Soundy

This is what you really need... little pricier, but bumps will never be a problem: http://a-power.com/home-635

"DV" is "Digital Video", and as the name suggests, it's a standard for high-quality digital video recording. "MiniDV" is based on that same video format but simply uses smaller tapes and different compression. The three ports on your firewire card are - ta da! - firewire ports. The actual technical spec for the interface is IEEE-1394; "Firewire" and "iLink" are two common marketing terms for the same thing. Firewire isn't specific to video; like USB, it's a type of data interface used for a wide variety of devices - video cameras and adapters, external storage like hard drives, etc. None of those will work for your CCTV cameras, at least not directly. The cameras output composite analog video; the first thing you need is a capture device that will accept that. *IF* your Radeon card is an "All-in-Wonder" model, it will accpet at least one composite video input. You can probably also connect your camcorder to a firewire port, then feed one of the CCTV cameras into the camcorder's A/V-in jack. I'm not aware of any *multi-input* cards that use a firewire interface. There are several four-input boxes that connect via USB. That won't help you - those just adapt two different connectors for the same type of analog video signal. Here's the thing: if you're building a surveillance video system for security purposes, you really want it to have its own dedicated system. In this case, you're probably best off to remove the firewire card and install a DVR card with the appropriate BNC inputs. If this is a "spare" computer, you presumably have something better that you use for daily work... if it doesn't already have a firewire port or two, you can put the firewire card in that. It will make your capturing go that much smoother, and your editing that much faster.

Without knowing the exact make and model of the DVR, the best anyone here can give you is, "MAYBE." I'd check to see if it has a time-sync function that allows it to sync periodically with internet-based time servers, like time.nist.gov.

Something like this would do the trick, and cheaply: http://cgi.ebay.com/ADVANCED-TECHNOLIGIES-CQ4-VIDEO-MULTIPLEXER_W0QQitemZ230377759478QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item35a395a2f6&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14 I have a half-dozen or so four, nine and sixteen-channel multiplexers sitting on a shelf, from upgrading MUX/VCR systems to DVRs. Lots of other guys are getting growing collections of them as well. Find the right source, and you should be able to get one cheap. Some will still want good coin for them because they ARE still pricey to replace, but some might just want to clear some of them out because their "Supply and demand" market value has dropped so much.

What ground loop issue is that? I would guess he means the ground loop you can get using baluns using multiple cheap 12VDC cameras on a central power supply - since the video and power share a common ground and the baluns effectively add a bunch of length to the video line, you end up with two very mis-matched ground paths. I find the solution to that is simple, though: use 24VAC or dual-voltage cameras... anything with its own built-in regulator/power supply or some other method that breaks the common ground. Edit: now that I think about it... I wonder if inserting a diode - just a basic 1N4001 or something - in line with the power ground would do the trick? Hmmm... Yeah, no problem... like I say, I'd be interested in knowing what they're doing there. Mostly though, just sounds like a slightly new approach to the same ends. Would be interesting to see if there's any significant advantage or if it's just "different".

My guess would be that they've already doubled-up the power leads internally to the balun.

Hahaha, nice, and it still got the plate

Ive looked at the Comart SDK, its okay but I still preferred the one that Geo uses. Comart is widely used though. Also the cards with SDK are much cheaper, not saying that means its not as good. In fact its probably better for developers and hence why people like VI use it. Conexant is only on some Geo cards as far as I know. I know Vigil DOES use other cards besides the ComArts... we have one of their "Pro Series" machines in one site, and the card, its connectors, and its behaviour in the system is quite different. No idea offhand what it's built on, but it's a 960fps/32-input beast. They have no problem selling to Canadians!

Was sent this link today by one of my contacts at 3xLogic... hint: if you're going to break into a place, make sure it isn't the main office for someone who makes and sells high-end surveillance systems! http://www.chtv.com/ch/cheknews/story.html?id=2001409 (Be sure to hit the HD button and go full-screen for the full effect!)

Be interesting to see HOW they do it, but aside from the packaging of it, they aren't really providing any features that aren't already out there - ultimately I'd say whether it's worthwhile will come down to the price of the *system* - both the camera, and the "adapter module" for the other end. If I can get a pair of video-only baluns for $40 and run a regular $200 remote-OSD camera over them using Cat5, then there wouldn't be a lot of incentive to go with their system if it's any more than $250 (yes yes, assuming similar quality of the cameras, etc. etc.)

One of the things I forgot to mention is that this system allows you to do drops as far as 1000 feet. They state in theor documentation up to 750, we piped under a lake at 1050 ft and works like a charm... 1000' is nothing unusual for even cheap passive baluns. What technology specifically, do they claim a patent on? Built-in baluns? Remote OSD? I haven't seen it on a LOT of cameras, but I have seen it on others. Actually, the first ones I saw it on were some other cheap offshore cameras (can't remember what brand they went under) that had a few really neat features (like, they automatically blocked/masked bright light blooms), but had only mediocre image quality and seemed to be of really cheap construction. Of course, it's something that's only of use on cameras that actually have OSD, and there aren't really a lot of them outside of PTZs. Woulda been useful on some CW484s I installed recently...

Pay everyone's tab to the next ISC? No? Just a thought! Seconded!

