Suggestions for Laptop Capture Card 1-4 channel

[cachecreekcctv 0]

Having never captured video on my laptop, would like suggestions about experiences (good and bad) with different Capture Cards on a laptop. Would be going directly from camera to laptop, no more than 4 cameras, and recording no longer than 24 hours. Suggestions/Advice???

[rory 0]

I only used 1 such USB 4 channel device ..

The software was not that good, only recorded in 320x240 and had other software related issues (such as minimal or very basic features) .. otherwise it didnt crash .. But I didnt test it for any long length of time though.

[cachecreekcctv 0]

Any "decent" PCMCIA cards that exist for laptop recording? One channel into card, preferably MPEG-4. The reason I am asking this, is that my brother who has a construction company, often has his workers on the road. His service trucks are broken into many times, while his employees are staying at hotels. I would like to set his foreman up with something very simple that would watch from inside the room to a parking lot, etc. Laptops are very common tools nowadays, plus most newer designs can write to CD/DVD. Maybe a better idea out there??

[JMANOFNVS 0]

I HAVE ACTUALLY BEEN LOOKING INTO THIS EXACT TYPE OF SOLUTION MYSELF BUT FOR DIFFERENT APPLICATION AND I HAVE SEVERAL SOLUTIONS BUT THEY INVOLVE MORE THEN ONE PIECE OF EQUIPMENT. IF YOU HAVE SOME DECENT KNOWLEDGE OF PCMCIA CARDS, LAPTOPS AND IP CAMS I CAN HELP YOU.

[cachecreekcctv 0]

The IP camera part might be out of my "knowledge base", but my thought process , going in this direction with the laptop, is that I would like to break this down to the least amount of hardware. I am doing this for my brothers' company, a Construction company. I could buy him a simple Avermedia MPEG4 DVR, and 2 cameras, but my problem would be the daily phone calls from his foreman trying to explain why he can't see any video. His foreman does keep a laptop, and is sort of knowledgable when it comes to Microsoft Office, etc. But my idea was simply; 1 laptop, 1 camera, view camera on laptop screen, PCMCIA card for input, record for 24 hours max. The "KISS" principle would have to apply here. How does your idea work around this?

[cachecreekcctv 0]

Borrowed a friends' Plextor PX-M402U USB capture device to try out. Records in many formats, including DIVX. Recorded to hard drive for several hours. Wrote to DVD in DIVX format. Looked so good I went to Tigerdirect and bought one for myself. Spent the huge sum of $100 (before the $50 rebate) for a new one. From now on I got to split my conversations between my CCTV friends, and my "techie" friends !! Come to find out, one of my "techie" friends won't use anything but Plextor when to comes to CD/DVD drives and devices. Learn something every day. Never even knew about "DIVX" until last week. Turns out my techie friend has dozens of movies on his LAN hard drive. I've seen them myself, and didn't question where/how they were stored.

[rory 0]

Yes but thats not a Surveillance Capture Card. In other words (correct me if Im wrong) the software is not designed for 24/7 Surveillance Recording, and isnt that what you wanted? Basic capture cards or devices like that are a dime a dozen these days .. software is what really makes the difference though when it comes to 24/7 recording. Pinicale is a really good one for that, ATI also ofcourse.

 

Far as I know, DIVX is on XP by default. At least I have it installed ..

Been around for many years now also ..

[cachecreekcctv 0]

My thought process going forward on this, was to enable someone, who was very low "tech savie" (I include myself also), in the Construction industry, to be able to watch, only overnight , for maybe 8 hours. I wasn't trying to sell anything, I am merely trying to help out my brother, who owns a Construction company here in California. He has around 30 employees on the road all over the state. Maybe 2 or 3 "foremen", who could be trusted with this. He loses thousands of dollars each year to theft of his construction equipment. (generators, ladders, tools, etc.) He will put 8 workers in a small motel for weeks while they are working in a strange town (strange to them). Every time, and I mean Every time, he will have theft. So much so, he has to budget that into his bidding process. The owner of a Commercial building, while under construction, will hire Security guards, so most of this theft happens at these motels, while his workers are sleeping. Just trying to find the easiest solution and maybe save my brother some headaches , as he is getting tired of spending so much time on the phone with local Police, who are overworked themselves. I appreciate any suggestions on this, but have to remember who would be the "end user". Thanks!!

[rory 0]

Its going to be huge files, unless he deletes them every day, or has a ton of hard drive space ..

