LuxRiot Blog

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BUENA PARK, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–StarDot’s megapixel IP cameras have been integrated into the LuxRiot video recorder software. StarDot Technologies, a manufacturer of megapixel IP video cameras and servers, specializes in hybrid IP video products designed to ease the transition from analog CCTV cameras to the world of IP cameras. LuxRiot is a Digital Video Recording (DVR) software package designed by A&H Software House, Inc. DVR software is the next step in security camera recording technology, replacing current standalone hardware DVRs and older VCRs.

The NetCam SC megapixel cameras provide up to fifteen times the resolution of even the best analog CCTV cameras. The video clarity goes beyond high definition and is excellent for facial recognition and capturing license plate data.

“One of the biggest concerns about migrating to megapixel camera technology is the amount of bandwidth used,” said Vance Kozik, StarDot’s product manager. “The NetCam SC camera employs video-on-motion, which puts the motion detection technology at the edge, eliminating the need to continuously send video of an empty scene across the network. The LuxRiot software takes full advantage of this technology, which not only reduces bandwidth but also reduces the CPU load, allowing the software to record additional cameras.”

“LuxRiot is excited to add support for the StarDot megapixel cameras,” said Frank Calipari, LuxRiot’s sales manager for Europe. “StarDot’s cost-effective technology solves even the most difficult image capture problems. LuxRiot is looking forward to working with customers using StarDot devices.”

In addition to video-on-motion, the LuxRiot DVR software also supports visualization of NetCam’s motion and control over resolution, quality and frame rate though the LuxRiot software interface.

About LuxRiot/A&H Software House, Inc.

LuxRiot is a Digital Video Recording and remote surveillance software package for Windows. LuxRiot accepts video streams from IP cameras from all major manufacturers. The LuxRiot client-server architecture allows heterogeneous scalable solutions from a single camera to thousands of cameras. http://www.luxriot.com

About StarDot Technologies

StarDot Technologies is a designer and manufacturer of IP video solutions and has built a reputation on image quality, ease of use and reliability. The NetCam SC security line is sold through US and international distributors and resellers in the security industry. StarDot provides solutions to a wide variety of organizations, including the FAA, NOAA, NASA, Starwood and NavCanada. http://www.stardot.com

Improved integration with StarDot hardware introducing new features will be avaialble with coming update of LuxRiot.

The information applies to:

• LuxRiot 1.6.12

Summary

This post described how to add and configure StarDot Technologies IP cameras and video servers with LuxRiot DVR software.

Description

LuxRiot DVR software may be downloaded from downloads section on luxriot.com website or using download links on this blog. A trial/shareware version of LuxRiot DVR (before registration key entered) is subject to the following constraints:

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The information applies to:

• LuxRiot 1.6.x up to 1.6.12

Summary

An updated version of LuxRiot DVR Removable Media Archive Viewer introduces the following features:

• an option to export video archive into Advanced Systems Format/Windows Media Video .WMV files
• an option to save current video frame into JPEG or BMP file using built-in media file viewer (supports both AVI and ASF/WMV files)
• an option to manually specify/add data directories using GUI to pick archive backups made to disk drives, external disk drives, flash drives etc.

Description

An updated version of LuxRiot DVR Removable Media Archive Viewer adds new features mentioned above. Update instructions are provided below in the bottom of the post.

Archive export wizard introduces a new export type: export into ASF (Advanced Systems Format) File and creates a Windows Media File .WMV using Windows Media Encoder subsystem:

The advantage of WMV files is that video is encoded using Windows Media video codec which is widely available on systems without LuxRiot DVR or special codec software installed.

When a media file is opened using built-in media file viewer, an updated version of software offers menu choices Copy Current Frame to Clipboard and Save Current Frame As to extract current video frame from the video file and transfer picture into another applciation through file or clipboard.

The mentioned above features will also be available in regular LuxRiot DVR Client with next release of LuxRiot DVR.

Additionally, the updated versions allows manual configuration of data directories as opposed to fixed default list of directories in previous versions of software. Using Menu File it is possible to add a directory with a backup files of LuxRiot DVR and/or copy of the live video archive directory.

Note that it is impossible to add live recording directory, in case of attempt to the application would show an error message. In order to access live archive data using LuxRiot DVR Removable Media Archive Viewer application it is required to stop LuxRiot DVR Server and rename the directory of interest *:\LuxRiot\Archive Files (note that the user has to have respective Windows privileges to perform this action), after which it will be addable to the diectory list of LuxRiot DVR Removable Media Archive Viewer.

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A new release of LuxRiot is available for download.

Download links

• http://luxriot.com/downloads/luxriot/1.6.12/10151/LuxRiot-1.6.12.exe // Regular version, use unless instructed otherwise
• http://luxriot.com/downloads/luxriot/1.6.12/10151/LuxRiot-1.6.12-Client.exe // Client side only
• http://luxriot.com/downloads/luxriot/1.6.12/10151/LuxRiot-1.6.12-t.exe // Extended debug tracing
• http://luxriot.com/downloads/luxriot/1.6.12/10151/LuxRiotCodecs-1.6.12.exe // Codecs only

What’s new in this release?

