This covers pretty much all IP based CCTV systems. There is a lot of misleading from what I have seen on YouTube. I attend to watch Security Camera reviews and in the comments I see a lot of people asking about SD Cards and storage so this is to clear things up.
This really depends on the Camera. Higher the megapixels, frame rate recording, Analytics and how it’s deployed impacts storage.
SD Cards
Most Cameras cap off at 128GB or 256GB for SD Card storage. They are not meant to be used as primary use for recording. They are used as redundant storage and sometimes used for any analytics the Camera uses. They wear out kinda fast too. A SD Card can only be written onto so many times before it gives up. For a example when I did my house I did the SD Card route and they lasted six months before I got a NVR. I swapped out the SD Cards to be used as a redundant storage solution. It doesn’t matter if you use H.265, dial down the FPS and change the video quality to save space. If anything you’ll gain a day of record time but the SD Card will still wear out. Not to mention you’ll only get anywhere from 1 day to 5 days of record time before it writes over it. This is also why you don’t see a NVR using a SSD, they wear out also.
NAS (Network Attached Storage)
These work fine but you need to use drives that are labeled for CCTV use. You have to remember a Camera is always rolling 24/7 and it is writing to that drive or drives.
NVR (Network Video Recorder)
Avoid buying a NVR that doesn’t come with a hard drive. Few reasons, you’ll be spending the “savings” for a CCTV style hard drive. You’ll have warranty issues. I’ve heard of Amcrest not honoring warranty because a person used a cheap hard drive. Try and match the NVR to the Cameras. So for a example you want Reolink Cameras then get a Reolink NVR as well. You can mix up different Cameras with different NVRs but it’s not simple plug and play most of the time and you need to make sure the NVR and Camera both support ONVIF.
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