Not worth the time or trouble.
- Thread starter hmjgriffon
- Start date
Zoneminder isn't a bad piece of software, in fact, once it is running it is pretty smooth and takes less resources than a BI install.
The difficulty is that it isn't at all a packaged product like BI, but that is ok. If you have some time to tinker, and the fortitude to work at something for a little bit, you will get a working and usable installation.
I recently had to perform some tuning operations that didn't have anything to do with ZM, and everything to do with my mysql installation. I am running ZM on a debian wheezy VM on rather small esxi host. It is using one of the new atom avaton processors and the whole thing is running 5 separate VMs without issue. All running around 35w. You can't beat that with a system dedicated to BI from an operational cost standpoint.
Back to ZM, be watching in the next little bit, the guys who work on the development of the project are about to release a couple of minor upgrades to the 1.28 version, which should improve the UI and some stability issues some are having with certain cameras and capture types.
The difficulty is that it isn't at all a packaged product like BI, but that is ok. If you have some time to tinker, and the fortitude to work at something for a little bit, you will get a working and usable installation.
I recently had to perform some tuning operations that didn't have anything to do with ZM, and everything to do with my mysql installation. I am running ZM on a debian wheezy VM on rather small esxi host. It is using one of the new atom avaton processors and the whole thing is running 5 separate VMs without issue. All running around 35w. You can't beat that with a system dedicated to BI from an operational cost standpoint.
Back to ZM, be watching in the next little bit, the guys who work on the development of the project are about to release a couple of minor upgrades to the 1.28 version, which should improve the UI and some stability issues some are having with certain cameras and capture types.
I will say that it could be partly due to the fact that the only way I found to use the hikvision cams is with ffmpeg which uses more cpu than other methods, but yeah
I'm a big open source fan, and a Linux fan. I use a few really good open source programs to save my employer a ton of money. Nagios, RT, Spamassassin, all in place of very expensive commercial alternatives. Love it!
I started my camera security on Zoneminder, had a few analog cameras on an Osprey card. Added a cheap web cam fed from a Windows box. It wasn't great, but it worked, and was free. But one day Zoneminder pissed me off one time too many, and I started looking at alternatives. The first time I tried Blue Iris, I was hooked. No it's not open source, nor is it free, but the cost is very reasonable, development and support is fantastic. Have never looked back. Ok, the first few versions of 4.x 64 bit had some issues, but it's rock solid now.
I started my camera security on Zoneminder, had a few analog cameras on an Osprey card. Added a cheap web cam fed from a Windows box. It wasn't great, but it worked, and was free. But one day Zoneminder pissed me off one time too many, and I started looking at alternatives. The first time I tried Blue Iris, I was hooked. No it's not open source, nor is it free, but the cost is very reasonable, development and support is fantastic. Have never looked back. Ok, the first few versions of 4.x 64 bit had some issues, but it's rock solid now.
It is using one of the new atom avaton processors and the whole thing is running 5 separate VMs without issue. All running around 35w
Interesting thread. I've been running Zoneminder since I built my system in December of 2014. So far I've had good experiences. Specifically, I've got 13 Hikvision DS-2CD2xx2 cams all configured for modect. Current resolution is 1280x720 @ 8 FPS. Running ZM 1.28.1 atop Centos 6.7. Hardware is a SuperMicro H8SGL-F mobo with a 16-core Opteraon @ 2GHZ with 32 GB RAM. Storage for ZM events is a pair of 3TB WD purple drives in RAID 1. In addition to ZM, the box serves as my NAS, VM host, and Apache server hosting a local yum repository mirror with nightly rsync, all on separate storage, two 4TB WD greens in RAID 1. I even run my PFSENSE firewall as a VM. The OS and VMs run on a pair of 500 GB WD blacks in RAID 1.
