Talk:Linux Media Labs LMLBT44

To: Linux Media Labs

Re: The state of this wiki page about the LMLBT44

We have several ZoneMinder systems in service for customers.

Because of the nature of surveillance, it turns into a big problem if it's not working.

We are totally committed to open source, so proprietary solutions are of no interest to us.

Customers have valuable assets and peace of mind at stake, so when that is compromised, they expect their surveillance system to turn up the answer.

We have found that ZM mocord places continuous strain on all components, so better drives, chipsets, cooling and power supplies are all needed, and that we have been able to successfully do.

We currently have PV-155 cards installed.

They are ok, but not great. Getting more than 4 channels to work reliably is not that easy. Load issues seem to happen, and no-one has a definitive answer. Many fish around on the forums clutching at PCI interrupt contention, chipset compatibility and a host of other problems. Documentation is skant, and PV ProVideo and BlueCherry do not seem to be proactive about improving results for customers. No PV or BT or BC engineer has popped up to say there are these constraints under these conditions, so you must do these things.

Your LMLBT44 appears to be similar, but with a few more i/o functions and no driverless lame audio. Seeing the heat sinks already on the chips shows some attention to detail. I see it is 5v only PCI card, which is not noted in the parameters. The PAL 50fps fails to clarify for absolute certainty that it is on each full rate channel.

You also fail to mention if the inputs and outputs actually work correctly with ZM, and if the DB15 connector or pigtail is supplied or not. The link to documentation shows the i/o section so incomplete as to be useless - the pin outs aren't even listed. It shows Last updated Vassili Leonov 2007-06-15, which seems stale to me.

I was close to ordering the card, doing further background checks, when I read this.....

http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/Linux_Media_Labs_LMLBT44

And that was the end of my checking, and the start of this communication to you.

The fact that you have not responded to this criticism, and updated the page shows you really aren't taking care of business. I see the page has been read over 4,000 times.

Given that you promote this card primarily for use on Linux, principally on ZoneMinder, and the wiki above is the authoritative place for things ZoneMinder, one would think this would be the first place potential customers and current users would check for more details on using the card with ZM, typical settings, how to get more out of it, how to compile in extra options to utilise it in different ways - all the things open source is good at. Things you could easily add to this wiki page if you know anything about the card.

Perhaps you don't sell many of these cards, or don't make much money on them and don't care. We are constantly hearing on Linux forums, don't support windows-drivers-only vendors. Here we find a Linux oriented vendor, and the situation seems not much better.

You may well be a very clever video person, but I can only judge you by what you have written and presented.

So my search continues for a reliable, current, supported, fully functional, documented, widely used, capable capture card for ZoneMinder.

David