FranciscoNET

I think that you have a case of a unstable software for the current platform you chose to run it at.

First, read the minimum system requirements for the product you are running. Most DVR Card software requires that your mainboard's chipset be of Intel type, Via or SiS MIGHT work, but not as stably as Intel.

If that is not the case, then try doing a test on another system with the right spec's and see what you get.

Also, based on my experience, Windows VISTA and Surveillance software does NOT mix. Windows Vista consumes excessive amounts of system resources. Not to mention that the version of the swann software that you might be running may not be meant for Windows Vista, but XP only. Try going to the manufacturer's website and see if they have an updated version that works well in Vista.

Also, that quad core processor system you got for your swann DVR card is overkill if you ask me for. a Pentium 3 is enough for that software and card that records at only 320x240 unreal time , specially if its a 4CH card. That older system you had it in that you claim that it was a bit outdated was probably the right platform for that software (you dont need anything super fast for that entry level basic software (swann) you are running).

If that quad core system you have that is running Vista is the 64 bit version of Windows Vista expect more problems and may be the cause or one of the causes of the symptoms you are describing.

What ever used to run 100% fine under 32bit 2000 or XP not necessarily will run 100% fine under Windows Vista (ESPECIALLY the 64 bit version).

As I already pointed out, a good portion of this cost goes to after-sales support - updates, technical support, etc. - it's not JUST the hardware and software costs.

The software and the card is what I needed, not the technical support, other people might need the technical support, but I think that prices should be ranged according to the individual needs, for example, there should be at least two price sets, one that includes the software, card and technical support and the other that includes just the software and card. Because in my situation I am a professional computer engineer, I know how to figure things out my self (just like I did with the QX2006 software I am currently using), I dont need to or should be forced to pay a hefty premium for tech support if I dont need it. For people that knows what they are doing, almost 100% of any cards available out there is installable without scientific struggles (just insert that PCI device, install the software, drivers, format 2nd partition, set software to record to that partition, set quality, motion detection, etc etc pretty much can be done by any one) the only technical support is making sure that you make sure that your mainboard is Intel chipset based for maximum compatibility and stability.

You may also claim that paying software developers are too expensive, but I dont think thats a good excuse either to charge too much, because unlike a vehicle that needs to be fabricated from scratch per each sales for each individual, a software just needs to be coded once and then it can be sold a million times (copies)

Who ever developed QX2006 did a masterful job, the software is extremely stable, the DVR can stay on for months without requiring a reboot, it doesn't hang my system and that software was included in a card that I paid no more than $80.00 (shipping is included there)

I would like to give thanks to Soundy for at least trying to give us answers in regards to the type of software we are looking for. However, in my case, I have found the prices for the two suppliers to be prohibitive for our situation, and any other sellers I have researched that seems to closely be selling almost what I am looking for, also their prices are too prohibitive. I even got an email offer from another vendor promising to give me a 4CH DVR card that records in true H.264 or MPEG2 format for $1,100 (I didn't even bothered to reply) so therefore I wont commit to them.

I have made a few undocumented discoveries regarding my current DVR software "QX2006.exe" that greatly perfectionizes the video quality of the recorded images. Since this is a bit off topic for this thread, I have started a new thread as a general information so it can serve as a good help for other QX2006 users. The name of the thread is:

"QX2006.EXE USERS TIP, Undocumented Features Disclosed"

cctvforum . com/viewtopic.php?t=17772

If you are like me, that dont got $x,xxx to be giving away to a company or person for a DVR card and would like to push your $25.00~$80.00 dvr card beyond its limits, and are using a QX2006 compatible card, then the following shall benefit you:

There's many (undocumented) discoveries that I have made regarding the QX2006.exe DVR program, I will state them here in case if there are more users using the QX2006 software for their card(s), they can improve the recording quality with my tips:

Based on my attempts to improve the existing QX2006.exe software in any way that I could in the attempts to get the results that I was trying to obtain, I made the following observation. In the main working directory of QX2006 there is a folder called "SysConfig", inside that folder, there is an important file called "ProFile.ext", this is the configuration file for this program, since I wasn't happy with the quality of the image I was getting I needed to some how improve the bitrate. When I opened the ProFile.ext file I concentrated on the following block:

