Test Drive
The Mitsubishi DX-TL5000 DVR
Test, text and photos by Vlado Damjanovski © 2006
In this issue of CCTV focus Test Drive we analyse the latest Mitsubishi 16-channel
DVR. Sam Boustani, sales representative for Digital Video Recorders at Mitsubishi
was kind enough to ship us one of the new models of Mitsubishi’s latest DVRs for
our test drive article. The model is DX-TL5000, which is a 16 looping-channel DVR
that runs on a hardware-embedded Operating System.
Mitsubishi Electric is known in CCTV circles as one
of the first companies that introduced the famous
Time Lapse VCR concept over two decades ago.
In fact, the Time Lapse recording concept used in
CCTV is Mitsubishi’s invention.
www.cctv-focus.com
Times have changed and not many VCRs are used
these days in CCTV.
Although there are smaller models (the 9-channel
DX-TL950, and the 16-channel DX-TL2500) the
all new DX-TL5000 is one of Mitsubishi’s attempts
to enter the new digital recording market with a
serious unit. The DX-TL5000 is a 4 RU in height with
dimensions 425 x 390 x 185 mm, weighing over 13
kg.
The DVR can be completely controlled by a USB
mouse and the video outputs are shown on 2 CVBS
monitors, one Y/C and an optional XGA computer
screen. This DVR can also be connected on a LAN
or WAN network and images can be viewed or played
back that way too.
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The compression used on DX-TL5000 is the new
and standardised wavelet type of compression
compliant with the JPEG-2000 recommendations.
Mitsubishi highlights that JPEG-2000 is more
advanced than the original wavelet, offering higher
picture quality, improved data error correction and
an interesting feature of motion detection during
issue 35 - 2006
The TW2804 - A/D chips
Test Drive
An actual exported test pattern in super mode
playback. I think that the Mitsubishi engineers have
made a very wise decision in choosing such an image
compression, so that all the advantages of using
image compression rather than video compression,
are utilised. Importantly, this DVR uses hardware
compression JPEG-2000 chips. The specific type of
chips are Analog Devices ADV202, the same that
we reviewed in issue 30 of "CCTV focus" back in
2004. These are extremely powerful and high quality
JPEG2000 chips and it is of no surprise that the
images look so good.
There are six compression levels used in the DXTL5000: long, basic, standard, high, fine and super. The
field image size is as per ITU-601 recommendations,
720x288 pixels, and when frame mode is used it makes
a full PAL frame of 720x576 pixels. When the lowest
compression “super” (best image quality) is used in
frame mode, the DX-TL5000 produce images which
are very close to the real uncompressed quality. Not
many DVRs that I have tested come as close as this.
This was confirmed with the CCTV Labs TPG-8 test
The DX-TL5000 comes complete with
documentation
pattern generator. Images can be seen reproduced
above. Admittedly, such clarity can only be seen on a
good quality, high resolution CRT composite monitor,
which is typical for most of the high quality DVRs
that work with composite video signal cameras. The
same image when displayed on the optional XGA
monitor output is not as impressive. This should be
quite understandable since any computer video card
that converts PAL video to computer XGA format
The inside guts of DX-TL5000
www.cctv-focus.com
The back panel
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Test Drive
Nice air tunnelling and protection
loses a little bit of that “interlaced magic”, and if the
XGA monitor is of an LCD type (as most of them are
these days) the quality loss compared to composite
output is even more obvious. The moral is, if you
intend to invest in a machine like this, consider using
high resolution CRT interlaced monitor for best image
quality.
A
key advantage of the JPEG2000 image
compression is that it allows for smooth transition
of images in either playback direction. Smooth,
continuous video playback is available not only
in forward but reverse direction, important when
searching for a particular event.
Furthermore, event searches are facilitated by
several key functions; including bookmark searching,
date/time searches, motion detection searches and
alarm-triggered event searches. Up to 8 bookmarked
events can be stored by the DX-TL5000 for later
review.
www.cctv-focus.com
The two composite BNC outputs of the DX-TL5000
allow use of two separate monitors, thus creating a
powerful camera-monitoring setup with double splitscreen capability. Live video and playback footage can
be output separately to the two monitors. Alternatively,
the output from a single camera can be displayed on
both monitors but with a time shift - useful if you need
to check many hours of video.
The mechanical design of the DVR is shown in the
photos here.
