Recording to SD Card and NVR simultaneously

[hc02225_520896297398435]

Hi all,

I have a number of RLC-822A and RLC-842A cameras and they are all connected and managed by a NVR.

I have recently purchased and plugged in some 256GB SD Cards for all of my cameras, but unfortunately, I am not able to find a way to check whether videos are being recorded on those SD Cards. On the other hand, I also can't connect directly to the cameras as they have a 172.16.25.xx address via the NVR.

Could you please advise what I can do?

Many thanks.

Warm Regards,
Chun

[Reolink Fiona]

@hc02225_520896297398435 The videos will also record to the SD card if the camera is connected to the NVR.

If you want to check the videos on the SD card, you can connect the cameras to an additional PoE switch, which is connected under the same router as the NVR. In this situation, you can connect the camera to both APP(as a standalone camera) and the NVR. Then you can check the video on the SD card for the standalone camera on the APP.

[hc02225_520896297398435]

@reolink-fiona Thanks, Fiona.

When a SD card is being inserted into the camera, will it start recording to it automatically and in parallel to the NVR?

I took out the SD card after leaving there for a few days but the card is still empty. So I am wondering whether I will need to use the PoE switch method to setup something but it will record to both SD card and NVR simultaneously?

Warm Regards,
Chun

[Reolink Fiona]

@hc02225_520896297398435 Hi, if you haven't initialized the camera at first, the SD card will only record the motion event at default. It will record the motion events both to the NVR HDD and the SD card at the same time. If you want to record the continuous recording, you may need to use the PoE switch and then change the recording setting for the standalone camera.

[kirkwoodgs_540731795124477]

@hc02225_520896297398435 One thing Fiona forgets to mention: If you are using an NVR and don't have a POE injector/switch to allow you to access the camera independently via the Reolink client or app, then you must format the SD card to FAT32 before installation into the camera. The camera is likely incompatible with other formats based on other documentation on the Reolink support site. As an example, the SanDisk 128 GB cards I recently purchased came pre-formatted as exFAT. I reformatted them as FAT32 before installation and the cameras recorded motion video to the cards as expected.

If you have a POE injector or switch, you can access the camera directly via Reolink client or app and format that way. FWIW, you probably won't be able to format the SD card to FAT32 in Windows 10/11 directly or via command line. You'll probably need to download an app to format SD cards >32 GB, which is what I had to do.