[8 Chn Options]

Quality_0=4

Quality_1=5

Quality_2=6

BitRate_0=600

BitRate_1=400

BitRate_2=256

FrameRate_0=10

FrameRate_1=12

FrameRate_2=14

Width_0=352

Height_0=288

Width_1=352

Height_1=288

Width_2=352

Height_2=288

NQuality_0=5

NQuality_1=6

NQuality_2=7

Note that this block begins with "[8 Chn Options]" because I have a 8CH card, those that have more or less must go to their corresponding blocks such as 4CH, 16CH, 24, 32, etc...

We are going to first concentrate on the following lines:

BitRate_0=600

BitRate_1=400

BitRate_2=256

This represents the three "quality" choices the software gives you on the GUI. "BitRate_0" is mapped to "Excellent", while "BitRate_1" is mappend to "Good" and finally "BitRate_2" is mapped to "Standard"

I changed BitRate_0's value from 600 to 2000

I changed BitRate_1's value from 400 to 1000 and

I changed BitRate_2's value from 256 to 500

Since I am using Choice BitRate_0 (which is the Excellent Quality Setting under the GUI) I am now recording at a bitrate of 2000

Then I went to the following section:

Quality_0=4

Quality_1=5

Quality_2=6

and I changed the value for Quality_0 from 4 to 1

This means that I will now be recording at a Key Frame Interval of 1 (the lower the number is, the better it is)

Then I changed the frame per second rate to 9 if I would like to be able to "search" videos at a 16x speeds because my DVR is a Pentium 4 3GHz (Non Multicore) If you have a dual core Pentium processor you may play around with thie frames per second field with a higher value to see how it goes with you, but in my case, putting 10 in there caused my program to search recorded videos at 8x max speeds even though I clicked 16x because I maxxed out my CPU potentials due to the higher bitrate)

FrameRate_0=9

FrameRate_1=9

FrameRate_2=9

The above is the configuration section for the Frames Per Second, showing that I changed it to 9 fps.

Below is the resulting new changes for my configuration file:

[8 Chn Options]

Quality_0=1

Quality_1=5

Quality_2=6

BitRate_0=2000

BitRate_1=1000

BitRate_2=500

FrameRate_0=9

FrameRate_1=9

FrameRate_2=9

Width_0=352

Height_0=288

Width_1=352

Height_1=288

Width_2=352

Height_2=288

NQuality_0=5

NQuality_1=6

NQuality_2=7

Then I saved the file and started the QX2006.exe application again. I then noted that the recordings, even 3.3x greater in its file size, was so clear that I was able to almost identify everyone that walked by my cameras, even though the software is recording at 352x288 resolution, but it is now doing it with a very good bit rate with ZERO garbage like background effects like it was happening before. Now I am very happy with what I am getting here.

The bitrate quality plays a MAJOR role in the quality you will be getting in the recordings, it is not just resolution dependent.

ONE THING that you cannot do is up the resolution to anything higher than 352x288 in the configuration file because if you do so, you will get a Blue Screen of Death when you try to run QX2006.exe so for this reason, make a backup copy of the file ProFile.ext first in case if you do a mistake. If you did this, and you had QX2006.exe automatically starting each time that PC turns on, you will need to reboot Windows 2000/XP in save more and reverse that change.

In my observation, in some cases, it is better to record at 352x288 at a really good bitrate, than to record at 640x480 at a very poor bit rate.

So, to be cost effective, I will stay (for now) with my Phillips 9Bit based $80.00 QX2006 card since I am getting an excellent picture now.

I would really love to record at 1080P HD resolutions. I would then be burning my evidences on Blue Ray Discs instead of DVD's I would just hate to even imagine what the costs going to be per HD cameras.

If I were you, I wouldn't purchase CMOS cameras because they tend to produce bad video quality, specially on low LUX levels (dawn, night, poor illumination) you will notice the "reddish" snowy background effect on the screen. I only purchase CCD cameras, CCD produces the best image quality.

