Donglin Along...

[G22 0]

no need to, their fonts are all standard MS Sans Serif

 

Not the Camera, Focus, Zoom, Iris font. Can those be changed as well?

[scottj 0]

Those guys at I-View never cease to amaze me. Rumor has it that GeoVision and I-View were fighting over this new logo, but I'm going to let you guys decide.

 

 

Scottj

[rory 0]

no need to, their fonts are all standard MS Sans Serif

 

Not the Camera, Focus, Zoom, Iris font. Can those be changed as well?

 

no, there is no sdk .... but you can do what i did and make your own that looks like iview if you want, out of their active X ..

[G22 0]

Those guys at I-View never cease to amaze me. Rumor has it that GeoVision and I-View were fighting over this new logo, but I'm going to let you guys decide.

 

Scottj

 

OMFG, are you trying to excite me or whaaa?

[scottj 0]

If Herm wasn't such a nice guy I wouldn't tease him like this.

scottj

[G22 0]

I set him as my wallpaper

 

[keefe007 0]

Lets see, Microsoft, Adobe, Nortons ..... non of them use Dongles. Dongles are just a lame attempt to protect software.

 

Microsoft, Adobe, and Norton all are using online activation, would you prefer that?

 

In all reality, some of the most expensive programs out there use key dongles, and they are a good idea to protect against piracy. Most of the time you see the dongles used in smaller niche software companies where the development costs / customer are much higher. Like it or not, piracy is a big problem and you will see more and more software applications that require this type of authenication. If you think dongles suck, you should see some of the other authentication methods that are coming online for software. One company here at Computex is touting its new true "per user" software auth which makes sure that only ONE person is able to access the software by using thumbprint scanning.

[keefe007 0]

I'd have to disagree that a dongle make a software package look "cheap." In fact, most of the really expensive niche software packages like this use dongles to prevent piracy. Using a dongle is just about the best way to assure that your software is not being use illegally. Granted you can get around a dongle authentication key, but it does take a lot of work and most people aren't willing to put that much time and money into cracking them.

 

What happens when someone steals the dongle from a DVR? I can tell you now that our customers will not accept the downtime (sending board numbers to Geo for a replacement, etc). Cracking a dongle actualy does not take much effort nor money. Rumor has it that there are "people" that have already done this.

 

scottj

 

If someone is stealing your dongles then that raises questions about the physical security of your DVR server. And someone could just steal your whole DVR server anyways, no software auth would save you there!

 

In the long run, the dongle is a good idea for GV and for us. The alternative would for GV to use a key on the hardware chipset like version 6.1x. People were angry about that because the new software version would not run on cards that did not have that keyed chipset. The dongle allows geovision to update their software without requiring new hardware. I dont know about everyone else, but I'd rather have to deal with a dongle then have to go through buying new hardware and/or sending hardware in for a chipset upgrade! I still have an older card that I can't ugprade past 6.05 because of this chipset crap. Gah!

[Thomas 0]

Key Dongles are a return to a bad idea. Dongles used to be done via the serial port way back in the Apple IIe/286 days and were abandoned after a while. Cracking them becamed trival. Emulating them (and using USB will just make this easier) isn't very hard either.

[keefe007 0]

Since you think that dongles are a bad idea, what form of piracy protection to you think geovision should implement to solve this problem?

 

Of course USB key dongles can be cracked if you have the time to write your own application that could monitor the I/O on the USB port and then hijack the correct data dream, but CD-keys and LPT dongles are even easier for someone to crack.

 

If people keep complaining senselessly about everything then geovision will just do what the others are doing and force some kind of online product activation, which will be a big pain-in-the-rear.

[Thomas 0]

Except that grabbing the firmware from a USB and emulating it is easier then cracking a CD check. You don't need to monitor the I/O for anything. The USB standard allows for some tricks to grab firmware on and off the device. Then it's as simple as mounting the device. With a CD you can do drive geomonitry checks to see if the media matches what it should be. But in the end, Geovision can't win. Online activation helps, but even that isn't going to solve the problem.

 

But you asked for solutions:

 

Stop using UDP as their card maker. They called us up and hinted that they would be happy to sell us the same card for development. Some of the pirated cards are from other fab plants, but mostly they are buying from UDP.

 

Online authentication. It sucks yes, but it's generally one time.

