Sony IPELA SNT-V704 - video server - 4 channels price and reviews

This device is designed to record & stream up to 4 analog CCTV (analog video) feeds. For recording, I believe you must use software running on a separate PC, though you may also be able to connect a USB hard disk to it, and use that. You can view the cameras with Sony's software, or using Internet Explorer + Java (the web interface uses both an ActiveX plugin and Java). It has analog alarm trigger inputs, and a serial port (for PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) camera control).

You can select a compression format of either MJPEG or MPEG-4, on a per-input basis. Their MPEG-4 quality seems quite good.

Over all, I was fairly impressed with its video quality. Note that you must be running the latest firmware (at least 2.28, I think) - especially if you want good quality at CIF resolution (320x240).

Actuallly, the firmware upgrade procedure is one of the few complaints I have about this device. The lengthy, multi-step process was hampered by poor and inaccurate documentation. Sony needs to work on this and provide better online support (i.e. docs, knowledge base, etc.).

There's now a rackmount option (accessory?). However, this form factor really isn't well suited to large scale installations.

You have the option of 32Mb of on board memory or external flash. Reviewing the data is painful. It is a useful unit for me but only because I spend a lot of time maintaining the thing. Sony should be ashamed.