Here's the issue:
I have a ZModo PTZ dome camera (Composite video out,) and I wish to use a Hauppauge 950Q USB dongle for video capture.
Both VLC and mplayer can capture live video. Zoneminder cannot, since the 950Q has only one pixel format, UYVY. (I don't want to recompile from source to add that, since it will become a support issue for me, and I expect that eventually that will be done in zoneminder core. Also, yes, I'm lazy
But there are instructions here http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewto ... tch#p76736 )ffmpeg can also capture video fine from the camera, and write it to an avi file. Therefore, I should be able to use "Source Type: FFMPEG" to do this.
The camera is NOT a remote camera, so all examples for things like the Axis network camera don't apply. Do I need to start a separate ffmpeg session streaming to 127.0.0.1 *before* running Zoneminder and then set my source to rtmp://127.0.0.1/something ? That seems very convoluted to me. Yet I can't seem to find a how-to on the wiki. I am not clear on what the 'before' and 'after' things are supposed to do on the options/images entry screen labeled FFMPEG_INPUT_OPTIONS and FFMPEG_OUTPUT_OPTIONS. Do they apply to every ffmpeg process? What if I have several cameras that need different settings?
I've written a lot of code and am quite familiar with gstreamer, ffmpeg, etc. How do I do this? It is embarrassing that I can't figure this out.
If someone could post a simple cookbook, as follows (and if it is there already, with details, I apologize, but please post a link!) Assume there is just *one* camera and only *one* ffmpeg stream.
a) Do something first.. (with example ffmpeg commandline launch, if needed)
b) go to source tab, select FFMpeg
c) do something else.. (with example ffmpeg settings, exactly, if needed)
d) do something else..(etc)
I am sure it will be useful not only to me, but also to others.
Thanks in advance.