If you decide to stay with your CMOS cameras, then you will need alot of illumination if you want to get a decent picture. If it is an outdoor camera, try putting extra outdoor powerful lights, you will only improve the picture, but not perfectionize it.

It is said that CMOS looks optimal with excessive sunlight while CCD requires substantial less sunlight. In my case, I ONLY use cameras with the CCD sensor since it looks cinematic down to night time, specially those SuperHAD Infrared cameras, I like the high quality theater like picture they produce at night and day.

Hope this help.

cctv_pro_installer: I think that if the video is proprietary to the point of it needing only a special codec to be installed causing the video to be played back with nothing but Windows Media Player, then this means that VLC, Nero Showtime, Windows Media Classic, Power DVD, etc shall be also to play it back if Windows Media Player can read it. Therefore, in my case, the most likely thing that would happen if I try to use my NERO VISION software to create a DVD "movie" disc is that nero would automatically "convert" it to a proper MPEG2 DVD video format before burning that disc, (with a fast processor the waiting time is almost nothing). If I found a D1 card that only required a special codec to be installed before the video can be played so it can properly "interact" with my other tool sets that I paid a premium for it, such as NERO VISION, etc. Then I wouldn't be complaining and spending countless of hours searching for my D1 qualifying DVR card.

Thanks soundy,

If 3xlogic or the other supplier that you listed doesn't employ proprietary formats into their cards, then I will purchase it from them provided that it records in full D1 resolution, but it has to be reasonably priced as well (the seller is not going to pay his rent just off me).

In my experience, I have seen sellers price their 4CH DVR Card for up to $1,200 Where do they get their prices from? These cards run with the BTTV 8x or Conexant 9 or 10 bit chip set, the same chip sets the ebay sellers are selling them for about 50/100 dollars rough.

I will be in contact with your suppliers to see what are their prices first.

Thanks anyways

In Ebay, the seller should state if their DVR cards uses proprietary formats or not, Let them say its PROPRIETARY when its PROPRIETARY or MPEG/DIVX/H.xxx OR XVID when its MPEG/DIVX/H.xxx OR XVID,

proprietary variations of MPEG/DIVX/H.xxx OR XVID that can only be understood by their unique executable software doesn't count and I will just complain that the ad wasn't properly described when the product ships and the facts are then understood like many customers are doing lately.

AMEN!! " title="Applause" />

I couldn't have said it better my self.

In today's world, where everything needs to be described properly, Ebay sellers should take their time to properly analyze their product to make sure that how they are describing it properly fits the image of the product the customer is about to receive.

I too had my temporary joy of being able to record at D1 resolution, but then I had my utmost displeasure of having to deal with the proprietary format (mines too ended with *.dvr and took an eternity to convert), then I went back to Ebay and purchased another card. This one, the Ebay seller said its VGA quality, fine, so I though that I was going to be recording at 640x480 lol little did I knew that 640x480 was only the DISPLAY resolution, not the recording one which currently its 352x288 QVGA. At least I took my time to send a message to the seller to ask him if this card was proprietary or not, and he said that it wasnt to I purchased it. The QX2006 software it self is super stable, I can take footages and with a program I have called NERO VISION I can burn my DVD's and just hand that over to the requesting party in less than 10 minutes, if they request 4 hours of recordings, in less than 16 minutes I shall have my DVD playable back product burnt, I bet no one can top that with their fancy, but proprietary software.

cctv_pro_installer: I am currently scouring the internet in search for a qualifying vendor and if by then no one has given us a satisfactory answer as to where to go, I will let you know, but I promise that I will make 100% sure of all the facts if I get to find the info before I let you know. (its hard to search when manufacturers thinks that proprietary and non-proprietary is the same thing thus they dont immediately say, when its not true), you tell me if a horse and a vehicle is the same thing, they both can take you to places, but only the vehicle can do so in 200+MPH (that's my taking when comparing proprietary (horse) vs non-proprietary (vehicle))

Hi,

I am searching for a new DVR Card for my PC DVR Server, it can be either PCI or PCI-Express as long as it meets my requirements.

