Which dvr card

[bt 0]

Hi to all,

I'm new at this game of cctv and I am now looking for an other dvr card, as the one I have does not do all that I would like.

First of all I'll start off with what I have so far...

 

6 camera's ( 2 colour and 4 bw)

1 not very good pci slot dvr card( bought from ebay, never again!)

running on a 3.2gh Amd athlon in XP Pro with 1.5 gh of ram

and 750GB of Hard Drive and a 512 memory graphics card.

 

I'm looking for a card that will take all 6 cameras on board, 4 to record in real time and 2 to record with motion detection.

Please could someone bring me up to speed as to which fps I should be looking for as I see so many different fps rates ie: 120fps and does this mean that if a card has 4 channels, that the 120fps is divided between the 4 channels or does it mean that each channel can do 120fps?

 

The problem I have is trying to get to grips with what spec of card to buy, as I don't want to end up buying an over the top spec for what I need as my budget has to be kept to a minimum, but on the other hand I don't want to end up with somthing that won't do the job.

I live in Europe so I'm going by the PAL fps.

What card would you recommend?

 

Many thanks in advance

[Security Consultant 0]

Hello,

 

I'd like to give you some suggestions.

 

First, You want DVR card to connect 6 cameras. so you need a 8 channels card. As i know, there is no 6 channels card. The 8 channels card will be a cost-effective choice, with 2 channels left for expansion.

 

Second, about card specification, you need 4-ch real-time recording and 2-ch motion detection, it is better to choose a 8-ch fully real-time recording card. in PAL format, 1-ch real-time recording need 25fps, so for a 8 channel card, it requires 200fps in total to support real-time recording for each channel.

 

Thirdly, what is your requirement on image quality. There are these resolutions for your choice:

PAL:4CIF (704x576), DCIF(528x384), 2CIF(704x288),CIF(352x288), QCIF(176x144);

 

Fourthly, about compression algorithm, H.264 is the most advanced technology. It leads to up to 40% higher image quality and over 60% savings on recording storage space

 

In a summary, i strongly recommend you to buy a 8-ch hardware compresison card. Generally, DSP hardware comprssion card has higher performance and more stable than traditional card, since the DSP is implementing video & audio real-time encoding and motion detection, significantly saving computer processor resources.

 

Here will be the best choice:

CO-4008C: 8 video and 8 audio input, 200 F/S (PAL) or 240F/S (NTSC)

-Adopts the most advanced H.264 algorithm.

-Utilizes independent DSP chips

-Supports real-time preview & recording for each and every channel

-Supports up to 64 channels real-time preview & recoding in one PC

 

BTW, your computer is good enough to support 8 channels. But the new card card and old card may not work simultaneously.

[Sherry_c 0]

FPS is the abbreviation of Frame Per Second.

For PAL, 25f/s is real time; for NTSC, 30f/s is real time. Take a 4channel card for example, we say this card is 120fps. That means for NTSC, the total frames for all 4channel are 120fps. Then each channel is 30f/s.

 

And i think you PC specification is ok for 6channel system.

 

You said that you want to connect 6 cameras, then you need use 1pcs 8 channel card or 2pcs 4channel cards. 4channel for realtime record and 2 channel for motion record. You can set the task in software. It's very easy when you know. Don't worry about it

 

Hope i can be helpful for you.

 

Sherry Chen

www.ortvision.com

[rory 0]

Hi to all,

I'm new at this game of cctv and I am now looking for an other dvr card, as the one I have does not do all that I would like.

First of all I'll start off with what I have so far...

Welcome .. its a fun "game"

 

6 camera's ( 2 colour and 4 bw)

1 not very good pci slot dvr card( bought from ebay, never again!)

running on a 3.2gh Amd athlon in XP Pro with 1.5 gh of ram

and 750GB of Hard Drive and a 512 memory graphics card.

I would really swap that for an Intel Chipset and CPU .. doesnt have to be an Intel Motherboard, just have the intel Chipset .. so you can run the "better" cards. If not you will be kind of stuck with the lower end pro cards .. like the generic 30fps ones. Ram, HDDs, and Video seem more than adequate.

 

I'm looking for a card that will take all 6 cameras on board, 4 to record in real time and 2 to record with motion detection.

There can be 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16 channel boards ... the general ones available throughout the ranges are 4, 8, 16. Do you mean Real Time motion Video, or Continuous (all the time) record?

 

Please could someone bring me up to speed as to which fps I should be looking for as I see so many different fps rates ie: 120fps and does this mean that if a card has 4 channels, that the 120fps is divided between the 4 channels or does it mean that each channel can do 120fps?

For 4 cameras to do "real time" (30fps per camera) you would need 120fps just for those .. most cards also use Smart Motion Detection where the fps is divided among the active cameras .. so if you have 2 cameras with motion on a 4 channel 30fps card, then they are getting 15fps each, as soon as the other 2 pick up motion, it goes down to 7.5fps each, and as soon as one of them stop recording motion, the other 3 would go up to 10fps each ... just an example, it will vary from card to card as to what they call this feature, but most pro DVRs have this.

 

Essentially to get full 30fps Real Time Motion Video Recorded on each channel, or even just 4 channels with slower recording on the other 2, you would need acard that records in 240fps .. in High Res (640x480 or 720x480) and this will vary between card manufacturers. Most specs, especially the software compression cards, will quote their recording speed in 320x240 or 320x252 - low resolution. So basically will need to check the detailed specs on them to find out which card will work. Most Hardware compression cards will do it in high res, and actually they will say that clear as day normally, as thats their claim for fame, so to speak.

 

Lots of brands, many have hardware compression now also. I would however just stick with Mpeg4 over H.264, for higher quality. You have 750GB so space is not a real issue. You would need to verify though the first paragraph above, if that IS real time motion video on each camera, or if that is continous (all the time record) and then Motion Record .. both methods have nothing to do with the actual recorded speeds though - that is another setting. Typically you can set up each camera individually with different settings, including but not limited to Scheduled Recording and options for either Continous or Motion Record.

 

The problem I have is trying to get to grips with what spec of card to buy, as I don't want to end up buying an over the top spec for what I need as my budget has to be kept to a minimum, but on the other hand I don't want to end up with somthing that won't do the job.

I live in Europe so I'm going by the PAL fps.

What card would you recommend?

 

Many thanks in advance

 

I was quoting NTSC so excuse me there. .

But basically you can get a good idea by searching this forum as to which Cards are popular .. also there are many other DVR card companies not neccassarily mentioned as much, that doesnt mean they arent as good, so dont be afraid to test a new product.

 

Otherwise .. ask some more questions and check around ..

should get it soughted out ..

Rory

[bt 0]

Rory

Do you mean Real Time motion Video, or Continuous (all the time) record?

 

Thankyou all for giving me the information I'm looking for, the fog on which dvr card is starting to lift.

 

My answer to the question (above) is that I'm looking to be able to record on 4 of the cameras in what I call real time look (without that jitter of missing frames on playback) and to be able to record 24 hours a day with all motion in the picture recorded. My example would be: If a person was walking in front of the camera then every footstep would be recorded.

The dvr card I have at the moment seems to record with this staggered look on the moving object.

I hope this answer helps, rory,