Getting a true 240 FPS from your eBay card

[jeffx]

If you use the right codec and software with your ebay 8-port capture card, you can easily get a true 240 frames per second without taxing your processor.

Using the software and drivers that came with my card (Kodicom Diginet Site 4.11), I am able to view AND record all 5 of my cameras at 30 frames per second at 640x480 resolution and my AMD Athlon 3000+ barely hits 5% CPU utilization.

Software includes a Site (server) component, PC client and PDA client.

After experiencing what a true Surveillance DVR should be like, I fail to understand why so many here recommend Active WebCam. On the CCTV forums, Active WebCam is not highly regarded at all.

Any comments?

(see thispost for additional info)

 

[electron]

Most people work with what they have, and use cheap TV tuners to record video. In that case, Active Webcam is one of the better solutions out there. Obviously someone took the time to write special codecs for your card, but this is not typical. Can you post screenshots of the software, or can it be downloaded?

 

[jeffx]

The card with the software was $140 on eBay (Active WebCam is $100 for just the software). I believe it's the same/similar 8 port/8 chip card that a lot of other cocooner's have purchased, based on the Conextant BT878 chip. I purchased mine from seller "Barpos".

From what I've read on CCTV forums, the card is a clone of the hardware used in the professional Kodicom sureveillance DVR's.

You can download the client software here: here..

I can host a copy of the site (server) software when I get home. The site software is what needs to be run on the PC/server with the capture card.

This site provides good information about Kodicom Diginet.

Here is a PDF manual (rebadged under another name, but it's the same thing).

 

[jeffx]

OK, I found a copy of the site (server) software and drivers with the proprietary codec here.



(how did we ever survive before Google??)

 

[WayneW]

I am trialling AWC because that is what so many people suggested and because it has a free trial period. I have not been thrilled with the high processor load and I only have 1 analog and 1 IP camera active so far.

I did try to use that Kodicom Diginet software that came with my 8 port card, but the instructions weren't very clear and I had no luck. Since nobody else I knew was using it, I bailed over to AWC.

I tried accessing your site, and I can connect, but I don't see any camera images, just the client. I tried with and without the DirectX option checked (I have an nVidia card, not the required ATI card). For some reason, I cannot even see the site number and password when I enter them.

Do you have any tips, hints, instructions or a how-to guide on getting Kodicom Diginet set up and working?

 

[jeffx]

Do you have any tips, hints, instructions or a how-to guide on getting Kodicom Diginet set up and working?

This is what I did after a fresh install of Windows XP, RAID drivers, motherboard drivers, video card drivers, direct x 9.0c and .NET 1.1:

1. Install the capture card into an available PCI slot.

2. Boot up the PC

3. Go to device manager, find the 16 "unknown" devices that represent the capture card, for each one select "update driver", use the Kodicom drivers from the download or CD in the "SDDriver 0.9.0018[2002-02-19]" folder, select "continue" when prompted that the driver is not XP approved. You have to do this for all 16 devices (8 video, 8 audio).

4. Install the Site 4.x software.

That's it.

From posts I read in CCTV forums, the card/software may not run properly on VIA chipset motherboards and non-ATI video cards. I have an ATI video card and an NVIDIA chipset motherboard.

Also, had to add some additional cooling fans due to the extra heat generated from one hard drive constantly recording.

I'll have to check out my Diginet site server when I get home. I haven't been able to access it to test it from work because of all the blocked ports from my corporate firewall. It runs on Apache, so I might have to tweak the Apache server settings for my limited upload bandwidth.

Now that I know what configuration I am going to use, I'm going to move it to a different computer this weekend. It only runs in full screen (can't minimize it), as it is designed to be used on a dedicated pc/server. You can still access other apps, though, using the windows key, rf remote, etc. To close out Diginet Site, you need to press Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F4. Using the "quit" button on the app, shuts down the PC.

 

[WayneW]

Thanks. Since I didn't have an ATI video card or a spare partition to dedicate to it, the system requirements were leading me down a dead end.

Thanks for the tip about needing a dedicated PC since it demands to run full screen. Since it is not a CPU hog, I was tempted to try and run it on my HS machine.

Whatever was on the CD that came with my card was so poorly documented that I couldn't even figure out if the "Site" software was for the server/camera site or for the monitoring site...

 

[electron]

I gave it a try, but it requires the card before it will move on to the next step, so I can't take a look at the interface. The video card requirements are a little odd tho, as is the requirement to run it full screen.

 

[WayneW]

as is the requirement to run it full screen.

The Pico2000 software that came with an old 4 port capture card was also designed for 800x600 (as I recall) full screen only. So it seems to be a somewhat common trait of security DVR software.

 

[jeffx]

In the CCTV forums, many have reported the software working OK with non-ATI video and with some VIA chipset motherboards--but many have also reported issues.

I forgot to mention, you do need at least 1 dedicated disk partition for captured video. I just pulled an unused 80 GB HD from another computer for this. It seems to hold about 2-3 days of 24/7 recording for 5 cameras at 640x480 and 30 fps. I'll probably add additional partitions so I can retain at least a few weeks of video.

As far as not being able to minimize the app, let me explain a little better. "Full Screen" was incorrect, the application only runs "Maximized". You can put the app to the "background" and use another program without any issues.

The preset playback speed is set faster than real-time, so you can review recordings in a time-lapsed fashion, reviewing a few hours in only a few minutes, then backup and slow down the speed when you see activity, playing it back in slow-motion, real-time or time-lapsed.

Reviewing my back yard camera last night, I was suprised to see how much deer activity I have during the day You can also review all/some/one cameras simultaneously/syncronously.

 

[hhnew]

Jeffx,
In the other thread on cameras you discussed trying several different cameras. Could you possibly list the ones you are using now with either a still shot or reference to which camera it is on your dvr (example: camera1 is driveway using model xxxx) or something like that.
Your set up seems to be what I have been trying to come up with but I still need to find acceptable cameras to use with it. Acceptable being a camera where you can make out the image that didn't break the back to aquire
TIA,
HH

 

[jeffx]

My Surveillance DVR will be offline for the next few days as I rebuild it as a dedicated surveillance and HA PC and run some additional cabling. I'll post snapshots when it is back online.`

 

[hgupta1]

Thanks for the info on this card. I decided to ditch Active webcam. its a cpu hog, and its motion detection blows. I've been using blueiris lately becauase its motion sensing abilities are awesome. I like being able to only watch video of motion that happenened, and I like being alerted when there is something I need to check out.

I alluded to this in another post: does the kodicom software have motion detection cabability? I like how active webcam and blue iris can launch programs when motion has been detected. Ideally the video software would alert homeseer that motion has been detected too. but I may be asking to much from dvr software

 

[electron]

I just installed BlueIris, it doesn't looking like it is as flexible when it comes to motion detection (at least scheduling wise), but does have some other nice options. I also see a checkbox for 'low level BT878' support, is this what makes it use less cpu?

 

[electron]

well so far, it is using 80% of my cpu, which is more than Active Webcam, but hopefully this is because it's a regular DirectX source, and not that BT878 chipset.