Security Camera-to-DVR Setup on Linux? 36
mrperkins asks: "I have been asked to help a friend setup a Linux DVR (Digital Video Recording) system for security cameras. Previously this has been done on Windows XP using Avermedia video capture cards from the MP3000 and MP5000 series, and using their bundled software. They have a Linux version but the software is horribly broken. The Windows software allows playback/recording/backup from 4-16 cameras. This works reasonably well but certainly has it's share of problems - the PC's hardware being only one.
Can this be done on Linux using Free Software and compatible hardware? I have heard that the frame rates achievable under video4linux are simply too slow, but I would like to prove otherwise! Are there any software packages that can do this kind of thing (not just a single stream but a fully featured package)? Also, what cards (pref. up to max $200US) would you recommend? If anyone is already doing this kind of thing please let me know what you're using!"
Low Frame Rates? No Problem. (Score:3, Informative)
But if you don't want to take any chances, I suppose the higher the FPS, the better.
Re:Low Frame Rates? No Problem. (Score:3, Informative)
The best solution would be to take several pictures per second when movement is detected within the field of view.
Re:Low Frame Rates? No Problem. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Low Frame Rates? No Problem. (Score:2)
Re:Low Frame Rates? No Problem. (Score:1)
Otherwise, 5FPS is way enough.....most systems i have come across (no pun intended) are 1 or 0.5 FPS.
Re:Low Frame Rates? No Problem. (Score:2)
I've been looking for this too - (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't forget to donate!
Motion (Score:5, Informative)
I have a security system for my house running on an older version of Motion. This is what can happen when a gadget-freak has a paranoid girlfriend...
The system has more than three and fewer than nine cameras, some obvious, some concealed in and around the house. Each camera goes into a BT878-compatible card (some dedicated cards, some multiport).
When motion is detected, I can capture on the order of 10-15 fps (not at stunning resolution, admittedly, but 320x240 pixels is good enough for me). If there is motion on two or more cameras, the frame rate decreases. Captured images are saved as timestamped JPEGs in a hierarchical directory structure, along with MPEGs that are assembled of each incident. This is not a particularly mighty machine; it's an Athlon 1800+ with 512MB memory. The limiting factor tends to be the PCI bus when you have a lot of cameras.
Motion supports some nice features. You can set noise and motion detection threshholds on a per-camera basis. You can use a 256-level grayscale image for a sensitivity map, so you can mask certain regions out or decrease their contribution to triggering the recording (useful if plants sway in the breeze). You can label individual cameras with descriptive text ("Front Door"), and all frames are time and date stamped.
I have some custom scripts that manage disk space consumption, deleting the oldest data when drive capacity goes below a set level. I can maintain several week's worth of data in normal conditions. I monitor my setup with a secured Apache setup that groks the file layout, and provides some additional telemetry.
If you need to view data in realtime (normally, I don't), you can use something like Cambozola [charliemouse.com]. If you look at the Motion email archives, you'll find postings on how to run multiple Cambozola applets in a single browser window.
You can do cool stuff, like linking motion detection alarms to scripts. When a known burglary suspect was seen casing the joint, I had some of the cameras send an email to page my phone when they detected motion. Some of the images captured were useful for the police in an ongoing investigation.
Also noteworthy, Motion has one of the friendliest and most helpful communities of any OS project I've been involved with. The mailing list is a great resource, and the maintainers will often go out of their way to help on even the most bone-headed newbie configuration questions on unsupported hardware.
Re:Motion (Score:2, Interesting)
I didn't bother with "outdoor rated" cameras. I just used cheap B+W cube cameras, put a line of silicone around any seals on them, and used artic silver thermal epoxy to glue a small heat sink on the back of them (they get surprisingly hot).
The outdoor ones aren't in direct weather, but generally under eaves and the like.
Good move not saying exactly how many cameras you have, I would have probably let that slip. :
Re:Motion (Score:3, Funny)
This is what can happen when a gadget-freak has a paranoid girlfriend...
Translation:
The lengths a paranoid gadget-freak will go to protect his only girlfriend ever.
(parent - I'm just joking; your post is very insightful)
Re:Motion (Score:2)
I suppose the system could look like a paranoid's nightmarish control system. After all, I could easily use it to monitor all my girlfriend's activities, when she comes and goes, what visitors are at the house, etc. But that's a double-edged sword -- she can monitor me just as easily. Then again, either of us have the ability to go and deactivate the system (or delete files). I can see how a system like this could be a divorce lawyer's wet dream.
We've been living in this house for four years.
Re:Motion (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Motion (Score:1)
Re:Motion (Score:3, Interesting)
Allow me to second the suggestion for Motion.
