Newbie Help - Best setup for me?

[FlirtMarketing 0]

Hello, we have 4 analog camcorders that we are using on separate PC's using Dazzle USB capture devices. We have installed video distribution amplifiers at each PC to split the video and audio so that we can cable back to our server room to record.

 

My first questions are what type of card would be best in the server to capture the video and audio? Is there specific software for each card manufacturer or is one better than the other? We would like to create .mpg files and prefer to have them split into smaller files as opposed to one huge one. Any chance that there's software that creates .wmv files?

 

Second, the cable runs are approx. 30 feet. What type of cable should I go with for both video and audio? I've considered getting the RCA to RJ45 baluns, but they're pretty pricey. Would I be just as good off running RG-6 for video and RCA for audio?

 

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Bobby

[rory 0]

Hi, welcome

 

First the cable, RG59 Copper (or RG6 Copper if you can get your hands on it)

RCA or Telco for Audio.

 

At that short distance you can easily do twisted pair and baluns for video but Coax will be more secure. If all you have is RG6 Aluminum cable Tv Cable, it can work too, just keep it a couple feet away from any high voltage, Copper cable would keep it around 1 foot away from high voltage, Twisted pair the same. With all cables, the further away from High Voltage the better (eg. Fluorescent Lights).

 

Alot of PC DVRs save them in AVI format, .wmv is unheard of, .mpg never seen that also. You could probably write a small exe to do the conversion from AVI to Mpeg for you, if anyone there has some programming experience, or search the web for something that may do the conversion on schedule.

 

As im going backwards with the questions, the first question's answer would be yes, there are low end cards and then there are better ones. The cost is generally in the software - quality and features.

 

A couple that I can suggest.

 

GeoVision

Video Insight

NetProMax

I-View (less popular but decent software)

 

There are others but I havent played with them all as yet.

 

Rory

[Thomas 0]

Are you looking to use these cameras for CCTV use, or general multimedia work?

[FlirtMarketing 0]

Just general multimedia work.

 

I figured I would probably end up going RG-6 with RCA for audio. Is the GV-800 a good card with the 7.0 software? Anything to watch for regarding PC hardware (video cards, chipset, etc.)?

 

Thanks,

Bobby

[Thomas 0]

For general multimedia work you don't want any of the products you'll find on here. You want a video card with an TV-import and one of Adobe's fine products. The logic in our software, in Geovisions software, are designed with very differant goals in mind then video editing. You can try to make one of these solutions work for you but you'll spend more time and effort fighting with the software then it's worth.

[CollinR 0]

Hauppage capture cards would kick ass. That will give you real time hq inputs each with audio syncronized. 720x480 30 fps per channel totally hardware MPEG2 a+v no need to transcode to back up on DVD, standard players often work.

 

Others can watch the framebuffer over LAN, ebay the dazzles... You can setup recording schedules or manually control as well. Home theater PC forums will be your best resources (snapstream, sagetv).