Hauppauge ImpactVCB 4-Port Card (You can use all 4 ports)

[malk315]

bb99-

Cool -- it's good to know the max you can do w/ the default SHM setup, thanks for the tips.

I increased mine by a large value (256 megs for SHMMAX and SHMALL) and then used the ipcs command as root to see the sizes of the various shared memory segments zoneminder makes and then trim down accordingly. Since my box is a dedicated headless box, I don't mind leaving the values high -- at only 1 gig of RAM with everything running I still have like 3/4 gig free!

Also -- I found that the BGR24 palette works fine for me too.
I'm still curious if there is any advantage for BGR24 versus YUYV since those seem to be the only two that work for me and I don't notice any difference in image quality.

Somewhere I read that the "RGB" or "Grey" palettes are favored over others since YUYV has to do some internal conversion that might be a performance hit (I could be wrong), but I found that no "RGB" ones worked. Perhaps "BGR24" is also considered and RGB palette even though it's reversed or whatever. I found that "grey" didn't work for me -- I'm happier with color anyway.

So this is great. Hopefully some of this info posted will be useful for others.

[bb99]

Check options->config->LOCAL_BGR_INVERT tick value. I think this explains BGR vs. RGB (?). I've always assumed (bad word) that if unticked RGB24 would work the same. Running on Fedora 12 (wiki "the easy way") so rock solid I'm hesitant to do anything. I want to do the Fedora 14 build specifically for the libjpeg-turbo thing but just can't bring myself to touch this system; 6 camera's now at 12 fps with a load of .1, just can't justify! But I do want to do it...

[punch-card]

punch-card-

Your camera settings are identical to mine.

I got it to work with bgr24 but only when I went to the montage.. I dinked around and ended up using rgb32, I am not sure if the 24 vs 32 are bits or version, I would have to go research... either way that worked. Occasionally I can get monitor to work, alot of time I have to resize the window the it will display.

I can't check the 'images' config page because the box is not up right now -- I'm going to deploy it tonight or tomorrow. I can check it next time I bring it up -- I'll try to remember to look, but looking at it from memory it looks sane to me. I remember I changed the ffmpeg path from /usr/local/bin to /usr/bin like you have and I was able to create AVI, and MPEG videos from my events no problem. I didn't think ffmpeg was required to just capture JPG images from the Impact cards for modect or monitor mode, but I could be wrong. ffmpeg isn't standard on fedora due to patent rules perhaps, so I added AtRPMs to my repo list and installed the pre-built version for F14 from there w/o a hitch.

I tried using jpeg and never got it to display, but ffmpeg "seems" to work, but I still have issues.

I was unable to make a video, it looks like that it triggers the capture but nothing is captured.

One silly question -- since all of the ZM stuff runs as user apache who has like no privileges, did you make sure your /dev/video0 device node is world readable? The zm-fix tool did that for me. You can manually just do:

chmod 666 /dev/video0

As the root user to achieve this. Then restart zoneminder services with the same settings and see if you get a picture.

As for the device file, mine was set for 606, weird... anyway chmod'ed it .

I found out to go to 640x480 I had to increase shared memory per the documentation. I was getting the "combing" effect since it interlaces the frames when above 320x240 IIRC, but I turned off "multi frame capture" and set the number of frames to capture to 4 I think and that got me like 2.5 FPS per channel and very little of the combing -- I wanted the hi res to catch license plates perhaps when cars go by the cameras.

If I go back to 320x240 for each channel and enable multi-frame capture with the number of frames to capture set at 2 (my current settings I think) I get like 6-7 FPS from each channel and everything looks stable and clear. No combing or shakiness or one channel showing up on the other etc.

I could not file the "multi frame capture" setting, look all over, maybe it is a different name". I would like to capture at a higher rate, but I was definitely seeing combing. I found the max rate, set it at 4, but then the camera failed to captures.

Note however, I'm using 2 impact VCB cards and 2 channels on each -- I realize from other posts I could get the 3rd RCA jack working (and s-video for that matter) by playing with card config, but I like using the 2 cards with 2 cameras each and enjoying the close to 7 fps. This is how I'm going to deploy and I'll switch back to 640x480 only if the detail is required after testing at site.

I am only using two cameras one card.

