Nice little IP cam boxes on ebay

[MaxIcon 0]

If this is inappropriate, let me know. I'm not associated with these guys, but this is a great deal on a standalone PC NVR for those who don't mind supporting their own gear.

 

I've been running Blue Iris 3 on a GVI autoNVR that's essentially an i3 mini-ITX box with Windows Embedded 7 installed.

 

Currently I've got 2 Vivotek IP8332s (1 MP ea), one Vivotek FD8134 (1 MP), an Arecont AV5100M (5 MP), and a Y-cam Black (VGA), and am running about 40% CPU with all of them at 5 FPS except the Y-cam at 15 fps. When I connect my Messoa NCR870 2MP, it bumps up to about 60%, but BI has a hard time with the Messoa decoding and scrambles it.

 

These boxes are being blown out on ebay for about $270 in most auctions, and come with the following specs:

- Core i3-540 CPU

- Intel DH57JG motherboard (also supports i5-6XX cpus)

- 2 GB RAM (can upgrade to 8G)

- 2 TB hard drive

- Windows Embedded 7

- No-frills case, with no front panel controls except a few LEDs, and no room for more HDs or to install a PCIe board.

 

I got it on a whim, and don't care much for the GVI software, but was surprised to find that BI3 runs fine on it as-is, so I don't have to install Win7 on it as I had planned. I disabled the GVI services so they wouldn't use up resources.

 

Anyway, this is a great little super compact box, perfect for a headless NVR system, and power usage is low. GVI is out of business, so there's no support, but everything except the case is a standard off the shelf item.

 

Search AutoNVR on ebay to find them. He adds more every few days, so don't get into bidding wars and pay too much! I'm not associated with the seller, but have bought several more of these because I couldn't build them for the price I'm paying. The next one's going to be a Windows Home Server 2011 box.

 

There's also a GVI box called the Razberi being sold that's an all-in-one NVR with 8 POE ports, but it's not standard hardware, and runs Windows Embedded XP (much more primitive). Camera support is limited, software's a bit buggy, and the lack of support makes this one not so recommendable unless you want something to play with.

[tomcctv 190]

HI its ebay.

 

- Core i3-540 CPU

- Intel DH57JG motherboard (also supports i5-6XX cpus)

- 2 GB RAM (can upgrade to 8G)

- 2 TB hard drive

- Windows Embedded 7

 

 

all for $270. just by pricing a 2tb H/drive should alert you to problems.

[MaxIcon 0]

There's always a risk buying on ebay, of course, but some deals to be had as well if you use judgement. I'm a pretty serious PC geek, and this looks legit to me. I'd normally avoid an orphan NVR, and that's probably keeping a lot of people away.

 

These are new in box, unopened, but no warranty, and the seller has a DOA guarantee. I bought one to check it out. Once I saw it's just a simple PC, nothing custom except the case and apps, I bought some more. You can't buy the individual parts for this, and I need a few simple PCs to update some old P4s, as well as some big HDs. The motherboard's a very good standard model Intel board, not fancy, but good performance and very reliable, if a little outdated (only Clarkdale dual core support, no Sandy Bridge). The HD is not a common model, but it's a WD 2TB AV hard drive (WD20EVDS), so it's not much different than the chances you'll take with any similar HD.

 

List price on these was $6k, and the few places that still list them have them in the $3k range. Yes, I know, nothing sells for list price, but it was being pushed as a quality piece of gear, and the build quality feels very good to me. The autoIP software includes 16 cam licenses, and the software's not bad, but buggy and never likely to be fixed. It likes most of my ONVIF cams pretty well. So far, I can't tell the difference between Windows 7 and Windows Embedded 7, though I'm sure it's there somewhere - it's not all stripped down like Windows Embedded XP usually is.

 

The vendor had a bunch up at once at first, which probably kept the price down. It's been creeping up as people find out about them, and he's started putting a few at a time on. I've seen several people buy 4-6 of them, probably for the same reason I am. Dunno how many he has left, but for the bargain hunters out there, it's worth checking out. More cautious people should probably avoid them and just pay a few hundred more.

 

By request, here are a few pics. After setting mine up on the bench, I installed ultraVNC on it and am running it headless - just a power cord and network cable. It had run Blue Iris 3 for 3-4 days with no problems when I shut it down to put it with the other gear.

 

The cams are all running from an 8 port GB POE switch, and are also being recorded by an NV5000 box.

 

The front - nothing but power and HD LEDs - no switch, no ports, no nothing.

 

The rear - standard DH57JG rear panel and power.

