Bad Geo Card or PC?

[501 0]

Did a new install yesterday, GV600-16 with 7 cameras. Got everything finished, live view looked fine. Went to the recording and it maxed out on all cameras at 2fps each...... VERY choppy. System is set for motion, and smart record, and I tried with all different video sources (320,640, etc). Looked at the recording more closely and the first cam that got hooked up looked fine, but with more then one, it got crazy choppy. So we unplugged all cams, and plugged just one in..... picture is great and we counted the frames and it was 30 for the cam. Plugged in another cam and frames dropped to about 5 and it would then even miss frames for 1/2 a sec. The weird thing is the live view is perfect.

 

So software and drivers were re-installed, card was moved to another PCI slot and all setting were played around with but it seems to be either the card or the PC.

 

Ideas? Anyone experience his?

 

P.S. I know the 600 is only 30fps, but this video looked like 1970's time lapse, just terrible, not standard with a 600 which we rarely use.

[rory 0]

if all are picking up motion thats just under 5fps each, so yes will look somewhat choppy, timelapse that is.

 

What are the PC specs, and the Geo version, as much info as possible, include motherboard, video, CPU, everything please.

 

Also, be sure that the remaining 9 cameras are disabled so that they are not calculated in the recording frames.

 

Rory

[501 0]

Intel Board, core2 duo, 1Gb ram, 500GB HDD, V8.12, a brand new install. Same setup we've used for the last 4 monthsd with 800s, 1120's and 1480's.

 

When I say a max of 2fps, I am serious. We went into the viewlog and played back the video files frame by frame and counted them, with one cam, it was 30, with 2 it was about 5 each, with 7 it was a max of 2. All cams were set to smart record, tried all compressions and qualitys. I strongly think it's the card because when 7 cameras were running, you could watch the live view and as soon as a cam picked up motion it was fairly smooth (Say 7 to 10 fps display) for a 600, but on playback, even if none of the other cams had motion, it would only record at 2fps, but unhook the other cams, and its up at 30. Also checked the max frame rates, and thats not the problem either.

[rory 0]

could be a bad motherboard also, the PCI bus .. can you stick it in another PC to test?

[CollinR 0]

Have you tried setting it at a fixed framerate?

 

It is impossible for it to achieve more then 30fps, it is also impossible for it to achieve 30fps while using the crossbar (more then 1 cam). I would try setting all 7 cameras manually to 4fps and see how that does. Even still 30/7=4.2 so 4fps across all 7 cams is pretty unlikely to happen, IIRC you lose a frame every time you move the crossbar. That would mean 23/7 = 3.28 which is not too far from what you are saying.

[photys 0]

IIRC you lose a frame every time you move the crossbar.

Can you explain the term "crossbar".

 

Cheers.

[501 0]

Trust me, it's not the limitation of the card. The remote view is exactly the same as recorded files too. I tried setting ther max frame rate to 10 fps, hooked up one cam, 10fps, hooed up 2 and it was 5 at best on motion. It's not software settings, I'm quite sure of that. On smart record, even with 7 cameras, the frame rate is decent when set to motion, but missing entire seconds worth of frames is not normal. If someone wants to see the remote view, pm me and I'll send a link. We've ordered a replacement card since we rarely use 600's and have no stock, this system was really on a budget, hence the 600 card.

[rory 0]

I just had an issue with a GV250-2 channel in a new PC .. strange thing is it worked in my Via PC just fine .. or at least it seemed so. Live and Recorded video, it stutters, actually it movers flowingly for a few seconds, then it stops, then back again .. over and over like that. Im wondering if they are neglecting the slower cards now, like the GV250 and GV600 .. anyway, the client is waiting on a GV1120 anyway, I just stuck it in the PC to test. Could be a bad card too though, or not 100% inside the slot .. who knows. Just thought I would throw it out there. Will open it up and take another look tomorrow.

