Troubleshooting GV800-16

[fdan4817 0]

A dealer loaned us a brand new, still-in-the box GeoVision 800-16 card to test in our PC which is configured as follows:

 

Dell, OptiPlex GX150

P3, 1Mhz, 256RAM, 250HDD

Video card: Unclear. Here is exactly what the Dell site says:

 

Graphics architecture Intel 3D with direct accelerated graphics port (AGP)

Graphics accelerator Embedded Intel Dynamic Video Memory Technology (DVMT) with optional 4-MB Graphics Performance Accelerator (GPA), or a 4X AGP card can be supported (low profile cards for small form-factor and small desktop systems; full-height cards [up to 22.9 cm or 9 inches] for the small mini-tower system)

Display cache optional 4-MB, 133-MHz SDRAM

Graphics memory Dynamically allocated from system memory

 

These specs (except possibly video card) meet GV-800 requirements.

 

What happens is this. It works GREAT....until you record something. Then, all you get is vertical lines, no picture.

 

I plan to contact GeoVision directly and our local dealer is going to the "Big Show" in Las Vegas this week and is planning to question the GV reps there.

 

However, I thought maybe someone had encountered this problem before and had a solution.

 

By the way: The Optiplex does not have room to add the GV DVR card AND an upgraded video card. But then, you probably already knew that.

[CCTVINSTALLER 0]

WOH!!!! that spec is tooo low for a Gv800-16, id you're using that as a permanent system, don't expect it to last. I know they say the spec is ok, but geovision say a lot of things. The only problem i can see is with youre video card, definitely not as powerful as you need it to be. 'nVIDIA GeForce2 MX200 32MB' is a min spec video card. Are you using direct draw overlay and de-interlace render in your settings? if so try disabling them

[G22 0]

Agreed, way too low. 1MHz??. I would say more like 1GHz. You need more RAM also. It might work as mentioned, but dont be surprised if you have lots o problems. Definitely, the integrated Video Card is going to be a problem.

 

We have a GV800-4 running just ONE cam so far, and the computer cannot handle it. It is a P4 2.4GHz with 1.5GB DDR RAM, ASUS P4C800-E Motherboard, and 3 x 250GB HD's. We are also using a Video Card not in the GEO Video Card specs, which is an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro.

[CCTVINSTALLER 0]

We have a GV800-4 running just ONE cam so far, and the computer cannot handle it. It is a P4 2.4GHz with 1.5GB DDR RAM, ASUS P4C800-E Motherboard, and 3 x 250GB HD's. We are also using a Video Card not in the GEO Video Card specs, which is an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro.

 

What do you mean the computer can't handle it? that spec seems perfect for a gv800

[G22 0]

We have a GV800-4 running just ONE cam so far, and the computer cannot handle it. It is a P4 2.4GHz with 1.5GB DDR RAM, ASUS P4C800-E Motherboard, and 3 x 250GB HD's. We are also using a Video Card not in the GEO Video Card specs, which is an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro.

 

What do you mean the computer can't handle it? that spec seems perfect for a gv800

 

The motion is constantly jerking, and for some weird reason... the setting/icon/button to change the frame rate is no longer clickable, so I cannot decrease it to 15fps or lower. It was at 30fps when set initially. Plus the computer crashes once in a while, every few weeks or so. The resources are always at 85%+ and nothing else is running... ok except for Norton. Since I blocked all GEO ports on our Cisco router (except for my specific IP)... I guess I can disable Norton.

[DataAve 0]

With the prices of computers today, why cheese out on an inferior machine?

[G22 0]

Well in my case, one word... MANAGEMENT. It is hard to convince them to invest in a decent CCTV system when we have not been broken into... yet. I had to buy the our first damn camera... myself!

[rory 0]

Umm, mines a Celleron 2Ghz, 256MB RAM, 30GB HDD ... catch is its a RADEON 9200SE 128MB Video Card ...

 

Its has the I-view card, and been running great the past couple weeks ,no hitches, 24/7.. ofcourse 30Gb its not getting too long a recording but its mostly a demo so it doesnt matter, the PC used to be an accounting PC so its not new ..

 

Rory

[wahloon 0]

You get what you pay for I would get a faster cpu, memeory, and video card. Then make sure in the system configuration you have all the cameras not overclocking in the fps.

[cctv_down_under 0]

For the first poster, that video chip is the problem.

 

A couple things to note...

 

1/ Connecting only one camera to a Geo (with older software) will cause it to reboot or crash.

 

2/ The reason you can probably no longer see the icon is that it realises that it has enough frames to get past 25fps for that channel so there is no need to adjust it, or you simply chose SRT recording or it si a 900 card or a copy of Geo.

 

3/ The crashing could be caused by video corruption, simply check the recorded video folder, burrow down until you get to dates, look to see if there are some dates that are out of sequence (file folders are in date name) then try to thumbnail preview the contecnts of the folder that has the suspect date (for example you migth find one witha very old date) if it will not prteview its contents then it may have corruption, open it and if it only has one avi event try playing it in media player.

 

4/ the resources are supposed to run high, uts trying to use full use of your CPU

 

5/ Norton is a memory hog and severe bloatware!!

[fdan4817 0]

First, I did incorrectly stat the speed of the processor. It is 1 Ghz, not 1 Mhz.

 

In the test run we initially had 4 cameras installed and they viewed just fine. I did not take a look a the amount of CPU being used.

 

The software was GeoVision 6.1.1 (and I realize what everyone is talking about now with the blinking eyes).

 

I am fairly confident that what has been suggested here is correct that the video card setup is simply insufficient. However, as I think I stated in my initial post, this machine only has room for one expansion card, so if we upgrade the video, no DVR card.

 

Thanks for all your help.

 

Hope those of you in Las Vegas are having a good time.

[fdan4817 0]

There has been an interesting twist in this saga...

 

GeoVision support emailed me and asked for copies of the files that were not displaying properly. So, I hooked the machine up and went hunting for those files. When I found them, I surprised to find that they opened up in Windows Media Player and played fine....well almost. They were UPSIDE DOWN!!! Otherwise, however, the video looked great!

 

So, I have to wonder if there is just a corrupted file of some kind in the GeoVision software.

 

Does anyone know of a way to flip a Windows Media File upside down (and turning the computer upside down is not an option, )

 

Thanks.

[rory 0]

Try Windows Movie Maker

[fdan4817 0]

Good try....

 

WMM is only for XP. We are currently running Win2000 Pro.

[rory 0]

Whoops. sorry

[qman 0]

uhm, is there a way that you could add the amount of memory allocated to the video from the BIOS? That may take care of the playback problem.

[fdan4817 0]

I have considered that as a possible solution. I haven't had a chance to set the box up again and play with things such as that.

 

The biggest problem I have right now is that I don't have the card in the box at the moment and so the software won't run right now. That is how I stumbled onto the fact that the files would play in Windows Media Player.

 

The dealer we have been working with is supposed to be in town and available again today. He was out at ISC last week.

 

Thanks again.

[fdan4817 0]

A follow-up to our original situation....

 

The local dealer took our box and worked with it for a couple of days with no success (still just vertical bars within GV software).

 

However, he was kind enough to let me bring the box back with a card to work with to see if we could get it working...and I DID! In the video attributes setting for the camera I switched from the Geo Mpeg to the standard Mpeg-4 format. It now works great.

 

I don't know how it will perform once we load it down with multiple cameras, but at the worst case scenario we will be able to build our camera network and hook it up. If the computer dies because it can't handle the load, we can always replace the box with a heftier system.