ZM video with Airlink101 AIC250

[we4zonM]

Zoneminder 1.23.3 with the Airlink 101 AIC 250 camera. What I would like to do is to get video to work with this camera so that I can view the video of events. Right now, I have jpg images being stored for events, and can view the thumbnail images for events with this camera. I made part of the wiki for the camera use for still image jpg streaming, and someone else updated it to get 8-10 fps instead of the 2 fps with jpg streaming. See the wiki as this camera settings are the same as some other ones.

Using the AIC 250 as an IP camera with "video.cgi" and getting fluctuating fps of 8-10. When enabling the video setting for the browser with ZM_CAN_STREAM in the event viewer, see a black screen. Then switching to stills by setting ZM_CAN_STREAM to no, and see the thumbnail images.

ZM_MPEG_LIVE_FORMAT mpeg
ZM_MPEG_REPLAY_FORMAT mpeg
ZM_OPT_MPEG ffmpeg

When viewing an event, and selecting the "video" link, a window pops up for video generation. Trying all video format options produces errors for each one. This is using the settings for real frame rate and normal video size. There is an error log about permissions for ffmpeg.log that I have not resolved yet.

sh: ffmpeg.log: Permission denied

One question that I have is that the Windows software for the Airlink 101 stores the Airlink "events" as video files that includes audio (I think, as it has been awhile since using it with Windows). Is there a way to enable saving the video.cgi as video with audio encoded into it? The AIC-250 has the audio capability built into it. Audio is not that critical, but it would be nice to have the extra feature as an option to enable. Right now, the ZM events are being stored as jpg still images. How can I change settings or get the video generation to work?

There are forum posts on ffmpeg, and I have read some of them and have not yet been able to get it to work for video generation. The permission error for the ffmpeg.log file is keeping me from getting any more information about why it is not working, but I do not think that it is the reason for it not working.

ffmpeg
FFmpeg version SVN-r16438, Copyright (c) 2000-2009 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
configuration: --shlibdir=/usr/lib --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man --libdir=/usr/lib --enable-shared --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libvorbis --enable-libtheora --enable-libfaad --enable-libfaac --enable-libxvid --enable-swscale --enable-postproc --enable-gpl --enable-vhook --enable-x11grab --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libdirac --enable-libgsm --enable-libx264 --enable-libamr-nb --enable-libamr-wb --enable-libdc1394 --enable-nonfree --enable-pthreads
libavutil 49.12. 0 / 49.12. 0
libavcodec 52.10. 0 / 52.10. 0
libavformat 52.23. 1 / 52.23. 1
libavdevice 52. 1. 0 / 52. 1. 0
libswscale 0. 6. 1 / 0. 6. 1
libpostproc 51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
built on Jan 5 2009 19:47:47, gcc: 4.3.2 [gcc-4_3-branch revision 141291]
At least one output file must be specified

I also have edited the zmvideo.pl file on line 340 according to the wiki to be:

my $command = ZM_PATH_FFMPEG." -y -r $frame_rate ".ZM_FFMPEG_INPUT_OPTIONS." -i %0".ZM_EVENT_IMAGE_DIGITS."d-capture.jpg -s $video_size ".ZM_FFMPEG_OUTPUT_OPTIONS." '$video_file' > ffmpeg.log";

[we4zonM]

Some additional information about the AIC 250 with Zoneminder. I calculated the fps and it is actually closer to 6.5fps and in monitor mode it fluctuates near 6.5fps. One thing that I have not figured out yet, is with using the "video.cgi" setting for the camera, with captured events it does seem to record the 6.5 fps, though it only displays one frame per every 10 seconds on the browser window. So that when I click on the "camera1" link in the Zoneminder browser console, I can view the camera and get to see a still image that changes every 10 seconds. This is using the "High" bandwidth setting that I have set to change the still image every second that is ignored for streaming.

With the "image.jpg" setting for the camera, while I only get 2 fps, I get a new still image every second on the Zoneminder viewer. The recorded images are only at the reduced 2 fps though. Some other items about the camera are that it does give the option to use a user name and password, but have not been able to get that part to work yet with the Zoneminder camera settings. It requires the use of a browser to set an account on the camera and set the password, to prevent unauthorized use of the camera. Not sure if it is an issue with cgi commands to the camera, or just a format issue with the Zoneminder camera settings (which would be fixed by figuring out the right format to use and entering that into the camera settings form).

[cordel]

I see lot of explaining things don't work but no useful information from logs with errors or anything that is useful to aid in your problems. Also combining several things into one post feels like I just jumped i a pool of 34 degrees waters, I want to get out. No offense intended.

BTW ZM only stores jpegs, that is the way it is designed. It does not store in containers (avi, mpg, wmv, etc.) nor does it do audio.

Yes it sounds like something with ffmpeg is broken. were their any errors thrown when compiling ZM with it? Whats in your logs?

As far as video generation for stored events there is a permissions issue so what happens if you run ffmpeg manually to create the event and what error do you get?

To the next topic the authentication to the camera is set depending on the type of auth the cam uses, If it's http auth the set in the host parameter User:password@cam_IP and if it's passed through a cgi then use the path setting and the variables setup in the camera as they programed it which you'll likely need to review the source to find. Not all forms of authentication are covered.

For now I think it's a good idea you not worry about mpeg streaming and should focus first on just jpeg streaming until you can figure out what is off with your ffmpeg install, work out the other problems then come back to ffmpeg, and at this point I have been answering questions for the past 9 hours and have forgone several projects I have wanted to do for myself and loading the latest RC for testing for Phil which will now have to wait and I'm still trying to recover from a 75 hour strait work shift.
Good night everyone.