PictureTel Camera's and 4 port card

Hello Everyone and thanks for the help.

I've been looking at DVR cards for a home security system viewable over the web. I was wondering if anyone had some answers to some questions I have. First I'll tell you my plan. I want to use some Picturetel PTZ-1 and 2 PZT-2N (these are teleconferencing cameras) run to a pc with an 4 port DVR card and a 4 port pci serial card (for PTZ control RS232) using BDLCAM to control the camera's and ? software for video steaming. I believe this will work but I will need 4 instances of BDLCAM running at the same time to view all for camera's.( Update: I have got BDLCam working for PTZ control but I am trying to use Webcamxp for streaming the video but can't get it to see my DVR card. The Dvr card has a Techwell TW6000 chip and I think the problem is that it doesn't use WDM drivers? Any thoughts?) What I would like to do is just use the software that comes with the DVR card (some form of Pico2000 I think) for displaying all 4 camera's, streaming and PTZ control. The only problem here is I'm not sure if there is a DVR card software that will do the PictureTel PTZ RS232 control. I have gotten the code some someone at PictureTel but not sure of any DVR software that will let me edit the PTZ data. Has anyone had success with PictureTel PTZ camera's and a DVR card? Anyway just thought I would see if anyone would have a better plan. Thank's for your help, Paul

Reply to
P. Totaro
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Your problem is probably giong to be the capture card you are using. If it is a single capture chip card then you will probably be stuck using the software supplied with it (there are some ~bootleg 4-port cards on ebay that use hacked Pico2000 software that appaently has problems). Probably the best bet is to get a capture card that has four capture chips on it. These are usually seen by software as four seperate capture devices allowing the four cams to be seen at the same time.

Reply to
Si Ballenger

Hi Si, thanks for the reply

It is a single (Techwell) chip that uses port switching. It shows as a single device in device manager. I got this 60fps card before I knew what to look for in a capture card.I am assuming that this chip does not use WDM drivers and that is why Webcamxp can't see it. My source choices for capture using Webcamxp are: Video for windows / Direct X / Stream from file / Stream from HTTP.I guess I need to be looking for a 4 chip card that uses WDM drivers? Paul

Reply to
P. Totaro

If you are looking to make a simple setup, webcam2000 (free) might be of interest. You can also make a simple external video switcher for your cams if you have a parallel port on yur computer. The below page has some setup info using webcam2000 and the middle link shows how to make a simple webcam switcher. Bottom link shows a simple webpage for controlling a homemade pan/tilt web cam.

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Reply to
Si Ballenger

Here is some info on the camera

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The problem is, I have the camera plugged in and with the pico2000 soft ware I can see the video, but can't control the PTZ with this software because PictureTel uses it's own protocol. I can use BDLCam to control the PTZ but the streaming software (WebcamXP) does not recognize the 4-port DVR card because first, it only has 1 chip (Techwell TW6800) that uses port switching and second doesn't use WDM drivers. I think I also need a DVR card with 4 chips that doesn't use port switching and shows up in device manager as 4 separate devices.

Reply to
P. Totaro

I suggest you get a card with 4 or more brooktree capture chips on it. You might get some help from the techwell link below on getting the card to switch video inputs (you would probably have to make your own software). Get a copy of the vidcap32.exe from the below links and see if it recognizes your card. If it does, then most other webcam applications should be able to use your card. You should be able to use the BDLCam (for cam control) and a webcam application at the same time (would need to be running on different ports) on the same web page. Note that a webcam application and the pico2000soft ware cannot be running at the same time under normal conditions. Bottom link shows a way to send the bytes to the serial port from a web page.

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Reply to
Si Ballenger

Si, Thank you once again for the response.

Reply to
P. Totaro

Below is one of the better known BT driver sites. It has some list of supported cards. Bottom link has a large collection of brooktree based cards. Best to ask the seller about the capture card before buying to see howmany and what type of capture chips on it.

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Reply to
Si Ballenger

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