CCTV Computer

[McJannet 0]

I've got my Inspiron 5160 mP4, 3.02 GHz, 512 Mb, 32 Mb video card whose CPU max's out when three ACTi IP cameras set on 1.2 Mbps MPEG-4 each are streaming to the ACTi software.

 

So I need to put together a better system, but what is important for decoding the MPEG-4's? Is it processor or video card or RAM or some good combintation of everything?

 

1. Processor selection: P4, xeon, etc? Dual processors?

2. Video card: does it do anything?

3. RAM: I guess that 1 Gb is minimum, is 2 Gb better?

4. Monitors, I run in dual monitor mode - does this affect anything?

 

Are there any custom solutions using multiple single board computers in a chassis?

 

Essentially I'm trying to figure out how to show a matrix of 16 IP cameras, each at CIF reslolution and 25 pps - is this economically achievable?

 

Regards:

 

Dave

[Jasper 0]

Dave

The processor speed is very important for compressing MPEG-4 video. The more power the better.

 

I am a little surprised that the 3.02 (edit: got too be 3.2) processor is not working for you.

 

The video card seems way to small. A good video card always helps. Something with 128MB wouldn’t hurt you.

 

1 GB memory should be fine. With that size you can eliminate your Windows Swap File, which should reduce some CPU overhead that is used to swap the memory in/out to hard disk.

 

Running in dual monitor mode would require more processing power of you video card.

 

It seems like the video card it the culprit here. Check out the fairly recent posts on video cards.

 

I think you find your answer there regarding which video card are good.

Edited December 12, 2005 by Guest

[rory 0]

a 3Ghz CPU maxed out with 2 cameras ... sounds like some other software is running to slow it down like that. My 2.0Ghz with 512 doesn't even max out with 30 cameras streaming ..

[Jasper 0]

Rory has a good point about other software maybe slowing down the system.

 

Have you tired looking at the Windows task bar (Alt+control+delete) and sort the info by CPU to find out what tasks are using the CPU the most?

 

Should check that out for sure.

[WirelessEye 0]

We use Dual 3.6 Xeon's and handle MUCH more than 3 IP devices. In fact, all of our NVR Servers hover around 5-9%.

 

I think the others are correct. There could be some other stuff running, but it could also be the software you are using to actually view the video streams.

[McJannet 0]

Thanks for the information, I've been talking to a few people about this today - an overclocked AMD 3800+ with 1 Gb RAM got a pretty good review.

 

I have looked into the ACTi Streaming Activator software, it uses ffdshow to process the MPEG-4 video streams. From the about box:

 

"ffdshow is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DIVX movies."

 

My opinion is that since people typically don't watch more than one movie at a time, that multi-stream processing is not a strength of ffdshow.

 

The forum at:

 

http://fileforum.betanews.com/review/1054056131/1/view

 

indicates that ffdshow is a processor hog.

 

So, basically it looks like the freely downloadable ACTi Streaming Activator is useful for setup, configuration, commission, etc but is not really designed to provde a useful monitoring system for more than a couple of cameras.

 

But I have noticed that systems such as NetVM (D3Data) have drivers for the ACTi IP camera's that I'm using so I think I'll try out some demo's and see how they work out.

 

Thanks again:

 

Dave

[rory 0]

Oh yeah, I tested the Acti out the other day on my system, it really worked hard with 1 camera .... i mean really hard ... and im using a 2.0Ghz AMD with 512MB Ram ..

 

I would look at the Milestone software for a full windows GUI, though its kind of expensive .. it handles some of the Acti gear, not all yet ..

 

But yep, D3Data also does it, though from what i saw, they only have browser based ..?

 

Honestly if i was really going to get into it, Id look at getting the SDK myself ..

 

Rory

[Jasper 0]

Curious, did you find out what was causing the CPU to run so high?

[McJannet 0]

It seemed to be the ffdshow component designed to view movies, applying all effort to making a single video stream look good.

 

However, when remote viewing with only about 250 kbps available the ACTi Streaming Activator actually works rather well.

 

Regards:

 

Dave