How to view cameras

[vmsman]

i finally got some of my cameras connected in Monitor mode.

zoneminder.png (99.66 KiB) Viewed 4603 times

The question I have is how do you view them?

viewing.png (44.17 KiB) Viewed 4603 times

[vrm42z]

"A picture is worth a thousand words"

Check out system load: 8.19 seems very high. Probably you simply don't have enough compute power.
Check out reported frame rate: assuming you have similarly set cameras FPS should be nearly identical, but you got them between 15-60. Again, CPU seems weak.
You got 2.40MB/s overall bitrate for 4 cameras. I got 3.2MB/s for 27 cameras and my system load is always around 2.
Performance and stability relies on the ammount of RAM too.

So first of all set all your cams disable but one. Adjust resolution and frame rate using camera's own gui, not ZM. Start with 1280x720@15fps, that should work. Slightly increase workload until you reach the limits of your system.

ZM is awesome if you know it well, but it is not a regular commercial software that just run out-of-the-box, more like a hobby project for enthusiasts as it offers soooo many possibilities beyond its frontend, like API control for your web app, stream server for your HTPC software (e.g Kodi), on-alarm trigger for home automation... I've been using them all for years.

[alabamatoy]

X2 on what vrm42z said.

I run mine at 1080P 10fps set in the camera, and it works well for security purposes and reduces overall load.

[vmsman]

@vrm42z Actually, the CPU stats are misleading. My ZoneMinder is one LXC container of 30 running on this host. The host is 25% loaded, but the CPU stats are for all 30 containers and not just for Zoneminder.

So, Zoneminder has tons of available resources in reality. My problem if I had to guess is that there is something missing that causes cameras to be able to be displayed and after reading all over the net, I am just starting to believe that Zoneminder supports an extremely limited set of cameras and Reolink cameras are not in that set.

[Andyrh]

Please post your camera configuration. From the posts on the forum ZM supports Reolink cameras. Other have them working.

[vrm42z]

I have no idea about how many people use ZM and since when, but it is on the market for very long years, developers and community is very active, so I think no one can possibly think ZM is limited in any way - at least after a couple of hours of studying it.
I've been using it for 5 years, have it installed for many friends, I'm pretty sure ZM can handle not just a wide selection of cameras but almost all, including USB ones. I use one Foscam and 6 different kind of cheap chinese trash. I know it for sure that many major brands are working with ZM.

I understand your frustration though. It took me weeks for figure everything out. I had zero linux knowledge at that time and still hate it utterly.
ZM worths the headache, no doubt.
I still think you're on the wrong foot. ZM doesn't work fine or at all at minimal resources. Your sreenshot tells heavy load. I run ZM on a vm on esxi (big ass ryzen cpu, system on nvme, 16GB dedicated RAM). There are 7 other vms running, but ZM's vm load is around 2 with 8 vcpus (esxi reports 40% cpu load).
Other thing worths to mention is that I still run 1.34.26 (flawlessly) because I have several issues with 1.36. I keep trying to get it to work using a test vm but no luck. Basics are working, of course.

If you have a chance install Ubuntu server 20.04 on a spare PC, install ZM 1.34.26 using iconnor's way, start with one camera using rtsp. It will work for sure.

[bbunge]

One of mistakes new users of Zoneminder make is to not match the resolution in Zoneminder to what the cam can or is doing. Assuming the display is a 1080P can be a recipe for failure.
One sure way is to check the cam video with VLC. VLC will tell you: (Tools, Media Information, Codec) to check camera Display Resolution.
You can also use the same string from VLC in Zoneminder with ffmpeg.
It is also a good idea to use Zoneminder 1.36.x as it gets the most support. Users of the older versions should upgrade.

[Baylink]

To answer your fundamental question, though, use Montage Review to look at your cameras/monitors.

And consider whether you need to use the full capabilities of the cameras. Mine are 4MP, but I run them at 720p/6fps, and it works out just fine for us.

[speedfixer]

Tadpole:

Use the log.

The log is your friend.