Advice Needed: Avermedia vs Geovision vs Other

[FarmerCharlie 0]

I have had an Avermedia NV3000 for about a year. I'm thinking about upgrading to an NV5000 or changing to a Geovision, and would appreciate some advice. Based on the number of posts here, the Geovision cards seem to be more popular. Is that correct?

Specific questions:

1. In deciding on a Geovision card, is the GV-650 roughly comparable to the Avermedia NV5000? Is it expandable to 8 channels, or would I have to order the 8-channel version to start with?

2. Can these cards be setup to reduce the frame rate to reduce the video file size?

3. Can the Geovision cards produce outputs that are Windows Media Player compatible for broadcasting WEB cameras? With the NV3000 I have to split the video and use two USB capture cards and MediaEncoder for that.

4. If I change to Geovision, will I be able to play my old NV3000 recordings, or would I have to install my NV3000 card in a spare computer?

Thanks,

Charles