Zoneminder 1.24 and ACTI Cameras

GunnarK · Post by **GunnarK** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 12:14 pm

I see that Zoneminder 1.24 will support ACTI cameras.
What kind of connection is used, RTSP or the TCP protocol?
Do you connect with ffmpeg?
I have got a couple of MPEG4 ACTI cameras CAM-5321 and want to try out Zoneminder with these cameras.

hossa1c · Post by **hossa1c** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 6:02 pm

Hi,
Iâ€™ve brought an ACTI 1231 camera and after trying to use openRTSP/ffmpeg/vpipe/vloopback I gave up and downloaded ZoneMinder 1.24 (ZoneMinder-1.24.0-rc1-2678.tar.gz) so I could use the built in RTSP.
To my delight (after several hours/days of fun) I got it all working. The camera was plugged in to a POE switch on my desk and the picture looked good.

I used the preset ACTI camera setting for ZoneMinder

Remote Protocol = RTSP
Remote Method = RTP/Unicast
Remote Host Name = Admin:******@192.168.0.10
Remote Host Port =7070
Remote Host SubPath = /track
Remote Image Colours = 24 bit colour
Capture Width = 160
Capture Height = 112

I used the following settings on the ACTI camera

Streaming Method = RTP Over UDP
RTSP Authen Enable = un-ticked
RTP B2 Frame Enable = ticked
Audio in = Disabled
Resolution = 160x112
Frame rate Mode = Constant
Frame Rate = 10
Encoder Type = MPEG4
Video Bitrate Mode = Constant Bit Rate
Video Max Bitrate = UNLIMITED
Bitrate = 3M
RTSP Port = 7070
Video Control Port = 6001

I then moved the camera to my dadâ€™s house on his outside wall, laid 20 meters of cat5e cable, and installed ZoneMinder 1.24 on his system in the same way as I did on my home system.

I failed to see any pictures on this system, apart form the very odd single frame.
Iâ€™ve changed the picture size to 160x112 and installed the latest ACTI firmware V3.09.14 (Nov 2008).
I then took the following logs to see whatâ€™s going wrong.