Here are my requirements:

1. MUST RECORD at full D1 resolution, or 640x480 VGA as minimum.

2. Must NOT record using a proprietary video formats, such as the ones that popularily ends with *.dvr or the self playing *.exe or the *.umv , etc formats I want a DVR software that can DIRECTLY record to an industry standard AVI format or MPEG, it can use the H.264 codec for better compression and space savings. (with K-Lite codec packs I can then play back these H.264 recorded videos on any computer or even create DVD's using Nero Vision our of my footages)

3. Must have remote access capabilities.

4. Must have a Playback speed greater than 8x (I have seen players with speeds of 4x as its max -- good luck searching for 1 hour+ worth of footages at 4x!)

5. The DVR Card must be cost effective.

I must reiterate, I do not want the software to record using proprietary video formats, I do not want to have to DEAL with proprietary formats. I will only go as far as H.264 that NERO Vision seems to understand fine. I do not want to spend 2 hours converting 15 minutes of footage from proprietary source to AVI, for me that is plain stup*d, why not record into an "understandable" format in the first place rather than giving all that pile of head aches to the user??

My current "old" card that I have here, runs using the QX2006.exe software that records directly in an AVI format that even Windows Media Player directly understands (after running mpeg4codec.exe or K-lite Codec Pack on the target PC, then NERO Vision recognizes it fine). The only problem is that it records at 352x288 QVGA and its now time for me to move to 640x480 or D1 recording res, given that fact that all of my cameras are 540TVL and would like to take full advantage of all that resolution. But I want to do it the same way, using open standard video formats, just as QX2006.exe has been doing it perfectly fine all this time, when a police officer comes to me, the officer doesn't even need to wait more than 7 minutes after making the request (regardless the requested duration), I always have the DVD done and burnt into a format that can be played back in a standalone DVD player. If I would had to convert from a proprietary video format first, It would have take hours, the officer would not probably wait for all that time for me to be done, it would have been a hassle, and that's what I dont want. I am moving to a newer technology, newer resolution, and of course, better speeds, I am not about to fall 8 years behind during the process by adopting a proprietary crap that is only meant to take away my speeds and time of doing work. -- I do lots of evidence extractions, and proprietary would be a nightmare for me.

My budget for this card is $200.00 max

If there is multiple offers, I will go for the lowest qualifying one, in terms of price.

***Your price must be competitive

I have observed that some hard drives comes with different jumper settings as their defaults and I have observed that different mainboards behave differently with different jumper configuration on the hard drives.

For example, Brand X hard drive might come preset to "Cable Select" on the back of the hard drive, while Brand Y hard drive might come preset as "Master" in the back of the hard drive. Maybe, your particular stand alone DVR might not support hard drives that has been set as "Cable Select" in the back, if that's the case, you will need to remove that jumper and place it as "Master" and try again.

Also, watch for hard drives that has "Master if Slave Present" option, those hard drive expects that you remove the jumper pin all together and leave it jumperless if there wont be any Slave drive within the same IDE channel and this is true for some stand alone DVRs, there can't and there is no SLAVE drives capability within that DVR's mainboard as its IDE channel was meant for only 1 IDE device (Unless the DVR comes with a DVD burner, even tho on some models that comes like that, it comes with TWO dedicated IDE channels, one for Hard drive, and the other for DVD, in which case both IDE devices gets to be set as MASTERS within their jumper sets)

Ok, the Wave P actual PCI(e) card is one of the cards that I am considering, but that is after I have completely given up on my current cards that I have here. My current cards are able to RECEIVE images at D1 resolution and display them on my screen at that resolution, its just the software that came with it that thinks that I should not be able to record higher than QVGA!

I am still battling with this issue, trying many tweaks, fighting with google . com to see if I can get a compatible driver, etc, etc... I have NOT given up yet

So far, I have made the following observation regarding the wave-p sotware. After I was able to get it to execute after installing the wave-p drivers to my existing cards (even though no images did show up on the DVR.exe software) I played a little with the options DVR.exe has to offer. One thing I discovered after I clicked on their playback option is that some how, any images that software is able to obtain is encoded into a proprietary video format ending with the following file extension: *.dvr that can ONLY be played through their proprietary video player. I also did an observation that the videos can be "converted" to a standalone *.exe file for easier portability (I guess for evidence analyzers using Macintosh computers, they can forget about being able to playback wave-p recorded videos since *.exe can only run on windows compatible PC's), aside from that, on my current (QX2006.exe) software, even though it has a maximum recording resolution of 352x288 pixels, it records in an open industry standard video format of MPEG that can easily be dumped into NERO VISION to create custom DVD's that can be playable on standalone DVD players (many police officers have found that to be highly convenient and confortable for them, specially since most police offices aren't computer experts.

