# help on PC-DVR system. do i need a graphic card?



## a_ump (Aug 15, 2013)

Hello all. I just got into building a pc dvr system for my in-laws store. Father in-law bought a Swann DVR8-1450+8camera. He's using 4 camera's and the dvr in his bar. So i built this system from spare parts for his store with the other 4 cameras.

System:
P4 3ghz
2gb ddr400
84gb HDD(upgrading soon)
Mobo with intel 915g express chipset
Using Intel Graphics.

Now i bought a 60fps pci card,however its performance is only decent with one camera and hooking up the 2nd today it looks like its running at 10fps,plus it only records at 320x240 resolution. I believe i got jipped as they state 60fps, but upon looking up the actual chipset i only find 30fps cards matching it.

So here's my main question, last night i purchased another PCI card. Now i'm hoping i made a decent purchase as it states it can record at 30fps per channel, 240fps total on card capable, and recor capable of. Also its stated under requirements that i need a graphics card with 512mb vram. This DVR-PC thing i a whole diff dept to me than building a gaming rig, and i know how game requirements can be overstated/understated. Is this the case here or do i need to buy a graphics card with 512mb of ram? thanks all


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## a_ump (Aug 15, 2013)

bump


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## erixx (Aug 15, 2013)

Really no idea, but if you look for the same stuff at, p.e. Amazon, you get user reviews, and that helps!


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## digibucc (Aug 15, 2013)

you shouldn't need a gpu card to record but if you want to display it live you will need the capabilities(RAM) they specify. That also means your first (dvr) card might be better than you thought, and it is probably your integrated graphics that caused the lag. still the new (dvr) card is more suited to your use.

the only way to know for sure without buying a new graphics card, is to record the video and then open the recorded file. It should run smoother, however you may need to view it on a more capable machine to see exactly the quality it records at.


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## Dent1 (Aug 15, 2013)

a_ump said:


> Hello all. I just got into building a pc dvr system for my in-laws store. Father in-law bought a Swann DVR8-1450+8camera. He's using 4 camera's and the dvr in his bar. So i built this system from spare parts for his store with the other 4 cameras.
> 
> System:
> P4 3ghz
> ...



I doubt you'll get any good answers here,  setting up surveillance equipment is a specialist area which I doubt people here have done.


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## redeye (Aug 15, 2013)

i would  suggest a gt630v2 ( the one with the 64bit bus) it idles at a very low power level (IMO a record! 4-5 watts i estimated for total peer comsumption of my system)) and if you get the zotac zone version, it is silent... runs a bit hot, but if you are using for video purposes will not matter.
it is sold out on newegg.ca, (i bought one before it was sold out) at 60 dollars it is a great alround card for PVR's (i use mine in a Mythbuntu mythtv setup)

BTW, you should really be using the WD AV-GP drives, as they were designed for Surveillance/PVR Applications


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## TRWOV (Aug 15, 2013)

digibucc said:


> you shouldn't need a gpu card to record but if you want to display it live you will need the capabilities(RAM) they specify. That also means your first (dvr) card might be better than you thought, and it is probably your integrated graphics that caused the lag.



The TW6805 is a 30fps chip: http://catalogs.infocommiq.com/AVCat/images/documents/pdfs/TW6805 Brochure.pdf

Nextchip isn't very informative (http://www.lofty.com.tw/data/nextchip/nvp1104.pdf) as it doesn't state FPS but since there are two chips in the card and each one handles 4 inputs  I'd say it would at least be a 60fps card. In the worst case scenario you can hook up two cards to each chip and get 15fps.



OP, you can get 1GB cards for very cheap. Better safe than sorry I say although I'm running 20 cameras with the HD3200 IGP and 512MB. My cards have Techwell chipsets though.

As for the drives, I've been using a WD Blue for about 5 years without issue. *Not to say that you should too*, just that hardware requirements are often overshoot.


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## McSteel (Aug 15, 2013)

Regarding your first card (SV-6805), it doesn't actually encode anything, everything is done on the CPU. The card itself outputs RAW video, which is then converted to MPEG2 or H264 via software/CPU. This could be the reason for low framerate.

The reason the second card is stated to require hefty amounts of VRAM probably lies with it's video encoder chips. I can't know which ones it uses, because they're under heatsinks, but most likely they output video to overlay, or perhaps even to a 2D surface. Both cases require the GPU to render the video stream, rather than just pass it through to the window/screen, and this can be memory-intensive when there are 8 concurrent streams.

512MB is a bit too much to ask, but the 8MB that your 915G can utilize will not suffice.

You'll be fine with one of those "hyper memory" cards, HD5450/6450 for instance, which "borrow" system RAM for use as Vbuffer. Be sure to bump up your RAM accordingly if you go that route, though.


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## a_ump (Aug 15, 2013)

Thanks for the reply's everyone. Yea I plan to purchase a simple pci-e card from tpu FS forum. 

As for the harddrive I had no idea certain hdd were made for surveillance alone. Right now the store's recordings will be removed each week. We live in a small small town so not a huge security hazard but a few things have gone missing that pushed to get them. I was looking at getting an hd 4850, would I be better off getting a higher memory less horsepower and wattage card?


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## TRWOV (Aug 15, 2013)

I don't think horsepower matters, as I've said, I use the HD3200 IGP. The DVR software uses overlays (DirectDraw) which hardly task GPUs. In my previous configuration I was using a Geforce 6200 512MB with a P4 2.4C.


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## a_ump (Aug 15, 2013)

Thanks again. I posted a wtb thread and I'm sure ill get some offers. Sad story, I posted this same thread on cctvforums, which is all about security surveillance and dvrs with 200-350 active daily users and still I get my answers from here. Gotta love TPU!


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