Re: [gentoo-user] Re: {OT} video monitoring
I've been using motion along with USB cameras for a while. I need to expand my monitoring capacity and I'm wondering if I should consider changing software or hardware. motion seems fairly dead but is stable. I'm reading conflicting info about the current status of zoneminder. Is anyone using IP cams? Hello Grant, Some years ago, the slickest webserver plus zoneminder setup was this http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/cherokee/users/2450 cherokee + zoneminder + php Another solution is to get some pci cards that take a coax input from a coax cable (RG/59 or RG6 for distance) directly into the PC. There you can convert the streaming video into h.264 and move it around the ethernet. Encoder (coax to h.264) pci cards use to abound such as Qsee, Avermedia etc etc. You can also get embedded boards from TI that include the DaVinci package which take in coax and convert it to H.264. I use to get the best information about the key chips reading the linux kernel driver documentation found in the old drivers. Many of the drivers (most?) have been unified and the in-driver documents therein will be mostly useless, so old 2.4 and 2.6 drivers for specific chipsets is the best source, if you really want to dig into video over IP. Most currently manufactured IP cams go to great links to make their hardware a black box on what they are doing to output the H.264. [2] Furthermore, you have to delve in the container versus the packets when you find incompatibilities. Many of the advanced ethernet sniffing software packages have h.264 filters build in [1]. It's all H.264, just a lot of software gymnastics to frustrate folks from rolling their own video solution. If I were to get serious about video/IP, I'd go with VP8 (google's standard) and find a codec (opensource) that could be put on a micro processor board; pandaboard? [3]. Googling around and I'm sure you can find something. [4] usb video sucks, once you try to scale up for any sort of serious video surveillance system; imho. hth, James [1] http://www.wireshark.org/docs/dfref/h/h264.html [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VP8 [3] https://wiki.linaro.org/WorkingGroups/Middleware/ Multimedia/Specs/1105/OptimizeVp8Decoding [4] http://www.webmproject.org/tools/ After reading everyone's responses, I do think I'll stick with USB cams and motion. Can anyone recommend a good USB cam for indoor use with a nice wide angle lens and mounting threads? It doesn't need to be cheap. - Grant
[gentoo-user] Re: {OT} video monitoring
Grant emailgrant at gmail.com writes: I've been using motion along with USB cameras for a while. I need to expand my monitoring capacity and I'm wondering if I should consider changing software or hardware. motion seems fairly dead but is stable. I'm reading conflicting info about the current status of zoneminder. Is anyone using IP cams? Hello Grant, Some years ago, the slickest webserver plus zoneminder setup was this http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/cherokee/users/2450 cherokee + zoneminder + php Another solution is to get some pci cards that take a coax input from a coax cable (RG/59 or RG6 for distance) directly into the PC. There you can convert the streaming video into h.264 and move it around the ethernet. Encoder (coax to h.264) pci cards use to abound such as Qsee, Avermedia etc etc. You can also get embedded boards from TI that include the DaVinci package which take in coax and convert it to H.264. I use to get the best information about the key chips reading the linux kernel driver documentation found in the old drivers. Many of the drivers (most?) have been unified and the in-driver documents therein will be mostly useless, so old 2.4 and 2.6 drivers for specific chipsets is the best source, if you really want to dig into video over IP. Most currently manufactured IP cams go to great links to make their hardware a black box on what they are doing to output the H.264. [2] Furthermore, you have to delve in the container versus the packets when you find incompatibilities. Many of the advanced ethernet sniffing software packages have h.264 filters build in [1]. It's all H.264, just a lot of software gymnastics to frustrate folks from rolling their own video solution. If I were to get serious about video/IP, I'd go with VP8 (google's standard) and find a codec (opensource) that could be put on a micro processor board; pandaboard? [3]. Googling around and I'm sure you can find something. [4] usb video sucks, once you try to scale up for any sort of serious video surveillance system; imho. hth, James [1] http://www.wireshark.org/docs/dfref/h/h264.html [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VP8 [3] https://wiki.linaro.org/WorkingGroups/Middleware/ Multimedia/Specs/1105/OptimizeVp8Decoding [4] http://www.webmproject.org/tools/
[gentoo-user] Re: {OT} video monitoring
Grant emailgrant at gmail.com writes: I've been using motion along with USB cameras for a while. I need to expand my monitoring capacity and I'm wondering if I should consider changing software or hardware. motion seems fairly dead but is stable. I'm reading conflicting info about the current status of zoneminder. Is anyone using IP cams? Hello Grant, I've not kept up with the last few years, but here is what I did before that. IP (h.264 over tcp/ip/udp) is a random matrix if which vendors cameras work with which vendors dvr. A dvr is a decoder box with a hard drive. You then connect your web browser to the DVR where the managerie of IP cams store the video. IT SUCKS for open source. Some vendors will give you binaries or have pre-compiled binaries (an API they call it) to load onto your Linux system (red hat or such), but those are often clunky and annoying, at best. The industry is still beholden to Microsoft and the MPLA.. ZONEMINDER is a difficult read. It would not have been that difficult to add support for H.264 (Mpeg-HVC) but most of the folks that developed that deep knowledge headed for BIG PAYCHECKS and the proprietary buggy. If you find some open source minded developers, willing to fork zoneminder, let me know and I'll contribute as I can I'm sorry the news is not better; in fact there could be another project out there that I'm not aware of, as I've been in other spaces for the last few years. The best contact I can give you is Andrey Filippov. He is a hardware designer that buids (use to?) an open source hardware camera that does amazing things. He will know software developers still active in the space and folks that may have an open source H.264 solution. http://.elphel.com Google has an open source video solution (can't recall the name, VP8?) that is suppose to be better than H.264 and open source, so search it out! http://gigaom.com/2013/10/30/google-sticks-with-vp8-opposes-ciscos-push-for-h-264/ http://www.webmproject.org/license/bitstream/ Regardless of which way you go, learn about MPLA, cause the SUE the shit out of grade school kids for touching video. Do post back what you learn? hth, James