[Guest]

Did a new install yesterday, GV600-16 with 7 cameras. Got everything finished, live view looked fine. Went to the recording and it maxed out on all cameras at 2fps each...... VERY choppy. System is set for motion, and smart record, and I tried with all different video sources (320,640, etc). Looked at the recording more closely and the first cam that got hooked up looked fine, but with more then one, it got crazy choppy. So we unplugged all cams, and plugged just one in..... picture is great and we counted the frames and it was 30 for the cam. Plugged in another cam and frames dropped to about 5 and it would then even miss frames for 1/2 a sec. The weird thing is the live view is perfect.

 

So software and drivers were re-installed, card was moved to another PCI slot and all setting were played around with but it seems to be either the card or the PC.

 

Ideas? Anyone experience his?

 

P.S. I know the 600 is only 30fps, but this video looked like 1970's time lapse, just terrible, not standard with a 600 which we rarely use.

 

Well, the Geovision is stating max FPS and that means GV-600/16 have 30 FPS NTSC MAX @ CIF Resolution! When setting the resolution to 640X480 you will have max 15FPS then when using 7 channels you will in average have 2 FPS so I think it sounds like the card is working as it should.

 

If I was Geovision I would stop making the GV-250/600/650 and also clean up the D-Sub/DVI/PCI/Express on the other models as well. Because fewer different productions models means lower production costs, also am I pretty sure of getting rid of the LOW END CARDS (250/600/650) would be good for building a stronger brandname for Geovision.

 

It is about a year ago that we in my company made a strategic decision that we no longer buy, sell or market NON-Combo cards. So now we only sell Combo cards and 2000 cards. We have fewer cards in stock(need less capital), we make more money on each card we sell, customers are more impressed when using the DSP overlay, we can distance us a bit from piracy cards and offer something they cant(DSP overlay)!

 

In my private opinion GV-2004/2008 is the only professional card same as HikVIsion cards is only professional when you run only half of the channels so you get D1 @ 25FPS on every channel!

 

But offcourse it is not all places you need "Full Motion" viewing/recording. But as I said this is a strategic decision. You also need to sell aprrox 9 GV-600/16 cards to make the same amount of money as selling 1 GV-1480/16.

 

JD

[501 0]

In my post, you will see that the video was recording in cif. The GV600 is not a bad card and with say 5 or 6 cameras (at this install) where only one or 2 usually have motion, it does just fine. They are a good card for small budgets or residential systems. The smart record makes a big difference on these cards as well.

 

On this particular system, 2 fps is the average, but 4 fps was max, it was some times even skipping complete seconds. And this again was 320x240 on a duo-core system. And here is the thing, the live view was excellent, smooth and fairly fluid for the cameras with motion, but when you check the video, it looks nothing like the live view, about 1/4 the frames.

 

The plus side is after 20 days, it's only used up 30gb, and with a 500gb they'd get a year!

 

We tried replacing the GV card with no luck this week so it's back to the drawing board. Not sure where to start but probably motherboard, maybe a new video card.

 

We also don't sell cards alone, only sell and install complete DVR's so there is not a huge diff in profits.

[rory 0]

Which Intel Chipset was it?

[501 0]

The board is an Intel brand "DG965SSCK", with a P4 631 processor, 1GB Ram and 500GB sata drive.

http://www.intel.com/products/motherboard/DG965SS/index.htm

 

Rory, did you try the remote playback?

[rory 0]

965 Chipset .. used it before and it worked okay. No didnt get a chance.

[CollinR 0]

965 Chipset .. used it before and it worked okay.

 

x2

[501 0]

Update:

Turns out the board was atcually a Intel® Desktop Board D946GZIS. We just built another system with the same motherboard and a GV-600 4 port for 3 cameras and the exact same problems, no frames on recording but live view is fine.

 

So it has to be the motherboard right? We are using the onboard video but this should be fine and it supports Direct Draw overlay and more. A video card wouldn't fix this would it? Just a bit stumped and now motherboards have to be swapped. Yuk.

[rory 0]

strange, I never heard of the 946GZ Express Chipset until now

 

Try a video card if you have one.

