LittleScoobyMaster

I guess I'm confused why you wouldn't send anyone to Pricewatch.com as a guide. It has a ratings system. You just look up the rating of the reseller and if it has less than 5 stars, or has many bad reviews of the reseller, you go down a few until you find a 5 star rating with as near to 100% good reviews as you can find (as well as a good price point of course). This usually entails not picking the very first few hits on Pricewatch.com, as the top few hits usually need to be weeded out first, just as they do with Google. So many times when looking for information with Google, I have to scroll down a few hits or so. The legwork is what sites like PriceWatch.com try to eliminate, or cut out substantially. Imagine how hard it would be to find a PC parts retailer without Pricewatch.com? It would be a pain. That is what it is like now for consumers when it comes to Geovision cards. If there was some sort of ratings system for all the companies that carry Geovision products, consumers could use that as a tool the same way they use Pricewatch.com as a tool for finding the best price\ratings of the PC parts sellers. Not too mention, with Geovision's piracy problem, a small list of known pirate card carrying companies would be beneficial as well but I do understand the time involved in creating these types of lists. I mean, how big is this piracy problem? If there was a nice top 20 pirate carrying card company sites listed here, it would be a great start so we could know which sites we should avoid. And if we can do that, why can't we do a top 20 list of sites who have great prices on legitimate Geovision cards with great support? This might be a helpful link to have. I know I would use it. It would also encourage competition between the dealers to get on the top of the list so they make the most sales. The more they sell, the more they could lower their prices.

I can understand this point of view. It makes sense. If I am a dealer, I definitely do not want the consumers to see the lowest prices on the net so that I can make the most profit. And, as a consumer, the helpful technical insight gained from this site is very important to me. But, at the same time, as a consumer, I want to be able to find the best price and be able to post that price to other consumers so that they get the very best deal possible on their Geovision card purchase. This is very much the same way I recommend PriceWatch.com or NewEgg.com to anyone considering building their own PC's for home use. I want to be able to do the same thing for the consumers on this forum, and I want other consumers to be able to point me to the lowest cost solution for my Geovision card \ part needs. If I can not do this, then that tells me this forum can not help me as much as a similar forum could that doesn't have the MSRP policy in place. (i.e. a technical forum comprised mostly of tech users who also love Geovision products). The reason for this is simple, tech users would discuss the various Geovision products out of respect \ admiration for the product, and they would be helpful in the forum for that reason alone, and they would not be motivated at all by profit. Tech users would share the knowledge and not expect too much in return, except possibly the ego trip, etc. that comes in having mastered the product and sharing that knowledge with others. As for the piracy issue. It sounds like a watchdog group needs to be set up, or at least a list of sites that have been known to sell the pirated cards so that consumers won't get ripped off by them. The companies that are selling pirated Geovision cards need to be held accountable. Once all the companies on the list are held accountable, my guess is that they will start to dwindle or cease to exist. This is good for Geovision, the dealers, and the consumers. I just want to be able to find the best price on a Geovision card and not have it be shrouded in secrecy like it is now.

If that is truly the case, then how does this forum help the consumer to the fullest extent? It appears to me it does not. As a consumer, I want to know where I can get the best price on Geovision cards, just like I can get the best price on PC parts from Pricewatch.com. So, you are telling me, I would need to start my own forum, with the consumer in mind, in order for the consumer to make a 100% informed purchasing decision on Geovision products, correct? This would be a forum set up the same way as PriceWatch.com. Let me know if I'm missing anything here, but it seems to me that this forum is not in the best interests of the average consumer, instead, it has the dealers interests at the forefront. Is there a site that puts the average consumer first, and not the dealers? Thanks

How about from a consumer standpoint? I, as a consumer, purchase a card from one of the online companies with no way to know the card is pirated. Now, if I need the latest Geovision upgrade, etc., the first thing Geovision will tell me is to contact the company I purchased the card from. At this point, let's say I contact the company and tell them to upgrade my card to the latest hardware version (the way you are supposed to go from 7.0 to 7.1 \ v8 ), the company would then have to provide the new card. If they didn't, I would just threaten them with the BSA, correct?

