[CentOS] zoneminder

Thu Feb 6 16:41:26 UTC 2014
Lamar Owen <lowen at pari.edu>

On 02/06/2014 10:33 AM, m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote:
> One more thing about zoneminder: after installing it on an FC19 system, I
> don't see anything that I could immediately identify as a driver. *HOW*
> does it get the video? In motion, the very lightweight package, it's using
> V4L2, and the drivers, gspca*, are part of the kernel these days. If
> ZoneMindar is using the same drivers, then I'd expect that it would
> occasionally, after an update, wind up with the same problems motion does.

In the zoneminder web console, click the 'Add New Monitor' button. In 
the 'Monitor' dialog, and the 'General' tab, click the pulldown by 
'Source Type' and select 'local.'   In the 'Source' tab, enter the video 
device path and select the 'Capture Method' (V4L1 and V4L2 are both 
supported).  You need to set up the V4Lv1 or v2 system properly and see 
which device is which card, etc.  For each capture chip you'll need to 
set the Device Channel and format, and the other details.  There are no 
'drivers' per se except what V4L exposes.

>
> Btw, I'm now also looking at lower-end video capture cards, like the
> Hauppage Impactvdb, model 188 (four bnc inputs). For that, what I haven't
> found out yet, is whether it provides the cameras one at a time, to be
> switched among, or if all four can stream at the same time, which is what
> we *must* have.
>
You need a capture chip per simultaneous channel.  Most of the low-end 
'4 input' cards have one chip and a 4 to 1 mux.

Linux Media Labs has a four-chip card at a pretty good price point, and 
they specifically support zoneminder.  See: 
http://www.linuxmedialabs.com/product_details.php?prodid=350 for the 
specific card, which is $165, and a lot less than the previous 4 channel 
LMLBT44 card was (we have three of the LMLBT44's, and paid ~$400 each 
for them ten years ago, but they're half that price now. Oh, and they 
all three still work fine.).