[CentOS] OT hardware question

[Matt Garman]

On Fri, Jan 31, 2014 at 11:00 AM,  <m.roth at 5-cent.us> wrote:
> I think you misunderstood me. I'm not looking for IP cameras - we'll be
> getting cameras that plug into a surveillance DVR appliance. It's the
> ->DVR's<- firmware software will do the recording and picture taking. What
> we need is to be able to d/l *from* the DVR to a server, where we can
> store it. We don't even need fancy cameras - we're currently using 10 or
> so yr old, USB 1 or 1.1 webcams, and the standard package named motion,
> which works fine... when it works. When the drivers have bugs creep in,
> that's what's pushed my manager to ask me to look this up.

Your original email said, "my manager's asked me to go looking again
for a video surveillance appliance: basically, a motion-detecting DVR
and cameras".  I interpreted that as you need a full on DVR suite,
from the camera(s) to the DVR, to the management interface.
Re-reading your original email, I don't think my interpretation was
wrong.

Now it sounds like the camera part of your solution is already in
place: you're using USB webcams, right?  And that part of the solution
will remain unchanged?

That said, I believe my previous email still has some useful
information for you.  As I said, I have a Speco D4RS: this is an
off-the-shelf DVR appliance (that actually advertises the fact that it
runs Linux under-the-hood).  In the general sense, it supports the
features you need: download videos to your server (or cloud or
whatever), and manage the videos on the DVR itself.  But it falls
short for you in that it expects analog camera inputs, and is mostly
Windows-centric.  But given that ZoneMinder is attempting to "compete"
with these types of DVR appliances, I would be surprised if it didn't
support all the same features as my Speco, but on an open platform,
and with many more input options (USB, IP, DVB/V4L capture card, etc).
 In other words, assuming ZoneMinder supports the features you need,
another option for you is to "roll your own" DVR appliance with
commodity PC hardware.