Fast and easy solution

ralf.butler · Post by **ralf.butler** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:32 am

Dear All,

I'm working on a research project where we need to record activities 24/7. At the end of each week we analyze the recordings.

The cameras and the DVRs have been installed by a security company. Now, the four cameras have been installed well, but they sold us very bad DVRs. Those DVRs may be good for security issues, but insufficient to conduct research on those footages. We need to jump from one position in the recordings to another, play in slow motion or very fast. The DVR doesn;t support this. So we thought exporting the footages may be a solutino. But when we extract the footages from the DVR they are in a special format that can be played by a certain windows based program only. We can export the footage as AVI as well, but only for one of the four installed cameras. Furthermore, the exported AVI footage runs slightly faster than they have been recorded and there is no time stamp in those footages.

All in all we are very unhappy with the current solution. So, I made further investigations for an alternative, especially for a linux based solution. That is how I found ZoneMinder.

I think the best would be to just set up a computer and to put a video capture card with four inputs in there (like the Bluecherry PV-143).

Now, it would be great if you can confirm if the requirements I have are covered by ZoneMinder:
- Timestamp in footage
- Certain footage sequence (90min e.g.) need to be exportable to avi
- The AVI export needs to contain the four input videos
- The export should be triggered and executed automatically (cron job?)

Appreciate your help.

Thank you,
Ralf

kingofkya · Post by **kingofkya** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:07 am

- Timestamp in footage
YES

- Certain footage sequence (90min e.g.) need to be exportable to avi
YES

- The AVI export needs to contain the four input videos
NO only 1 at a time

- The export should be triggered and executed automatically (cron job?)
Yes (but from integrated filters not cron)

also to get something up and running quick try ZMArch cd (or to just try zm)

ralf.butler · Post by **ralf.butler** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:32 am

Hi kingofkya,

Wow, that was quick! Sounds all good.

In regard to merge four input videos in one AVI. Wouldn't it be possible to:
1. export AVI files for each input and (which could be done by ZoneMinder)
2. then to merge them into one AVI file (which should be done by another tool)

I'm not really into video editing under linux and not aware of what tools linux offers to allow merging. I was looking for solutions already but in most cases AVIs are concatenated. In contrast, what I need is a command base tool to merge both AVIs so that they are shown in parallel.

Thanks for your help,
Ralf

kingofkya · Post by **kingofkya** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 5:28 am

as far as i know no ones done it before

and I guess it was luck that I responded so quick as I just happen to be on

what is the purpose of combining the videos

kingofkya · Post by **kingofkya** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 5:34 am

also on zoneminder it can record motion only so you can watch what happens with DVR controls (play pause slow fast frame_advance etc.)

and it will play back sequentially the motion events automaticly switch form each cam as it goes.

see you pm

ralf.butler · Post by **ralf.butler** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 5:39 am

We need to observe a room from four different angles. Most CCTV solutions offer you the option to see four input streams on one screen at runtime

But in our research we need to analyse the footage in retrospect. And not only one angle but all four angles. It would be very inconvenient to handle four different AVIs separately in four different players. Therefore I prefer to combine them in one AVI.

Thanks for your help,
Ralf