Advice on getting video into a pc

[netsplit504 0]

First off, I'd like to say that this forum is awesome and I've spent many hours over the past week absorbing as much information as I can. From the information I've found, I've gotten most of my security system down, except for the actual capturing part. I am going to be using an old PC (running Windows), but am having trouble finding a capture card. Since everything else has already been purchased, to stay within my remaining budget the capture card needs to fall in the sub-$100 range. The problem is that many of the cards that I'm looking at in this range don't seem to have many reviews, so I'm not sure if I am getting a decent card and am hoping the experience on this board will help.

 

It will be a pretty basic system, with only one camera input being captured, so right now I am torn between the idea of using a standard 4 input DVR capture card or, since it will be a one-camera system, using a more universal card such as an ATI all-in-wonder or something similar to that. If I do decide to go with one of the non-DVR specific cards such as this, will the capture software recognize this input just as it would recognize an input from a DVR capture card?

 

Any suggestions on qualtiy sub-$100 cards is also greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!

[Soundy 1]

I have a little four-channel USB capture box that came with some basic DVR software, and works quite well (for the price, that is). Cost me something like $7 from miniinthebox.com (same kinda site as dealextreme.com, who I think has similar offerings, too).

 

You could use the All-in-Wonder, but the software that's included isn't really suited to surveillance recording, and I don't know how it would work with other software. The drivers do conform to WDM, so it SHOULD work with any suitable software that supports WDM devices.

[tomcctv 190]

take a look at the aver NV3000 card. it is in your price range. use analog or ip ........... you say you only need 1 camera just buy some cheap cameras from ebay to use the ports up............. you will be looking for an 8 way next.

[netsplit504 0]

Thanks again to both of you!

[dazzaUK 0]

I realise my reply is 10 days late, but if it's of any use I would caution against using the $7 USB encoders as typically they only have the hardware to physically capture a single channel at once.

 

The accompanying software tries to work around this by changing channel every second by default but you don't truly get 4 channels live. Oh and the quality is what you'd expect for 7 bucks.

 

+1 for the Aver cards, just make sure your CPU (and network infrastructure if you intend on streaming) is up to the job.