Listen, I found a way around all this. With XP I had a lot of problems with the Firecracker software and XRay vision being flaky. I had a Hauppauge Model 40201 plugged into my XP machine, and on a fluke guess, tried putting the Xray vision receiver directly into the side S-Video connection using an adapter to the composite plug to S-Video. It worked great. I could watch the X10 Camera's just fine in some thing called WinTV by Hauppauge, and the side bonus of course was I could watch TV. It is a bit more expensive to buy this unit than the X-Ray vision stuff, but no comparison with results. Much superior in stability and so on. Hauppauge makes converters which let you watch TV on your computer through a USB port, and after all, our little X10 cameras will connect directly to a TV so it just made sense to try something here.
So a few weeks ago decided to upgrade to a Vista 64 Bit Media Center computer which has a Hauppauge Win TV HVR 1600 model 1101 card in it. That card is supplied with the computer. The first challenge was whether I wanted to install the X10 software and possibly have problems, or try to use the Hauppauge card that came with the computer. Well, as it turned out, a struggle ensued to get this card to recognize the X10 camera, and finally I enlisted the help of Hauppauge who so nicely sent me a solution that works just fine.
HP installed software for Media Center that does not give you access to this S-Video port, at least not that I could find, and Hauppauge has the software for the card available on their website freely, and so on the Hauppauge help desk advice, I downloaded and installed the software, crossing my fingers that it did not interfere with the Media Center software. At the end of the successful install, I was able to put in the S-Video port which got scanned into the channel list as channle 124 and plugging in the camera VR36A yellow connector through the composite to S-Video connector works great. No extra cost, no software issues, and no affect on the Windows Media Center, which still functions just fine. So to be clear, the Hauppauge TV card comes with three co-axial inputs, one S-Video input and two sound inputs. If you buy this card or another Hauppauge device make sure it is compatible with
Now for the minor hitch, I can watch TV on the Hauppague software or the X10 Camera, but the colour rendition is poor and the sound when on the TV is very poor. I think that might be because I am using an HMDI cable between the computer to my monitor. You guys might not have this issue. But in any case you watch TV and your camera maybe in colour or black and white. My suspicion is that I need to make some driver adjustments or do something to match things better, so have gone back to Hauppauge for more help. If you are using a sound version of the X10 camera, I would assume plugging in the sound connections to the Hauppauge card will work.
Now, I think there might also be other solutions. You are probably aware that your TV will accept the output directly through a yellow connector from the VR36A, and some devices which you may have around the house, like an old VHS VCR might have inputs for the yellow connector and a TV coaxial output to your TV, which might serve as a way to hook up a coaxial to the hauppauge card in your computer.
Or lacking all this, go and buy a Hauppauge external unit, cost is about $150 and use it instead of spending money on the X10 stuff which troubles are being reported with.
I do like the X10 cameras, but hey, there are other solutions to connecting to your computer.
Author
Topic: Totally different Way to connect Camera to computer without X10 software (Read 26189 times)