There are too many ways to calculate the required storage capacity for the security camera system, and you don’t have to go through them anymore. What we’re doing this time is plain and simple, so anyone can do it with no experience. We’re going through tools that you can use to estimate the required hard drive or microSD card capacity for your future CCTV system.
Initially, you have 3 options to choose from:
- MicroSD card, if supported by your camera.
- Hard Drive plus Video Recorder bundle;
- Subscription-based Cloud Video Storage;
- There’s also an option to store footage on your PC, but it isn’t a common one, so we skip it.
And we’re focusing on the MicroSD and Hard Drive options – the solution is universal and applicable to both.
So what do we do? We use the Manufacturers’ Tools of those who produce devices for data storage
- Western Digital
- Kingston
- Transcend
- Samsung
- Seagate
- Panasonic
And then we have camera manufacturers:
- Hikvision;
- Dahua;
- Axis;
- Uniview and et cetera.
Online Tools
The first line is the tools available online. Here are the links:
- https://shop.westerndigital.com/tools/microsd-capacity-calculator
- https://shop.westerndigital.com/tools/wd-surveillance-capacity-calculator
- https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/video-storage-calculator/
- https://tools.hikvision.com/calculatorTool/index.html#/
- https://dahuawiki.com/Software/Disk_Calculator
Western Digital: MicroSD
Who produces HDDs, SanDisk microSD’s and the tools for them are different, respectively. The first is the card capacity calculator, and the second is the storage capacity calculator, implying the hard drive. Yep, we need to fill out a form. Your next step is to find a datasheet with your camera’s specs. You can easily do that by just searching the web for your camera’s model name.
Here’s the example with my IMOU Cue 2, so I input its data into the form. My IMOU Cue 2 supports H.265 compression rate, leaving “medium” in video quality, scene activity also would be “medium”. I actually want to know how long it will hold with the continuous type of recording, 24 / 7 days a week. Resolution – my cam is 2 MP 1080p, and it records in 24FPS.
And it’s 7 days of continuous recording, 128 gigabytes, exactly what I need. Also, see the number when I switch to an older compression codec. It makes the number increase by 2 times. I mean, it is so important to pay attention to the compression technology when purchasing a camera. Select newer H.265 instead of older H.264 – the difference is literally enormous.
Western Digital: HDD
Now for the hard drive and video recorder option. Western Digital HDD estimator. I’m inputting one camera, 7 days to store, 24 h. per day H.265 compression, 4 megapixels resolution this time, with medium quality and scene activity, 24 frames per second, and getting just an incredible outcome – 233 GB.
Now let’s find out what we will get with 30 days of recording, and it’s not even a terabyte! Now you can play with these tools, select different parameters, there are really not many of them, but it still can fit in your case.
Seagate Storage Calculator
Although if Western Digital doesn’t suit you for some reason, here is a brief description of all other tools that you can use for free, too. Seagate, a major storage device manufacturer too, and I pretty much like their tool. Here you’ve got a very similar form, pretty flexible, but not really.
Panasonic
Next up, it’s Panasonic’s, which offers a very simple one, yet a pretty good estimator. Quantity, resolution, compression, kb/s rate, which is around 4096 for a 4 megapixel camera, standard 24 FPS, moderate motion in 50%, though it actually won’t affect it much, but let it be. 30 days, and here’s our number: 660 Gigabytes. What I like about this one in particular is that you input the data manually.
Hikvision
And we have come to video surveillance manufacturers. We begin with Hikvision. What’s awesome about this one is that it is assumed that you are calculating your entire project. And yet it’s made very simple. Creating channel 1 here and setting the parameters for it: encoding is H.265 for me, resolution is 4MP 1440p, 25FPS, and 4096 bitrate. Now, lower here my drive’s capacity is 2 TB, then I want 24h. per day recording. I need 1 month, and here’s my total number:
Dahua & Hikvision Downloadable Tools
The last 2 for today are computer software. Hikvision and Dahua offer free storage calculators that you can get from their websites:
- https://www.hikvision.com/es-la/support/tools/destop-tools/storage-and-network-calculator-for-windows/ (link is outdated)
- https://dahuawiki.com/Software/Disk_Calculator
So, if we look a bit closer, you will see that they are just the same as what you just saw in the previous web one, but it’s a “physical” software that you download. No differences anymore, same numbers, same formulas.