I have done many installations locally within my friend's stores and houses using this same exact cards, and when anything happens that images needed to be send to police officers, I remotely assist them in creating their own DVD compilations using Nero Vision 7.xx a very good DVD Mastering software, all then what they have to do is furnish the DVD Video to the police, they can play them back with their stand alone DVD players on their regular TV and from there (they can also take the DVD video and put it in their (PC's or Macs) for the purpose of taking a PRINT SCREEN capture of any frame for the purpose of printing, web, etc....

All that, that I have just explained seems that can't be done with wave-p's DVR.exe software since everything is proprietary. A local CCTV seller here within my neighborhood spoke against proprietary video formats to me saying "when it comes down to furnishing evidences to polices offiers, its a problem", (unless they got the time for me to "train" them in how to do special "highly advanced" tricks with the resulting *.DVR or *.EXE video files these programs seems to be outputting (they could always use a program called Camstasia or other to do a screen shot video recording as the video is being played back from the *.EXE or *.DVR files through the proprietary program, but do you honestly see your regular police officers capable of doing something advanced like that? I am also a system's engineer, I have repared computer systems from many police offices, and all of them seems to have trouble even sending emails, let alone expect them to maneuver them selves through these proprietary video format.

Is there any reason why most DVR's softwares records only on painful proprietary problem causing video formats?

I guess that with wave p. I would be trading my convenience of being able to master my own DVD's with my favorite DVD mastering software with the capability of being able to record in VGA format.

I guess for now I have the following option:

Continue using my QX2006.exe software, recording everything in MPEG format, in 352x288 pixels, being able to burn my OWN easy viewable with fancy menus DVD's

**OR**

Purchase a wave-v card, being able to record in D1 resolution (720x480), everything gets recorded in a *.DVR file for which I would have the honorable option of converting these *.DVR videos to stand alone *.exe for other Windows users being able to see, and forget about stand alone DVD discs as NERO doesn't recognize *.DVR files or stand alone *.EXE (executable) videos, I guess my DVD's mastering would be all over here.

Here is my current position:

I am willing to purchase a new DVR card (PCI or PCI Express) if I have to, for the benefit of being able to record in true D1 resolutions, BUT I want, what ever software comes with that other DVR card, to be able to have the option to record in an industry standard video format, so I can simplify the lifes of many people that depends on these types of regular video formats.

Is there such as card?? If so, please point me to them and I shall be a happy customer, if it is priced reasonably. (I will give higher priority to cards posted on Ebay since anything sold on Ebay is subject to a very high level of competition and can't be over priced without the risk of not being sold).

Thanks.

Sinec I was not yet able to get DVR.exe to fully work with the drivers that was supplied with wave-p, I did the following.

I browsed through the QX2006 sub directories and I noticed a folder called SysConfig and I opened the file ProFile.ext under notepad, this is what came up:

[8 Chn Options]

Quality_0=4

Quality_1=5

Quality_2=6

BitRate_0=800

BitRate_1=450

BitRate_2=320

FrameRate_0=13

FrameRate_1=18

FrameRate_2=22

Width_0=352

Height_0=288

Width_1=352

Height_1=288

Width_2=352

Height_2=288

NQuality_0=5

NQuality_1=6

NQuality_2=7

I manually updated all instances of 352 to 640 and all instances of 288 to 480 and I saved the file. then I started the QX2006.exe program again and I got a blue screen of death complaining something about the driver QX2006.sys that came up in the first line. I restarted the PC, QX2006.exe started up automatically, loaded my modified ProFile.ext file and the cameras came up just for a split second and then I got the same Blue Screen of Death. I had to restart the computer in safe mode to preven the program from starting up automatically and I had to revert back the values to 352x288 on the file ProFile.ext, save it and restart the computer to get the program working back in normal order.

