for replay on another PC.

Performance

Compared with several hard-disk based DVRs we've seen recently, picture quality on the VR-616 is noticeably better, with improved resolution and colour accuracy. This is undoubtedly due to the use of the more efficient wavelet compression scheme.

On a local video monitor, with the quality setting at the Q3 factory default, the amount of detail in the recorded image is only very slightly below that of a live picture, with none of the motion artefacts or noise associated with low to medium compression M-JPEG recordings, though file sizes are not significantly larger.

Replay, in both directions and at all replay speeds, is really smooth.

The jog/shuttle control is one of the few that we've used that comes close to replicating the ease of use of a tape-based video recorder, providing excellent slo-mo and frame by frame control, as well as an excellent range of fast search speeds that lets the user skim through long segments with ease.

The Playback/Search window makes it easy to find a recording by date and time, and locating events on the System and Alarm logs is equally simple, though both options are buried in the sub menus, which slows access.

Remote 'live' viewing on a client PC involves minimal loss of quality, but there is a significant drop in resolution and an increase in picture noise when replaying downloaded recordings stored on the PC's hard drive.

What the manufacturer says ...

JVC has introduced the 16 channel VR-616E to provide installers with a complete security system. It can be combined with up to 16 of JVC's range of security PTZ and static cameras and monitors to be configured for any security system where reliable, high-level surveillance is essential.

This recorder has jog/shuttle control and multi-screen real-time display. It offers high image quality and space saving recording, thanks to its Wavelet compression. For extended periods of time and larger amounts of CCTV data, the JVC systems can be expanded over 1TB, using Firewire (IEEE 1394) with an external hard drive unit. This is relevant for larger installations with a high incident rate and a large array of cameras. The DVR can be connected to CD/RW for easy duplication on to removable media. PTZ and static cameras can be operated remotely using the GSC-2000J keyboard in conjunction with the DVR. The built-in 10/100 Base-T network access enables complete IP integration and compatibility. The user friendly design of the VR-616E allows for simple installation and ease of use.

• Reader Service No 101 (or go to www.security-installer.co.uk/enquiries and key in 101)