Anyone with knowledge of surveilance cards?

**lastberserker** · 05-06-2005, 11:25 PM

After a bit of searching and reading I'm starting to believe that the only way to connect 2 or more real-time cameras to Windows computer is via PCI capture card (AKA surveilance or PVR card) with multiple inputs.

Have you ever used one of these? There are many cards available from eBay, priced all from $30+ to several grands. I'd love to know which ones give more-or-less good video and have SDK that can be used to select between cameras. Help, anyone?

**DeltaFX** · 05-07-2005, 04:36 AM

And multiple webcams ?

**pate60** · 05-07-2005, 07:50 AM

i've used them for a while, i'd stick with geovision.

sure they cost a bit but you do pay for what you get.

as for SDK's i havent come across any, if you do let me know too.

**lastberserker** · 05-07-2005, 02:40 PM

Originally Posted by DeltaFX

And multiple webcams ?

Sure

**SFiorito** · 05-07-2005, 02:45 PM

I would look for one with WDM drivers for XP/2000. If it's got multiple inputs then you can enumerate them and pick which one to work on.

**lastberserker** · 05-07-2005, 02:49 PM

Originally Posted by pate60

i've used them for a while, i'd stick with geovision.

sure they cost a bit but you do pay for what you get.

as for SDK's i havent come across any, if you do let me know too.

Ok, thanks for the pointer

Those expensive cards usually compress video with high fps, like 120 or more. Good for accident reporting, but I'd settle for a card that just streams video w/o trying to capture it. I guess that's too much of a wishful thinking, right?

**wi77iam** · 05-07-2005, 07:10 PM

All you need is an inexpensive video capture card and one of these quad processors plugged into it. They have 4 or more video inputs and one output. You can display mulitple camera views at once or switch between them.

**jcdillin** · 05-07-2005, 09:53 PM

also keep in mind on those multi camera capture cards, every camera you add reduces the total frames per second. so if you start with a 60fps card and have 2 cameras your only going to get 30 fps. get 4 cameras and you end up with 15fps per camera

**jusatry** · 05-08-2005, 06:49 AM

and, the cheap-o cards are usually software based encoding, which at 120 fps will take some muscle.

on the other hand, a PVR-type card usually has hardware based encoding, which pegs your CPU at.....0%

**pate60** · 05-08-2005, 06:50 AM

actually i set up a simple carputer for a PI, based on a mini ITX a while ago, simple 4ch card, only used 2 channels, with front and back wide angle lens cameras, captured at 12 fps per camera. the card was only light $5 on ebay. worked a treat.