• Fixed: Product Activation Wizard used by non-administrator fails to activate LuxRiot DVR via Internet
• Fixed: FTP export fails if target file name contains special characters
• Fixed: Coloring issues with Arecont Vision AV8180, AV8360 cameras
• Fixed: Archive window is not accessible under exclusive mode
• Updated: Improved auto-detection of StarDot hardware, firmware and configuration for more reliable and stable operation and dynamic detection of supported video resolutions
• Updated: Improved support for Aviosys hardware and added support for new Aviosys models
• New: Added support for Rimax network cameras
• Fixed: Worked around problem with Arecont Vision 8xxx series hardware/SDK
• Updated: Improved auto-detection of Vivotek hardware, firmware and configuration for more reliable and stable operation
• Fixed: Periodic loss of connection with in M-JPEG video streaming from Vivotek 6xxx series hardware
• Updated: Added support for new Vivotek models: SD7151, FD7132, IZ7151, IP7251, IP7142, PZ7151, PZ7152
• Fixed: Distortion in movement areas with RTP over UDP video (MPEG-4, e.g. from ACTi hardware)
• Fixed: Resolved software incompatibility issue with ffdshow video decoder putting LuxRiot applications onto black list
• Fixed: minor cosmetic changes and other updates

See changle log for more information on latest updates.

The information applies to:

• LuxRiot 1.6.x up to 1.6.11

Symptoms

With exclusive mode enabled a minimized one archive window will not show anymore until exclusive mode is disabled and the minimized window is accessed from application bar.

Description

The problem is caused by the feature of archive window to restore its last position and state on the screen. With exclusive mode enabled, the window restores its minimized state and is hidden by main application window.

Resolution

In order to workaround the problem it is possible to hold Control and Shift keys pressed while opening archive (using menu, context window or toolbar button). With the keys pressed, the window will show at its default position and state.
The update that prevents from restoration of minimized state will be also included into the next release of LuxRiot.

The information applies to:

• LuxRiot 1.6.x up to 1.6.11

Symptoms

Arecont Vision multi-sensor network cameras AV8180, AV8360 configured with LuxRiot DVR might show improperly video, especially as if with a green or blue haze.

Description

The problem may occur even if native software from Arecont Vision shows proper picture from the camera. Once LuxRiot was started to get video from the camera, the coloring issue may start apply to video shown in browser as well.

Resolution

An update of one of the LuxRiot modules fixes the problem.

1. Download archive DVRServerNetworkCamerasArecont-1.6.12.9781.zip
2. Stop all LuxRiot applications
3. Open LuxRiot installation directory, typically C:\Program Files\LuxRiot Digital Video Recorder
4. Optional, but recommended: Backup file DVRServerNetworkCamerasArecont.dll by renaming to e.g. DVRServerNetworkCamerasArecont.01.dll
5. Extract new DVRServerNetworkCamerasArecont.dll from downloaded archive in place of the renamed file
6. Start LuxRiot applications

The update will be included into the next release of LuxRiot.

The information applies to:

• LuxRiot 1.6.x up to 1.6.11

Symptoms

LuxRiot DVR Server might unexpectedly fail to export video frames using FTP/File Video Frame Export feature showing errors 0×80072ee5 “The URL is invalid” or similar.

Description

The problem may arise if target file name contains characters that are not allowed, including through template $(Title) placeholder to be substituted with camera title, which in its turn has colon or slash characters.

The update fixes the problem and replaces special characters with underscores. Additionally, the update strips “ftp://” prefix from host name, which users frequently include into host name by mistake.

Resolution

An update of one of the LuxRiot modules fixes the problem.

1. Download archive DVRServerTools-1.6.11.9575.zip
2. Stop all LuxRiot applications
3. Open LuxRiot installation directory, typically C:\Program Files\LuxRiot Digital Video Recorder
4. Optional, but recommended: Backup file DVRServerTools.dll by renaming to e.g. DVRServerTools.01.dll
5. Extract new DVRServerTools.dll from downloaded archive in place of the renamed file
6. Start LuxRiot applications

The information applies to:

• LuxRiot 1.6.x

Symptoms

There may be a number of compatibility issues with third party software, including the following most frequent:

• remote clients fail to connect to DVR server
• DVR server might freeze during operation
• DVR server might show poor performance
• there might be unexpected [temporary] files created while DVR server is running

Description

There has been a number of complaints of compatibility issues with particular versions of third party software, including:

• Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server
• Intel Active Management Technology (AMT) Software
• Kaspersky Anti-virus
• ESET NOD32 Antivirus

Most often the problem is related to network activity, both accessing LAN hardware such as network (IP) cameras and video servers and accessing network storage devices (NAS). Most often the problematic software package is antivirus software or software firewall. In some cases it is possible to configure third party software to avoid interference, e.g. adding exclusions on the processes and IP addresses.

In some cases, especially related to performance, it is possible to identify interfering process by checking task manager CPU load times and locating a non-DVR process that correlates in CPU load with LuxRiot DVR’s DVRServer.exe process. That is, once DVRServer is started, the other process also start consuming significant amount of CPU time; once DVRServer is stopped, the other process also gets into close to idle state.

A symptom which points out to compatibility issue in case of freeze of DVR operation is that it is impossible to gracefully stop LuxRiot DVR Server process (service or application), or even kill it with task manager.

Resolution

In order to troubleshoot compatibility issues, it is required to disable applications suspected in compatibility conflicts. Unfortunately it appears that it is insufficient to just disable many anti-virus packages through software and it is required to uninstall in order to truely resolve compatibility conflict.