Removal of the 3 SATA drives is very easy
in case of failure
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issue 35 - 2006
This is a self contained unit with a built-in DVD
burner and three hard disk drives slotted in the lower
part of the DVR. All disk drives are of the Serial ATA
type and they are easily pulled out in case of a failure
(this is shown in the photos). The interesting but
important part of the Mitsubishi design is that even
though all three drives are in the separated lower
Test Drive
This is how the FSMPlayerLite looks like
deck of the DVR which can be opened from the front
of the machine - there are dedicated cooling fans with
variable speed for this section where the hard drives
are located (in addition to the main fan). The hard
drives of the machine supplied for this test drive were
Hitachi’s Deskstar 250 GB each, Serial ATA type. So,
the machine’s total capacity in our case was 750 GB.
The advantage of using SATA is faster data transfer,
smaller cables, better hard disk firmware and easier
replacement should a drive fail.
When exporting footage on the built-in DVD
burner, the DX-TL5000 automatically inserts a small
executable player FSMPlayerLite (around 1.1 MB
in size) which can be used to play the JPEG-2000
images. The important part is that this is an executable
program, which means it can be played off the DVD/
CD by double-clicking on it, without the need to be
installed on a third party PC. This is very important
for larger organisations and government agencies,
police, security and IT centres where installing any
program on their dedicated computers without prior
approval and checking is not permitted.
www.cctv-focus.com
On the back side of the DX-TL5000 there are
BNCs for 16 camera inputs and also looping BNCs
for the same. There are two BNCs for composite
video outputs, one for Y/C (S-VHS) and an optional
computer XGA screen output. Interestingly enough,
when you have more than 16 cameras, two or
more machines can be connected in cascading
configuration, where video output of one machine can
be made available to another machine using the two
Cascading BNCs. This way it is possible to have any
camera from any DVR displayed on a monitor that is
physically connected to a different box.
There are also 4 serial bus ports at the back and 2
at the front, plenty for most devices and users; two
separate RJ-45 LAN sockets, one for connecting to
the DVR from a web-browser for live monitoring or The above are screen shots from the webplayback and the other for network storage.
browser client available on the DX-TL5000
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www.cctv-focus.com
Test Drive
Various screen shots from the complete management software package DX-PC55
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Test Drive
As you would expect from experienced CCTV
designers, the Mitsubishi engineers have also placed
at the back of the unit, terminals for RS-485/422 PTZ
camera driving, as well as alarm input and output
terminals, one for each camera channel.
Time synchronisation terminals are also available,
like in the old days of VCR and multiplexers - in case
multiple DVRs are used.
At the front panel, the most obvious and useful tool
for playing back is the built-in jog-shuttle on the front
right-hand side. This has two main round knobs, the
outer one used for fast forward and reverse direction
playback, while the inner one is used for searching in
both directions and pausing when released. Once you
become accustomed to it the jog-shuttle is very quick for
finding events during playback.
Selecting split screen modes or extracting particular
cameras from the multiplexed recording is done
reasonably easily using the keypad to the right of the
jog-shuttle for camera selection and the buttons below
it for split screen play-back selection. The same keypad
can be used when searching for a particular moment in
time, although using a mouse for that is also possible
and may be more logical, but it is more time consuming
as each digit is entered by clicking with the mouse over
the appropriate digit.
The DVR soft replica in the DX-PC55 software
www.cctv-focus.com
The above described control is applied when controlling
a DVR directly, using a mouse. I found that in many
installations and especially when more than one DVR
is used, a much more practical and complete control
is applied via client software over the network. Using
a web browser to communicate with the DX-TL5000
is as easy as entering an IP address, login name and
password. Admittedly, on my first attempt it did not work
out because I used Firefox, but the Internet Explorer
worked fine. Screen shot images of what functions are
possible using this web-browser control are shown on
these pages. But with the Mitsubishi’s DVRs not only
is a web-browser control available (which like most
browser controllers are reasonably limited in what they
can do) but there is also dedicated client software called
DX-PC55E.
Photos from some of the menus available on the
composite monitor outputs (mouse-controlled)
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Test Drive
This is a pretty complete application which offers
many of the settings to be inserted using a logical
GUI, and in general I find it more intuitive than the
web-browser application. The actual front DVR panel
graphical replica that is available in the DX-PC55E
package can be used for easy control and it is also
a very attractive design. So, once an operator learns
how to use the DVR with its buttons, they could then
use the GUI replica just as easily. The DX-PC55
allows direct connection to multiple Mitsubishi DVRs
at once and they can be a mixture of any Mitsubishi
DVR model. The users can select different cameras
from each DVR to be displayed at the same time.