Code: Select all

[NULL @ 0x8ed9f60]AVOption type 2 of option channel_layout not implemented yet
[NULL @ 0x8ed9f60]AVOption type 2 of option request_channel_layout not implemented yet
[NULL @ 0x8ed9f60] video codec set to : mpeg4
Marker bit missing before time_increment
[mpeg4 @ 0x8ed9f60]hmm, seems the headers are not complete, trying to guess time_increment_bits
[mpeg4 @ 0x8ed9f60]my guess is 16 bits ;)
Marker bit missing before vop_coded
[swscaler @ 0x8f5f110]No accelerated colorspace conversion found.
[mpeg4 @ 0x8ed9f60]header damaged
12/27/08 17:04:23.854675 zmc_m1[-1].INF-zm_debug.c/292 [New Debug Level = 1, New Debug Log = /tmp/zm_debug.log.05320]
12/27/08 17:04:23.854825 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_monitor.cpp/2124 [Got 1 monitors]
12/27/08 17:04:23.855112 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_thread.cpp/240 [Creating thread]
12/27/08 17:04:23.855166 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_thread.cpp/276 [Starting thread]
12/27/08 17:04:23.856241 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_thread.cpp/297 [Started thread -1]
12/27/08 17:04:23.856417 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_monitor.cpp/335 [monitor purpose=1]
12/27/08 17:04:23.856428 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_monitor.cpp/342 [mem.size=1076404]
12/27/08 17:04:23.857944 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_zone.cpp/50 [Initialised zone 0/All - 1 - 160x112 - Rgb:ff0000, CM:3, MnAT:15, MxAT:0, MnAP:50, MxAP:75000, FB:3x3, M
nFP:50, MxFP:50000, MnBS:10, MxBS:0, MnB:0, MxB:0, OF: 0]
12/27/08 17:04:23.858574 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_monitor.cpp/456 [Monitor acti has function 2]
12/27/08 17:04:23.858585 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_monitor.cpp/457 [Monitor acti LBF = '%N - %y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S', LBX = 0, LBY = 0]
12/27/08 17:04:23.858594 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_monitor.cpp/458 [Monitor acti IBC = 20, WUC = 5, pEC = 10, PEC = 10, EAF = 1, FRI = 1000, RBP = 7, FM = 0]
12/27/08 17:04:23.858776 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_zone.cpp/889 [Got 1 zones for monitor acti]
12/27/08 17:04:23.858801 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_zone.cpp/50 [Initialised zone 1/All - 1 - 160x112 - Rgb:ff0000, CM:3, MnAT:25, MxAT:0, MnAP:538, MxAP:13440, FB:3x3,
MnFP:538, MxFP:13440, MnBS:358, MxBS:0, MnB:1, MxB:0, OF: 0]
12/27/08 17:04:23.859390 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_monitor.cpp/2304 [Loaded monitor 1(acti), 1 zones]
12/27/08 17:04:23.859404 zmc_m1[-1].INF-zmc.cpp/186 [Starting Capture]
12/27/08 17:04:24.860253 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_thread.cpp/240 [Creating thread]
12/27/08 17:04:24.860280 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_thread.cpp/240 [Creating thread]
12/27/08 17:04:24.860289 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_thread.cpp/276 [Starting thread]
12/27/08 17:04:24.860428 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_thread.cpp/297 [Started thread -1]
12/27/08 17:04:24.860440 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_thread.cpp/276 [Starting thread]
12/27/08 17:04:24.860569 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_thread.cpp/297 [Started thread -1]
12/27/08 17:04:27.844942 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_remote_camera_rtsp.cpp/230 [Got picture 0]
12/27/08 17:04:28.341345 zmc_m1[-1].ERR-zm_remote_camera_rtsp.cpp/219 [Error while decoding frame 1]
12/27/08 17:04:28.341495 zmc_m1[-1].INF-zm_remote_camera_rtsp.cpp/220 [96: ef 75 76 f7 f4 8e ff fb 34 ee 53 d7 57 a7 b7 77 de 9d fb d3 ee af 4f 37 24 f4 e9 5e d
e de 9f 72 be fb bb be f4 fb ef be fb ab bd d3 7d f7 df 7d e6 fb ef 6f 00 00 01 b2 01 00 00 00 60 00 00 00 1c 60 56 49 0c 01 00 03 de 0c 00 00 02 0c 00 0a 1c 60
 56 49 d8 18 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00]
12/27/08 17:04:28.341588 zmc_m1[-1].ERR-zmc.cpp/256 [Failed to post-capture monitor 0]
12/27/08 17:04:28.341684 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_thread.cpp/302 [Joining thread -1]
12/27/08 17:04:28.341700 zmc_m1[-1].WAR-zm_thread.cpp/323 [Attempt to join non-started thread -1]
12/27/08 17:04:28.341761 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_thread.cpp/326 [Joined thread -1]
12/27/08 17:04:28.341807 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_thread.cpp/245 [Destroying thread -1]
12/27/08 17:04:28.341817 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_thread.cpp/302 [Joining thread -1]
12/27/08 17:04:28.341825 zmc_m1[-1].WAR-zm_thread.cpp/323 [Attempt to join non-started thread -1]
12/27/08 17:04:28.341875 zmc_m1[-1].DB1-zm_thread.cpp/326 [Joined thread -1]

Since I have seen a picture or two Iâ€™m pretty sure ZoneMinder 1.24 is installed and working fine, and the ACTI camera works fine when viewing the picture from Internet explorer.

I think the difference between my home setup and my dadâ€™s setup is the length of cat5e cable, which is introducing just enough errors on the UDP mpeg4 transmission side to cause ZoneMinder to break.

So I have several questionsâ€¦

1. Does my theory sound correct, based on the description and attached logs?
2. Is it worth spending the next month trying to enhance the code in zm_remote_camera_rtsp.cpp to cope with these errors?
3. Can I switch to a different protocol that both ZoneMinder and the ACTI camera both understand?

Thanks for your help

Chris

richw · Post by **richw** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 4:58 pm

You can only use RTSP with the ACTI camera's (ATM).

In December as ACTI were suppose to be releasing a firmware that allowed zm to access a mpeg4 stream direct (IIRC) - but an updated was released in November with no such feature.

hossa1c; I'd suggest changing the cat5 cable first incase its faulty in some way. If there is a damaged frame in thoery it should be retransmitted. What nic's are being used?

hossa1c · Post by **hossa1c** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 5:45 pm

hi,
thanks for your reply.

I'm using a Gigabyte AM2 nVidia MCP68S MATX motherboard running the Ubuntu 8.10 server. It uses the Realtek RTL8211BL Network controller.

The camera and server are both plugged in to a NetGear ProSafe 8 Port 10/100 switch with the camera plugged in to one of the POE socket.

