DVR/CCTV and Dazzle

[PDX Ghost Hunter]

I am hoping someone can answer this question for me. I am using a DVR with infrared CCTV cameras which record video to an internal 500GB drive. I am having a hell of a time getting the video off the hard drive and onto another device. There is a backup feature which uses a USB jump drive but so far I have not been successful getting the video to record to the USB drive.

My idea would bypass this entire process. I am considering purchasing a Dazzle DVD Recorder Plus and playing back the video on the DVR and capturing it via the Dazzle directly to my laptop. If anyone knows anything about the Dazzle device and whether or not this should work I would really appreciate it since I would have little use for a Dazzle otherwise.

My hope is the Dazzle will capture any video being run through the device regardless of the source (camcorder, XBOX, DVR, etc.) and record it to the laptop. The only device I have not seen listed is CCTV video played off a DVR.

I have BNC video cable with an RCA adapter so in theory it will connect to the RCA video input on the Dazzle. Just curious if anyone has experience in this area and if the video will be captured. If I connect the cable from the video out on the DVR through the Dazzle capture device and into my laptop, should it work?

My cameras do not have audio so I will not need to worry about that, just the video feed.

Note: the DVR is an H.264 device, not sure if this makes a difference or not.

Thanks

[usually_quiet]

Dazzle products don't get many recommendations at this website.

Before making a recommendation for something else, it would be good to be able to check that your laptop meets the minimum hardware requirements, and that compatible device drivers are available for its OS. Filling out the computer details information in your user profile would be helpful to those answering this and other questions you might post in the future. Also, what is your budget for the device?

[PDX Ghost Hunter]

It's a Dell laptop with 2GB RAM running Windows XP
External 320GB hard drive dedicated to video

Mainly just curious about the Dazzle itself and how it works (their support basically just told me it hasn't been tested in the way I asked about and keep repeating it has been tested with camcorders, dvd players, vcr's and XBOX)

Does the device care about the source signal or does it simply see video as video. Whatever is coming in it will capture. Was hoping maybe someone used this device and had hooked it up to an H.264 DVR and whether it captured the video or not. Or maybe someone has the equipment already but has never tried it and could give it a test run. I understand the odds of someone having a H.264 CCTV DVR and a Dazzle are very slim but figure it's worth a shot.

I don't have a large budget and since the CCTV footage is greenish/gray infrared night video it's not HD quality to begin with. Just need to capture it because on the DVR internal hard drive it's fairly useless unless I can get it off there which so far has not been a simple task.

[usually_quiet]

I don't think the BNC out would likely be a modulated signal, and if the signal coming out is ordinary SD composite video that you can see using the composite input of a TV, it should be possible to capture it with the Dazzle or another USB capture device.

It may take a little time for me to decide on a product recommendation.

[PDX Ghost Hunter]

The output on the DVR is BNC but I have an adapter to RCA that would go into the Dazzle. As stated, no audio since the CCTV cameras don't record it. Any help in getting the footage off the internal hard disk to a PC would be greatly appreciated. I was just hoping the Dazzle simply saw video as video and captured whatever came into it. Life is rarely that simple though.

[usually_quiet]

Can you connect the DVR to the yellow composite video input of a TV using the adapter and see the output in acceptable quality? If so, you can capture the DVR output.

You left out one of the most important pieces of information. What CPU does the laptop have, and how many GHz?

[PDX Ghost Hunter]

Excellent suggestion. I will do that today when I get home. It plays on a monitor attached to the DVR through a VGA cable so BNC/RCA input on my television should work. Thanks for the suggestion. Looking forward to trying it.

[edDV]

CCTV DVR's usually use proprietary formats so you will use their accessories.

The place to ask about digital export is the manufacturer support site.

[PDX Ghost Hunter]

CCTV DVR's usually use proprietary formats so you will use their accessories.

The place to ask about digital export is the manufacturer support site.

I'm about 80% certain the mfg is China and from what I have seen support is pretty lame if not non-existent. It seems to consist of basically a large PDF file with no information in this area.

I will connect the DVR to my TV using the BNC to RCA cable and see how it goes. I will post on here what I learn later today or tomorrow.

My one and only concern as to whether or not the Dazzle would capture the video has to do with the possibility the video is a proprietary format. My hope is that the Dazzle doesn't care and just records/captures/converts whatever video comes through it to AVI/MPEG regardless.

[edDV]

You might consult a dealer that carries the DVR.

My one and only concern as to whether or not the Dazzle would capture the video has to do with the possibility the video is a proprietary format. My hope is that the Dazzle doesn't care and just records/captures/converts whatever video comes through it to AVI/MPEG regardless.

The video out is probably RS-170 normal monochrome video. The problem is many consumer capture cards require a color burst for A/D synchronization. In other words they may lack support for monochrome video. If so, try a different capture device.

[usually_quiet]

Since you are trying to document something, it would be preferable to export the original digital video recording. It is the only way the original quality remains intact. Capturing should be a last resort. It's possible the DVR doesn't do a good job converting from H.254 to composite, and some quality is always lost doing analog captures.

