new high resolution va12a?

[HA Dave]

OK... I will freely and openly admit what I did. I called X10 Technical Support. I am nether proud nor ashamed of what I did... but I did it and.. I learned something in the process.

I spoke with a really nice lady [Janell?]. As she started me through the (I am sure somewhat standardized) setup process... it became apparent that because my setup included no enhanced USB I was Out-Of-Luck.

I have posted several times that I use a "rescued from the trash PC". It is a old PC... which I put a new HD in, loaded XP [home], added the USB 2 card, and some additional RAM from a flea market. But because of it's age... it can't do a true USB 2. Without the USB 2... no VA12A.

I knew the VA12A worked on my laptop (A Vista). So I tried the VA12A on my newer XP Pro, P4 desktop.. and it worked perfectly.

[BaBaLou.]

What a Differeance it makes, 
                                a good upgrade to make.

             Now the problem is V3.236 waiting to be FIXED and then all will be a better place.

Dave_x10_L , what Version of AHP are you running it on?

[HA Dave]

Dave_x10_L , what Version of AHP are you running it on?

The Vista I upgraded to 3.236... but the XP Pro is running AHP 3.228 but with the drivers upgrade. I should mention again... the VA12A image... is awesome.

[astrothug]

I have the Va12a and I cant speak about the difference between the two I'm running it on a XP machine with 1 gig ram 2.4 ghz intel p4 and I'm thinking the software vanguard and the other one iwatch is a bit flaky, it does the job but its not all that great. lol

I should hook up my other cams to see if its better.. 

[HA Dave]

WOO HOO!

I had mentioned that the VA12A I recently purchased was a breeze to setup on my Vista Laptop (of course... all I use the laptop for is surfing, email, and forums). I also mentioned that setting up the VA12A on my P4 2.8 XP Pro was easy too. However my Home Automation PC is an old P3 650MHz XP Home... and that was a no go.

I had even called X10's tech-support. The young lady was going to walk me through the process till I told her "No.. none of my USB connections say enhanced". "Enhanced" or fully USB 2 compliant (I think) was required. It seemed apparent... that my PC was just too old to cut the mustard (mustard cutting is for young computers). I had installed the USB 2 card myself... it was an old one I had.

Unable to sleep last night... I found myself thinking about a P3 being too old to be enhanced (USB2). I can remember my 1st computer (a VIC-20 1981-82)... I remember my 1st windows PC. I remember USB came with Windows 98... and so did firewire. But for the life of me... I couldn't remember when USB 2 was introducted... or if my P3 650MHz XP Home should be able to handle it.

So in the middle of the night (more like pre-dawn) I re-installed the USB2 card... forced the PC to search for new drivers... and I had video. Well actually... at 1st all I had was flicks of light.. but I knew what that meant. Some frame rate and image size adjustments and even my old clunker HA PC had video. I am thrilled to say (type) the least.

I am still regularly amazed with what can be done with X10 and an (8-9 year) old computer.

P.S. I am running AHP 3.228.

[Brian H]

My Quad processor motherboard. has a Advanced Setup tab that can pick if the on board USB is the slower 1.1 or faster 2.0. My guess is somewhere someone may have a modern computer and it still may not like the new VA12A. Gee I love computing and Automation things. 

[Duncan_X10]

Hey Guys,
Just wanted to point out that a lot of issues can be solved by running your software (x10 and others) in compatibility mode. I've been testing design software here in Windows 7, and I've had some success. This setting works for Vista too. To set it up right click on the .exe file and go to preferences. One of the tabs, I forget which it would be in Vista, should have a check box that says compatibility mode. Click that and select "XP service pack 3". Not a guaranteed fix, but worth a try!

[superg]

As always, the ads are full of sizzle but don't tell us anything about what cut of steak they're serving. What does "Hi-Res" mean? That the old system munged 640x480 doiwn to QVGA or overcompressed and this one doesn't?  And "HD?" I can't believe they're offering a 720p or 1080i camera...

I realize this is an old thread, however prospective buyers may benefit from my reply...

The "Hi-Res" USB Video Capture Adapter (VA12A) has a standard-definition resolution of 720x480 or 480i... essentially DVD (DV NTSC) quality.

High-definition (HD) video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition (SD) video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1280×720 pixels (720p) or 1920×1080 pixels (1080i/1080p).  The lowest "HD" resolution essentially being 704x576 (576p).

The mention of "720" and "hi-res" in the ad may lead consumers to believe the camera is actually "720p" and "high definition" which is not the case... so if X10 actually offered a 720p or 1080p camera, the maximum resolution through the "Hi-Res" USB Video Capture Adapter (VA12A) would only be 480i...

720p has a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, a vertical resolution of 720 pixels and a horizontal resolution of 1280 pixels, or 1280x720, for a total of 921,600
pixels.

~sugerg out

[birdzeye]

Dave_x10_L , what Version of AHP are you running it on?

the XP Pro is running AHP 3.228 but with the drivers upgrade. I should mention again... the VA12A image... is awesome.

