* [gentoo-user] Re: {OT} video monitoring
2013-11-23 19:03 [gentoo-user] {OT} video monitoring Grant
@ 2013-11-25 14:53 ` James
2013-11-25 19:51 ` [gentoo-user] " thegeezer
2013-11-26 14:12 ` [gentoo-user] " James
2 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: James @ 2013-11-25 14:53 UTC (permalink / raw
To: gentoo-user
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://wwww.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
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread* Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} video monitoring
2013-11-23 19:03 [gentoo-user] {OT} video monitoring Grant
2013-11-25 14:53 ` [gentoo-user] " James
@ 2013-11-25 19:51 ` thegeezer
2013-11-25 22:37 ` Neil Bothwick
2013-11-26 14:12 ` [gentoo-user] " James
2 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread
From: thegeezer @ 2013-11-25 19:51 UTC (permalink / raw
To: gentoo-user
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2038 bytes --]
On 11/23/2013 07:03 PM, Grant wrote:
> 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?
>
> - Grant
>
+1 for motion, it works very well (is being developed afaik), gives you
live view as well as frame capture.
the bug bear for scaling up is you do need a usb controller (not just a
usb port) per camera if you want anywhere near sensible resolution with
usb webcams. however i find i can normally get away with two cameras
hooked up to my routers so that i know who last touched them.
this is not a motion issue, it is a hardware bandwidth issue.
you might like to roll your own ip cam by taking a raspberry
pi+gentoo+usb webcam(+powered usb hub) - still v.cheap.
alternatively consider a dedicated mpeg2 (hmm showing my age i think)
capture card which has multiple inputs. you can find a list of
compatible devices at the motion website
http://www.lavrsen.dk/foswiki/bin/view/Motion/WorkingDevices
it is the hardware that is the issue -- not the software.
if you are looking to have like a security wall with 30 odd cameras all
showing the a different view of your secure area, all you need is a web
front end that connects an html table with each piece of the table a
live view of each camera. you could therefore easily have 100+ seperate
computers each with two cameras, and the only piece of kit that would
struggle would be the end computer that would try to stream 200 camera
images scaled down to fit !
one more thing is that there is an android app (i'm sure there are many
but i can say this one works) called ip webcam which lets you bookmark
all your motion live cams, meaning that you could then check security
status from anywhere using your phone.
not sure if you can do that with the other programs, maybe someone else
can chip in if they know.
hth
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^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread* [gentoo-user] Re: {OT} video monitoring
2013-11-23 19:03 [gentoo-user] {OT} video monitoring Grant
2013-11-25 14:53 ` [gentoo-user] " James
2013-11-25 19:51 ` [gentoo-user] " thegeezer
@ 2013-11-26 14:12 ` James
2013-11-29 13:46 ` Grant
2 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread
From: James @ 2013-11-26 14:12 UTC (permalink / raw
To: gentoo-user
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/
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread* Re: [gentoo-user] Re: {OT} video monitoring
2013-11-26 14:12 ` [gentoo-user] " James
@ 2013-11-29 13:46 ` Grant
0 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Grant @ 2013-11-29 13:46 UTC (permalink / raw
To: Gentoo mailing list
>> 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
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread