Securame

So, you think you need a quad core and maybe a couple videocards in SLI for a DVR machine...? As you have been told, a computer so old (Celeron 1.3Ghz with 256Mb) is not worth upgrading. Doesn't matter if it works as well now as it did when you purchased it last century, you would spend more in bringing that computer up to date, than on buying a new machine with specs a lot better than what the upgrades will give you.

Why would he? The camera appears to stick up higher than the speed bump since he didn't hang up on that. No offense but if I were his insurance company's claims adjuster, I would deny any liability. I have to agree. It's not like he did anything special to have it break, he just drove over it really slow...

You have a DVR that works with ATA hard drives. You can easily find SATA hard drives cheap, but not ATA hard drives. You do not want to buy a new DVR just so it will support SATA hard drives. It makes sense to me...

I used them a couple of times. The ones that worked for me where like this. Note that this thing goes on the DVR motherboard, and NOT on the HD, that basically means that where you can usually connect 2 ATA HDs, you will only connect 1 SATA HD. This model can be bought for cheap. There is also another one like this but where you can connect 2 SATA HDs (can't find pic now). http://www.trendstrading.us/images/IDE_and_SATA_2.jpg Oh, here is the one for 2 HDs: http://www.made-in-china.com/image/2f0j00CvltbijgAPoZM/SATA-To-IDE-IDE-to-SATA-Converter.jpg It did NOT work for me with the following model. From what I remember, SATA HD would format OK, DVR would reboot, and it would say again that it was not formated. http://www.entrale.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/lk-13417.jpg

With those 104 cards you can also use Active Webcam (Pysoft), with BTWinCap drivers. Works great under Windows XP.

For one single small camera that records on memory card at 640x480@30fps, you can google for "camera md80". That one is pretty cheap. That GoPro camera seemed small to me on the first picture, after seeing it on a helmet it looks huge!

CMS = Central Management System Your typical remote access program for a DVR, but it will allow you to manage several DVRs from one place. Like, several DVRs each one in a store, and from a central place, one single computer can see the cameras from all DVRs on all stores, set up their own nice view where maybe they see 2 cameras from store 1, 1 camera from store 2, 3 cameras from store 3, etc.

Makes me wonder, what is the maximum recording resolution of a BT878 chip...? Because a 8ch 200fps card with 8 BT878 chips might an option here if a BT878 can record at 640x480, which I think it can. I have used a 8ch BT878 card, which can be used with BTWinCap opensource drivers. Then the card is easily recognised under Windows, and you can use programs like Active Webcam or Argus DVR (both from Pysoft) with those cards. Active Webcam was giving me option to record up to 720x576 each channel, and Argus DVR was giving me option to record up to 1280x960, so I call them both BS (they must upscale the image with software), but if a BT878 can be used at 640x480 it would be a good option. Edit: mmmh after googling a bit, maybe the max recording resolution of a BT878 chip is 720x576 after all...

I was about to post about the non-standard pinouts too, but wasn't 100% sure, since I have used this cables many times on different DVR cards, but I have never tried mixing the cables, and using the ones from one card on another one... But yeah, I would tell you to contact the dealer of your DVR card.

I have mounted 4ch DVRs on rally cars. On that kind of installations, you have to keep several things in mind, some of them already stated on this thread. First, weight. If possible, you do NOT want to add 5Kg of weight to the car for a few cameras, the lighter, the better. Then, shakiness. Depending on the kind of car, normal HD is not an option. You can use SSD HD, you can use SD memory cards which are very cheap, etc, but not a normal hard drive. The lightest one I have mounted weights 0.7Kg, it can record 4 channels A/V and uses SD cards which can easily be replaced. It gets power from ignition, you can easily set it up so it will just turn on when the car starts. The MDVR powers the cameras, so you run wires for power and video from the DVR, to every place where you will mount a camera.

katie1985, The two first links you are posting is not what he is asking for. Those are monitor cables for a computer (VGA conector on your computer, to 5 BNC connectors on your monitor, red green blue v-sync and h-sync). What he is asking for as I understand it, is a cable for some 8ch DVR cards; they have a VGA like connector on one side, and 8 BNC connectors on the other side, for connecting up to 8 cameras. Note that, while the connector on the card is VGA like, I would never call it VGA since it is not the computer video output, but it is the same kind of connector. I think the correct name would be more like D-sub 15. I would say he is looking for one of this cables (see second picture): (ooops, can't post links since I do not have 5 posts, too bad)

I would never install any Antivirus or any other unneeded software on a DVR (dedicated) computer if its network connection is correctly configured, that is, if only the needed ports for the DVR program are open from outside. To (3) I would say (b) or ©, you can actually have the firewall disabled if only the needed ports are open, but you might as well enable it and allow only the needed ports on it, so it will also be safe to infected computers on the local network.