 

Inside - a tight layout, but so far, everything's run both cool and quiet. Summer will tell how effective the cooling is with high ambient temps.

[ssmith10pn 0]

Hmm HDMI out.

Will it do 1920 x 1080?

[tomcctv 190]

The HD is not a common model, but it's a WD 2TB AV hard drive (WD20EVDS), so it's not much different than the chances you'll take with any similar HD.

 

 

 

sorry what i ment was take the cost of the H/drive off the price of the full unit. (as it comes with H/D) then it looks cheap.

 

 

 

There's always a risk buying on ebay, of course, but some deals to be had as well if you use judgement. I'm a pretty serious PC geek, and this looks legit to me. I'd normally avoid an orphan NVR, and that's probably keeping a lot of people away.

 

 

 

 

it only keeps people away that do there homework.

 

problems ... it runs on licence that runs out august 2012. renewal cost $480. i asked what cameras it supports but they have not answered that in there email .

 

 

yes that system used to sell for $3000 (well that was the asking price) dont think they sold many as they went bust. look up GVI Security

 

 

 

There's always a risk buying on ebay, of course, but some deals to be had as well if you use judgement

 

 

so my judgement is this >>>> even if you get past the licence problem. i.e use another software. most now require a good graphics card to run. you cant add one to that unit.

[MaxIcon 0]

I didn't know about the license expiration, so that's another good reason not to bother with the software. I've made images of the original setups, but I'm not running these in autoIP mode.

 

It's got a limited set of cameras that it specifically supports - GVI (of course), Arecont, Sony, Axis, a few others. Most of mine show up as ONVIF cams, but at least one has trouble due to the buggy software. It can probably be hacked, but I doubt it's worth the time and effort.

 

GVI was pinning a lot of their post-Samsung hopes on this line, after buying the autoIP software and hiring the developer. Their new business model was based on intellectual property and licensing revenue (as you can see from their pricing), but it looks like they didn't make it past the initial rollout of the hardware. Best laid plans, etc.

 

Anyway, the point was that this was marketed as a high-end DVR, and it doesn't appear they skimped on hardware quality.

 

Really, the value is as a standalone, simple PC, and the price reflects that. Sure, you could put it in a bigger case to support an add-in card, DVD, whatever, but the PS is only 200W, so that would need an upgrade for many video cards. By the time you upgrade much more than the RAM, you might as well build a system and get more modern CPU support.

 

As a simple NVR with 5 IP cams and headroom for 3-4 more, it's hard to beat. I'm putting 8GB of RAM in one to install Windows Home Server 2011, and it'll be fine for that too. The video's built into the CPU core, and performance is fine for the stuff I've been doing.

 

Looks like the vendor's dropped his listings for now, so it's a bit of a moot point unless he starts selling more.

 

Hmm HDMI out.

Will it do 1920 x 1080?

 

It'll go to 1920x1200 on the HDMI port.

The full specs on the motherboard are here:

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/18702/eng/DH57JG_TechProdSpec.pdf

 

This MB is popular with the HTPC crowd, due to the lower power and small form factor (they use the onboard video). Here's a review of this MB and the next lower CPU in an HTPC context:

http://www.missingremote.com/review/intel-dh57jg-and-core-i3-530

[ssmith10pn 0]

This MB is popular with the HTPC crowd, due to the lower power and small form factor (they use the onboard video). Here's a review of this MB and the next lower CPU in an HTPC context:

 

That's why it caught my eye but no one has posted a link to it on ebay.

[MaxIcon 0]

There are a couple up now, one auction, one BIN/BO (resale of a buy from the main seller). Looks like they're trickling them out to keep the price pressure on, after having a half-dozen listed at a time earlier. Search on autonvr.

[tomcctv 190]

There are a couple up now, one auction, one BIN/BO (resale of a buy from the main seller). Looks like they're trickling them out to keep the price pressure on, after having a half-dozen listed at a time earlier. Search on autonvr.

 

 

 

 

MaxIcon. sorry i just have to point a few things out. people on the forum may think they are getting a good NVR for that price.

first off like the site says no returns. the other (info from samsung) once the licence has ran out the NVR becomes useless. it is an embeded system to run these as a pc you would also need to buy and load a operating system.

 

come august 2012 all you will have is a Dead NVR with no support.

[MaxIcon 0]

Yes, this is true; it should be pretty clear to anyone who has read the thread, plus I pointed it out in the original post. There is no support for the software pre-installed in these, and I've disabled it. The auction also clearly states that GVI is out of business.

 

NOTE: Anyone who wants a turnkey NVR should absolutely read all this carefully and avoid this box.

