garraty

Sorry this is so long, but accuracy in description seems to go a ways in finding decent answers. I had a stand alone $400.00 DVR with two cameras hooked up. Recorded just fine at D1. I wanted more cameras and retained quality. Also wanted a feature not available on this stand-alone, pre-record on motion. Geovision seemed good, but works horribly, to say the least! System is i7-920 on a gigabyte MB, 6 GB ram (only sees 4, of course), Windows 7 Ultimate (32-bit), HD 4770 video, several 1.5TB drives. And of course, one geovision 1240A-8 card, running 8.3.1 which came with it. Right now, there are only two cameras hooked up: One good quality 520TVL and one el-cheapo bullet. When I installed, the video was barely passable, at least for recorded video. The display was not even usable, whenever motion occurs on the screen it looks like only every 3rd or 4th scan line is updated. Just started monitoring the two cameras, recorded video was at least better than the onscreen, but not as expected. When I set the video source to anything other than low resolution default all video is not usable. Choppy is putting it nicely, if I move fast enough, I may never show up on video. If I wave in front of a camera that is a couple feet away, at times my hand gets stuck on the top half of the video, other times it drops several seconds of video all together. Is this fixable, or should I send back the geovision card, resource the computer and get a couple standalone DVRs instead, at least they record motion.

I am going to try in another i7-920 machine I have, it is running an ASUS motherboard. Since geovision recommends a 920 for your setup (dual cards) it must be working on some motherboard. I will let you you know what happens, but really glad to know someone else has similar issues. Do you happen to know which SATA controller your hard drive is connected to? I am on the GB one, not the Intel one. I keep forgetting to test using the Intel controller and maybe you can save me the trouble if you are already using it.

Well, I am still in the same situation. It is not a PAL/NTSC problem, everything is on NTSC, cameras and software. The images I get are not the same as JOINDVR's pictures; if I walk by a camera to record, I get me showing on the camera, then the top half of me continues off the frame while the bottom half of me either stays at the start of the frame, or just disappears and replaced by the still image. On live view, I get lines similar to your images, but the lines only show on the part that has movement, not the entire image. In other words, the only part of images that are problematic are parts that change. I have tried three video cards now, all do exactly the same thing. I have tried 8.2 which does not work at all and I just tried the new 8.3.2 software, which updated the firmware on the card and then acted exactly the same as 8.3.1 which came with the card. To mention this too, I have tried every PCI-E slot the card fits in, which is all except the x1 slot. I'll try another i7-920 system I have, which has a different brand of motherboard, memory and video card altogether. If that fails, does anyone have suggestions for something other than GeoVision?

Well, I tried many things. EDIT: Yes, I have the supplemental power plugged in. I tried using 8.2 on Windows 7, could not get the drivers to work, kept getting KeyPro error. Installed Win 7 again, tried using drivers from 8.3.1 and then installing 8.2, got KeyPro error. Went to XP Pro, tried 8.2 as well, got the KeyPro error...Maybe I am installing drivers incorrectly from the 8.2 version I got, who knows. Installed XP Pro again, used 8.3.1 drivers with 8.2 software, received KeyPro error. Reinstalled XP Pro again, installed everything from my 8.3.1 that came with my card. I would say it is exactly the same as Windows 7...except the beep works now when I remove video feeds. I tried another video card in the last setup...And yes, I reinstalled XP Pro and everything else. Used latest Video drivers, Chipset drivers, audio drivers and network drivers. At this point, my belief is the GV card itself. I guess I could install everything on another i7 machine I have, which is different RAM, Video, MotherBoard, network, etc. To say it again, here are the two (main) problems. 1) On live video, movement looks horrible, like every third scan line is updated. 2) On recorded video, if I walk in front of a camera (or two or three cameras) I will be jittery, sometimes the bottom half of me separates from the top half. It always slices the image about 1/3 down from the top.

Lets see if I can answer these new questions and comments, and thanks for taking the time to do so, and quickly, I might add! The GB motherboard is GB EX58-UD5, only version there is, 1.0 default is CIF, yes, when I upped it to anything higher it didn't really work at all. I installed all updated drivers for the MB from the GB site, and all Video drivers as well from XFX site. I have not updated the BIOS on the MB though, I will try and get a floppy drive today and do that. DSP defaulted to on, I never changed it. Windwos 7, I saw others using it, figured it would be OK. I'll drop down to XP if needed. Will XP home do? Or should I use XP professional? The machine running GV is very fast, even a default install without tweaking will have enough power to handle 50 times the video traffic I am sending to it. Right now, I have one core running at 5 percent, all others at 3 percent when I have two cameras recording. Now, tweaking for stability, that is another story altogether. I can rule out the HD, I messed with configuration of GV so much at one point, I just reinstalled windows and GV on another new HD and had the same issues. Anywhere I can get a version of GV before 8.3 to see if that helps? Also, all indications from everything I have read point to a real GV card; included software, packaging and stickers on card. Also, are there even fake version 'A' cards out there yet? Thanks again for all your comments and suggestions, I will try updating my BIOS, changing my OS and checking here for new suggestions.