ZoneMinder vs. Axis Camera Station vs. dedicated network DVR

[kwschumm]

There didn't seem to be a good forum to post this in so here goes, feel free to move it to a more appropriate spot.

I hope this question doesn't piss anyone off, it's not my intent to start a war here.

After a few thefts around the house I'm setting up some surveillance cameras. We have a large property and want to allow for up to 16 cameras when it's all done.

I'm curious about the stability and "hassle factor" of ZoneMinder vs. something like Axis Camera Station or a network DVR.

As an embedded firmware engineer who works with computers all day long, futzing around with them during my off hours is something to be avoided. To this end I'd like a system that "just works" once it's set up and running. Yes, occasional hardware failures are unavoidable, but intermittent hard to debug software failures, frequent reboots, a continuous stream of patches that need to be installed to plug security holes or fix bugs, etc. are something to be avoided.

Reading the ZM forums it seems like people have a lot of problems with ZM but that can be quite misleading. Obviously, people who don't have problems don't post about them, Linux newbies like myself will have startup issues, and others are pushing the bleeding edge so inevitable issues will arise. Conversely, if nobody posted it would seem like nobody was using it.

From reading I pretty much know the requirements and abilities of ZM.

ZM seems to be roughly functionally equivalent to Axis Camera Station software. For me, the downside to Axis Camera Station is that it runs on Windows and is subject to all the baggage, patches, security holes, etc. that Windows brings to the system.

A dedicated network video recorder seemed like the ideal drop-in least hassle solution but many of them run windows - and some of them even promote "scheduled reboots" as a feature. Dress up a bug and it's a feature, yech.

For me it's generally worth paying more to reduce hassle but my wallet does have it's limits.

So, my question is what solution would be the best for a drop-dead stable, network ready, video recording solution that supports IP cameras and remote live access?

[curtishall]

Zoneminder can be a burden to setup. There are several free Live CD's available that you can download and play with. Being that Zoneminder is free and open source several of the hassle free things you may find in commercial application will not be available.

The problems with web forums is you seldom see the positive reviews and typically see problems. Most of the problems can be broken down to cheap hardware which doesn't function properly or issues where someone is trying to compile by source and running into distribution specific problems.

Axis camera station is an Axis product and will not function with any other IP camera. Luxriot, Milestone, Exacq, Blue Iris are all Windows based applications (with the exception of Exacq which now has a Linux version) that work with the majority of IP camera manufacturers. Most have a free demo to download and play with to see if that is more geared towards you and your application.

We all will agree that time is money and headaches are not fun. It's best to play with atleast one or two of the applications listed above to see what is going to function best. If you are going to install this at a customers location you need to also remember to look at which application is going to be easy for you to explain how to use and which application is going to be easier for you to support remotely.

There didn't seem to be a good forum to post this in so here goes, feel free to move it to a more appropriate spot.

I hope this question doesn't piss anyone off, it's not my intent to start a war here.

After a few thefts around the house I'm setting up some surveillance cameras. We have a large property and want to allow for up to 16 cameras when it's all done.

I'm curious about the stability and "hassle factor" of ZoneMinder vs. something like Axis Camera Station or a network DVR.

As an embedded firmware engineer who works with computers all day long, futzing around with them during my off hours is something to be avoided. To this end I'd like a system that "just works" once it's set up and running. Yes, occasional hardware failures are unavoidable, but intermittent hard to debug software failures, frequent reboots, a continuous stream of patches that need to be installed to plug security holes or fix bugs, etc. are something to be avoided.

Reading the ZM forums it seems like people have a lot of problems with ZM but that can be quite misleading. Obviously, people who don't have problems don't post about them, Linux newbies like myself will have startup issues, and others are pushing the bleeding edge so inevitable issues will arise. Conversely, if nobody posted it would seem like nobody was using it.

From reading I pretty much know the requirements and abilities of ZM.

ZM seems to be roughly functionally equivalent to Axis Camera Station software. For me, the downside to Axis Camera Station is that it runs on Windows and is subject to all the baggage, patches, security holes, etc. that Windows brings to the system.

A dedicated network video recorder seemed like the ideal drop-in least hassle solution but many of them run windows - and some of them even promote "scheduled reboots" as a feature. Dress up a bug and it's a feature, yech.

For me it's generally worth paying more to reduce hassle but my wallet does have it's limits.

So, my question is what solution would be the best for a drop-dead stable, network ready, video recording solution that supports IP cameras and remote live access?

[kwschumm]

Thank you for the info. The first few cameras I've bought were Axis 221s and they came with an Axis Camera Management app that installed easily and just worked so that's what came to mind. I did not now about the other apps you mentioned and it would be good to not be forced to use only Axis cameras (plus some of those apps are cheaper). I'll play around with them. A ZM installation isn't out of the question and maybe with a live CD it would be a snap to install. I'll give one of those a try too.

BTW, bluecherry looks like a great resource!

Zoneminder can be a burden to setup. There are several free Live CD's available that you can download and play with. Being that Zoneminder is free and open source several of the hassle free things you may find in commercial application will not be available.

The problems with web forums is you seldom see the positive reviews and typically see problems. Most of the problems can be broken down to cheap hardware which doesn't function properly or issues where someone is trying to compile by source and running into distribution specific problems.

Axis camera station is an Axis product and will not function with any other IP camera. Luxriot, Milestone, Exacq, Blue Iris are all Windows based applications (with the exception of Exacq which now has a Linux version) that work with the majority of IP camera manufacturers. Most have a free demo to download and play with to see if that is more geared towards you and your application.

We all will agree that time is money and headaches are not fun. It's best to play with atleast one or two of the applications listed above to see what is going to function best. If you are going to install this at a customers location you need to also remember to look at which application is going to be easy for you to explain how to use and which application is going to be easier for you to support remotely.

[cordel]

I would have to agree with Curtis. Most of thee problems that you view on the forum can all be tracked back to ignorance of hardware or ignorance of Linux or often as well both.

Unfortunately, for any Linux newbie, ZM is not the sole component as it relys on a web server to be properly configured as well as the MySQL server and both by defaults do not give you the most secure setup out of the box then configuring ZM properly to suit can be a bit daunting.

Obviously bleeding edge can be fun so long as your not dependent on everything working right away. So obviously unless you want to help troubleshoot problems it's best to stick one major version behind. But of course if your good at detailing the problems and at least can point us towards the proper line of code, we are always glad for the help