A. H.264 is the newest and most advanced method of video compression.

Q.  What's so great about H.264?

A. With H.264 you'll be able to achieve Full D1 resolution (704x480) and a file size much smaller than MPEG-4.  Most importantly, with H.264 your DVR system will record 30 frames per second per channel regardless of how many cameras you use.

Q.  How much more would an H.264 file be compressed compared to an MPEG-4 file?

A.  An H.264 video file at Full D1 Resolution (704x480) would be less than one third the size of an MPEG-4 file at 640x480 resolution.

Q.  With higher compression and higher frame rates, does this mean I have to sacrifice image quality?

A. Absolutely not.  The H.264 compression format is so advanced that you can actually get higher frame rates, more compact files, and better image quality.  Just see for yourself.

Keep in mind that the images above have not been enhanced and/or altered in any way.  These images are actual screen shots of each of the two systems captured from identical Sony Super HAD cameras.

Q.  What is hardware compression and why is it such a big deal for H.264? 

A. Okay, I should explain one thing before I go off on the hardware stuff.  Basically, your camera is going to pick up images very rapidly.  It will then transmit those images to your DVR as an analog signal.  Your DVR then has to process that analog signal which consists of converting the analog signal into digital information, compress the data, then storing into a hard drive.

     The problem with software compression is that, software compression is basically a program written onto the hard drive which is then transferred to your RAM (Memory).  From there your DVR uses a CPU (Processor) along with the program in the RAM and works to process the video images from your cameras.  The problem with this is, modern computers, although seem very fast, aren't fast enough to process more than roughly 200 total frames per second.  Which means if you have a 12 channel surveillance system, your DVR will only be recording about 16.66 frames per second.

     With hardware compression, that program that was originally stored in the hard drive, is programmed into a special chip that will be embedded onto the digital video capture cards itself taking a lot of the stress off of the processor.  This way, your DVR's processor just tells the card what to do and relaxes the rest of the way.  Which is why with H.264 hardware compression, you're able to achieve 30 frames per second per channel regardless of how many channels you're running.

Q.  What is the most channels you can run in a single system with the H.264 platform? 

A. You can run up to 64 Channels to be exact.  Which means a total of 1920 frames per second over the single system.

Q.  Is it possible to run H.264 compression as software compression. 

A. Yes it is possible, but in that case the only benefits you would get out of H.264 are better picture quality and no motion blurring.  You would still only get 120FPS across the system.