Can a security CCTV/DVR skip minutes of recording on all cameras?

Black Panther · Sep 18, 2018

Weird question I know.

So one day we found 3 whole minutes of cctv recording missing at work.
The recordings were missing from all 25 cameras, so a faulty camera is excluded.

It is like somebody switched the DVR off, and back on again.

My dad is suspecting foul play from some employee. Is that really likely? Or could there be some other reason like bad sectors on the HDD or anything else?
It's the first time this happened.

droopyRO · Sep 18, 2018

How long dose it take for the DVR to shut down and boot ? if it is ~ 3 minutes, than you might have your answer.

FordGT90Concept · Sep 18, 2018

It has an Event tab in that picture, check if it says anything?

Yeah, check the computer logs at that time too. If it restarted because (for example) Windows forced updates then that note would be in the Event Logs for the machine.

W1zzard · Sep 18, 2018

Wifi/network issue?

Black Panther · Sep 18, 2018

The DVR is an independent unit not connected to any pc, so I guess it shouldn't be affected by any Windows Updates.

Also, all the cameras are directly wired into it. It should keep recording as long as there is power, even if there's no internet or the router is switched off.

The Event Tab only shows that starting at 16:00:04 it recorded for 6 minutes 22 seconds (therefore till 16:06:28).
Then it resumed recording at 16:09:58.

That makes 210 seconds of missing video if I'm counting correctly... which is exactly 3 minutes and 30 seconds?

FordGT90Concept · Sep 18, 2018

None of the cameras leading up to nor after caught anything? I'd be doing investigative work. Figure out who was there at the time and question them separately looking for inconsistencies. Also inventory everything to check for anything missing (especially things only employees have access to like cash boxes and safes).

I can't believe it doesn't log anything about how/why there was no recording. When the store is closed, you can try things to see if you can mimic the missing video.

If two employees were present, both say power was off for a few minutes, unplugging the unit produces the same sort of logs, and logs on computers that were on at the time also say unexpected power loss/restart, then you got your answer (power failure to the place).

Black Panther · Sep 18, 2018

FordGT90Concept said:
power was off for a few minutes

Thing is that the general power never went off. It seems that only the DVR unit was switched off...
Unless it rebooted due to a power surge/spike.

newtekie1 · Sep 18, 2018

Sounds like it is time to have a camera pointed at the DVR to catch anyone walking up to it and messing with it.

That said, I've had these stand alone unit just spontaneously reboot before. Just like any computer, they are prone to random craziness.

Black Panther · Sep 18, 2018

Re-enacted the 'incident', rebooting of the DVR unit takes approx 50 seconds... :ohwell:

rtwjunkie · Sep 18, 2018

Black Panther said:
Re-enacted the 'incident', rebooting of the DVR unit takes approx 50 seconds...

Well, it sounds suspiciously to me like human intervention, then. For whatever reason. I won’t speculate beyond that.

Law-II · Sep 18, 2018

got a cleaner; have known them to unplug items to hover, just a thought

atb

Law-II

qubit · Oct 17, 2018

Reading through this thread, it sounds like a deliberate action by an employee with something to hide. :ohwell:

A camera pointed at the DVR is a good idea imo. A physically hidden one that also doesn't obviously show in the DVR interface even better.

Have you noticed anything missing from the store, maybe? Anything look or feel wrong? I know it's been a while now, but something might come to mind, eg later behaviours by the staff etc.

HTC · Oct 17, 2018

qubit said:
Reading through this thread, it sounds like a deliberate action by an employee with something to hide.

A camera pointed at the DVR is a good idea imo. A physically hidden one that also doesn't obviously show in the DVR interface even better.

Have you noticed anything missing from the store, maybe? Anything look or feel wrong? I know it's been a while now, but something might come to mind, eg later behaviours by the staff etc.

Agreed.

It would be better if said camera runs on a different system, totally independent and, if possible, is hooked up to some sort of UPS to make sure it's on even with power outages (i've never used CCTV myself so dunno if this is doable).

Ahhzz · Oct 17, 2018

I've had a drive fail on an DVR before, but not seen a missing "chunk" from all cameras at the same time. For a standard reboot to only take 1 minute, as opposed to the exactly 3 minutes, 30 seconds, I'd be more inclined to a disconnect of power to the unit, for whatever reason. I agree that there is always the possibility of a DVR crash, but the two times I recall that occurring, the unit went down and didn't come up cleanly.
As a mild echo to above, the log file should show what happened if the machine powered off/on, etc.

remixedcat · Oct 17, 2018

HTC said:
Agreed.

It would be better if said camera runs on a different system, totally independent and, if possible, is hooked up to some sort of UPS to make sure it's on even with power outages (i've never used CCTV myself so dunno if this is doable).

If there's a windows PC on the same UPS and if you got something like APCPowerChute it logs what happend power event wise.

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Can a security CCTV/DVR skip minutes of recording on all cameras?

Black Panther

droopyRO

FordGT90Concept

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W1zzard

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Black Panther

FordGT90Concept

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