Furthermore, using this control the actual monitors
connected to the DX-TL5000 can also be controlled,
thus allowing for system designs where composite
(or Y/C) monitor outputs can be fed back to the DXPC55E client for seamless control. This might be even
more attractive when multiple cascaded DVRs are
connected (up to a total of 16, allowing for systems
with up to 256 cameras to be included in such a
design). The physical appearance of the DX-PC55E is
shown at pages 26 and 27, giving you a glimpse of its
powerful capabilities including the PTZ control.
www.cctv-focus.com
The DX-TL5000 has a very unique method of
setting up the recording mode. There is a fully
automated method, where the machine chooses the
compression level and pictures per second based
on your request (setting) for the recording duration.
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If desired, you could go to fully manual setting and
choose individual camera parameters. These settings,
as well as choosing a field or frame recording mode,
can only be set when the recording is stopped.
Normal recording allows fine-tuning to 6 levels of
quality in addition to adjusting field/frame rates for
individual cameras. Normal recording modes are also
independent of alarm recording. Alarm recording is
divided into two modes of alarm recording - standard
alarm recording and emergency alarm recording.
The standard alarm recording may be triggered by
an external alarm, but also the internal inbuilt motion
detection function. The motion detection has a 22 x
23 matrix setting and allows the user to set 5 levels of
movement sensitivity plus two individual settings per
camera. This allows the user to compensate for night
and day recording as well as adjust for camera quality
or frequency of movement.
There is an interesting long pre-alarm recording
in the DX-TL5000’s design, with 1 second up to 60
minutes of pre-alarm recording available. Recording
settings in this instance may be set individually
and independently for each channel, allowing alarm
recording to take precedence over normal recording.
The alarm recording modes may be configured to
report to operators via email. Up to 5 email addresses
can be accommodated.
Test Drive
The Mitsubishi DX-TL5000 Specifications sheet
Unlike the small and unknown DVR manufacturers
popping up everywhere in Korea, China and Taiwan,
I expect that long term support, spare parts and
updates would be readily available for the DXTL5000 as it is entirely designed and manufactured
by Mitsubishi Electric. I am told that the DX-TL5000
carries a three-year warranty, another important
assurance for Mitsubishi's new customers.
As a general conclusion, I can say that this is a
very well made and promising DVR, delivering high
quality images in full PAL format, which is one of
the most important features for many users. The
machine seems to be very stable and it never failed
to power up after many abrupt powering shut-downs
I performed, usually taking just a bit over 2 minutes.
Its embedded Linux OS is not affected by a possible
failure of a hard drive as it runs from a chip, which is
an important design concept.
The one thing that takes a bit more time than what
I have seen on some other DVRs is the time and
date search for recording, making it a bit slower in
that department. I guess all that it requires is a bit of
practice and getting used to. If the jog-shuttle is used
however, this operation can be sped up considerably.
More practical and much quicker are searches using
the VMD detected object, alarms and reviews made
using Bookmarks.
Other interesting features include the possibility
of connecting two keyboards (KB5) to a TL5000,
allowing two security guards to be independently
controlling the recorder using the separate monitor
outputs A and B. Up to 10 users can be logged onto
the TL5000 using the web server and 5 users using
DX-PC55E software (3 of which can be playing back
footage in addition to the two users directly on the
DVR). The recorder is quoted to record 200 p/s at any
resolution and play back at 100 p/s.
The DX-TL5000 is a very complete machine from
both a hardware and software point of view (no extra
costs for the web-browser and the client software),
and would be ideal for any small to medium sized
CCTV system.
www.cctv-focus.com
Alarm recording data is stored as a protected
partition on the hard drive ensuring data integrity.
This partition size is user-configurable. To further
increase recording reliability, the DX-TL5000 offers an
array of active mirror recording modes. Data may be
mirrored on the internal hard drive array or extended
to external storage through the USB connection.
Mirror recording modes offered include full mirroring
or partial mirroring, whereby data from the internal
hard drives may be copied across different external
hard drives.
Mirror recording on the DX-TL5000 closely replicates
the functionality of RAID-based devices, without the
associated complexity and disadvantages.
For further information visit Mitsubishi's web site
http://www.mitsubishielectric.com.au. [•]
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