Well the recording problem has been solved by simply using a Y connector on the output of the video receiver and feeding it to a separate EasyCAP 4-Channel DVR interface from Amazon, only costs $10 and comes with its own software that utilizes video frame comparison to detect motion, and has a scheduler. Here is the link:
http://www.amazon.com/EasyCap-Channel-Video-Capture-Adapter/dp/B001M547EMThe software records in MPEG format, so the video files are much smaller than Vanguard's AVI files. Also, keep in mind that even though this EasyCAP unit claims to be 4 channel, it's only 4 channels of viewing, not 4 channels of recording. It only records one channel at a time. But hey, it's a $10 fix that solves Vanguard's shortcoming of being able to record any video without barfing.
However, this doesn't solve the camera channel scanning in Vanguard. For no explainable reason, when I click on the scan button, it will monitor 15 seconds of one camera, switch to the next camera, and the scanning turns off. Anybody got a fix for this?
Out of all the problems with Vanguard I see in these forums, I have to ask if the program ever worked correctly. If so, when and what were the specs of the system that it really ran on. I would simply switch to ActiveHome Pro with the iWatchOut plugin, but after this Vanguard experience, I don't know if I can trust that the other software is worth the money. Any input on ActiveHome Pro and iWatchOut would be more than welcome.