I've quietly run a security camera with Motion in my cubicle at work for a couple of years now. It's picked up lots of interesting things, and cost a bad security guard his job.
Hardware? I've experimented. My current setup is a Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 on USB. I tried a cheapie BT878 card but wasn't happy with the results. The hardware is a 733 MHz Pentium 3 running a heavily patched and upgraded system that started life as RedHat 7.3.
If things look inter
Why not take the easy way out... (Score:3, Insightful)
... and either:
1) Use XP because that does do the job
or
2) Buy some Axis cameras, spool the captures to your Linux box (preferably with time stamping turned on in the Axis camera), make some mpeg or DiVX videos from the captured images, timestamp as you save them (setup a cron job to do this), and then backup to a secure place.
I've done a few of these installs now and either one of those ways will work. You will ALWAYS have trade-offs (easy route is going to be an XP solution, the more involved route but negligibly cheaper is going to be the Axis solution) so choose wisely. If anyone comes up with another way, I would love to hear it.
CliffH
Use the windows product (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm a unix administrator. I believe in unix's flexibility and open architecture allows for better system administration, and thus better service/uptime/etc. However, I also firmly believe in using the best tool for the job. If a windows system will allow you to do what you need to do with a minimal amount of work, and a linux solution is not available, or will require a lot of work, use the windows program. That's just common sense.
Re:Use the windows product (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:Use the windows product (Score:3, Insightful)
On the other hand.... (Score:2)
It might be if there is no network connectivity (a functionality limitation for keeping the worms out). Windows is pretty high maintenance, too.
Rolling your own (Score:3, Informative)
Rolling your own through a shell script shouldn't be hard. MPlayer [mplayerhq.hu] supports grabbing video and compressing it on the fly (see link [mplayerhq.hu]). So create 2 shell scripts, one to switch files for each camera (have an alpha and beta file), and one to backup the files to your favorite media. Then run a cron job. Every hour (or day) switch the files and do whatever you need with the files. It should even be possible to create redundant copies across the network, so you can keep a copy safe.
You must be new here... (Score:1)
Posting a question about security cameras on Slashdot! We know that only the Big Bad Government(tm) uses them.
</flameproof suit>
I'll be doing something similar shortly (Score:1)
The software I'll use is ZoneMinder [zoneminder.com].
I'll post my success.
Re:I'll be doing something similar shortly (Score:2, Informative)
What this means is the maximum frame rate while running all inputs is somewhere under 15fps / card, switching between the inputs as required between frames, which is still acceptable.
I'd also suggest looking on ebay [ebay.co.uk]
Unless, of course, you're paranoid enough not to give your address to someone that is selling security gear.
I know this one (Score:3, Informative)
If you are going for Windows use a GeoVision card.
-Their variety of features is better than most. -The question of stability comes down to the OS. The application runs fine for months - Streaming via net, Remote recording etc etc
If you go Linux you can try the HiCap card. It also has a windows software package. The Linux software is not as good as the Windows one but for a home user its pretty good. These cards only go up to 200fps, so for PAL you are limited for 8 cameras for Real-time Display.
Please note that I am still searching for a card supported by Linux that has every feature I would like to sell but for a home user these are more than enough for basic door monitoring while blocking out that waving tree to use motion detection.
Both cards support up 16 cameras - depending on the model with the smallest being 4 (still has same features). Motion etc & pretty must anything else you want.
Price range AU$400-2000.
Google for links. Id be biased
Re:I know this one (Score:1)
I work for neither of these companies & purely sell similar equipment.
linux sec. cams (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:linux sec. cams (Score:1)
Re:linux sec. cams (Score:1)
http://rrust.com/linuxpdfserver_howto.html
what me to drop you an email at your website when I'm done with it?
I do this. (Score:1)
i use a modified BTTV based card (or a hardware ASIC for more than 4 cameras) with several patches to the regular bttv drivers for multiple inputs and a java application to handle the parsing and recording.
If youre looking for unix based DVRs with multiple cameras i can sell you a unit for upto 64 cameras at rates of up to 2000+ fps.
isn't this just TIVO with muxed input on the video (Score:1)
Elvis (Score:1)
Linux Video Surveillance AKA eLViS provides a user interface for watching motion frames captured by the motion program as JPEG files. eLViS lets you view up to four motion threads and has a simple configuration panel to setup the motion.conf file and eLViS configurations.
eLViS is intended to be used as a low cost security monitoring system. For that reason we have chosen Linux for the high reliability and flexible licensing of software.
We recommend that you use eLViS on a standalone Linux