Maker Pro
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PC Based DVR

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Bob La Londe

Jan 1, 1970
0
I've not sold any. I've been sticking with DM, but I lose a lot of business
to the PC based systems. I have installed a few for clients who purchased
units themselves, but had no clue how to set them up. My experience has
been that they are not that stable. Atleast not Windows based units. If
you put in a seven day auto reboot they work better, and some like Pelco's
units have it as part of their setup. (I guess I have sold a windows PC
based DVR afterall. Forgot about those.)

Still. It seems to me that unless the customer can be trained to check the
unit regularly they run a very high risk of finding their recorder locked up
when they really need to review some video. What do you do to prevent this?

Are Linux based machines any better?

How about building your own. I'm sure some of you guys do that. What do
you use for a PC so that you have a really good machine to stick your
card(s) in?

I've only played with a couple cards stuck in my own PC type applications,
and I was not totally thrilled with the performance.

With cheap PC based recorders it seems like the logical thing to do would be
to install two units for redundant recording, but when people see "cheap"
its awfully hard to get them to step back up and spend a little more money
to make up for the "cheap" part.
 
C

Crash Gordon

Jan 1, 1970
0
Ive had no problems with cheap Lorex cards installed on refurbished Dell
Optiplex...well only one problem where the guy wanted to run it on his
business computer along with his accounting and his restaurant software...he
didn't believe me it wouldn't work for long. A month later I sold him a
refurb machine and it's been running 7 cameras full recording for 4 months
now without a lockup or crash. XP Pro 250gb hd, 2 g memory...but all it runs
is the camera card and its software. Have 2 others that have been running
constantly for a year at least...no problems except one lady keeps
forgetting her un/pw.

And a piece o'cake to access over the net.
 
B

Bob La Londe

Jan 1, 1970
0
Crash Gordon said:
Ive had no problems with cheap Lorex cards installed on refurbished Dell
Optiplex...

You like the Lorex Cards huh? I have one that I have played with and a
generic Ebay card. I was not thrilled, but they seemed to work ok. The
problems seem to be on the PC side.
 
M

Matt Ion

Jan 1, 1970
0
we've had to replace a single PC DVR combo 4 times so far.. (all within
the first year)
video card crash and burn, camera input card crash and burn, hard drive
crash and burn, total software crash..
All this from a so called quality vendor in VA..
If the thing wasn't under warranty, it would have been in the river by
now..

(Or customer has 4 of these units and each one has had something wrong with
it within the first year of service)

Stand-a-lone DVR the only way to go.. (for my money)

And meantime, I've put in a variety of cheap standalone DVRs that have
had all manner of problems with failing drives, locking up, crapped-out
video, spotty controls...

Considering most standalones ARE PCs at the core, running an embedded
OS, the "standalone vs. PC" argument is rather silly.

What it comes down to is: you use cheap hardware, you'll get cheap
results. You do things with a system that it's not designed for (ie.
employees checking their Hotmail), you'll have problems. PC-based
(rather, Windows-based) systems are plenty easy to lock down to prevent
people tampering with them; most people just don't bother.
 
A

alarman

Jan 1, 1970
0
Bob said:
I've not sold any. I've been sticking with DM, but I lose a lot of
business to the PC based systems. I have installed a few for clients
who purchased units themselves, but had no clue how to set them up. My
experience has been that they are not that stable. Atleast not
Windows based units. If you put in a seven day auto reboot they work
better, and some like Pelco's units have it as part of their setup. (I
guess I have sold a windows PC based DVR afterall. Forgot about
those.)
Still. It seems to me that unless the customer can be trained to
check the unit regularly they run a very high risk of finding their
recorder locked up when they really need to review some video. What
do you do to prevent this?
Are Linux based machines any better?

How about building your own. I'm sure some of you guys do that. What do
you use for a PC so that you have a really good machine to
stick your card(s) in?

I've only played with a couple cards stuck in my own PC type
applications, and I was not totally thrilled with the performance.

With cheap PC based recorders it seems like the logical thing to do
would be to install two units for redundant recording, but when
people see "cheap" its awfully hard to get them to step back up and
spend a little more money to make up for the "cheap" part.

I have used nothing but PC based DVR's. I like 'em. They are easy for
customers to use, and I have had very few problems. It seems like the
problems I have had are things that might fail on any electronic device.
Some windoze issues, but not many.

I buy the card based on number of cameras, framerate, etc. I get to control
the quality of the computer and its components. The card works very well,
and does everything I could ever want. Granted, I don't have experience with
stand-alones, but based on what I've seen and heard from others, they are
not bullet proof either.
 
M

Matt Ion

Jan 1, 1970
0
true true
however the DVR stand-a-lone units tend to have the op sys on ram not
software on disk..
also tend to have outboard power supplies which are easier to upgrade or
replace..
also tend to run cooler with less heat related failures..

"Tend tend tend" - it still comes down to the difference between cheap
vs. quality hardware. Most of those standalones I had with the failing
drives, the drives failed because of poor cooling. Of all the
standalones I've installed, about half used a "standard" 12VDC power
supply with barrel connector; the other half used proprietary
multi-voltage supplies with DIN connectors, which are NOT easier to
SOURCE; replacement computer power supplies are available at just about
any little computer store, big-box electronics store, office-supply store...

Oh yes, and I've seen PC DVRs with the opsys loaded on internal flash
drives, too.
 
C

Crash Gordon

Jan 1, 1970
0
For the money they're great, obviously you wouldn't use it for a big
commercial job.

But you know what?....put it in a dedicated refurb computer like a Dell
Optiplex (built like a brick you know what) and you got a great little
system. Like I said...I got a guy here in the airpark that Ive known for 15+
years I get the refurb machines from and I've yet to have ANY die on me.

And if the Lorex card dies it's a cheap enough you can throw a new one in in
5 minutes and send the bad one back if on warranty...havent had one die yet.

Ok ok...it's NOT pro quality we know that - but put good cams in and you
have an inexpensive easy to use system for home or small business.



--
**Crash Gordon**
 
B

Bob La Londe

Jan 1, 1970
0
river said:
hi all,
Stumbled on this post today.
I have some input on this subject since I've always
wondered which would be better. I have experience with both stand
alone and
PC based DVR's. Since I also do repair on windows PCs I don't have
much
faith in the security of windows so although I've worked with them,
I'd never sell a DVR
with a windows OS, it seems that someone @ the DVR location always
ends up trying
to use it as a desktop.

A couple of years ago i did a search on PC based DVRs and Zoneminder
came up.
If you haven't heard of it it's linux based and very stable. You can
build the hardware
with or without raid, and once it's up and going it pretty much just
does it's thing.
I built 3 of them 1 - 6 cam, 1- 8 cam, and 1- 3 cam @ my home. All
are doing fine,
and the owners love them.

When you look @ them cost vers features of stand alone DVRs,
Zoneminder comes out ahead,
an 8 camera DVR with 25 fps per cam and 1 TB hard drive would cost you
about 700.00.
Build, test, install, and hook it to a UPS back-up and spend 30
min's showing the user
how to use it.

For those wanting to give it a try, I use Ubuntu 8.04.2 LTS desktop,
Apache basic auth,
fail2ban, and apcupsd for the "auto power down & power up". once
built and tested i turn off
the desktop and the PC runs as a headless server only booting to a
login prompt.

For remote access i usually use a open source router with built in
ddns update.

I have installed Ubuntu a couple times for CNC & it is very stable. I might
want to pick your brain a bit more.
 
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