[Leaplist] Linux configurable ip surveillance camera systems

[Fred Moore]

Don't really have one, just heard about it about 10 minutes ago.  It
will need some researching.. Fred

Dan Trevino wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 1:06 PM, Dan Cherry <dan.s.cherry at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> Fred, Kevin, Otto,
>> Thanks for the speedy replies.  I'm digesting the info, and looking for
>> products that will meet the suggestions - seems like everything has a
>> shortcoming or conflict with what I think I want.  I'll take it over to
>> LeapBS, and see if I can home in on a solution there.  Again, Thanks
>>
>> Dan
>>
>> Fred Moore wrote:
>>     
>>> Dan Cherry wrote:
>>>       
>>>> Anybody have any experience with ip based surveillance systems?
>>>>
>>>> D-Link has some reasonably priced hardware, but the initial set up is
>>>> through Windows.
>>>>
>>>> Also, has anyone any thoughts on Linux accessible surveillance dvr's
>>>> (vs. feeding IP camera output directly to a PC for storage)?
>>>>
>>>> I'm considering 4 cameras with a dvr expandable to 8 cameras.
>>>>
>>>> Finally, should I just fall back to older analog cameras that feed
>>>> into a DVR that is IP accessible?  That seems like the best bang for
>>>> the buck, but the least flexible.  Hmmm, come to think of it, how much
>>>> flexibility do you need in a video surveillance system?
>>>>
>>>> Any thoughts on the subject would be welcome,
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Dan
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> Do that for a living..  My knowledge is yours for the asking.
>>>
>>> Don't think about Web cams as they are not good IP cameras they don't
>>> get you to a codec till the high bandwidth video gets to the computer.
>>> Camera Trade offs,  CCD vs CMOS imager, and size, equate to quality,
>>> light level, streaming rates, and video compression at cameras. Personally
>>> I would never install a CCD imager camera, but 90% of the
>>> camera's on the market use this technology, why because of the advent of
>>> phones with cameras built in.  The CCD imager has forced a huge price
>>> reduction.  Don't know where you live, but I can show you the difference.
>>>
>>> DVR.  "Digital Video Recorder" (not for recording IP camera), DVR's have
>>> analog video input.  Almost all DVR hardware have A/D converters on
>>> input.  Mostly not good deals because of the unknowns internals (more
>>> explained next).  Stay with Analog or IP, and don't mix them.
>>>
>>> Most  DVR, start with a 4-CIF video image (input), only to have it
>>> immediately  reduced to a 1-CIF image via pixel trashing, then run it
>>> through a lossy codec and store it, in MJPEG,  in MJPEG every frame
>>> carries 100% of the infomation and the storage goes way up compared to
>>> MPEG4, H.264 etc, when you reach these codec's you input 1/4 the image,
>>> and move to P/I frames.  P frames very from recorder to recorder if we
>>> assume a P frame of 1 second and are streaming at 15 FPS, recording
>>> looks fine in playback but suddenly rewind viewing, and searching is
>>> very ugly why because the I frames can not be reconstructed backwards,
>>> so rewind is a hideously jumpy 1 FPS image.  The problem is you don't
>>> know on cheap junky recorders what they are doing inside at the codec
>>> level.  Take H.264 "best bandwidth compression" we have,  While the P
>>> frame rate is part of the standard, some recorders are doing P frame
>>> rates as far out as 15 seconds, unless they see movement and then they
>>> record more P frames.  Why? they don't have the processing power, or the
>>> storage capability to store it properly.  All of this costs money.  This
>>> is not goodness.
>>>
>>> Flexibility: unless you have something with good analytics, you don't
>>> have a security system, you have a recording system. Security systems
>>> notify of something going wrong, or at the very least have a mechanism
>>> which will flag the recording of an event.  Otherwise if you want to
>>> know when something happened, start watching 24 hours/day of recordings.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Analytics like, motion, virtual fences, Image identification (car,
>>> person), camera moved, camera shaking, identification are all
>>> availability.   The better they are the higher the costs.  Most simple
>>> motion analytics at the camera fall down when place outside and the wind
>>> is blowing, or it is raining.  No camera manufacture has resolved this.
>>> Good VMS (Video Managements Systems) have solved this years ago, can you
>>> say processing power?  The higher resolution of the camera, the more
>>> processing power it takes.
>>>
>>> I deal with things like virtual video fencing, and image recognition
>>> every day.  Its all processed at the VMS, why Camera's can distinguish
>>> movement, but was it a bird, dog, person, car, rain, or wind.  Depending
>>> on quality you can go from 1000 alarms/day to view or search, or 1 real
>>> event per day.  Cost is the difference.
>>>
>>> There are a couple of Linux solutions at the VMS level, but don't
>>> recommend them.  All I know of want to also be compatible with windows,
>>> unix, Mac..  can you say Java.
>>> Some of the things to consider.
>>> codec between the recorder and the camera?  codec's are the trade off
>>> between  network bandwidth, resolution, storage requirements, and
>>> processing power.
>>>
>>> D-link is total junk, it is built for 1-CIF camera's (1/4 analog
>>> signals), if you are going IP you need 1D capability, and the horsepower
>>> to manage it, or there is no reason to go with IP.
>>>
>>> This is a huge topic, or we can move it to BS as this is not Linux
>>> centric.. I will assist you if you give me some more information or give
>>> me a call..  cell 407-304-0709 Regards.. Fred
>>>
>>>       
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>>     
>
>
> What is your opinion on zoneminder?
>
> Dan
> ---
> Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Open Standards!
>
>   


-- 
Lots of soaring generalities, without a single hard fact in sight. Saves 
the trouble of having to do research.
Fred/WD8KNI