Re: Cheep Cheep Cheep CCTV Capture Cards..

["robkearns" <robkearns@xxxxxxxxx>]

Was the card one of the =A31.99 cards from bidcard on ebay?=20

I won one of the auctions last week and hadn't notice that the
=A31.99 card has p&p of =A318! I also won a camera for =A35.99 so
they wanted =A336 for p&p. I'm still in email discussions with them=20
regarding a cheaper shipping price. The best offer so far has been=20
$15 p&p for both.

Not so cheap after all!

Rob

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "Ian Lowe" <ian@w...> wrote:
> There was some discussion of the super cheap capture cards being=20
flogged on ebay recently (typically for less than a tenner)
>=20
> Well, I had one sitting on the shelf without really getting it=20
going (the shipped 'Pico' software, *really* doesn't like Mini-itx=20
boards!) My trusty old Hauppage Card died, so I decided to give it a=20
whirl - here's a mini review.
>=20
> As expected, the capture speed is not great - it isn't going to=20
compare with the Geovision Cards by any stretch of the imagination. I=20
also found significant problems on Windows 98 - the drivers that ship=20
with the card are horrific, cause lockups, only let you access the=20
first channel, you name it.
>=20
> If you switch to Windows XP instead, everything becomes a whole lot=20
rosier. I'm using a virgin XP install, on an Epia C800 MiniITX board=20
with 256Mb of memory.
>=20
> The first thing I needed to do was get the Open Source generic=20
Brooktree drivers from http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/download.html=20
>=20
> For these 4 port capture cards, I found an anomaly - v5.3.8 doesn't=20
seem to handle the separate inputs properly, whilst the v5.3.5-1=20
works absolutely perfectly. During install, you choose your card from=20
a list: There's a "Generic Brooktree Card with four Composite
Inputs"=20
that works just nicely.
>=20
> With these drivers in place, it's all plain sailing - I'm using=20
SupervisionCam, and it can happily open up multiple instances of the=20
same capture driver (each one using a different physical input) -=20
here's a screenie of it working:
>=20
> http://www.wintermute-ltd.com/ukha/cams.jpg
>=20
> SupervisionCam has the facility to launch an exe when motion is=20
detected, so it's easily "xPLable" too. I reckon I get about 5fps
or=20
so per camera captured without the PC breaking a sweat.
>=20
> As with the Serious Discussion(tm) about C-Bus, there's bound to be=20
an element of getting what you pay for - for an entry level system to=20
see if you actually want a PC based CCTV system... SupervisionCam=20
costs 25USD to register, and this no-name capture card was a grand=20
total of =A39 including shipping, I'd say this was a 100% success.
>=20
> Ian.