AVerMedia NV3000 review

The NV3000 costs around £40 more than the other two cards reviewed in this test.

It has four BNC video inputs and a single output for a TV monitor. We were slightly annoyed to see that, unlike the two cheaper cards, no full paper manual is supplied in the box. The latest software from the AVerMedia website failed to install properly, so after an hour of fiddling with drivers we gave up and used the software provided on the CD.

With one camera installed, we were disappointed to see that it produced a white screen in the same way the Eyes Pro did. You can fix this by adding more cameras or disabling the other three inputs, but we prefer the way the Swann and Voltek cards worked, with just one camera running correctly. As with the Eyes Pro, this card will not work on computers using SiS, Via or ALI chipsets, and Windows 2000 users must disable Hyper-Threading. The software will run only at 1,024x768 resolution.

The NV3000's interface is a significant improvement over that of the cheaper Eyes Pro. The video playback tool is superior and makes it much easier to flick through footage recorded earlier. The settings menus are easier to use than those of the Eyes Pro and the scheduler, which works in one-hour blocks, is a great improvement. This is the only card in the group that can integrate with point-of-sale (POS) systems for use in a shop.

All three cards in this group include utilities for viewing from a networked computer, but the NV3000's is easily the best. It's easy to use and allows you to view previously recorded footage. This is a great CCTV surveillance card, but for most users the cheaper Voltek and Swann cards are just as useful.