For years, video surveillance cameras relied on analog technology. Over the past decade, though, everyone’s been talking about high-definition (HD) cameras, with prices for them dropping every day.
So if you already have an analog system that seems to be working well, what’s the point in buying an HD system? Or if you’re considering getting an entirely new surveillance system, why pay the extra money when an analog system can get the job done too? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?
Analog vs. High-definition
The difference between analog video quality and HD video quality is the amount of information each image contains. An analogue image will still show the same borders, so to speak, but the quality within those borders will be worse.
But for a surveillance system, the decision should be based on more than just which one looks prettier.
So below are two examples of how it could make a difference for you.
[NOTE: Click “Start Prezi” and then use the forward and backward arrows to advance or rewind the presentation.]
In the first example, the one that shows the parking lot, you’ll notice that the overall image is smaller for analog than for HD. That’s because even though both analog and HD can shoot the same borders, the quality within those borders is less with analog.
The second example shows another way to think of this.
In the second example, we see two images, one representing an analog image and the other representing an HD image. You can imagine that both of these images were taken from a considerable distance and zoomed a few times. As you can see, even though the analog image might look okay at the normal distance, once it’s zoomed, the quality deteriorates.
The HD image, on the other hand, contains much more information. As a result, the image quality still looks fairly good even after a significant zoom.
This translates to being able to see the license plate number with the HD example. The license plate looks far too blurry in the analog example.
Which should I get?
When it comes time to choosing analog or HD for your own system, it’s not necessarily a matter of which is better. You also have to consider your budget. If all you need is to be able to see general areas, like if a car entered a lot at a specific time, perhaps analog could work for you. You don’t always need to see every detail.
On the other hand, the upgrade to HD is becoming more and more popular because HD quality is so much nicer but not usually cost prohibitive the way it once was.
Ask a security consultant to demo a comparison for you on your own facilities. (And I happen to know some good ones.) That way, you can get an idea of what exactly you’ll see with each type of system. Hopefully, just getting a sense of the differences from this post will help you be more informed with your decision, whichever way you decide to go.
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