 

Best bet would be something like the 2 channel Geo, it uses the same Software as the other cards, and typically even works in Via chipsets.

Rory

[CollinR 0]

For no brains 24/7 recording the Plextor PX-M402U would be a pretty decent idea.

 

Since it encodes to DIVX by hardware it doesn't need much of anything from the laptop. It'll also yeild a much higher quality possibility. I don't own one but I know they do work, well. Many have had them running 24/7 for years now.

 

cachecreekcctv,

 

More helpful stuff.

 

Google for VLC or video LAN, you should be able to use that to stream directly from the Plextor over the net. You will quickly find VLC to be the most capable but also difficult media player, it'll play/transcode/stream just about anything.

[cachecreekcctv 0]

I talked to my Brothers' Construction foreman today. I told him I was going to setup something pretty simple for him. He laughed. Since I have known him for over 20 years, he knows me well enough. My brother "lost" 2 generators last weekend . At around $800/ea (Hondas) he needs something quick. I will have him (the foreman) delete , or write over, the video files each day. Bottom line, if workers come in around 5 to 8PM, setup camera(s), then wake around 5AM, that would be small hard drive space each day. No more than 12 hours to be stored at any one time. When my brothers' employees go to their work trucks in the morning, and everything is OK, life is good. So they would know each and every morning, while they are out in the field. Isn't "DIVX" the same codec as MPEG-4? or very similiar? My "techie" friiend told me that hardware compression, as in the Plextor, is easier on the CPU , and a lot more adaptable to a laptop than software compression. Are any of these statements true? Just not sure about it.

[rory 0]

If it really is hardware compression, sure. About DivX, not certain, ive used it a couple times for other things and it was huge though. Maybe it was just the version I was using, or the video I was capturing.

 

I just feel a DVR card would make life so much easier ..

[phred 0]

- The Plextor unit does have a hardware compression chip inside and will

produce good quality video while putting little strain on your laptop

processor.

 

- DivX is an mpeg4 codec and the latest version is very good

(though not as good as X.264 )

 

Your idea will work and give good recordings but I suspect you will

encounter a problem when you try to review video if it is recorded as one

huge file.

 

Please try playing back an 8 hour video file and see what I mean.

 

Also, for evidence the video usually needs to be timestamped and in a

non-editable format.

 

You may find one of the many webcam surveillance programs will work

with the Plextor and offer motion detection recording.

 

 

If you are planing to put a camera and recorder into a vehicle then

something like the portable recorders from rapidvisionsystems.co.uk

would be worth considering. Cameras and recorders are quite common in

police patrol cars nowadays and are kept very simple to use. These

systems can often be rented.

 

If your brother is loosing that much money he would be wise to consider

spending the money on a proper solution and help prevent further loss.

[cachecreekcctv 0]

I myself have taken my Avermedia DVR into my truck and recorded video from a small bullet IR camera on it. DVR's, for the most part, run on 12vdc. Most auto batteries are 13.2 vdc (fully charged), but people call them "12 volt" batteries. I used the Power Port and used the input to the DVR , which I believe is a 2.1mm DC plug. No problem recording. That was a simple test. Recorded for a few hours to see for myself if it would work. My laptop question was to have a laptop, inside a motel room, and have a camera watching a parking lot. 1 camera, 1 laptop, 1 Plextor USB DIVX recorder. Just can't get too much hardware in the picture, for this application anyway. Remember the old saying "if you can program a VCR, then you can do this". I don't honestly think that over 50% of adults over the age of 40, could program a VCR.

[rory 0]

Yep forget my DVR card suggestion .. totally forgot this is for a laptop

[cachecreekcctv 0]

I was just about to ask if there were anything other than PCMCIA cards for the laptops. My brothers' company foreman, carries the laptop to keep track of workers time cards, email, pictures of the ongoing job taken from digital camera and emailed to my brother, etc. etc. There wouldn't be room in any of his work trucks for anything other than 4 workers per truck, tools, soda pop bottles, dirty magazines, etc. than go along with the construction trade. The foremans' laptop normally lasts only about a year, at best. Takes quite a beating, especially the fall from the front seat to the ground about once a day. The Plextor USB would just fit into the laptop carrying case, barely. Can't wait for my Tigerdirect order! If anyone is looking into the Plextor, there is a $50 rebate on it, until the end of this month, so it ends up being around $50 after rebate. Like any technology, it will probably be outdated by next year, though.