Next build of this or an upgrade for this box, I think I'll try one of the 4 port with 4 chips and BNC connectors on the back BT848a cards that Kodicomm makes, but doesn't seem to sell direct on their website. I found a link to a guy who resells these via his own simple Paypal shopping site and I think he wanted like $70 for one of these. This way I can get up to like 30 fps on each channel for really nice event recording in modect mode. Put in 2 and you have an 8 channel setup.

This was my first setup and I'm really excited about this.
I built a $200 headless box from parts at Newegg (AMD Athlon 2 dual-core for about $50, Foxconn MB for about $50, WD green 0.5 TB drive cheap, and the Impact cards for $39 each. Add $25 worth of 1 GB of RAM with Fedora 14 loaded by pxeboot (no boot media on CD or whatever needed!) and boom -- I've got a 4 channel DVR that rivals the $500 - $1000 kits you can buy. I'm using the Videsecu Bullet cameras I can find for $35-$45 from Amazon.

Lastly -- I bought my 100', 75', and BNC to RCA converters and couplers from monoprice.com You can to 100' BNC cable for $13 single qty and $12 for 2 or more. Use USPS priority mail for shipping and you can put together a pretty cool setup on the cheap. The cable from them is RG-59 75 ohm and it's got a strong jacket on it (fairly thick for RG-58/59 cable) and I can't wait to start watching the web interface remotely once this is setup.

As for system, I am using my box for several other services, including wview (weather station), and I use it to VPN into work.

I got a off lease Dell optiplex GX620 for $200, with dual cores. Then picked up some memory and 1T drive...

I got my cameras from Harbor Freight, for about $27 with cables. There everyday price is $34, with a 20% coupon they stick in the newspaper ~$27. The camera comes with 80ft of cable, as for quality, the seem to do a reasonable job, you get what you pay for

http://www.harborfreight.com/weatherpro ... 95914.html

I've already got a second "customer" for this, so I will have no problem helping people out on the cheap by building zoneminder setups that are internet accessible -- especially when they use the custom embedded linux wireless/wired routers I build for indoor and outdoor use. Those are PC-Engines Alix boards with high power radios to do 2.4, 5.8, 900mhz etc. By combining these two fields, you can do a ton with this stuff!

Good luck.

The one thing that I keep seeing in the following in the http error log.

[Sat Nov 27 07:31:09 2010] [error] [client 192.168.1.100] Got unexpected message size, got 5, expected 260, referer: http://192.168.1.105/ZM/?view=watch&mid=3
[Sat Nov 27 07:31:09 2010] [error] [client 192.168.1.100] array (\n 0 => \n array (\n 'file' => '/RHEL/ZM/ajax/stream.php',\n 'line' => 92,\n 'function' => 'ajaxError',\n 'args' => \n array (\n 0 => 'Got unexpected message size, got 5, expected 260',\n ),\n ),\n 1 => \n array (\n 'file' => '/RHEL/ZM/index.php',\n 'line' => 116,\n 'args' => \n array (\n 0 => '/RHEL/ZM/ajax/stream.php',\n ),\n 'function' => 'require_once',\n ),\n), referer: http://192.168.1.105/ZM/?view=watch&mid=3

I am not sure if this is the shmall/shmmax issue, I bumped my up, maybe not enough.

[punch-card]

Well let's if this post will work. Previous never showed on the page.

malk315 wrote:
punch-card-

Your camera settings are identical to mine.

I got it to work with bgr24 but only when I went to the montage.. I dinked around and ended up using rgb32, I am not sure if the 24 vs 32 are bits or version, I would have to go research... either way that worked. Occasionally I can get monitor to work, alot of time I have to resize the window the it will display.

malk315 wrote:

I can't check the 'images' config page because the box is not up right now -- I'm going to deploy it tonight or tomorrow. I can check it next time I bring it up -- I'll try to remember to look, but looking at it from memory it looks sane to me. I remember I changed the ffmpeg path from /usr/local/bin to /usr/bin like you have and I was able to create AVI, and MPEG videos from my events no problem. I didn't think ffmpeg was required to just capture JPG images from the Impact cards for modect or monitor mode, but I could be wrong. ffmpeg isn't standard on fedora due to patent rules perhaps, so I added AtRPMs to my repo list and installed the pre-built version for F14 from there w/o a hitch.

I tried using jpeg and never got it to display, but ffmpeg "seems" to work, but I still have issues.

