-----Original Message----- From: PLUG <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Chuck Hast Sent: Saturday, May 6, 2023 7:50 AM To: Portland Linux/Unix Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [PLUG] Zoneminder server build instructions
>> It always shocks me how poor "home security" video is that gets posted >> on TV news clips. A brand new RLC 820A 8MP fixed cam is $72 off >> Amazon. A "name brand" Axis 2MP cam used runs around $35. You can >> get 10-packs of Ethernet-to-CCTV PoE coax baluns for around $35 off >> Ebay so even if you have an "old school" coax setup you can switch it >> over to IP cameras really cheaply and a used 2MP Axis IP cam is 4 times >> better than a CCTV D1 cam. >> >Yes and what they charge for those pieces of crap is shear highway robbery. Which pieces of crap, the RLC 820A or the used Axis 2MP cams? A fixed cam is a fixed cam is a fixed cam, every one of them out there on the market uses the same CCD made by the same maker in China and cheap plastic optics, and that is the only thing that is really worth anything inside the cam. If you buy an Axis Q6075-SE (which I have done so) then the manufacturer does spend some money on the PTZ gears and you will get real ground glass optics but otherwise most IP cams are the same. SV3C sells a 5MP Dome D05POE-5MP for $50, Reolink sells a 5MP Dome RLC-520A for the same price, so I'm really not sure what you are terming pieces of crap. Axis or Reolink? And "they" on a used cam are the Fleabay maggots, not Axis. I did say the Axis stuff is "name brand" and anyone buying cams should know "name brand = extra $$$" My feeling is once the laggards still selling new 2MP cams (like SV3C is doing) quit doing it the Fleabay maggots will unload their 2MP cams whether they say Axis on them or not for next to nothing. Frankly I see no difference between a used 2MP Axis cam from a Fleabay maggot who is just sitting on them like a hen on eggs and a new SV3c 2MP cam - both are obsolete tech and nobody should be selling a 2MP fixed cam for more than $10-$15 unless it's got a telephoto lens as long as my pecker attached to it LOL. Today I wouldn't buy a 2MP cam from anyone, either SV3C or Reolink and I won't buy a 5MP cam either, I don't see that SV3C has an 8MP dome offering yet, although maybe they intend on releasing a 12MP offering for $120 since that seems to be the sweet spot. The cost is in the time and energy mounting the cam the cam cost is small in comparison so spend the extra $50 and get the highest MP you can find. You can certainly elect to record at a lower resolution if you want. I have zero use for motion-detection in the cam, it's all proprietary and only seems to work if the cam is set to record to flash or intended for cloud use. Why pay more for that? And while PTZ is "kewel" I have better things to do than spend all day in front of a monitor swiping around a PTZ security camera. And I did explain the limitations of "follow me" tech in security work during the presentation, the cams are easily distracted if the perp uses an accomplice and cases the place out. Fixed dome or bullet with a lot of cams is the way to go. >Somewhere back in ZM history is a piece by a guy in the UK, he had some guy >speeding through the subdivision (Estate >for them) he lived in, they tried to >get him caught but they never were, he already had ZM running so he wrote some >>code and setup a second camera was able to catch the plate on the vehicle and >provide the speed by doing speed calcs >between the two cameras. According to >him the cops used the video data to nab the guy. Yeah that probably works in the UK but here a good lawyer could hire an expert witness who would demonstrate how easy it would have been for the ZM guy to make the second cam say whatever time he wanted and produce whatever speed he wanted so I kind of doubt the veracity of that story. Plus it would have been just as good to just get video of the speeder, measure out landmarks on the road, then calculate the speed using frame rate from a single cam using the frame to frame time index in the video stream and compare where the car was in each frame. Just as easy and accurate technologically and harder to discredit in a court, but it sounds more sexy to say you used 2 cams. Sigh. >Yes everyone I have set up on ZM does not want anything else, and it allows >them to buy different cams for different >applications, I know a fellow that >uses his ZM also to collect bird video in his yard. I have a WX cam setup >facing SW the >direction we get bad weather from, just to monitor what is >coming from that direction. Actually there's a number of "free" and commercial Windows programs from manufacturers that do allow use of different cams. I just think the stability of a Linux or FreeBSD server is superior to Windows. Especially today when Microsoft seems to believe that Windows's purpose is to collect telemetry for Microsoft and send it back to them for marketing analysis. And while Windows Server 2022 is pretty stable I have no stomach for dropping $1000 on a server software license that won't run on anything than Nehalem or better CPUs just for a security cam... Ted
