Introduction; Dvr Setup - Swann PRO-series User Manual

English
Congratuations on your purchase of this Swann DVR. You've
made a fine choice for keeping a watchful eye over your home
or business. Let's take a moment to talk about some of the
features this DVR offers, and how to get the most out of them.
Oh my, this is a big manual. How long will this take?
Yes, but you won't have to read all of it - you should be up and
running by page 25!
It can take a few hours to connect everything and run through
the setup procedure.
The latter half of this manual is for advanced users only - the
DVR is seriously configurable - the out-of-the-box settings do
a great job in 90% of situations, but some users will want to
get into the nitty-gritty detail, so that information is presented
for those who need it.
The Basic Setup
The default settings of the DVR will cover most basic
installation requirements of the DVR.
To get the most out of your hard drive, we've configured the
DVR to record only when it detects motion - that way, you
won't fill the hard drive with video of nothing happening.
Before installing anything, connect the DVR and cameras
and test your system.
We ensure everything is working properly when we ship
them out, but sometimes things can be damaged in
transport, and occasionally components can fail. Better to
find out now, before everything is fixed in place!
Now with extra "H": 960H and what it means
This DVR is compatible and is intended for use with 960H cameras. What does this really mean?
A traditional CCTV camera operates at a resolution of approximately 720 x 480 (NTSC) or 720 x 576 (PAL) pixels*
and a 4:3 aspect ratio. By extending the image to a widescreen format, 960H technology increases the horizontal
resolution of the camera, thereby increasing the area viewed and the resolution it's viewed at.
See "About 960H Widescreen Videos" on page 10 for more information.
• monitoring a wider area than traditional CCTV cameras could cover at the same detail
•
• for upgrading from traditional CCTV cameras, while reusing previously installed coaxial cables.
*The resolution is approximate as analog video doesn't really work this way. The resolution listed is the equivalent for a standard pixel matrix.
4

Introduction

In general, 960H is best suited:
being displayed on high-definition widescreen televisions/monitors
Getting the DVR Setup
There are three stages to getting your DVR set up. If you want
to use the default settings, you'll only need to complete steps
one and two.
Stage 1. Connecting the DVR (page 6 to page 9)
This section details what you can connect to the different
inputs/outputs of the DVR.
Everyone's setup will vary a little bit - it depends what cameras
came with the DVR (if any) and what device(s) you've already
got.
Stage 2. Basic DVR Setup
The DVR needs a few things to be set properly before it can do
its thing. Follow the instructions from page page 11 to page
24 to get everything working.
3. Optional: Advanced DVR Configuration
The latter part of this manual covers advanced DVR operations.
This DVR comes with all the professional-grade capabilities
you'd expect from a quality Swann product, but many advanced
capabilities require detailed setup to function correctly.
If you're not an advanced user, don't worry. The out-of-the-box
settings really do work well, and we'd only suggest changing
them if you've got a really specific plan in mind.
You'll need to read a page or two of this section if:
• you've got a PTZ capable camera - see page 48.
• you want to alter the motion detection sensitivity or the
areas it applies to (page 42).
• you want to change some of the advanced options for
recording quality and resolution (see page 28).