If capturing is your only choice, and the DVR output to your TV's composite input looks decent, any capture device that accepts composite video should capture it. Some customer reviews indicate the buyer liked the results they got with a Dazzle, but it seems like these devices often don't last long.

Because it does hardware MPEG-2 encoding, the Hauppauge 1192 WinTV-HVR-1950 would be the best choice if your laptop has a weak CPU, but it is much more expensive than other solutions.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116029

If your laptop CPU is up to the task of software encoding there is the EzCAP116 USB 2.0 Video Capture Device. The manufacturer offers a one-year guarantee and decent support at the website for such an inexpensive device. If you don't like the included software, one VideoHelp member said that Corel VideoStudio can be used as an alternative. There is a free trial http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1224171780177#tabview=tab0
The manufacturer's website:
http://www.ezcap.tv/

I have not used any of the above devices myself. I have a Diamond Theater 650 device, which is out of production, but offers hardware encoding. Ordinarily I'd also recommend that or its replacement, the Diamond ATI Theater HD 750 USB, which uses software encoding, but I'm concerned that their image enhancement features would do more harm than good in your situation. I had no problems, but some have found software and driver installation for them to be tricky. For what it is worth, here are links for both:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3584099&CatId=1423
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815306019

No offense intended, but even if it can offer some advantages when successful, PC video capture frequently isn't easy. A lot of people fail at this. Assuming output to your TV works, a DVD recorder might be an easier alternative to PC capture. It would cost more, unless you can find a good used one. However, if tinkering with computer hardware and software drives you crazy, think about it.

[Edit] I forgot about the color burst problem for monochrome. PC capture could be more difficult in that case. I remember a recent post about problems with a DV capture device in particular. DV would be another possible capture alternative, that I didn't mention because I know less about it. The interface to the computer is usually firewire rather than USB.

[PuzZLeR]

My one and only concern as to whether or not the Dazzle would capture the video has to do with the possibility the video is a proprietary format. My hope is that the Dazzle doesn't care and just records/captures/converts whatever video comes through it to AVI/MPEG regardless.

I can't see a reason why not if your TV can receive the signal and display/decode it - the Dazzle should see the same thing and record it, regardless of format source file, just like it can probably capture VHS content, same thing.

As for Dazzle products, I too will not recommend them from past experience with two products, from what I've NOT seen positive on this site, and from regular bad reviews they got on other sites.

However, my information could be outdated since this is all before Pinnacle bought them out a few years ago, and before capturing got better on PCs. Yes, my first one, the DM-4200, was over 10 years ago with a parallel port input (believe it or not), but the second one, the DVC 150, did indeed have a USB 2.0 connection so there's little excuse there - enough to make me disregard any news from them since.

Honestly, one can blame their divorce on Dazzle products - they were that bad. I remember how some of the reviews were actually funny. Personally, I still remember the way the plastic smelled when I burned mine as I did not have the good conscience to flip it on eBaY for someone else.

I will just say tread with caution on Dazzle products - if it has many issues from the beginning don't try and make them better. They are likely part of a bad product. Make sure you can return it if that's the case.

[PuzZLeR]

No offense intended, but even if it can offer some advantages when successful, PC video capture frequently isn't easy. A lot of people fail at this. Assuming output to your TV works, a DVD recorder might be an easier alternative to PC capture. It would cost more, unless you can find a good used one. However, if tinkering with computer hardware and software drives you crazy, think about it.

Actually that's when I decided to destroy my Dazzle products - when I found another solution, or three, that actually worked flawlessly. All along I thought it was me, or that I had an inadequate system, or that capturing was a higher science, etc. The self-guilt they inflicted on me those years was enough to deserve a severe melting of their wares afterwards.

This is why I will advise the O/P that if there are issues from the beginning to not continue the struggle much further.

The positive thing I can say is that they did cleanly remove my email from their list for updates/news/etc when I requested with no issues.

[PDX Ghost Hunter]

Well my DVR to TV experiment failed. I'm new to this equipment so I will explain what I did.

I unhooked one of the cameras and took that cable and plugged it into the BNC video out port of the DVR.
I took the other end and put the RCA adapter on it and plugged it into the yellow video port on the back of my TV.
I selected that port as the "source" on the TV and played the video on the DVR. The TV was black with a "No Signal" message on the screen.

As I stated, I am new to this so may not have done it correctly. My video cable has a BNC jack and a power cord on each end. There is nothing to plug the power into on the TV end when setting it up this way as opposed to when I hook up a CCTV camera to the DVR and there is something to plug power into on both ends.

When hooking it to the TV, the DVR end has the power jack plugged into an AC power source plugged into a power strip but on the TV side there is nothing to plug the cable power jack into. I don't know if this matters or not.

Either way I saw no video on the TV but don't feel 100% satisfied the DVR to TV connection was completely correct.

The cameras I am using are color cameras that switch automatically to infrared (grayish black & white night vision) when light conditions drop to a certain point.

Here are links to the DVR (with image of the back connection ports) as well as the cameras I am using.