I get ZM from a yum repository at http://zmrepo.connortechnology.com/ and I've had almost no issues. Typical CPU load is under 4.00. I originally tried this setup on a quad core AMD Phenom at 2.8 GHZ, but it ran too close to saturation for my taste. Overall I'm a happy camper with this setup, but as always, YMMV.
I don't have much experience with Debian-based distros, I've been a red Hat enthusiast since 6.0. IMO, Fedora is too fast paced for server use and requires too much investment in upkeep. RH/Centos is the way to go.
I get ZM from a yum repository at http://zmrepo.connortechnology.com/ and I've had almost no issues. Typical CPU load is under 4.00. I originally tried this setup on a quad core AMD Phenom at 2.8 GHZ, but it ran too close to saturation for my taste. Overall I'm a happy camper with this setup, but as always, YMMV.
I don't have much experience with Debian-based distros, I've been a red Hat enthusiast since 6.0. IMO, Fedora is too fast paced for server use and requires too much investment in upkeep. RH/Centos is the way to go.
Last edited by a moderator:
Benjamin Blanco
n3wb
- Mar 14, 2016
- 12
- 3
Just wanted to point out that, as with many things, the ArchLinux wiki has instructions for setting up ZoneMinder. Don't know if they work or not (haven't gotten any cameras yet or set up a VM to test with yet), but it's worth a look if you haven't seen it and you're having difficulty.
Interesting that I stumbled across this thread while digging around for recent ZoneMinder discussion. I felt compelled to respond here given that I've been following ZoneMinder development closely for the last few months. For those unaware, it seems to have picked up considerably. A new web site was launched recently and ZM itself has a new flat theme available which looks significantly better than the default one which has a massive amount of white space everywhere on newer/higher resolution monitors.
There's still a bit of setup involved, but setting it up on my Ubuntu Server was a matter of copying and pasting the commands in the extremely thorough guide. It got me up and running in minimal time. There's also a prebuilt image based on Lubuntu floating around which acts as more of an appliance -- as in, you install the prebuilt ISO and all of the goodies are already installed and running. Haven't used it myself, but that's a very nice touch.
I have two outdoor cameras (1280x800, 5fps) running via ffmpeg (rtsp), and two additional wireless indoor cameras (1280x720, 5fps, ffmpeg/rtsp & 640x480, 5fps mjpg) acting as baby cameras for our two daughters. All four record around the clock but also log motion events. This is done using a function known as mocord, which is uh... kind of awesome. (I'll never go with regular motion detection again, as I'd rather take the brunt of additional storage needs in favor of ensuring I never skip a beat -- even if the computer didn't capture it as motion). They record to my NAS, which is Ubuntu Server 14.04. This NAS also handles samba, web services, and acts as one massive data dump for all of the other systems and a few other servers I have running in the house. It's running an i3 2100T (low power dual core i3) with 4GB RAM and a 2TB WD Purple specifically for the feeds. It runs pretty darn nice overall given it's far from an i7. You can see my load in the screenshot below is 0.61.
Favorite features: Montage view. Love it. Lazy Saturday's when my girls are napping are great. My HTPC is also an Ubuntu desktop, so I just bring up the montage and stream all feeds scaled across the window. That way I can take a quick snooze, but the second I hear something, the stream is right there. Next thing I discovered on accident yet am really liking is the timeline. In the timeline it gives me a graph of how much motion took place and when. Simply hovering over the red graph will insta-stream snapshots of what was happening during this event. Simply clicking on the red graph at that point brings up the playback of that particular event right away. I like being able to hover, move my mouse, "wait what's that?" [click] and there's the feed.
Some fun history (this is all per my understanding): ZoneMinder was created by one guy. As years passed, his development trailed off a bit. Fortunately ZoneMinder is open source, which allowed a few enthusiastic individuals to take the code and improve upon it. In time, several independent ZM branches existed. Once this became apparent, all work was merged as one within the branch of ZoneMinder, effectively resurrecting the application.
