ZoneMinder Forums

http://cgi.ebay.com/8-Channel-Real-time ... dZViewItem

This looks like an interesting unit. 8 channel, 8 x Connexant 878A chips, 240fps.

As I understand it, the 878 chips are well supported.

Any experiences with this card and Zoneminder?

Thanks![/url]

peterloron wrote:http://cgi.ebay.com/8-Channel-Real-time ... dZViewItem

This looks like an interesting unit. 8 channel, 8 x Connexant 878A chips, 240fps.

As I understand it, the 878 chips are well supported.

Any experiences with this card and Zoneminder?

Thanks![/url]

No, I haven't. But it looks interesting and cheap.
If you do buy one please post back your experience as I might buy one also.
Cheers

Yes, it looks like a potentially great card for the money. I sent the seller a question regarding Linux compatibility and got back that basically it only works with XP. I suspect that's not true, but I'm not sure I want to roll the dice on $60 to find out.

I just bought one in online shop. but unfortunetely i didn't get it yet. they wrote it works under linux and they tested with zoneminder. i will post a comment when i test it, but it won't be possible in 1-1.5month.

narmar wrote:I just bought one in online shop. but unfortunetely i didn't get it yet. they wrote it works under linux and they tested with zoneminder. i will post a comment when i test it, but it won't be possible in 1-1.5month.

Darn! I'm working on a ZM project now, and I don't think they can wait that long before making a card purchase.

There's 10 cameras to hook up, and I'm thinking of going with the PV-155 from Bluecherry, but that's only 120FPS for 16 channels. Two of the 8-chip 878 cards would be 480FPS for 16 channels...much nicer and roughly the same cost.

and you wont achive max frmarate per channel unles you dedicate a chip.
ie you will get max 50 fps total if you use all 16 inputs. You will get full speed if you only have 1 cam per chip

I bought a similar card (not this one but just as cheap from the same locale and from ebay) which I couldn't make work with Linux or windows. I went to the supporting web site and downloaded the drivers supposed to work with both. I ended up with an open port 80 (which I couldn't close) and a limited working capture card (I'll bet my cameras were available online, full speed)! Watch your IP tables as this can be a gamble. I recommend going with a known retailer who at least looks at the product that they are reselling (Bluecherry or ApexCCTV on ebay) to prevent similar issues. The old adage still holds "you get what you pay for".

jameswilson wrote:and you wont achive max frmarate per channel unles you dedicate a chip.
ie you will get max 50 fps total if you use all 16 inputs. You will get full speed if you only have 1 cam per chip

These cards have 8 chips each and 8 inputs each. That would seem to be 1 camera per chip, no?

yes on that one.yes

That looks like the Kodacom clones from China. We got them, and tested them, and most failed within a month. Similar report from Blue Cherry, actually. However, I looked into the card a bit more and discovered some of the failure causes and asked if the factory could do a modified run for us. Them Chinese sure are helpful, because they did. So we sell them for not much more, with linux support, and they actually last! There are some "gotchas" if you want to go it alone, but it is possible. (Assuming that it actually is what it looks like)

Alternatively, the Provideo PV-183 is a very nice card as well, and comes in 8 and 16 port configurations. But it ain't cheap.

Additional disclaimer about how dealing with China is an adventure, and when (not if) they screw you, you just have to smile and get a washcloth. Ain't no chargebacks on wire transfers. As an aside, anybody need cameras with 16mm lenses? (You can guess how that came up...)

this card is working. options for modules
options i2c-algo-bit bit_test=1
options bttv card=102,102,102,102,102,102,102,102

for now i have 4 cameras, 320x240. everything seems to work ok.

unfortunately not everything is ok. I don't know why the picture is mixed ie. when I open one camera which is for example on /dev/video0 for a moment i see picture from other camera, or black screen (because it has 8 inputs and i use only 4). and he change a fps. i set up it on about 4 for every camera but he show even 25 fps. can anybody help me?

You have to limit both fps, and alarm fps to truly limit the card. As to the video issue, I have not seen that one.

I tried tu set up fps to 15 (it is 8 chip 8 input card) but it didn't help. then i change card nr from 102 to 77 and 3 from 4 cameras worked good. then i had to recreate this last monitor and now everything seems to be ok.

cheers

Just letting everyone know this card works well for me also.
options bttv card=77,77,77,77,77,77,77,77

And video0(0), video1(0), video2(0) and so on through to video7(0) for all 8 ports. As usual with these chips they get hot so some sort of heatsink or fan may be warranted for longer life expectancy.

Hope this helps others.