Possibly, though one thing to note is that GeoVision is the software developer, while a card manufacturer, from last I checked was S. Korea, makes the cards. Still though from what Ive seen and used its one of the best around. Well, Vigil and VI are just the software developers too - both use near-identical cards built on ComArt chipsets (in fact, I've plugged a VideoInsight card into a Vigil DVR and had it "just work"). It's not a factor of the software in this case, but what to me is a design flaw in the hardware. It may or may not be a failing of the Conexant chip design itself, or it might just be the implementation of them on the cards GV uses. Funny thing, the oldest Vigil systems we have in place are P4/2.4GHz-based machines mostly running some level of version 4 of the Vigil software... and despite it not being "recommended" by Camacc because of performance concerns, we have put version 5 on some of those systems and had it run just fine, no bogging or slowdowns. They've got some pretty efficient code going on there!

Well, this is the color coding I normally use... note that I rarely use the all-in-one, RJ45-terminated baluns, as they DO require extra work overall (terminating the Cat5/RJ45s at both ends), plus the baluns cost more than just straight video baluns with no real benefit to that extra cost other than maybe looking a little cleaner. Also, since there's no defined standard as to which wire pairs are used for what signal, you have to use the same company's baluns on both ends. By "doubling up", of course, I mean using both wires of one color pair for each side of the power.

Well on that page, there's a "Send your message to this supplier" section... I'd try contacting them, as the company "Shenzhen Aopvision Tech Co.,Ltd" doesn't appear to have a website of their own, just a bunch of sections in online "malls".

"Enough"?? You can't GET more than 120 combined fps out of a four-channel system. NTSC = 30fps; 30x4 = 120. /facepalm Soundy I can easily prove to you that 2 X 2 = 5 I am not joking That's an easy one.. They are selling a unit that records 480 fields per second. You guys are the ones making unwarranted assumptions about what they meant by FPS. They were being perfectly honest Ah yes, our bad! I don't need that, I have VLC!

Well, we inherited a bunch of GV sites, and I've run into one issue with a GV800 card that I think points to poor design: I had one camera (channel 11) that was noisy and intermittent because of a poor crimp connection, and every time it would drop out, one of the adjacent cameras (channel 15) would drop out as well. If the machine rebooted with that camera down, the other two channels on the same "column" (channels 3 and 7) would take an extra 30-60 seconds to come up as well. This is something I've never seen with the ComArt cards used by Vigil and VideoInsight, and IMHO, a problem on one channel SHOULD NOT be adversely affecting THREE other channels.

Hmmm... without actually taking one of these apart, I'd say it's a pretty good bet that the cameras actually DO use baluns... they're simply built-in. Some Pelco cameras (among others) do this as well (IS-series in particular), but leave a twisted-pair tail for the video rather than limiting you to RJ45 termination. The remote access is nothing special - RS242/422/485 and Pelco D or P protocol to the OSD; a number of other cameras have this feature. Ditto with including the power in the Cat-5 - it's probably just using the other two pairs of wire not used by the video and control, same as with the appropriate balun. I would suspect the only thing "special" about this design is that they probably use a different pinout than other RJ45 baluns, so you have to use their special "adapters" at the other end (probably at a premium price).

Actually, THIS version of phpBB should support "status levels" inherently. The most basic way of doing it assigns different user designations based on number of posts - 0-20 posts is a "noob", 20-100 is a "wannabe", 100-300 is an "expert", 300+ is a "guru"... something like that. Mods/admins can also create and assign custom types to specific users. I'm not sure about this version, but version 3 does have a LOT more control over permissions, where certain users could be given limited mod powers to approve, delete, or edit posts, or different permissions specific to different forums, and so on. I know this version does allow the admin to assign specific people as mods in different forums...

"Enough"?? You can't GET more than 120 combined fps out of a four-channel system. NTSC = 30fps; 30x4 = 120. /facepalm

That's a good point... would be too great a risk of "abuse" there, especially with the "high-tech" cars. I don't think the CASCAR team I worked with even HAD a laptop, not that it would have done them much good, since there were pretty much NO electronics outside the MSD ignition systems in those cars Now THAT is some cool $#!t right there!

Hey Erron, do you know what camera that is capturing that clip? Looks like a 3MP?

Is this it? http://aopvision.en.alibaba.com/sellofferdetail/52296556/Sell_16ch_120fps_DVR_Card_AOP_V8004.html

The problem here is, these cables are not "standard". There is no pre-defined pinout that everyone uses, and so a certain cable won't always work with a certain card. Case in point: GeoVision, Vigil and VideoInsight (to name three that I've worked with) all use these type of breakout cables. However, the Vigil and VI cards use different pinouts than the GV. For example, I connected a Vigil breakout cable to a GV DVR and found that while all the cameras worked *individually*, they weren't in the same sequence (connecting a camera to the input labeled '8', it came up on channel 3 in the DVR). Worse, when I plugged a Vigil DVR in place of a GV system with a full 16 cameras, keeping the GV breakout cables, while all the channels came up, all of them were scrambled and/or noisy, indicating that a different ground configuration is also used. I haven't taken the time yet to tone out the GV cables and see what pins out where, although I do have the Vigil/VI cable toned out... But in any case, the point is, you need the proper cable for the card you're using, or there's a good chance it won't work properly. BTW, if you're searching for such a cable, the proper designation for that VGA connector is "HD15" - High-density, D-sub, 15-pin.

I think you misunderstood my post. No, I was responding to DoorMan's. I agree with your post