Overall, there's no doubt ZoneMinder had a rough patch. I was in the same boat of using ZM and really wanting to chuck it out the window at times. Cameras and technology evolved yet ZoneMinder, which still had room for improvement, was seemingly further behind with the new gear coming out over the years. But here we are today with ZM being pushed by a new team who had a new version release pretty recently. It might be worth checking out again. So far I'm thoroughly enjoying it.
http://i.imgur.com/s7MQmzz.png
There's still a bit of setup involved, but setting it up on my Ubuntu Server was a matter of copying and pasting the commands in the extremely thorough guide. It got me up and running in minimal time. There's also a prebuilt image based on Lubuntu floating around which acts as more of an appliance -- as in, you install the prebuilt ISO and all of the goodies are already installed and running. Haven't used it myself, but that's a very nice touch.
I have two outdoor cameras (1280x800, 5fps) running via ffmpeg (rtsp), and two additional wireless indoor cameras (1280x720, 5fps, ffmpeg/rtsp & 640x480, 5fps mjpg) acting as baby cameras for our two daughters. All four record around the clock but also log motion events. This is done using a function known as mocord, which is uh... kind of awesome. (I'll never go with regular motion detection again, as I'd rather take the brunt of additional storage needs in favor of ensuring I never skip a beat -- even if the computer didn't capture it as motion). They record to my NAS, which is Ubuntu Server 14.04. This NAS also handles samba, web services, and acts as one massive data dump for all of the other systems and a few other servers I have running in the house. It's running an i3 2100T (low power dual core i3) with 4GB RAM and a 2TB WD Purple specifically for the feeds. It runs pretty darn nice overall given it's far from an i7. You can see my load in the screenshot below is 0.61.
Favorite features: Montage view. Love it. Lazy Saturday's when my girls are napping are great. My HTPC is also an Ubuntu desktop, so I just bring up the montage and stream all feeds scaled across the window. That way I can take a quick snooze, but the second I hear something, the stream is right there. Next thing I discovered on accident yet am really liking is the timeline. In the timeline it gives me a graph of how much motion took place and when. Simply hovering over the red graph will insta-stream snapshots of what was happening during this event. Simply clicking on the red graph at that point brings up the playback of that particular event right away. I like being able to hover, move my mouse, "wait what's that?" [click] and there's the feed.
Some fun history (this is all per my understanding): ZoneMinder was created by one guy. As years passed, his development trailed off a bit. Fortunately ZoneMinder is open source, which allowed a few enthusiastic individuals to take the code and improve upon it. In time, several independent ZM branches existed. Once this became apparent, all work was merged as one within the branch of ZoneMinder, effectively resurrecting the application.
Overall, there's no doubt ZoneMinder had a rough patch. I was in the same boat of using ZM and really wanting to chuck it out the window at times. Cameras and technology evolved yet ZoneMinder, which still had room for improvement, was seemingly further behind with the new gear coming out over the years. But here we are today with ZM being pushed by a new team who had a new version release pretty recently. It might be worth checking out again. So far I'm thoroughly enjoying it.
http://i.imgur.com/s7MQmzz.png
i to have found this but i have problems lol im setting up a system now like i have done many other times but this time i used sp005 sricam i can see the stream at http://192.168.0.107:81/videostream.cgi but i cant get Zoneminder to pick up the stream can any one please help me?
I believe you need the MJPEG link of http://192.168.0.107/videostream.cgi?rate=0&user=[USERNAME]&pwd=[PASSWORD] not sure about that 81 port. I'd leave it out & see if the defaults work before I add that in. Not sure what source type that is either & I don't have a working ZM install as I'm currently on this board to see if I can get BI to work again & foolishly deleted mine. But, that address is from ispyconnect's site as the address to start with. Hope that helps give you a starting point if you haven't figured it out yet.
As for ZM & BI...