 

It's an ultra-compact Core i3, 2GB, 2TB, Intel MB PC with Windows Embedded 7 that's been selling for around $270, which is less than I can build an equivalent box for, even without an OS. It's run every Windows program I've tried so far (not many, to be sure), including Blue Iris 3 and various IP cam vendor support software. It'll also run normal Windows 7 or XP or Linux or whatever, supplied by the user as if they had built an identical PC from parts.

 

I know many of the pros here prefer top-shelf gear, and I definitely understand that, but there are also lots of tech-minded folks who are looking for bargains or wanting to get their feet wet with IP cams without spending a mortgage payment and don't mind trying out different solutions. I've gotten a ton of good info here over the last 5-6 years, and just wanted to give back a little to the other hobbyist types.

 

Personally, I've been running an older P4-3GHz box as my NVR test bed, and was looking for something to replace it with, as it bogs down completely by the time you get 6-8 MP of IP cam feeds on it (a common complaint on this forum). This has filled the need for me for several hundred dollars less than I expected to spend, and I'm just passing on the info for others who may be interested. YMMV, as always - clearly this isn't your cup of tea.

 

I appreciate the license info, though; that's good to know, as the GVI software is somewhat functional, but that's enough info to keep me from spending any serious time with it. You must have some good contacts, as GVI's website is completely dead except a shell on the Wayback Machine, and there's essentially no documentation supplied with the units.

[ssmith10pn 0]

If it really was Windows Embedded you couldn't add and remove programs so it sounds like a real copy of win7.

[kccustom 0]

Looks like a nice little Media server or HTPC, I just ordered the one from the guy reselling it, I hope he didn't strip the HD out of it.

[MaxIcon 0]

It's definitely Windows Embedded 7. It looks to me like Win7e is a lot less crippled than XPe was. It shows as Windows Embedded in the Properties screen, and when it downloads updates, they're listed as Embedded.

 

For those still interested in the performance of these, I installed Milestone XProtect Go (the free version) on it last night. I had to install .net 4 before XProtect would install, and put on Adobe Reader at the same time for the Milestone manual, as well as UltraVNC and a few other utilities. I thought about installing True Image for backups, but the Win7 backup software works on this, so I'll put that off for a bit.

 

XProtect Go ran fine, though it had trouble with a few of my cams. The same ones ran fine in IE and BI3, and XProtect Go isn't a good solution for me due to the single client and 5 day recording limit, so I probably won't spend a lot of time debugging it. On the plus side, XProtect used very low CPU for the 3 cams I had online (Vivotek IP8332 1MP, Arecont AV5105DN 5MP, and Messoa 870 2MP that dropped out intermittently).

 

The box has IIS running on port 80, and I haven't disabled that yet, so I set XProtect's server for port 81 with no problems. I'll probably go ahead and shut IIS down to keep the confusion down.

 

This was all on a fresh box with the autoIP software still running in the background. Generally, you want to disable this, since it auto-detects cameras and starts recording them, using small amounts of CPU and larger amounts of HD space.

 

I'm thinking I'll keep using one of the spare boxes for testing different NVR software while the primary records with BI3.

[MaxIcon 0]

8 more got posted recently, and one just closed at $243, if anyone's interested.

[bpzle 0]

I bought a couple of these boxes to mess around with. One I've been using for my home nvr running Avigilon. The other had been sitting in my closet for about a year until I found a need for it. Just recently started using it and it's been running great for a few days until tonight. It's not wanting to boot to Windows anymore and says it's missing or has corrupt system files. Unfortunately these didn't come with any kind of repair disc. I tried making one with the good machine but it said it was missing the necessary files to make a repair disk. I've tried all kinds of things off Google... ugh. Any tips for somehow making or finding a repair disc?

[ssmith10pn 0]

So throw a little money at it.

Get a new drive and this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416804

[bpzle 0]

not worth it for me. worst case I throw Ubuntu on it.

[MaxIcon 0]

I bought 4 of those boxes, and all are still in use, though 2 are in new cases and one is running WHS2011 now.

 

You could make an image backup of your other box and restore it to the bad one, though you may need a new HD if that's where the problem is. They all used an identical OEM registration license for the Win7E, so this should work fine.

[bpzle 0]

Ahhh... Nice to know. I thought about that but worried about Windows activation. I have plenty of drives laying around so i should be good. I'll check with Western Digital or however it is... It may even be on warranty.

 

Thanks so million!

[bpzle 0]

Update: used Acronis to backup working machine and restored to bad machine. So far working perfectly! We'll see how long this drive lasts... hopefully was a fluke. Thanks again!