LuxRiot Blog

The information applies to:

• LuxRiot 1.6.x up to 1.6.6

Symptoms

LuxRiot DVR running on a system with Comart XeCap series video capture board might freeze or otherwise perform in an unstable fashion.

Description

The problem more often comes up on a system with 16 and more capture channels running and especially on a system with one or more channels periodically becoming unavailable (due to, for instance, power outage on camera or signal loss).

LuxRiot DVR Server Watchdog in most cases handles the problem in server, however operating system might lock in board driver and stop DVR operation.

The fix works around the problem and improves stability of the server part of LuxRiot DVR.

Resolution

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

1. Download self-extracting archive DVRServerXeCap-1.6.7.5515.exe
2. Stop all LuxRiot applications
3. Open LuxRiot installation directory, typically C:\Program Files\LuxRiot Digital Video Recorder
4. Optional, but recommended: Backup file DVRServerXeCap.dll by renaming to e.g. DVRServerXeCap.01.dll
5. Start downloaded file to extract new DVRServerXeCap.dll in place of the renamed file
6. Start LuxRiot applications

To test ComArt XeCap boards you have to download ComArt XeCap SDK from XeCap_SDK_3.8.12.65.zip.

Step 1. Run CAT3DSDK.exe and press “CAT3D Board Search” button.

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To manually update XeCap drivers:

1. Download the last available drivers version 4.0.12.62 from http://www.luxriot.com/downloads/drivers/xecap_drivers_4.0.12.62.zip and extract the archive.
2. In Control Panel choose System Properties -> Hardware tab and click on Device Manager button.
3. Right click on “CAPT 2/4/ 8XP” item under “ComArT 3RD DVR BOARD” item and choose “Update Driver…”
4. Select “Don’t search. I will choose the driver to install.”. Press Next.
5. Press “Have Disk…” button and select the path to your unzipped drivers.
6. Finish the installation and you will have your ComArt board drivers updated.

LuxRiot 1.1.18 and above support multiple ComArt XeCap capture boards and extension daughter boards. Maximum number of channels supported by single capture board is 32 (depends on model). Installation of two or more capture boards increases maximum amount respectively. Popup window in Structure pane helps to find out what particular board the given channel belongs to, e.g. 1:16 means board_number_1:channel_16.

It is however important to be aware of multichannel capture constraints imposed by available PCI band-width, especially in case of ComArt XeCap boards, since the board may utilize the entire available band-width. To workaround possible problems and achieve highest frame rates it is recommended to check “PCI band-width control” checkbox and to choose YUV 4:1:1 video format (XeCap properties. YUV411 can bring more frame rate than YUV422 (1.3 times). Video quality, however, may slightly degrade and CPU load may increase.

For a 240 FPS capture board (or several boards delivering 240 frames per second in total) required YUV411 PCI band-width is approximately 60MB/sec, YUV422 video format requires 80MB/sec for the same amount of video data. Allowed PCI band-width is limited around 60MB/sec. As a result, the board would be able to send YUV411 video data within available band-width. YUV422 capture, however, is likely to be distorted because of overusage of PCI band-width.

LuxRiot (version 1.1.18 and above) supports XeCap boards video output channels. Now it is possible to view all cameras simultaneously on both computer and analog monitors.
Usually there are two output channels on these boards. One is used for single channel output, another one for multiplexed channels output (depends on model). Different layouts can be applied for multiplexed channels.

 

The information applies to:

• LuxRiot 1.1.12 through 1.1.17

Symptoms

When LuxRiot DVR Server is configured to run in service mode with ComArt XeCap boards, it may appear that one or more of the capture board channels stop sending video in which case LuxRiot DVR Server Watchdog restarts service in attempt to recover from the error occurred.

However restart mail fail and LuxRiot DVR services would remain stopped.

Resolution

An update of one of the LuxRiot modules is required on LuxRiot server machine. Please follow update instructions below:

1. Download archive with updated module DVRServerWatchdogTools-1.1.18.891.zip
2. Stop all LuxRiot applications and services
3. Find installed DVRServerWatchdogTools.dll file on server machine, it is located in LuxRiot installation directory, typically C:\Program Files\LuxRiot Digital Video Recorder
4. Overwrite existing file with new file from archive
5. Start LuxRiot applications and services

The fix will be included into next release of LuxRiot 1.1.18.

1.1.18 version will show a number of XeCap boards and channels found at LuxRiot startup. The info is usefull to determine the problems you may have in case of old XeCap drivers.

LuxRiot 1.1.18 and above is able to detect and update XeCap/XED board drivers (CAT3D.sys and Zed16A.sys) at installation. Only works with already installed XeCap boards (older drivers have to be present).