I've used ZM for quite awhile & it's never given me issues. It has a lot more settings than most & the fine tuning is crazy. Setup 12 different zones on one camera with super high sensitivity... no problem! It is crazy flexible & has tons of features. It does NOT how ever record sound & uses a jpeg image recording system with a lot of little files. It also is a linux app & some people don't do well with out their windows.
I've also used BI, it has a lot going for it such as it is easier to set up, it's on windows, good android app & records sound compared to ZM. There are some other wonky windows programs out there but you're better off running BI if you're stuck on windows &/or don't want a VM of linux running. For me I've never been able to get it to play nice with the cameras I have so I've always gone back to ZM.
With opensource volunteer build software you can't really complain to much. You try it out -- if it doesn't preform, check it out again next year when you have sometime.
I have tried Zoneminder, I don't have the time or interest to deal with it.
I love Linux but the same issues of open source are there, I need to get work done.. software is just a tool. I usually don't have time to work on my tools.
I have tried Zoneminder, I don't have the time or interest to deal with it.
I love Linux but the same issues of open source are there, I need to get work done.. software is just a tool. I usually don't have time to work on my tools.
I run the best tool for the job, I prefer that tool to be linux, or similar but yeah, I had to try and set up my own email server just to send myself alerts from zoneminder. I think because of blue iris nobody sees a need to try and make a good free nvr software, I mean BI is $60, ridiculously cheap, the only reason not to use it is if you are some kind of open source linux zealot and you are happy with how hardware NVR's work. I tried the demo of BI and was immediately sold, I am interested in your project though, perhaps I will try it in a virtual machine.
ZoneMinder is a tool I love, but I speak from a "spiritual" point of view. Despite my earlier positive post ZM's shortcomings eventually caught up with me. Love what they're doing, love why they're doing it, but yeah -- it takes a mammoth machine under the current architecture to even get mediocre features out of it. Given I work in IT, I can handle that, but what I had trouble with was the random issues where ZM would just kind of "stop" without warning. I grew untrustworthy of it since I want my VMS to run without issue for obvious reasons. The developers are doing a great job though. ZM has had a tremendous amount of improvement following the current team's takeover, but it's an uphill battle. They'll get there. I have no doubt. But right now, I mirror a lot of your stance too... just need it to work.
I'm kind of in the same boat as I prefer using Linux as well. After my ZoneMinder honeymoon ended I found Bluecherry, which feels light years ahead in some ways (not to mention I didn't have to set up an email server for notifications
). I didn't mind Blue Iris when I used it, but from a management standpoint I really wanted a Linux base. It's good to have options though. Not everybody falls into the same category.
Yeah see, I just want stuff to work, if it will do what I want easily on windows, linux, BSD, I don't care. I've been running blue iris on windows 8.1 on 2 different machines for a few years now. I never have one issue. No management problems. Rock solid. I typically find my personal windows installs never have any issues, maybe I've just been running windows long enough that I know exactly how to use and manage it I dunno. Having a gui doesn't bother me, in 2017 with a modern cpu and everything there is plenty of resources to have a gui, it's not 1985 and I'm not trying to run it on a raspberry pi. Right now windows with BI makes a great NVR system for me and ubuntu mate makes a great daily driver laptop for me. OpenBSD on my firewall at home, on and on. If it works well and isn't a huge pain in my ass, I'll run it. Maybe I've just become a curmudgeon after so many years working with computers. It's just not worth banging your head on the wall because you want to do something in linux instead of windows, or because there is some bug you won't be able to do anything about until the dev fixes it. I will flip flop OS's, distros, whatever, to do what I want to do. Just the right tool for the job attitude I have lol.
