Jorel

What I am looking for is of course real multi monitor support What software have you used or seen that has multi monitor support? Hey koolmer unfortunately the only software I have personally tested that supports multiple monitors and resolutions properly is LuxRiot. I think Exacq should work too from what I've read and the videos I've seen. If I find more I will post an update. BTW one feature I expect to see in the future is hardware acceleration for decoding. Video cards can already decode HD formats and it would be great if this was available for cctv video. Then playing back many videos simultaneously wouldn't be a problem!

There is true multiple monitor support and what I prefer to call fake multiple monitor support. True requires DirectX (or similar renderer) and outputs through one or more video cards. The advantage is the video can be controlled via software, that is you don't need to rearrange cables or configure a matrix controller, which should also mean reduced insertion loss. Another advantage is the monitor can use a digital connection like DVI or HDMI which is important when trying to maintain detail. The disadvantage is the software is more complex and requires more powerful hardware. Fake is when video is duplicated, via hardware such as a matrix card, to a monitor. Another way is to duplicate or clone the outputs from the video card. The advantage is cost, the disadvantage is there is no software control over the output and the monitor will be likely be connected by an analog cable. Another thing to be aware of is claims that software can support widescreen or various resolutions. Most software I've seen has a fixed gui and is stretched and/or distorted to fit different resolutions. This is awkward when trying to monitor live video as everything will appear distorted and text on the screen can be very difficult to comprehend. I am not a developer or work for any cctv company, just an end user with some experience.

I think LuxRiot would work on multiple monitors since it can render video using DirectX and not just overlay. I know you can open multiple instances of the client so you should be able to move an instance to another monitor.

I purchased a PV-981-8 from bluecherry and cannot get video in AMCAP or LuxRiot using the drivers included on the CD. The drivers did install and the devices are "working properly" but the video channels are blue when disconnected and black when connected. If I connect directly to a monitor there is video, so I think this is a driver problem. Anyone have provideo cards working with Vista / 7? I will probably try dual booting XP later to see if that works.

Of course. This is weird I uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers a couple times and now it is working in LuxRiot, not sure exactly why. Might have needed to reboot a few times for drivers to load right? I will be testing again on a clean system soon and hope to post some details on how to get it working to avoid the trouble again.

This looks like a canned response, but better than nothing i guess. 1. I think you're referring to Device Manager in Windows? Already done that. 2. Waiting for a response, again the drivers did install fine. 3. Video card is a GTX 260. I know that DirectX 9 is working because 'aero' works.

Aha I reread your post and here are the two images above with "Show Screen Footer" unchecked

I don't have the cameras to test it, but I did open two instances of the Client here in Windows 7 on a 1920x1200 display. Not sure how well that will work on multiple monitors though. This doesn't look so bad. But there is lots of space under each camera. Is it possible to view full screen (no window visible) and have no or very little space between the different cameras? Sure 36 Views Fullscreen with "Maintain Aspect Ratio" unchecked With "Maintain Aspect Ratio" checked

The LuxRiot spec pdf says: I don't have the cameras to test it, but I did open two instances of the Client here in Windows 7 on a 1920x1200 display. Not sure how well that will work on multiple monitors though.

Problem is I think Hikvision cards are usually encrypted and do not have WDM drivers which expose a DirectShow interface. I haven't used it, but i did come across this DVR software which looks like it can do multiple monitors well. http://www.exacq.com/products/vms_photos.html Youtube Demo: FAQ: http://www.exacq.com/faq/index.php?action=artikel&cat=6&id=43&artlang=en&highlight=ptz

Ok I just got a BL-1404 but it only shows up as one device in Device Manager and is only working with the included software. Is that normal for the Wave-P cards or should it work with other software like AMCap and Active Webcam? Did I get a "cloned card"?

I use Intel Matrix RAID which lets me do both RAID 0 and 1 on a pair of discs. If you have more drives use RAID 10. Look for a motherboard with the ICHR9 or ICHR10 chipset. A discreet RAID card useful for RAID 5 (for the parity calculations) however read/write performance will still be poor. Also it can support chassis status LEDs for HDDs on a backplane.

Any get this card to work with alternative software?

Isnt the camera capabilties constrained by the transmission medium? In other words NTSC over composite video is limited to 480i, so any detail over that is lost when the DAC does interpolation?

This does help my understanding. I guess it displays 30 fps in live preview because the input is just output directly to overlay. For frame grabbing it probably deinterlaces which is why the fps is 1/2. What remains is if it can record at full speed on all channels or 15 is the total fps it can record at. Anyone using these with Vista / 7 32-bit?

So can the BL-1408 and BL-1416 both display and record Full D1 at 30 and 15 fps respectively on all channels simeltaneously? Is it hardware encoding or is it done in software? What confuses me is the video signal from analog cameras is composite, and D1 according to wikipedia requires component video. Sorry if that's alot to ask, my first post here and throwing the big newb questions out.