DVR: http://www.amazon.com/YY-VC-SYS-4WEBMVP-channel-VGA-out-Network-without/dp/B00153UQK0/...9910802&sr=8-1

Camera: http://www.amazon.com/VideoSecu-Infrared-Resoulution-Weatherproof-1O5/dp/B0016LAR82/re...9910834&sr=1-9

[PDX Ghost Hunter]

If your laptop CPU is up to the task of software encoding there is the EzCAP116 USB 2.0 Video Capture Device.
The manufacturer's website:
http://www.ezcap.tv/

I just ordered this as it states it works with anything. I also just purchased a Sony Hi8 camcorder and have tons of old tapes that need converted to DVD so regardless, it's inexpensive and will get used a lot. Thanks for the suggestion.

[edDV]

There is no need to analog capture from this security DVR. You can transfer digital files over the Ethernet LAN connection or to a USB flash drive. The video files are in h.264 format.

This unit has 4 analog inputs for cameras. Monitoring can be done from VGA to a computer monitor or over the analog NTSC "Monitor" output but not at the same time. You need to disconnect the VGA computer monitor to get a signal on the NTSC monitor output. See section 4.5 of your manual.

http://www.yytrade.info/link/4WEBMVP/YY_M_VC-SYS-4WEBMVP_Product-Manual-(Eng-Only)_v1.2.pdf

You will need a BNC to RCA adapter
http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat_id=120&sku=02456

[usually_quiet]

The power lead is there for a security camera. You didn't need power plugged in on either end to hook up a TV. I was was going to say something else too, along the same lines as edDV, about your DVR, but he saved me the trouble.

If your laptop CPU is up to the task of software encoding there is the EzCAP116 USB 2.0 Video Capture Device.
The manufacturer's website:
http://www.ezcap.tv/

I just ordered this as it states it works with anything. I also just purchased a Sony Hi8 camcorder and have tons of old tapes that need converted to DVD so regardless, it's inexpensive and will get used a lot. Thanks for the suggestion.

If the test did not work out, I expected you would delay making a purchase. ...and now with more information available about your equipment, I really wish I had not suggested the EzCAP116. It may work, but it is possibly not the best available way to go for any of the things you want to do with it.

I don't have any personal experience with this, but your new camcorder may be capable of firewire (AKA IEE 1394 or iLink) video transfer. Check the manual. If your new camcorder can play your old tapes and the option to use firewire with a computer is available to you, that is possibly a better way to capture camcorder video than using an EzCAP116. See https://www.videohelp.com/dvanalog#digital8

If your laptop has no firewire port, something like this could add one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16839200011 but find out if a 6-pin firewire connection from the camera is available. ...and start a new topic here to ask for some help before you buy anything for use with the camcorder. There are members here who do have first-hand experience at this and could have better suggestions for you.

[edDV]

Or just transfer the h.264 files with the Ethernet connection or to a USB2 flash drive. That way you don't have to go to analog.

This box is fairly powerful for the money. The manual is readable.

[usually_quiet]

I second edDV.

I know you tried a USB stick and could not get it to work, but if you haven't tried transferring files via Ethernet you should. Directions for adding the DVR as a device in your network start on page 29. Once it is set up, directions for Network Backup start on page 34. Ethernet cables are cheap.

[PDX Ghost Hunter]

http://www.yytrade.info/link/4WEBMVP/YY_M_VC-SYS-4WEBMVP_Product-Manual-(Eng-Only)_v1.2.pdf

That's a better product manual than the PDF they supplied on the CD that came with the unit. Thank you very much.

[PDX Ghost Hunter]

If the test did not work out, I expected you would delay making a purchase. ...and now with more information available about your equipment, I really wish I had not suggested the EzCAP116. It may work, but it is possibly not the best available way to go for any of the things you want to do with it.

I don't have any personal experience with this, but your new camcorder may be capable of firewire (AKA IEE 1394 or iLink) video transfer. Check the manual. If your new camcorder can play your old tapes and the option to use firewire with a computer is available to you, that is possibly a better way to capture camcorder video than using an EzCAP116. See https://www.videohelp.com/dvanalog#digital8

My 2 Mini DV Sony camcorders support 1394 and that is how I transfer that video to my PC. The Hi8 uses RCA and since I have lots of Hi8 tapes I made in the military I need the EzCAP anyway to transfer that video. Plus I can use it with my XBOX so it will get a lot of use.

I was able to get the video off the DVR via the USB jump drive finally. I will try the Ethernet route as well. The video has to be converted using what appears to be a proprietary program that the DVR copies to the jump drive called player.exe

It will convert it to .AVI and from there I can do a lot with it. I appreciate all the help from you all. That PDF file is WAY better than the one that came with the unit and should make a huge difference.

The main problem I have been having is the embedded software on the DVR is the most un-user friendly thing I have ever used. In order to back up the video to the jump drive you have to give it a start and stop time which is very difficult to figure out through the interface and even more difficult to input. I have the DVR connected via Ethernet to my laptop but there is a serious lag in what is displayed on the DVR (live) and what is displayed on the laptop screen (live). The laptop is a 2.13 Ghz with 2GB of memory and that's probably not going to change anytime soon. Hopefully with that user manual I can figure out how to get more of a real-time video feed on the laptop without the delay.