[501 0]

Had the same problem today with another intel board dif chipset. I called Geo tech support and the tech logged into the system to assist. I thought this was helpful. What he said was that it was a limitation of the Gv600. Together we watched several cams in the viewlog and there were gaps of up to 2 seconds in the recording, yet maybe 2 or 3 cameras were recording at that time. Average was 1-2 fps in 320x240 with motion and maybe 1-2 cams recording at a time. I've installed many of these same cards and they are fine for small systems, but less then 1 fps is not ok especially on motion. Has anyone encountered this recentley? It's very weird. If someone would like to try the remote viewlog to check it, just pm me. I am going to try to recreate it in our office and then I can post up some shots. I was also thinking of changing versions to an older one for now.

[rory 0]

i have a feeling it has to do with the newer versions like 8.12.

[501 0]

You may be right, I'm going to try different versions next.

 

So I was able to recreate the problem in my office with a brand new system we just built. This newly built system had a Gv800-16 card and was tested and working great. We removed all software, installed a GV600 4 port, reinstalled all drivers and software and tested. With one camera, the system is great, with more we have the exact same issue. Here is a sample of 4 cameras running at 24/7 record at 320X240. We know that it should be about 7-8 fps per cam. In all the Gv600’s we’ve installed in the past, this wasn’t a problem. With this system you can see it records at 2 fps MAX and sometimes misses an entire second. This a dedicated DVR system with NO other programs or software.

 

I've got a video clip someone could post so you can see how poor the frame rate is. It's crappy old cams on the floor but it gets the point across.

 

I know this is not a limitation of the card and I could grab my 4 year old GV600 system from the storage and record 4 cams and show a the huge difference.

 

I'm going ot try downgrading software to see.

[rory 0]

I recently had a studdering with a GV250 and 2 cameras and 8.12, while in the past it didnt have that on earlier versions. Im not 100% sure it is the software or card yet but I have a GV1480 on order, as it was only being used to test the PC. When the 1480 comes we will know for certain.

 

I just ordered a Gv650, hope that does not do the same as the 250 and 600 .. if it does then I will have to go back to an older version.

 

Rory

[501 0]

So Guess what? I downgraded to version 7.0 and the video is good, and quite smooth, no more issues. Wtih all 4 cams connected and only one recording it went from 2 fps to 24 fps..... not bad!

 

I am building 2 650 systems this week, so I'll know after I do them if those cards are fine but the 250 and 600's are simlar just like the 650/800's, so I bet the 650 is fine. I may have to send some of these 600 cards I have here back if no soultion is found.

[rory 0]

Have you tried version 8.0 yet? Wondering if at least we could get them good on the newer GUI. Otherwise need to use my skinz program.

 

I dont have the 250 here right now, will have to get it out of that DVR i built, but wont be until next week now.

[501 0]

I was thinking about swapping out the 650 card to see if this issue occurs. I will see if I can find 8.1 to try. I didn't try a video card yet but have a feeling that's not it.

 

I'm really surprised no one else has mentioned this or experienced this before and now we do on three seperate and different systems. Weird. It's pretty bad but at least it's not all cards. The video samples look like old school time lapse tapes.

[rory 0]

Well what I was getting was different. It would be moving video, then stop, moving video, then stop .. seemed much different than in the past. In my case, the GV250 might just be shot, or doesnt like the PC i built .. in my case I will just be happy if the 1480 works, then worry about the GV250 at another time.

 

Will see what the 650 does.

[501 0]

After it was all said and done, Geovision Engineers wrote a patch for it and now it works. I feel priviliged to have found the issue and brought it to their attention, and they've made the effort to fix it so quick (less then a week), but wonder how they could have sold thousands of Gv600 cards in that time and no one noticed the problems.

 

Oh well. If anyone has this issue email Geo tech support for the file, pm me, or wait till version 8.2 comes out.

 

Thanks for all the advice and it's good to know I wasn't crazy. I had to argue with tech support for a long time till they finally admitted there was a problem. They kept claiming that it was a limitation of the card.