Yeah, I'm a fan of a headless setup myself. ZM can accommodate a headless setup with a web UI, but we've already established the downfalls in the other department there. Bluecherry has a few different combinations possible; with gui, without gui, etc., given it works in both areas and has a server+client component and you can still mix both server and client together.
i.e., I can take Ubuntu (with gui) and install BC server+client, giving me its server capabilities + all the review and playback I want at that physical box. This is nice if you work with someone who simply wants "a box to do all this work and I'll go back to this box if I need to review things." I can also take Ubuntu Server (no gui), install BC server, and let all laptops/desktops/client systems and whatnot manage/review it from the BC client from the couch, etc. If you think about that, there's a number of possibilities there, just from the standpoint of being able to install it on desktop Ubuntu or headless Ubuntu, and also being able to mix and match. I could install server+client on this box OR server over here, client over there, etc. I much preferred that over having to use alternative methods to 'remote in', a la RDP, etc.
That's a good attitude to have. With that attitude it'll ensure that no matter what platform the tool is on, you'll have access to it. In a situation where choice is available my preferences still guide me in a specific direction. I'm a busy guy, so I like things to be as "set it and forget it" as possible. If the software makes me lazy, the software is doing its job.
I want to know what settings user normally change in Blue IRIS or their cameras to work it smoothly as it is spiking my laptop CPU too much. I understand it is not good to have a laptop for this ( I am using thinkpad x230 with 3rd gen dual core i5 2.6 Ghz with 8 GB RAM and 180 GS SSD).
Now, when I am testing, laptop is always on 80-90% CPU with continuous recording with trigger. motion detection takes a lot of CPU. Disabling motion detection, the CPU sits at 50-60 %. In total the video I watch on laptop screen is not that smooth. Normally delayed by 3-4 seconds. I am not accessing blue iris for now remotely from other device.
5 Cameras I am using are: DS-2CD2342WD-I . One more which I have not connected atm is 2CD3325. I changed the settings on camera:
1. Resolution down to 1920* 1080 p
2. FPS down to 12
Rest all standard.
On Blue IRIS:
1. continuous recording direct to disk.
2. hardware decoding to default
3. no date time stamp to reduce encoding by blue iris.
I wonder how come the Hikvision NVR with less processor power can support 8 or even 16 cameras where as a 3rd gen i5 laptop cant.
Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.
Now, when I am testing, laptop is always on 80-90% CPU with continuous recording with trigger. motion detection takes a lot of CPU. Disabling motion detection, the CPU sits at 50-60 %. In total the video I watch on laptop screen is not that smooth. Normally delayed by 3-4 seconds. I am not accessing blue iris for now remotely from other device.
5 Cameras I am using are: DS-2CD2342WD-I . One more which I have not connected atm is 2CD3325. I changed the settings on camera:
1. Resolution down to 1920* 1080 p
2. FPS down to 12
Rest all standard.
On Blue IRIS:
1. continuous recording direct to disk.
2. hardware decoding to default
3. no date time stamp to reduce encoding by blue iris.
I wonder how come the Hikvision NVR with less processor power can support 8 or even 16 cameras where as a 3rd gen i5 laptop cant.
Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.
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fenderman
Staff member
- Mar 9, 2014
- 36,891
- 21,407
Are you running the demo? Direct to disk does not work in the demo...
Are you viewing the laptop on the screen or using remote viewing software?
How many cameras?
You have to enable Hardware acceleration in blue iris options> cameras, then restart...
Thanks for the reply fenderman. Edited the post to reflect the cameras.
- I have purchased Blue IRIS, so it is not demo.
- Cameras = 6 in total. Fow now, I have connected 5 of them.
- Hardware acceleration= Is it Hardware decoding in Camera properties first page. It is set to default.
- I am viewing it in Laptop screen.
See the screenshot here:
BlueIris 7 Second Freezes in Recordings
I have similar settings except the make is Hikvision and model 2cdXXX.
fenderman
Staff member
- Mar 9, 2014
- 36,891
- 21,407
read again..hardware acceleration is set in the blue iris options>cameras..
Then the default will apply and you can adjust for individual cameras...
What is the exact processor model of your laptop?