I was unable to make a video, it looks like that it triggers the capture but nothing is captured.

malk315 wrote:
One silly question -- since all of the ZM stuff runs as user apache who has like no privileges, did you make sure your /dev/video0 device node is world readable? The zm-fix tool did that for me. You can manually just do:

chmod 666 /dev/video0

As the root user to achieve this. Then restart zoneminder services with the same settings and see if you get a picture.

As for the device file, mine was set for 606, weird... anyway chmod'ed it .

malk315 wrote:


I found out to go to 640x480 I had to increase shared memory per the documentation. I was getting the "combing" effect since it interlaces the frames when above 320x240 IIRC, but I turned off "multi frame capture" and set the number of frames to capture to 4 I think and that got me like 2.5 FPS per channel and very little of the combing -- I wanted the hi res to catch license plates perhaps when cars go by the cameras.

If I go back to 320x240 for each channel and enable multi-frame capture with the number of frames to capture set at 2 (my current settings I think) I get like 6-7 FPS from each channel and everything looks stable and clear. No combing or shakiness or one channel showing up on the other etc.

I could not file the "multi frame capture" setting, look all over, maybe it is a different name". I would like to capture at a higher rate, but I was definitely seeing combing. I found the max rate, set it at 4, but then the camera failed to captures.

malk315 wrote:
Note however, I'm using 2 impact VCB cards and 2 channels on each -- I realize from other posts I could get the 3rd RCA jack working (and s-video for that matter) by playing with card config, but I like using the 2 cards with 2 cameras each and enjoying the close to 7 fps. This is how I'm going to deploy and I'll switch back to 640x480 only if the detail is required after testing at site.

I am only using two cameras one card.

malk315 wrote:


Next build of this or an upgrade for this box, I think I'll try one of the 4 port with 4 chips and BNC connectors on the back BT848a cards that Kodicomm makes, but doesn't seem to sell direct on their website. I found a link to a guy who resells these via his own simple Paypal shopping site and I think he wanted like $70 for one of these. This way I can get up to like 30 fps on each channel for really nice event recording in modect mode. Put in 2 and you have an 8 channel setup.

This was my first setup and I'm really excited about this.
I built a $200 headless box from parts at Newegg (AMD Athlon 2 dual-core for about $50, Foxconn MB for about $50, WD green 0.5 TB drive cheap, and the Impact cards for $39 each. Add $25 worth of 1 GB of RAM with Fedora 14 loaded by pxeboot (no boot media on CD or whatever needed!) and boom -- I've got a 4 channel DVR that rivals the $500 - $1000 kits you can buy. I'm using the Videsecu Bullet cameras I can find for $35-$45 from Amazon.

Lastly -- I bought my 100', 75', and BNC to RCA converters and couplers from monoprice.com You can to 100' BNC cable for $13 single qty and $12 for 2 or more. Use USPS priority mail for shipping and you can put together a pretty cool setup on the cheap. The cable from them is RG-59 75 ohm and it's got a strong jacket on it (fairly thick for RG-58/59 cable) and I can't wait to start watching the web interface remotely once this is setup.

As for system, I am using my box for several other services, including wview (weather station), and I use it to VPN into work.

I got a off lease Dell optiplex GX620 for $200, with dual cores. Then picked up some memory and 1T drive...

[punch-card]

I am not sure what I am posting is causing a "SPAM" marking, but I am going to try till I get one that works....

I got my cameras from H a r b o r F r e i g h t, for about twenty seven with cables. There price is thirty four, with a twenty percent coupon they stick in the newspaper to about twenty seven. The camera comes with 80 feet of cable, as for quality, the work well, you get what you pay for

[punch-card]

malk315,

Sorry for the delay in responding, it to took the Admin a little while to re-enable my account. Seem if some word in my posting marked it as spam and caused me to get banned. He said until you have about 10 posting it does a bunch of checking... Understand that he is trying to keep out spam posters.

Back to the subject, I think all of you suggestions have helped, now I just have one issue that is really what I think is cause me not to be able to save anything.

Dec 19 15:57:24 mdame-gx zms[16199]: ERR [Wrong JPEG library version: library is 62, caller expects 80]

I can not for the life of me get this to try to use the libjpeg-turbo (since libjpeg.8 is not support in Centos/RHEL/Fed...). I have tried pointing to the *.62 version in the turbo lib (per posting)...

You have any ideas about this? I know this is not specific to the card, so I am asking here first, if not I will post to the broader forum.