Settings for the best video quality with a Gv800 or 1120?

[501 0]

We've been installing Geo for about 4 or 5 years with great success and I was wondering what settings will give the very best video quality available? (ie. compression, res, etc...). No one has ever told me matter of factly which compression is the best to use for video quality.

 

Also I have seen a lot of talk about LCD's not being good for security but if you set the display to the native resolution (1280x1024 with many LCD's and version 8.02), this is ideal is it not?

 

This is a cool site and I have other questions so I'm going to fire them out.

 

I've noticed the recorded and live video on the same system looks different on a GV800 versus a 1120, do they have different chipsets or something?

 

Also is 720x480 any better then the 640x480 or is it just stretched by software?

 

Ok, thats all I can thin of for now. Thanks for any help people can offer.

[501 0]

Hey Rory, I was hoping you could take a stab at my questions, you seem to know Geo inside out and back again. I have been slowly reading through your posts. While I'm here, what video cards do you use/recommend for GV800's or the combo cards?

 

Thanks

[rory 0]

Hi, i'd recommend ATI for all Geo Cards .. 128 or better yet 256 if you can afford it. .. genuine ATI as opposed to OEMed names. For the other non Combo cards OEMs would suffice.

 

Best quality ive found is with Geo Mpeg4 (Fast Mpeg4).

Their H264 takes up less space but is lower quality; it is however a good setting for webcam server on slow internet connections.

 

720x480 does make a small difference in recorded video.

But for most multi camera apps that takes up so much additional hard drive space the difference isn't noticable enough to be worth the extra expense.

 

But if you ultimately want the highest quality then you would want 720x480 with Fast Mpeg4. This would all be redundant if the cameras are not high resolution though. Even though a low res camera set up properly can look really good with these settings, when you playback the recorded video and blow up the video size it then gets pixelised as it goes above its original camera specific size.

[501 0]

Thanks Rory, up to this point we have been using exactly what you advised (ati 128 mb or 256 mb) so it's good to know you are using the same thing. Lately we have been setting all of our systems up to use H.264 at 640x480 with 420line cameras because of the long recording times and decent picture quality, but now I'm considering switching back to GeoMpeg4, although it does give a lot more recording time.

 

Have you noticed that the video on the combo cards looks a little different then the video from an 800? I have installed 4 GV1120's and although they look great the video is not the same as the 800's, its still good just not the same. Maybe its just me.

 

You ever use Avermedia? How do you think it compares?

[rory 0]

Never used Avermedia so cant compare ..

 

The Brightness and Contrast settings are different with the Combo cards on version 8.0 from version 7.0x .. other than that the only other difference really is when they are set to 720x480 Source, the Remote Video has black edges around it.