Thomas

It's not the old drive. But if you can find out where they got it, the person they got it from may be able to provide you with the software.

Can you find out who they bought it from? Hey Cooperman, does the data retention act require all drives to be removed or just the drives the video are on?

1. Except that everything you mention can be done on the DVR end. It doesn't change much because you wouldn't set the settings on each camera by going to it via a web browser, or telenet or serial cable. Firmware updates are almost always going to be bug fixes and minor features. And keep in mind that you are going to have to maintain this set up. I can set up redunant DVRs for analog if I if I need to update/upgrade DVR. What happens if you have a bad firmware update? Well then I run on my redunant DVR for a while. Can you set up redunant cameras for this? 2. Except you still have the cable to run to each camera. Given the number of switches you will use, any labor cost savings are dead due to cost of switches. Also keep in mind you won't be able to use centralized power for those PoE switches if you don't run all of thier power sources back to the source. I'm not saying IP is bad, just that it's advantages are limited. They are all great on paper, less great in the field.

Forgive me for not being clear. It can be done on a chip. It's the flashing the firmware on a chip after the fact that I don't buy. Most of the chips used for this stuff are not multipurpose. They are generally designed to do one thing. Both companys you guys proposed are discussing add analitics at the design process or after the fact as an add on after the camera. They do not burn it to any of the chips on the camera as an after the purchace idea.

Wait, did you get it from a security company or used?

I have played with a PCI-E hardware compression card. It doesn't seem to differ from thier PCI cousins (since the software was ours side by side) except for the notching on the bottom.

Actully if you contact Pelco they can send you the protocols. I don't know of a linux app that does it but did you check source forge and freshmeat for apps to do it? As far as testing it does, you use a second serial port or PC and just loop it with cross overcable and just set it up to capture a log from the serial port.

Have you contacted who you purchased it from?

On some cards you can "flash" the firmware. Flashing it is rewriting over it. Generally I wouldn't do it unless it was needed. Keep in mind that firmware for most PCI cards only ever changes unless there is a hardware change. Simply updating the firmware probley won't help.

Were you intending to do other things with this PC? There are some options like Luxriot that support more then one card but you will find that most programs only support the card they came with.

http://members.aol.com/adamkb/aol/mailfaq/imap/ It's not easy but it is doable I think. (If Geovision lets you change ports.)

Unless he finds a DVR or adds a lot of firewire, that's not going to scale really well. I'm just trying to imagine the nightmare of CPU power needed to encode that much data off of eight cameras at 30 fps.

If you search for Pelco PTZ Protocol in Google, there is an app that will do it. It's writen in VB.Net I belive.

The Yahoo ISP is done using SBC as the actual provider Rory.

POP3 allows for two way commication. Between client and server. SMTP is one way only. MS Outlook isn't designed to act as a mail server, it's client only. Just because you can send SMTP doesn't mean you can be sent it. When it asks for your SMTP server you should be using the one provided by your ISP.

I'd be more intrested in the DVR to support it.

This thread is locked. The responces to this review have been little more then attempts to smear/shout down the reviewer.

Outlook is using a differant protocol (usually POP3) to get that mail. And Outlook is not an SMTP server. I suggest pointing it at the address of your ISP's mail server.

Do you get a signal if you connect it to a TV? (Using BNC to RCA plug)

I would avoid using any of the Compaqs short of thier server lines. Even if the motherboard doesn't create any problems, Compaq probley broke something some where to prevent it from working.

Yes, but please make sure there is a firewall between the computer and the internet at some point. Ideally this is a router of some kind.

I didn't see it. And to be honest I don't do anything with Geovision but reading over your post, are you trying to use Yahoo as the SMTP server? Because Yahoo doesn't allow that at this time.

Most compression chips don't support sending 420 lines and most encoders don't support writing to 420 lines. So even though you see cameras with 420 lines, you won't see software the explictily supports 420 lines. Or 430. Or 440. or 450....

I don't see what protocols it supports. (RS-485 isn't a protocol, it's a wiring type. In this case, 2 wire half duplex serial.) Do you know?

I don't mean to pick on your but I generally try to kill the marketing hype (for both sides). 1. Feature rich There is generally very little that the camera does that analog DVR or IP DVR software doesn't do. Analog cameras may be "dumb" but the DVR's generally make up for that. 2. Single cable for data and power Siameise cable is one cable that runs video and power for analog. And if the runs are really short I can do the same with Cat5 and analog cameras. As far as the PoE stuff goes, you either need an injector or PoE capable switch. The first is kind of a pain to find, the second is expensive. 3. Better video quality Yes and no. At the very, very high end on the IP cameras you can get some great images, but the camera generally limits your framerate to 3 to 5 fps (not useful for certain apps like LPR or slight of hand theft). At the low to middle sections your getting 640 x 480. Something I do want to point out. Comparing an IP camera on a web browser to an analog camera on a spot monitor is a rigged comparison. The IP camera is compressed already and is going to lose less quality then the uncompressed analog camera. If you're going to do head to head, then it really needs to be done as recorded video.