Decent PC DVR card/kit

dannyboi2003 · 3 Jul 2011

Hi Guys,

I’m about to outgrow the standalone DVR I have as I would like to add another 2 cameras outside my house, the current DVR I have isn’t upgradeable as its one of them 4 camera kit jobbies, not the best but its done the job for me. I have a spare pc that I would like to buy a DVR card for, looking online I would need to buy an 8 channel DVR card but the details on websites about the cards is very limited and I was hoping someone here could point me in the direction of a decent one. I want all the usual features such as motion detection recording, real time etc. but I would also like one where I can access the system remotely from another computer through a web browser, none of the cards I have looked at specify if this is possible or not.

Price wise I don’t want to spend too much but I'm not doing it on the cheap either so somewhere in the middle would be about right.

Cheers guys
Dan

dannyboi2003 · 3 Jul 2011

Been looking online again this morning and Geovision DVR cards seem to be what most go for, not cheap but would be within my budget if I found a good deal. Anyone concur with Geovision or suggest an alternative?

dannyboi2003 · 11 Jul 2011

Wow 57 views and not one reply, did I say something wrong

If anyone can offer me some advice I'd be very grateful.

Cheers guys
Dan

mryoung · 11 Jul 2011

You wont get anyone here recommending pc card type systems...(unless they are complete muppets) over standalone DVR'S as they just aren't up to the job!!
Cant comment on the Geovision DVR cards as i dont use them, but, anything fitted to a pc running windows or whatever is just gonna let you down at some point...probably when you need it most

just treat yourself to a new DVR

http://www.cctvdirect.co.uk/

alumni · 11 Jul 2011

mryoung said:
You wont get anyone here recommending pc card type systems...(unless they are complete muppets) over standalone DVR'S

just treat yourself to a new DVR

http://www.cctvdirect.co.uk/[/QUOTE]

Sadly, you will. God knows why.

Good VFM from the site mentioned.

dannyboi2003 · 12 Jul 2011

Thanks for your replies, I realise a dedicated DVR is best but its only a piddly little system to keep an eye around my house and I’m not looking to spend any more than I have to, and as I already have the pc a DVR card seemed to make sense. Thanks for your advice anyway guys, I do appreciate the replies.

All the best
Dan

flameport · 17 Jul 2011

dannyboi2003 said:
I’m not looking to spend any more than I have to, and as I already have the pc a DVR card seemed to make sense

It doesn't make any sense, because you will have to leave the PC on 24/7, and your PC will use far more electricity than a standalone DVR will.

wermy · 25 Sep 2011

Well I will recommend an excellent PC based system that can be scaled up to in one case 32 cameras !

It's Zoneminder which uses Linux and standard cards. Motion detection comes as standard.

I run it on a PC that also doubles up as a file server on my network. Mine has one card with 4 cameras though you can put in 8 port cards if you give it enough RAM & CPU. The 32 camera version runs on a cheap industry standard server.

Linux is different to the usual Windows, but is rock steady, mine never locks up needing a reboot

Cheers Alan

aptsys · 1 Oct 2011

flameport said:
dannyboi2003 said:

I’m not looking to spend any more than I have to, and as I already have the pc a DVR card seemed to make sense

Click to expand...

It doesn't make any sense, because you will have to leave the PC on 24/7, and your PC will use far more electricity than a standalone DVR will.

****** comment of the day. Why would it use more electricity than a DVR?? A DVR is a PC in a box with a custom GUI running on a linux platform.

If you run something like CentOS then you can effectively run the same hardware as in a DVR as that's essentially all they are! My headless Zoneminder box uses 30W, compared to my old DM DVR which used double that and had a 250W power supply inside it!

There's a lot of naivety from some of the posters in this forum who clearly have no experience of embedded systems.

Jibbeh · 1 Oct 2011

Its 'typically' thought that DVR's use less energy than pc's, obviously not all dvr's are built exactly the same, same are pc's in a box and others aren't. Comment wasn't that retarded really.

aptsys · 1 Oct 2011

They all have a CPU, memory, HDD and video encoders and I've not seen one that doesn't run on Linux. It stops being a PC when you're not using it as a computer.

alumni · 1 Oct 2011

aptsys said:
They all have a CPU, memory, HDD and video encoders and I've not seen one that doesn't run on Linux. It stops being a PC when you're not using it as a computer.

you've not used an AD Intellex or Honeywell Fusion then?

aptsys · 1 Oct 2011

Lol, ok some use Windows

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Decent PC DVR card/kit

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