What I don't understand is, how are these companies allowed to stay in business if it is proven that they carry pirated Geovision cards? Isn't there a tipline or something people could call to put the companies selling pirated goods out of business? If I unknowingly purchase a Geovision card from one of the companies selling pirated cards, and then upgrade time comes around, how do these companies then comply with giving the customer a card that will run the latest version of the software, etc? Do they then just send you the latest pirated version of the software or something? Has anyone on this site been burned by a company selling pirated cards? If so, tell us your story. Perhaps some investigations need to be launched. At the very least, Geovision should have a section on their website that lists companies known to carry pirated versions of their goods.

Just wondering what a good price for a new GV-650-8 port that can run GV version 8.0 would be? I have seen them online as low as $360 before and I was wondering if that is a good, bad, or great price for one? This is for home use only, not buying them in bulk or anything. If you have a link to a site that is selling them for less then $360, that would be helpful as well. I guess I just want to know if that is a good price for one. I currently have a GV-600-8 port (hardware revision 3.0 I believe) that I want to upgrade. Sounds like the 650 would double my framerates. I wish there was a trade-up program or something because my card is only 2 years old. Thanks

This whole upgrade thing with Geovision cards is getting kind of old. I'm in the same boat. Do I upgrade my card to stay current, or do I let it fall by the wayside and miss out on some possible nice feature upgrades in future versions of the software? Plus, if that's true about a 3 week wait, that is not very good either. I really hope Geovision comes up with some better ways to upgrade their software. It would seem to me that they just need to learn how to make their products be a little more backwards compatible. Aren't more people bothered by the way Geovision handles their software upgrading? Oh well. All I can do is ponder the options at this point.

Just wondering if you were able to get this to work or not? I have an MPX200 (runs Windows Mobile 2.0 you could say - actually it's called SmartPhone\Windows 2002 which is the predecessor to WM 5.0) but the phone can also run Windows Mobile 5.0 if upgraded. I'm waiting for the HTC Star Trek flip phone to come down in price as I like flip phones a little more than the candy bar style, otherwise, I'd probably have the 2125 (or similar) as well. Looks like a great phone.

What is the cost to upgrade a GV-600-8 to be able to run Geovision 8.0 \ future Geovision software versions? I received the e-mail regarding the upgrade a while back but didn't hunt down the pricing to upgrade my card (nice that the e-mail didn't mention pricing and it was up to me to track it down). I do have to admit though, that all the GV dongles, upgrading with every version of the software, etc., seems like a huge pain to me. I like things to be simple, and to me, having to send in my card for a different card just to upgrade a point revision of the software is rather ridiculous. It would seem that there should be another option. The word backwards compatibility comes to mind here. I can just imagine that many, many users won't even bother getting the new upgraded versions of their cards just to run the point upgrade, but I like to try to stay current with the latest revisions of software, so, if the price isn't too great, I might send in my GV600-8 for one that will run 8.0, but I still think I shouldn't have to waste my time doing it. If I have to do the same thing when 9.0 comes out, I will not be too happy. Just my 3 cents worth.

God, what a pain. Any chance the S1 chip requirement will not be needed for future versions of the software? It would have been nice if my vendor would have known I needed the S1 chip as well as the dongle and 7.0 CD-rom disc. I wonder if they will even know about the S1 chip as they didn't send it to me. Is the S1 chip free? If not, do you know the cost? If it adds no features at all, it should be free, especially if all it does is complete their lame copy protection scheme. I hope the S1 chip at least adds some extra features or something. If all it does is comeplete an already lame copy protection scheme, then I am one disapointed customer. If the chip provides some extra features, then I'm all for it I guess. Still seems like a pain to have to do all this just for a lousy point upgrade that's for sure. Thanks for the help on this though. I've gained more info from this forum over the past year then I have from Geovision that's for sure.