Dave_x10_L,

Can you tell me how you got AHP v3.228 to work with the VA12A? I upgraded my drivers, as you say you did, but mine won't work. I should mention that I did have v3.236 and then went back to v3.228 due to bugs awhile back.

As for the image clarity with the VA12A (which does work on my laptop with Vanguard) it's not better than my el-cheapo Sabrent usb tv tuner box. And at least the Sabrent tv box WILL RECORD exceptionally well AND I can playback the recording without the software crashing.

I don't think X10 should have ventured into the realm of camera software, but you'd think that after all this time of having Vanguard and iWitness on the market they would've at least fixed the damn thing! Sorry if I sound angry but I really am disappointed with this VA12A and the software's lousy recording and playback functionality. Who made this? I WANT NAMES! 

x10 TEST YOUR PRODUCTS MORE THOROUGHLY BEFORE SUBJECTING THEM TO INNOCENT CONSUMERS! 

[HA Dave]

...........  Who made this? I WANT NAMES! 

Just so you know... I don't work for X10.. and have no association or connection to or with X10 or their software. Getting the camera stuff to work... and keeping it working.. has been two different challenges for me.

Twice I have removed the VCR as a backup from my camera setup.... and twice I have put the VCR back online.

[birdzeye]

...........  Who made this? I WANT NAMES! 

Just so you know... I don't work for X10.. and have no association or connection to or with X10 or their software.

Dave_x10_L, it's OK. You're not going to receive a subpoena or summons to appear......that other person who wrote this lousy software IS! 

I finally got the VA12A to work with AHP. The live image is mediocre/passable....an improvement from the VA11A....but no where near as good as my el-cheapo Sabrent usb tv tuner.

The playback of recorded video image is just TERRIBLE. It does not pass the test at all....in fact it's a JOKE. I can't understand why they would put this out on the market in THIS deplorable condition. I mean it's absolutely terrible! 

[superg]

...........  Who made this? I WANT NAMES! 

Just so you know... I don't work for X10.. and have no association or connection to or with X10 or their software.

Dave_x10_L, it's OK. You're not going to receive a subpoena or summons to appear......that other person who wrote this lousy software IS! 

I finally got the VA12A to work with AHP. The live image is mediocre/passable....an improvement from the VA11A....but no where near as good as my el-cheapo Sabrent usb tv tuner.

The playback of recorded video image is just TERRIBLE. It does not pass the test at all....in fact it's a JOKE. I can't understand why they would put this out on the market in THIS deplorable condition. I mean it's absolutely terrible! 

Have you tried using (3rd party application) AMCap?  I've successfully tested the VA12A adapter, X10 driver, on WinXP SP2 w/ a third party camera... video quality is acceptable.

X10 Drivers (VA12A):
Version: 3.236 - Released Sept 05, 2008
ftp://ftp.x10.com/pub/applications/drivers/x10drivers.exe
http://software.x10.com/pub/applications/drivers/x10drivers.exe

AMCap
Version: 9.20 (Build 132.2) - Released June 17, 2008
http://noeld.com/download/amcap.zip

You'll need to select the correct input from the Options > Crossbar Video Input menu (#1)... (defaults to zero)

[HA Dave]

The playback of recorded video image is just TERRIBLE. It does not pass the test at all....in fact it's a JOKE. I can't understand why they would put this out on the market in THIS deplorable condition. I mean it's absolutely terrible! 

Your far from the first person to report poor image quality. However I honestly can't say that's been my experience. I've used a few different cameras and would rate all the CMOS cameras as about the same (X10's included). And whereas the image quality of the VA11A is a bit dated... I thought the VA12A video and images were excellent.

[birdzeye]

Have you tried using (3rd party application) AMCap? 

No, but thanks for the link.

I was really hoping that AHP and the VA12A would work well, since I'm an x10 fan. It's been disappointing.

[birdzeye]

Your far from the first person to report poor image quality. However I honestly can't say that's been my experience. I've used a few different cameras and would rate all the CMOS cameras as about the same (X10's included). And whereas the image quality of the VA11A is a bit dated... I thought the VA12A video and images were excellent.

Dave_x10_L,

You may be the ONLY person who has NOT reported poor image quality. And it's not necessarily the x10 cameras that are the problem because I get a pretty good image with x10 cams (better than with the VA12A) using my Sabrent tv tuner box. While the LIVE IMAGES are OK with the VA12A, there is virtually no recording function that is usable for ANY kind of crude surveillance, which is what the damn thing is supposed to be for.
My Sabrent will record video forever as long as I have enough HD space, and I can play it back with a decent image and can fast forward up to 32X. And another negative thing about the VA12A is it uninstalls the driver for my Sabrent, which I have to reinstall after every time I use the VA12A. At least the VA11A "played nice" with other apps, and didn't crash my computer.
I was really hoping that the VA12A would be an improvement because I really love x10 products. It's been quite a disappointment.