8 channel 240 FPS card on EBAY....compatible?

dbraeckel · Post by **dbraeckel** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 4:15 am

I found a great deal on a card with 8 BT878 chips. Looks very similar to another thats been verified to work with ZM. Does anyone have any experience with this card? Any comments about it would be greatly appreciated.

http://cgi.ebay.com/8-CHANNEL-DVR-CARD- ... dZViewItem

Thanks!

Doug

Lee Sharp · Post by **Lee Sharp** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 7:16 pm

This looks like a card I have been trying to make work. It works, but takes 5 minutes to boot. Still having issues. But you can not tell from a picture what is inside that middle chip. That is the key to working with zoneminder easily.

dbraeckel · Post by **dbraeckel** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 5:11 pm

Lee,

Thanks for the reply. I saw your other post just now regarding the slow bootup. Please let me know if you solve your problem. This looks like the ideal card if it will work.

It looks nearly identical to the images of the card stealth posted, but the crystal is in a different location. Same yellow connector, etc. No idea of the firmware inside, but the 8 BT878 chips are promising.

Let me know, please.

Thanks!

Doug

gola10 · Post by **gola10** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 9:55 pm

I just found a tip to make it work look here

http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewto ... 3514#33514

the i2c_algo_bit is the problem

dbraeckel · Post by **dbraeckel** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 12:01 pm

That's great news. Time to go pick up one of those cards.

Thanks!

KeithB · Post by **KeithB** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 2:38 pm

My experience from using one is that they give random crashes so are unreliable trash. If anybody has a system with one that will work for more than a day or 2 then I wait to be corrected.

Lee Sharp · Post by **Lee Sharp** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 2:52 pm

I do. I had it running without problems for about a week and a half before the boot patch was posted. The patch works, and it boots well. Left it running until the demo Wednesday, and then hooked it back up. It has not shut down unless I shut it down.

However, it runs very hot, and I added heat sinks. Once you add the cost of the heat sinks, it is less of a deal at $85. It really needs heat sinks

KeithB · Post by **KeithB** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 2:54 pm

Lee Sharp wrote:I do. I had it running without problems for about a week and a half before the boot patch was posted. The patch works, and it boots well. Left it running until the demo Wednesday, and then hooked it back up. It has not shut down unless I shut it down.

However, it runs very hot, and I added heat sinks. Once you add the cost of the heat sinks, it is less of a deal at $85. It really needs heat sinks

Could you give a link for the heat sinks?
Thanks!

curtishall · Post by **curtishall** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 3:46 pm

I agree. We carried them for a short time because people wanting cheaper stuff. We won't sell them again as they are unreliable, carry no warranty what so ever, and are generic pieces of crap. When they break you are stuck with a paperweight.

KeithB wrote:My experience from using one is that they give random crashes so are unreliable trash. If anybody has a system with one that will work for more than a day or 2 then I wait to be corrected.

Post by **cordel** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 6:09 pm

KeithB wrote: Could you give a link for the heat sinks?
Thanks!

At a local computer store near you or Newegg.com Memory-Chipset-Cooling

Lee Sharp · Post by **Lee Sharp** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 1:03 am

I used these. http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... ode=371284 (Not from this vendor. Just used for example. I have never used this vendor.) But see what the local shops have. Look for Video Card (Like nVidia) ram heat sinks.

Harbinger · Post by **Harbinger** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 8:24 pm

Lee Sharp wrote:I do. I had it running without problems for about a week and a half before the boot patch was posted. The patch works, and it boots well. Left it running until the demo Wednesday, and then hooked it back up. It has not shut down unless I shut it down.

The ad doesn't mention audio at all. Do you know if the card handles audio?

Post by **cordel** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 8:59 pm

I don't think they used the audio capablilities of the chips, but ZM doesn't support audio either.

Lee Sharp · Post by **Lee Sharp** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:31 pm

There is no audio connection on the card I have.

proxorp · Post by **proxorp** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 5:50 pm

FWIW, the ebay link above looks exactly like the card I'm using.

Here's the pci info on mine:

Code: Select all

01:07.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Hint Corp HiNT HB4 PCI-PCI Bridge (PCI6150) [3388:0022] (rev 04)
02:08.0 Multimedia video controller [0400]: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture [109e:036e] (rev 11)
02:08.1 Multimedia controller [0480]: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture [109e:0878] (rev 11)
02:09.0 Multimedia video controller [0400]: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture [109e:036e] (rev 11)
02:09.1 Multimedia controller [0480]: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture [109e:0878] (rev 11)
02:0a.0 Multimedia video controller [0400]: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture [109e:036e] (rev 11)
02:0a.1 Multimedia controller [0480]: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture [109e:0878] (rev 11)
02:0b.0 Multimedia video controller [0400]: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture [109e:036e] (rev 11)
02:0b.1 Multimedia controller [0480]: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture [109e:0878] (rev 11)
02:0c.0 Multimedia video controller [0400]: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture [109e:036e] (rev 11)
02:0c.1 Multimedia controller [0480]: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture [109e:0878] (rev 11)
02:0d.0 Multimedia video controller [0400]: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture [109e:036e] (rev 11)
02:0d.1 Multimedia controller [0480]: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture [109e:0878] (rev 11)
02:0e.0 Multimedia video controller [0400]: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture [109e:036e] (rev 11)
02:0e.1 Multimedia controller [0480]: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture [109e:0878] (rev 11)
02:0f.0 Multimedia video controller [0400]: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture [109e:036e] (rev 11)
02:0f.1 Multimedia controller [0480]: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture [109e:0878] (rev 11)

Not very enlightening, I know. But maybe it will tell you if you have the same as mine.

Anyway, I've only had mine installed for a few days and so far it's working fine. I've got 5 cameras connected and ZM is reporting 40fps on each camera.

Installation was a breeze. I just did a fresh install of Fedora 7. The card was detected and 8 video devices (/dev/video0, /dev/video1, etc...) were created. Then I just configured under ZM for each separate video device.

As reported earlier, the card does run hot. The idea of adding heat sinks is a good one. I've got some extra low profile passive like those used on graphics card memories. I just need to get some thermal epoxy and attach....

So far, the system is stable...but again it's only been a few days, so my testimony should be suspect.

Fedora 7 doesn't seem to have the long delay at boot that I experience on my FC4 installation. That was driving me batty. My previous config under FC4 had two of those cheap BT878 4-port pci cards. But I couldn't stand the slow framerates so that's why I got the 8-port card. I didn't notice the boot delay on F7 with either the 4-port or 8-port cards...(nice unexpected benefit).

My move to F7 was unrelated to ZM, I upgraded CPU/mobo so I went ahead to the latest Fedora. So far I haven't regretted it. The biggest headache was getting ZM to recompile with the top of tree FFMPEG. I had to find a patch here in the forum to fix that. (Off topic I know)

I'll report back if I notice any flakiness on my 8-port card. I bought my while on a trip to China in a grungy no-name shop. I really didn't expect it to work at all, so if mine ends up stable it will be a miracle.

Good luck to all.