The monitor and display world is changing every day. Manufacturers are pushing the bar every day to bring higher resolution monitors to the marketplace. Monitors are becoming higher quality, thinner, and more reliable than ever! With the increase of popularity of surveillance, many consumers get confused about the difference between a computer monitor and a monitor used to view CCTV or surveillance video. And although many people do use computer monitors in CCTV applications, the truth is that in many cases do it may be causing your surveillance system to under-perform.
The purpose of a CCTV monitor is to attach it to a security DVR which allows the video that the system is capturing to be viewed. Usually this video is either live video or recorded video that was stored in the past. Most commonly the connection between the DVR and the monitor is made using a BNC cable, VGA cable, or HDMI cable. Once the monitor is in place you can use it to view video or view the menu of the DVR’s software. Since many of the connections of a computer monitor and CCTV monitor match, many people decide to save money and just connect a computer monitor to their security DVR. But in the end the question is does this really help or hurt the CCTV systems performance?
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One of the major differences between a computer monitor and a CCTV monitor is the resolution. The video resolution of a CCTV monitor is usually much higher. The purpose of this is to allow you to watch the surveillance video at the same or higher resolution it is being recorded at. So if you invested in high resolution security cameras, you will never get the quality video they are providing for on a computer monitor. So you will see less detail and less clarity in your video. This really defeats the purpose of buying the highest quality security cameras, which means you are missing out on your systems capabilities.
The biggest difference between a computer monitor and a CCTV monitor would be the purpose and durability. A CCTV monitor is designed to be on and working 24 hours a day year around. The CCTV monitor is always on for security guards, home owners, and business owners to monitor 24/7 video. A computer monitor would simply burn out if you tried to keep it on at all times. Computer monitors are meant to be on for a short amount of time in the day, and the computer often puts them to sleep when you are not actually working on the computer. The reality is that you could burn through a few computer monitors in the amount of time it would take you to burn through just one CCTV monitor.
The cost of CCTV monitors has gone down dramatically over the past 5 years. It used to be thought that adding one to your surveillance system would create unaffordable costs. But today CCTV manufacturers have been able to drive cost down while ensuring that consumers get the high resolution monitors that are built to last. The best way to ensure your surveillance system performs to its highest potential is to always use the right monitor for the job!