[gentoo-user] Re: {OT} video monitoring

[James <wireless@tampabay.rr.com>]

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