Latest revision as of 17:03, 28 September 2010

Description

The PV-155 video capture card from Bluecherry is a Linux compatible 16 input board with a 120 frame per second capture rate. This is meant to be used with up to 16 analog cameras with RCA or BNC connectors.

Supports image resolutions up to 720 * 576 (PAL) / 640 * 480(NTSC)

Video frame size up to 320 * 240 / 640*480 24bit true color (per camera)

Chipset: BT878

Camera Input: 16 (BNC to serial) Video in

Video supported: NTSC/PAL

Watchdog Support: Yes - Hardware

Linux support: Yes, Kernel 2.2 / 2.4 / 2.6

PCI, 5 volt slot (not 3.3V)

This card has been used in Zoneminder video surveillance systems and therefore proven for use in Linux systems.

It comes with a LiveCD for support.

Note that there is no TV capability for this card -- it is meant to be used with analog security cameras with BNC or RCA connectors.

Usage

It is plug and play with the mentioned Linux kernels.

I had to do the following to use all 4 ports(I could only use 2 ports=8 cameras through plug and play): run as root: modprobe bttv card=77,77,77,77

add to /etc/modprobe.conf: options bttv card=77,77,77,77

For clarification, you mentioned this card is plug and play with the above Linux kernels, but is it plug and play with LinuxMCE? And did you have it working in LinuxMCE?

Yes, it is plug and play (Look at the Motion Wrapper tutorial on how to set up analog cameras). However, only the first 2 ports are plug and play. This card has 4 ports (4 cameras for each port). So you can only use 8 cameras by default. You can use all 4 ports once you run the command and change modprobe.conf.

There is also one small caveat (either Motion Wrapper, LinuxMCE or this card): Once in a while (when you add or change the settings for an analog camera) Linuxmce cannot display the videos of all analog cameras attached to that card (I only have one card so I do not know if it has an effect to other cards/analog cameras, IP cameras work). You have to either restart the router (sometimes solves the problem) or restart the Core (or wherever the card is installed).

Price

Approximately $170.