DVR
Definition
Digital Video Recorder. Takes analog feeds from CCTV cameras over coax (BNC), digitises them inside the unit, and writes to internal HDDs. Common in older Indian retail, banks and police-station setups.
- Full form
- Digital Video Recorder
- Input
- Analogue camera feeds over coax (BNC)
- Storage
- Internal HDDs
- Common use
- Older Indian retail, bank, police-station CCTV
Common questions
How does a DVR differ from an NVR when forensic examiners extract footage?+
A DVR digitises analogue signals internally and typically uses proprietary export tools tied to its firmware, while an NVR receives already-digital IP camera streams over a network, which usually gives more standard file formats but different metadata and time-sync challenges for examiners.
What forensic concerns are specific to extracting footage from a DVR?+
Examiners must verify the DVR's internal clock accuracy against a known time reference, since DVR clocks commonly drift or reset after power loss, and must use the unit's own export function or matching playback software because DVR video is often stored in a proprietary container format.
Related terms
- BSA 2023 Section 63
- Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023 Section 63 (the successor to Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act 1872): the electronic-record certificate that authenticates...
- .Dav File
- Dahua's proprietary container format wrapping an H.264 or H.265 stream plus metadata. Cannot be opened directly by mainstream players; converted with vendor...
- H.264 (AVC)
- The dominant video codec in Indian DVR/NVR fleets in 2026. Compresses using I-frames (full picture), P-frames (forward predictions) and B-frames (bidirectional). Frame-level...
- NVR
- Network Video Recorder. Takes already-digital streams from IP cameras over Ethernet (usually PoE), and writes to HDDs in JBOD or RAID. Standard...
- Proprietary DVR File System
- A vendor-specific on-disk layout, neither FAT nor NTFS nor ext4. Records are stored as fixed-size segment files in a ring buffer with...