If I can, just some how, get QX2006.exe to record in 640x480 I will be fine as that is the ONLY complain I have with that program, besides that, its a very stable program that never freezes with a great amount of weeks of uptime duration (the DVR server has been up for about 8 weeks without a restart needed and the software works perpetually fine, just the 352x288 recording resolution is bugging me.

Thanks

I have a somewhat similar card , a 4 chip 4 channel card that I got from geeks dot com. It too came with a rather badly hacked version of QX2006 that I didn't care for. I stumbled upon this completely by accident: I was looking at reviews from purchases made from Amazon. A guy bought a Sabrent card and commented that he has software and upgrades available from wave-p . I went to the wave-p link and they have downloads available there with phillips drivers and their WAPA software. The file that worked for my card was 9808+1408_en_V8.2.zip. They have other versions available. Your mileage may vary. Also--it records in 640x480

Thanks for your suggestion. I did what you said, I downloaded the file 9808+1408_en_V8.2.zip off wave-p's download site.

I installed the drivers, the drivers got installed fine and the device started successfully. When I ran the DVR.exe program that came with the installer, the program starts fine (was able to detect the driver loaded), but I get no video. All 8 channels says "No Video" despite that there IS video.

Is there any other drivers I could try. I think I might be getting closer. Howere, this was the same result I was getting with the Philips SAAxxxx generic drivers as well = no picture.

Hi,

I have purchased alot of these QX2006 8CH DVR Cards from Ebay about 1 year ago. Now, the problem is that, even tho its a great card, has a very nice motion detection sensors that works really well with about 1% or less of false positives per day and a great remote viewing app, it has a display resolution of 640x480 per channel, BUT a recording resolutoin of 352x288 MAX per channel.

Now, the thing that I dont understand here is:

If this 9bit Phillips card itself can process and send 640x480 VGA videos to my computer's RAM for then to be processed by my CPU and then finally be sent to my display screen and the software is receiving these live feeds directly from my DVR card, then WHY can't the software also RECORD in that same quality? I have 3 D1 quality high resolution cameras in my house, BUT I am only recording at 352x288, thats insane! Who uses QVGA (320x240 ~ 252x288) now these days??? As a result, I am not getting the quality I am looking for, people's faces look kind of blurred, sometimes you MIGHT be able to get a positive identity, depending now far the person is from my cam. (I had to even put a 12MM (zoom) lens to cam#2 in my main outside camera pointing directly to my outdoor entrance main door fence just to increase the positive identification of anyone that passes at that point, in assitance to my other camera (#1) with a 90 degree lens covering the whole area of my garage and street view)

I have downloaded a couple of different drivers, such as:

Phillips SAA7134 (supposely it is compatible with most of the phillips based DVR cards and turners out there)

I installed it and the driver starts up the device successfully, but then when I download a simple application such as AMCAP to see if the video feeds can be seen by that app, nothing shows, just a black screen even though AMCAP successfully identifies my "phillip" video device.

So far I have not been lucky in getting a third party "generic" software in working with my DVR card. I need a software that can record in VGA mode to take full advantage of my DVR card and, or course the high resolution capabilities of my cameras.

Here is a bit of information regarding what came with my "QX2006" DVR card:

the driver file is: QX2006.SYS

the information file is: QX2006.inf" these are the two files I need to install the driver for each channel.

The main executable of the DVR software is: QX2006.EXE

The software does have quality controls settings, such as

High

Medium

Low

I have set it to High, compression bit rate I set it to the highest one I find.

For this crappy software, High settings means 352x288 and low means something like 160x120

I have struggled in also finding other DVR cards in many sites, also in ebay that records in 640x480 VGA resolution, but so far I have not been pleased with the results, the price is so prohibitive (higher than $800 for 4 CH). While the cards that I have I paid $99 for them.

Can any 1 help me find a good compatible software so I can take full advantage of my VGA card so I can RECORD IN VGA? (not just display?)

Thanks!