[qman 0]

Damm, I look good in pink................

 

 

Funny guys, very funny.

 

Anyway, to be honest, the best way to avoid piracy whether is a DVR, a piece of software, or even cd's and Video games.

 

LOWER THEIR RIDICULOUS PRICES.

 

I can tell you there is no reason why a board that cost $150, and a piece of software sells for almost $1000.00

[scottj 0]

Since you think that dongles are a bad idea, what form of piracy protection to you think geovision should implement to solve this problem?

 

If people keep complaining senselessly about everything then geovision will just do what the others are doing and force some kind of online product activation, which will be a big pain-in-the-rear.

 

For one they could get a handle on their distribution channels. Edward has mentioned that they are trying to monitor the methods in which they market their boards. The past Geo Marketing Strategy was:

 

Buy (1) board = end user

Buy (2) boards = Dealer

Buy (3) boards = Distributor

 

There are a plethora of 14 year old Distributors out there now with no overhead that you will have to compete with. (See Ebay and search GeoVision). When this happens, legit businesses seek out alternative solutions (one being a generic Chinese board that looks like Geo, and most importantly uses Geo software).

 

It's just like anything else in the world. If you price people out of a product, they will find an alternate route. Piracy will always exists and the best fight against it is developing a Continuous Improvement mentality. Geo is not losing sales due to piracy, they are losing sales due to poor business ethics and massive price variances.

But what some of us consider "poor ethics" is the norm in many Asian markets.

 

scottj

[Thomas 0]

Volume vs costs. Development, good development costs money. Shipping. Tech support. Sales staff. Marketing.

[rory 0]

Lets see, Microsoft, Adobe, Nortons ..... non of them use Dongles. Dongles are just a lame attempt to protect software.

 

Microsoft, Adobe, and Norton all are using online activation, would you prefer that?

 

In all reality, some of the most expensive programs out there use key dongles, and they are a good idea to protect against piracy. Most of the time you see the dongles used in smaller niche software companies where the development costs / customer are much higher. Like it or not, piracy is a big problem and you will see more and more software applications that require this type of authenication. If you think dongles suck, you should see some of the other authentication methods that are coming online for software. One company here at Computex is touting its new true "per user" software auth which makes sure that only ONE person is able to access the software by using thumbprint scanning.

 

Really?? ive never had to activate anything .. and im im using the latest software .. If their software is that good, the occational piracy will not have an effect on the profit ... All they really need to do is create a serial number for each single software program ... if the person is that good a cracker, then they deserve the soft free!

[rory 0]

If someone is stealing your dongles then that raises questions about the physical security of your DVR server. And someone could just steal your whole DVR server anyways, no software auth would save you there!

 

In the long run, the dongle is a good idea for GV and for us. The alternative would for GV to use a key on the hardware chipset like version 6.1x. People were angry about that because the new software version would not run on cards that did not have that keyed chipset. The dongle allows geovision to update their software without requiring new hardware. I dont know about everyone else, but I'd rather have to deal with a dongle then have to go through buying new hardware and/or sending hardware in for a chipset upgrade! I still have an older card that I can't ugprade past 6.05 because of this chipset crap. Gah!

 

If you are buying hardware from a company the software is supposed to be free. Especially when it is green

[G22 0]

Wow, finally got my sick ding dongle and v7 software CD.

[qman 0]

and what is the difference?

[G22 0]

Few more config options. So far, 720x240+ is actually worse quality in our setup for some reason than 640x480 was. Might have to try Wavelet and see what happens. Right now, it is 720x480 De-interlaced since 720x480 raised the CPU usage up to 85%+.

 

I just finished building my PC for a PC Based DVR for home use. Just need a half decent LCD monitor and a DVR card now. GeoVision is definitely not on my list for DVR cards. I would rather connect my Panasonic camcorder via FireWire and capture that way before ever getting another GeoVision unfortunately.

[jsimon 0]

Do any one knows if the version 7 needs the S1 chiap too, or just the dongle?

[baywatch 1]

Just the dongle, but we have had 1 or 2 customers computers that could not be upgraded with the dongle, they kept giving the error can't find keypro.

As it happens the customers concerned were happy with their systems as they were so we just reinstalled the older version.

We have upgradedquite a few systems & only found the 2 problems.

I don't know what the problem is.