G22, can you confirm which chip you have? I bet you have the S1 chip which might explain why yours works? I'm confused though, because on websites like this one: http://www.henrys.co.uk/cctv/geovision-download.htm It says that the S1 chip is only needed to run version 6.1, which I am planning to skip over and go to 7.0. Are the sites like the one above just incorrect with their data, or are they accurate? According to the site I should be able to upgrade to 7.0 with just the dongle. Normally I would just launch the damn upgrade and take my chances but I have enough other problems right now and I don't want to have to waste 2 hours re-installing software and adjusting settings, etc if the install goes to hell.

OK, I cracked the case and checked the card. The chip on the card says SP 8 port. So, does this mean that even though I have the dongle that I can't successfully upgrade to Geovision 7.0 without upgrading to the S1 chip? Or are there exceptions? If so, what are the exceptions to the rule? Thanks

I think the only way to tell which chip the v3 card has is if I ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long dongle.

Hmm. I wonder if there is a way to determine which chip the v3 cards have. I could crack the case to check I suppose but it would be nice if there was a registry edit or other method of checking.

Do you have the SP or the S1 chip?

How can you determine if you have a GV600v3 card containing the older chip or the S1 chip? Did some GV600 v3's have the S1's and others didn't? God I think the Geovision software protection is just ridiculous. I thought all I would need to upgrade my Gv600 v3 to version 7.0 was going to be the dongle. They never mentioned the S1 chip requirement to me when they sent me the dongle and 7.0 CD-rom.

I'm still a songwriter (among many other things). I just happen to like surveillance equipment as well. When Ministry shot one of their videos a while back, they asked me if they could use some of my surveillance shots in the video. I've always been into both songwriting and surveillance. The two kinda go hand in hand.

Actually, I wrote it. I used to be the lead songwriter for the band Ministry. Here is the full song lyrics: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/m/ministry/93943.html

Soon I discovered that this rock thing was true Jerry lee lewis was the devil Jesus was an architect previous to his career as a prophet All of a sudden, I found myself in love with the world So there was only one thing that I could do Was ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long

Actually, no. You are incorrect. It's supposed to be "ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long". http://www.lyricsfreak.com/m/ministry/93943.html

Been out of it for a while. Anyway, I have a Geovision GV600 v3 hardware card that I'm running Geovision version 6050 with. My question is. Do I just need the dongle in order to run version 7.x? Or do I also need the S1 chip I keep hearing about? I contacted the company I bought the card from and they said they could send me the dongle for $5.00 in shipping charges. Thanks

Is the quality really that much better for runs under 300 feet? Seems like RG6 is available everywhere (even Best Buy carries it cheap), but RG59 seems impossible to find anywhere local. I just want to know if it's worth the extra hassle of using 59 versus 6. Thanks.

Can someone point me to a link that lists the main disadvantages of bullet cams versus larger cameras? Thanks.

When you have an infrared illuminator behind a glass window (i.e. you have the illuminator in your house pointing outside the window to your back yard, etc.), it seems as though not as much infrared will get through the window as it would if the illuminator was outside. Sort of like when you have a flashlight and you shine it through a window. The flashlight, and infrared illuminators will reflect some of the light back into the room you are in and less will be seen outside the window through the window glass. My question is, does the same effect happen when you have a camera indoors but you have your infrared illuminator outdoors? It seems alot easier for me to put a few infrared illuminators outside my house but it's easier for me to keep the cameras inside. I do notice from time to time this method causes reflections to happen at night, etc., but I really hate putting cameras outside. It's very windy where I live and anything attached to the outside of the house would vibrate too much from the wind, plus the extra hassle of cabeling outside is avoided this way. Just curious.

About what percentage of a speed boost does a hardware compressed Chance-I card achieve over the same card without hardware compression? Are these new hardware compressed cards a big step up in technology, or just a much needed addition to the cards? Will they be releasing all new software to take advantage of the cards, or will they use the same existing software and just be quicker than the old cards? Just curious.