Cameras on an modern analog CCTV system send their video in the traditional base band format over coax or UTP cabling back to a digital video recorder (DVR). Here, video is digitized and stored on hard drives. Most modern DVRs can allow the streaming to be accessed remotely from the LAN, or with the proper configuration, from across the internet.

IP or Digital video cameras broadcast their video as a digital stream over an IP network. Like an analog system, video is recorded on hard drives, but since the video is an IP stream straight from the camera, there is more flexibility as to how and where that video is recorded. The DVR is replaced with an NVR (network video recorder), which in some cases is just software since it doesn’t need to convert analog to digital. Video footage can then be stored on hard drives as directed by the NVR software.

Why choose an analog system?

cost is generally lower. Analog in general is lower quality up to 800TVL only (quite pixellated)

What is HDCVI / HDTVI?

These newer technologies allow digital signals to be communicated over COAX cables and thus you are able to use old cables to transmit the data. These are commonly used to upgrade old systems to up to 5MP or even 4K clarity. They are usually more cost effective than upgrading to a completely IP based system.

Why choose a completely digital system?
The data for these cameras are transmitted over CAT5/CAT6 cables instead. They run back to an NVR. They are more complicated to set up, but can utilise IP addresses to pull in data from other camera sources (don’t have to be local)