Older Laptop as a Monitor?

[Mike K]

I have an older Dell Insparon laptop witch is working just fine with a xp operating system. I don't use it and I'm wondering if it can be made to work somehow with a new security system that I have not purchased yet? The new cpu will be a desk top model using the BI software. I need a monitor only occasionally at the system location, and otherwise using the BI remote feature to look at files from my home via internet.

 

[klasipca]

Depends how many cams you want to stream and resolution and fps. Streaming is very cpu intensive task so may not work all that well in really old hardware. Also it will not be very energy efficient. You can get $50 android devices that will do much better job at streaming when connected to external monitor.

 

[nayr]

if it runs XP likely has absolutely zero h264 hardware decoding support.. that means with one or two HD videos it will grind to a screeching halt unless all your cams are MPEG2.

A Raspberry Pi2 uses uses like 400mA @ 5v to display several 1080p H264 videos.. its hard to beat that.

http://raspIPC.tv

 

[Mike K]

if it runs XP likely has absolutely zero h264 hardware decoding support.. that means with one or two HD videos it will grind to a screeching halt unless all your cams are MPEG2.

A Raspberry Pi2 uses uses like 400mA @ 5v to display several 1080p H264 videos.. its hard to beat that.

http://raspIPC.tv

I'm not sure I explained the situation correctly. Let me try again this way just to make sure:

I will be buying a new desktop computer which will have a dual core I7 processor and all the graphics processing horsepower needed to stream multiple high resolution live video camera data. I could also purchase a separate desktop monitor to go with the new computer but it won't get used much beyond the initial setup process for the cams etc. So the old laptop is desired only for its display potential.

Is that the same conclusion?

 

[nayr]

to display HD video you have to decode it, and if you have to decode a bunch of HD video you cannot do that via Software alone.. you need hardware support.

most computers still running XP were made before H264 hardware became ubiquitous as it is today.. everything today can play back h264 without really any load, but go back 10 years and our computers were struggling to play a single video without the needed hardware, let alone more than one video at the same time.

Go download a bunch of h264 movies and fire them up and see how it does, bet you'll be lucky to get one to run smooth at less than 60% load... where the RPI can play 5 videos with 1% load

 

[fenderman]

I think mike simply wants to use the laptop as a monitor. That wont work as the display connections on the laptop are outputs not inputs.

 

[nayr]

ah yeah that wont work either.. you could use it for remote managment if you want to keep the server headless... but your still going to need a monitor that can be hooked to the server so you can setup/install/troubleshoot.

it still wont display the cameras very well.. not a good as a real monitor or something that can directly decode the streams.

 

[klasipca]

You could simply use your old laptop to permanently RDC to your desktop and display live cams that way.

 

[fenderman]

You could simply use your old laptop to permanently RDC to your desktop and display live cams that way.

The problem with remoting in is that it adds significant overhead to cpu usage as well as limitations such as not being able to get to bios...

 

[Zorac]

you could just load the blueiris local web server on the xp machine. not very efficient because your new i7 would have to do a bunch of re-encoding, but should work.

unrelated, but you could dump xp as well and put linux on that machine so its current with security patches.

 

[Mike K]

The problem with remoting in is that it adds significant overhead to cpu usage as well as limitations such as not being able to get to bios...

The Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) sounds good if I can use my better laptop from home, (i5, Win 10). If I understand RDC correctly this arrangement is similar to what some tech support guys use temporally to take over my PC to do diagnostic work. However, this might only be a good thing if it will work to run the desktop computer that does not have a display monitor? Will it work that way? Would I be able to manage files? Uploads? Downloads? Camera/Router setup? Etc.

 

[fenderman]

The Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) sounds good if I can use my better laptop from home, (i5, Win 10). If I understand RDC correctly this arrangement is similar to what some tech support guys use temporally to take over my PC to do diagnostic work. However, this might only be a good thing if it will work to run the desktop computer that does not have a display monitor? Will it work that way? Would I be able to manage files? Uploads? Downloads? Camera/Router setup? Etc.

IF you have windows pro on the server you can use that to remote in using windows RDP just as if you were there (remember to set blue iris options > cameras>video during remote desktop to unrestricted if you wish to review video)...Otherwise you can use teamviewer. Note that these will increase cpu usage significantly while you are remoteing in...also note that windows might attribute most of the increase to blue iris but its really the remote app that is adding the overhead. Just use an old monitor if its not going to be on most of the time.

 

[ncwbob]

Sell that laptop on craigslist for what ever you can get, $50.00 or what ever then buy a cheap used LCD monitor off craigslist.

On my local CL there is a 17" LCD for 30 and a 22" for 60.00.

New decent sized monitors are not much more then 100 and some times you can get refurbs for even less so....

For what you will spend on a computer build you can get a good purpose built DVR/NVR that will be more stable then a windowz based PC built to handle the cams and you will be able to log in remotely same as with a computer if you set it all up with a router running your internet connection. Most of the DVR/NVR's are running a stripped down version of linux and that is 1000 times more stable then windowz. I used to run linux based web servers and unless I installed an update that required a reboot, I would not reboot them for up to 1 yr or longer and they were rock stable.

And, with most DVR/NVR units you can hook up that laptop and if you enable the virtual server on the DVR/NVR, most good ones have this, you will be able to use the old laptop to display the config screen from the DVR/NVR. Plug the laptop into the router and punch up the DVR/NVR network address and log in and your using your old laptop as you originally wanted to as a monitor for the security system.

Bob

 

[bp2008]

Mike K,

I too have an old inspiron laptop (Core 2 duo CPU, 1920x1080 display) on XP. It is glacially slow by today's standards but it would still be able to handle a remote desktop session to manage a Blue Iris system or a web browser session to view cams. It is not the sort of thing I would want to leave on 24/7 though because even though it is a laptop, it is an old and inefficient one.

 

[Mike K]

IF you have windows pro on the server you can use that to remote in using windows RDP just as if you were there (remember to set blue iris options > cameras>video during remote desktop to unrestricted if you wish to review video)...Otherwise you can use teamviewer. Note that these will increase cpu usage significantly while you are remoteing in...also note that windows might attribute most of the increase to blue iris but its really the remote app that is adding the overhead. Just use an old monitor if its not going to be on most of the time.

fenderman, Just wanted to let you know that I downloaded the "TeamViewer" program to my laptop and also the app to my smart phone and although I don't have any IP cams in operation yet this little program is really great just using it to connect to other computers. Thanks for the tip.