Given this personal exposure to digital video, coupled with the claims from digital video security system marketing materials, many draw the conclusion that all analog videotape-based security systems are inferior to their digital counterparts. This conclusion couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Recently, a rather large luxury automotive dealership was the victim of vandalism. The perpetrators had been breaking windows and destroying the immaculate finishes of several cars on two of their lots. The lead investigator submitted analog videotapes obtained from the dealership, requesting assistance in identifying the suspects. The results of that analysis showed that the analog video documented the incidents quite well. Yet despite clarification efforts, the base image quality was too poor to clearly identify the suspects or their vehicle.