megapixel cameras, or Mobotix alternatives

gian · Post by **gian** » Sun May 17, 2009 3:58 pm

hello All,

I have read about the Mobotix concept, 3 megapixel camera with 8GB on board storage to reduce network traffic.

Too bad that it's a "Windows" solution.

Is there an alternative for us Penguin lovers?

-Gian

kingofkya · Post by **kingofkya** » Sun May 17, 2009 5:30 pm

its possible;e it works
Video compression: MJPEG, JPG, MxPEG, H.263 (video-VoIP-telephony)

but not all mjpeg is the same also H.263 might weork with new ffmpeg cam setting

gian · Post by **gian** » Sun May 17, 2009 7:36 pm

but, according to Mobotix, ZM would have no use with their cameras, because the frame analysis is made in the cam.

So what would be the purpose to use ZM with Mobotix?!

And I believe that the software they enclose to manage or view the events is for Windows only.

mitch · Post by **mitch** » Mon May 18, 2009 4:22 am

i am currently working to get their cameras working with ZM if you give it a week or two I should be able to confirm if it works and if so how to use it. There are also many megapixel cameras including Axis, ACTI, iqeye, lumenera, pelco, and Arecont Vision off the top of my head some of which definately work with others are still in testing.

gian · Post by **gian** » Mon May 18, 2009 6:03 am

Mitch,

thank you very much for your kind reply.

My supplier carries ACTI and AXIS.

Axis looks reputable, I'm testing their support for a cheap camera (1011W) and they are responsive, although they weren't able to make it work in wireless.

I am looking at the AXIS 223M, but I'm intrigued by the possibility of the Mobotix to do without ZM.

I like ZM, but obviously a less complicated setup is interesting and a quiet network is a definite plus.

Mobotix says that you can save events on a remote Linux server.

I'll be glad to read your comments.

-Gian

coke · Post by **coke** » Mon May 18, 2009 5:17 pm

8 gigs of online storage is the reason you'd want to use ZoneMinder or something else to store the images. 8 gigs doesn't go back in time very far, especially on a megapixel camera. If you don't need to see video from 3 days ago, then you might be ok with just the camera's storage.

On-camera motion detection doesn't negate the need for ZM as a storage/viewing solution. The Axis cameras I have all have it built-in, and if you have many cameras, it can be handy to use it on-camera and reduce the CPU load of your ZoneMinder server.

And for the record, I love my Axis 223M. It wasn't cheap, but it produces beautiful images day or night.

gian · Post by **gian** » Tue May 19, 2009 6:32 am

yes, of course.

Hard drive real estate is so cheap, it doesn't really matter.
I am more interested in keeping network traffic low.

One thing is not yet clear to me is how to take advantage of in camera motion detection reducing ZM load.

I am testing a cheap AXIS and a Panasonic, they both have motion detection.

How should I setup say, the AXIS, to use in camera modect and send events to ZM?

gian · Post by **gian** » Tue May 19, 2009 12:29 pm

well, that was a silly question...

I read on the Panasonic's user guide that you can set it to send motion detection images to an FTP server.

So, this setup can live without ZM, or am I missing some important feature...?

I am quite new to ip recording, so please bear with me if I ask something silly...

kingofkya · Post by **kingofkya** » Tue May 19, 2009 2:10 pm

see http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.ph ... nDetection

then in zm set fps to .25 then alarm fps to 10 or 12

it works pretty well (if you dont have morons unpuging the server)

mitch · Post by **mitch** » Tue May 19, 2009 5:35 pm

the cameras do put out a valid MJPEG stream so you can use that with ZM without an issue. They also output the MxJPG stream, an open source format that mobotix themselves created. Zoneminder will support this stream probably within a month or so but no time promises at this point. The primary advantage of MxJPG is some reduced bandwidth requirements for getting the higher resolution images from the camera than MJPEG.

gian · Post by **gian** » Tue May 19, 2009 8:27 pm

but, if modect can be driven by cameras, and sent to an FTP server, why should I go all the way to install a ZM server? what features would I get?

Given that I want to be able to monitor a camera on the fly, do cameras produce network traffic even if no browser is asking for frames? I should say no, but I'm not sure about this.

In this scenario, traffic should be generated only by modect events or real time monitoring.

kingofkya · Post by **kingofkya** » Tue May 19, 2009 10:57 pm

wow these guys seam serious about it
http://developer.mobotix.com/mobotix_sd ... index.html

belanger · Post by **belanger** » Wed May 20, 2009 5:11 am

I'm new here but correct if I'm wrong, shouldn't this post be in the "Hardware Queries" forum?

gian · Post by **gian** » Wed May 20, 2009 5:47 am

I guess you are right. My fault.

mitch · Post by **mitch** » Wed May 20, 2009 2:47 pm

mobotix not only has onboard software but their own NVR application. The choice to use ZM is certainly yours. Part of the benifit of ZM may be the fact for more granular control over motion detection, more customization of event handling etc. If the native software works fine use that, but many people prefer the configurability and of ZM. ZM will cause the camera to generate traffic with Modetect on, but there would be no traffic generated from ZM to anything else if you are not monitoring it.

Yea they are very serious about MxPEG honestly its a fairly awesome format specifically designed for security cameras with all the benifits of MJPEG (every frame is crisp, its done over TCP so no corruption like UDP streaming, easy to process) without the major downside of MJPEG of the fact you get 0 savings inbetween frames (so even if whats on the camera never changed MJPEG would use the same amount of bandwidth, where as MxPEG gives you compression between frames).