Fun with AverMedia CCTV

[IVB]

I'm having far too much fun with CCTV - I feel that I need to drink and rip hair out of my chest in order to confirm that i'm not a geek, although i guess I really am.

I did two cool things today, both CCTV related:

1) I assembled my new Core2Duo system, which will house both SageTV and AverMedia, as well as (hopefully) the database server.

What happens when you use a legit piece of hardware (AverMedia NV5000) & software? You spend all of 15 minutes setting it up! (well, the CCTV bit anyhow). That includes both the server software and the PDA bit.

2) I went out for dinner. When I got there, I got a page from NextAlarm telling me the house had been armed & disarmed with my code. I was a little perturbed as I had left the house 90 minutes beforehand, but the timestamp was 2 minutes beforehand. I quickly pulled up CQC on the PDA, noticed the Elk was still armed. I pulled up the cameras, realized all was good, resumed fun.

yet again proof that the value-add of PDA control may not be in actually controlling your devices (although I did forget the lights off, so I had to turn those on via the phone), but will definitely help in the piece of mind arena.

Here's a pic of how it looks on the PC. Obviously this screencap isn't going to work long-term, but after long last i've got my CCTV back, *and* I can easily minimize this application and run whatever else I want. CollinR is working with me to modify the html code to make it a little cleaner. Let's hope that all works out fine.

 

[CollinR]

The new scripting should make you pretty happy.

 

[electron]

The AverMedia really is a great DVR surveillance kit. Are you running the latest version , or the build that came with the hardware? They update it frequently.

 

[IVB]

Eh, whatever one CollinR emailed me (I bought this from him).

He also had some great ideas about linking it into SageTV, i'll be trying that out after tonight (2 StarGate first runs are taping tonight, *no way* do I muck with a stable SageTV before then )

 

[CollinR]

He is using v7.1 now but every update gets him closer to IVB-CCTV 1.0!

The problems with that last script are just too funnay!


This is what I start out with before compression.
http://lowvoltageonline.com/web-stuff/HD-C...-HDCCTV-Day.jpg

Makes all the difference I tell ya!

 

[electron]

Eh, whatever one CollinR emailed me (I bought this from him).

He also had some great ideas about linking it into SageTV, i'll be trying that out after tonight (2 StarGate first runs are taping tonight, *no way* do I muck with a stable SageTV before then )

I don't want to sound like a dork here ... but there are 2 new stargates on ??!?!

 

[IVB]

there are 2 new stargates on??!?!

Yep.

Oh, and check this out - now THIS is why I don't go with the lowest price dealer, but rather someone who'll help me out. I spent some time with CollinR on the phone this am (hence the tease) - he wrote a snippet of code that will allow me to choose which camera i'm pulling up with a CQC command button!

Unfortunately, command buttons mean a smaller display size (352x2something), but the ease of use may win out there.

Plus, if I want to use the regular AverMedia code, I can see all of them with that last button which will get me the full size shot you saw earlier. Cramming all the Avermedia code there gets a bit ugly, not sure how long that'll last.

So net net: If you guys want to do this, PM CollinR - that guy rocks.

 

[Sendero]

I second the rec for Collin! He answered a ton of questions I had and came up with a great sounding package for what I wanted. Unfortunately, I then ran into budget approval issues and have had to put the purchase on hold Collin didn't complain or push at all. In another 2-3 months or so, after I've 'hidden' away enough savings to pay for the setup I'll definitely be calling him and following through.

 

[IVB]

Man, is this guy good or this guy good.

Check out the latest javascript CollinR sent me - clean, easy, custom-fitting quad cam in CQC via a command button (see bottom left). I pulled out the cable for cam4 by mistake, i'll go fix it tomorrow.

 

[CollinR]

Sweet!

 

[IVB]

Well, when you're on the bleeding edge, you tend to get bloody. My god did I get bloody over the past 2 days.

Rather than go through all the painful, bloody, gory, icky, maddening, idiotic details, I'll net this out and spare you all.
A) The AverMedia software WILL NOT work if you have *any* other tuner cards in the system other than the NV5000.
:blink: The AverMedia software WILL NOT work with AMD cpus.

of course, A+B=
C) You CANNOT use the same machine for AverMedia CCTV and SageTV.


But there is good news:
D) You CAN use the same machine for AverMedia CCTV and CQC master server.
E) The NV5000 TV-out loop works just fine, and I plugged it into a PVR250 so I can now pull up the CCTVs through SageTV. Most importantly, I can do it via the MVP too, so now i can pull that up on any TV. I gotta learn how to use that remote, so I can just punch in the channel # if i'm watching TV to see who's at the door.
F) JKMonroe is tackling the rfID, small cheap tablets, and other stuff, so at least I won't get bloody everywhere. (ok, maybe that's just good news for me)

Basically, I ended up playing a massive game of musical chairs, and swiped the new PC i built for the kids. After hours of bleeding (literally too, i scraped a metal thingey with my wrist and bled on the basement floor), my setup is now:

CQC Master Server plus AverMedia CCTV:
- Intel D865GLC motherboard, 2.8GHz cpu, and 1GB of DDR400 RAM. 250GB for CCTV recording, 200GB disk for a "backup" partition although that's way overkill
- Moxa card, internal PCI modem,AverMedia means i'm maxed out on damn PCI slots!

SageTV Server plus MS SQL Server Express:
- E6600, 1GB RAM.
- 2 PVR250's (1 for D*, 1 for the CCTV inbound), 1 VBox (HD). No more PCI slots here either!

Kids PC:
- AMD2500. Good to know that Caillou and Clifford games seem to work fine so far.

I'm beat. Thank god i'm taking this week off work. It's 2pm, I went to bed at 2:30am, up at 8am, i haven't eaten breakfast yet, and there's 14 neighbors coming to a little "how-to" seminar i'm having for CCTV setup tonight. It is abundantly clear that I need to get a beer immediately.

 

[electron]

Was that other tuner a Pinnacle based card? I had one of those in there, and ran into issues as well until I removed the card. I believe both the AverMedia and Pinnacle card shared a similar chipset, so that would explain the issue.

 

[IVB]

Nope, The PVR-250 is a Conexant chipset. Not sure about the VBox cats eye 150, googling isn't helping.

 

[CollinR]

It's unfortunate we haven't been able to get them intergrated into one box (thus far! :blink: ). I don't blame ya though if you just wanna stick with what works.


Super sweet the CCTV>Sage>MVP, thats going to be something that would be truely hard to live without. I know I love mine, the only thing I wish it could do but can't is PiP and PoP. Oh well maybe with the new HD version.

 

[damage]

reviving an old topic...do those CQC screens embed an IE browser in them? or do those scripts you mention work around the activex requirement of the avermedia software?