What is HD-TVI CCTV?

Last summer, amid much excitement, we announced that we were launching HD-TVI CCTV systems on our website. TVI CCTV offers much better picture quality compared with traditional analogue CCTV and operates over standard, low-cost RG59 cables. Within the context of a number of competing new HD CCTV technologies terms such as ‘HD-TVI’ can seem confusing, so what is it all about?

History of HD-TVI

HD-TVI stands for High Definition Transport Video Interface and was developed by Techpoint Inc., based in Silicon Valley. As imaging technology developed and HD technologies started to become commonplace in all areas from television to home video cameras a variety of HD CCTV technologies emerged. Traditional analogue systems had reached their limit with cameras advertised with 1000 TV lines still failing to capture the amount of detail consumers were demanding. A number of formats were released: analogue formats including AHD, HD-CVI and HD-SDI and the digital IP systems that use network cables to transmit data. When released by Techpoint, HD-TVI was heavily adopted by manufacturers worldwide, such as Hikvision.[1]

TVI is an open technology (unlike HD-CVI) and its basis is relatively simple. TVI works by taking digital images and data and converted it into analogue signals that can transmit over long distances on standard coaxial cables.

Advantages & Disadvantages of HD-TVI

• Easy to upgrade existing analogue systems using the same coaxial cables
• 720p/1080p HD video resolution
• 3-way cable – video, data and audio on one cable
• No visible quality loss
• No delay
• Long distance transmission (up to 500m)
• Currently limited to 1080p resolution

For those with existing analogue CCTV systems but are looking to upgrade the chief benefit is that TVI is low cost and relatively stress-free to implement. Because TVI uses standard analogue coaxial cables no especially expensive cabling is required: just the cameras and recorder. With this you can instantly enjoy improved 1080p HD sharp video with true colours. The benefits of this are, for example, that crucial details such as facial features and vehicle registration plates can be accurately captured and recorded.

Another advantage is that HD-TVI does not suffer from any visible quality loss even over distances up to 500m such that cameras can be placed away further from the recorder without the risk of losing picture quality. Furthermore, TVI provides latency-free transmission so does not share the same delay issues that occur with IP systems that suffer from processing latency. This ensures instant live previews, which can prove crucial in time-constrained situations such as robberies.

The only disadvantage is that currently you cannot expect to see resolutions greater than 1080p with TVI, although this is set to change in the future. In the meantime, if you are looking for specialist systems that can handle camera resolutions greater than 2 megapixels, then your only choice is IP.

TVI compared with other formats

Table 1 – comparison of analogue HD CCTV formats[2]

Overall HD-TVI provides the best performance and flexibility. TVI produces the best images, has the best transmission distance and is also compatible with IP cameras. With other systems there is in each case some form of compromise. It is also important to note that Dahua, the manufacturer behind HD-CVI, has accepted defeat against both TVI and AHD and are now adopting both technologies.

Therefore, with the best feature set and most convenient implementation TVI offers better quality imaging all at an affordable price.

Systems Available

The good news is that professional HD-TVI are now widely available. With bullet cameras, dome cameras and powerful HD recorders available it is now both affordable and convenient to upgrade to an HD CCTV system.

For our latest professional HD CCTV systems click here.

[1] http://www.techpointinc.net/about_us.html

[2] http://www.supercircuits.com/lp/compare-hd-analog-video-formats