Can record straight to a video tape recorder which are able to record analog signals as pictures. If the analog signals are recorded to tape, then the tape must run at a very slow speed in order to operate continuously. This is because in order to allow a three hour tape to run for 24 hours, it must be set to run on a time lapse basis which is usually about four frames a second. In one second, the camera scene can change dramatically. A person for example can have walked a distance of 1 meter, and therefore if the distance is divided into four parts, i.e. four frames or "snapshots" in time, then each frame invariably looks like a blur, unless the subject keeps relatively still.

Analog signals can also be converted into a digital signal to enable the recordings to be stored on a PC as digital recordings. In that case the analog video camera must be plugged directly into a video capture card in the computer, and the card then converts the analog signal to digital. These cards are relatively cheap, but inevitably the resulting digital signals are compressed 5:1 (MPEG compression) in order for the video recordings to be saved on a continuous basis.