The cat5e cable seems to be working OK when using the camera from internet explorer. I can see the camera picture fine. I'm not ruling out the cable, but it's already been attached to the outside wall, running up to the roof. Replacing it will mean calling out somebody who likes heights ;-)

My "limited" understanding of the RTSP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Time_ ... g_Protocol) is that it uses TCIP for simple commands, eg PLAY, PAUSE, and the actual image is sent using RTP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_ ... t_Protocol) which uses UDP.

I "guess" the idea is that if you lose the odd frame nobody cares, so why not use UDP to send data. Of course this does mean the receiving software must cope with corrupt frames when sticking all of the UDP frames back together.

If you know a web site that offers a better (or even actuate) description of how ZoneMinder is controlling the camera please let me know, so I can have a good read.

cheers

Chris

GunnarK · Post by **GunnarK** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 7:51 pm

So what you are saying richw is that ACTI camera do not support ffmpeg, which zm uses for rtsp?
I'm not sure what IIRC is.

jameswilson · Post by **jameswilson** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 9:39 pm

IIRC = If i Recall Correctly

richw · Post by **richw** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 9:40 am

GunnarK wrote:So what you are saying richw is that ACTI camera do not support ffmpeg, which zm uses for rtsp?

No, ffmpeg is used for decoding the video streams from the camera (If I understand correctly)

If you want to use a ACTI camera with Zoneminder the only way (currently) is to use 1.24 RC and the RTSP option. ACTI were suppose to be releasing a updated firmware (In December) which allowed direct access to a mpeg4 stream - this would be mean that we could use 1.23 as well.

I'm sure Phil has stated that the RTSP support in the ACTI camera's isn't very standards complaint. I just wish my company (or I) are in a position to donate a Â£450 camera for development purposes.

Post by **cordel** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 9:59 am

richw wrote:
GunnarK wrote:So what you are saying richw is that ACTI camera do not support ffmpeg, which zm uses for rtsp?
No, ffmpeg is used for decoding the video streams from the camera (If I understand correctly)

If you want to use a ACTI camera with Zoneminder the only way (currently) is to use 1.24 RC and the RTSP option. ACTI were suppose to be releasing a updated firmware (In December) which allowed direct access to a mpeg4 stream - this would be mean that we could use 1.23 as well.

I'm sure Phil has stated that the RTSP support in the ACTI camera's isn't very standards complaint. I just wish my company (or I) are in a position to donate a Â£450 camera for development purposes.

ATM >1.24.x is using ffmpeg to to manage both RTSP and the MPEG from the cams.
So if ffmpeg can not deal with it, then nether can ZM.
Even if they allowed access to MPEG directly, any version previous to 1.24 could not handle MPEG capture only JPEG and MJPEG. So for the cams to be compatible with any previous versions, they would have to support sending (m)jpeg images.

GunnarK · Post by **GunnarK** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 1:12 pm

Ok.
So if I want a camera with RTSP and MPEG4 to connect with ZM. Then the camera has to support ffmpeg.
Then I think that I can not use my ACTI camera and ZM, because when i try to connect with ffmpeg og ffplay:
ffmpeg â€“i rtsp://Admin:123456@192.168.0.101:7070

Then I get the following error:
rtsp://Admin:123456@192.168.0.101:7070: Error while parsing header

GunnarK · Post by **GunnarK** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 1:31 pm

I can now connect to the ACTI cameras. In the camera Web configurator i had to unmark "RTSP Authen Enable" and "RTP B2 Frame Enable"

foxtroop11 · Post by **foxtroop11** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:37 am

I'm not sure if the cam your talking about is a similar setup to the demo one over at bluecherry.net, but I can connect(it turns orange) to their ACM-3001 on Zoneminder 1.24 but I get no picture. I've tried your config settings and I'm not sure if it's an error on my end or their end.

Has anyone else connected to their test cam with 1.24?

GunnarK · Post by **GunnarK** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 2:55 pm

What is the link to that camera?

As I understand Zoneminder uses ffmpeg, so you can try connecting to the camera using ffmpeg program ffplay. If that is not working the camera most probably has enabled the "RTSP Authen Enable".

GunnarK · Post by **GunnarK** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 12:21 pm

What do you mean by:
(direct access to a mpeg4 stream).

When I play around with the ffmpeg program ffplay, and uses ACTI camera,
ffplay rtsp://192.168.0.101:7070
I get a 3 second delay.

When i connect ffplay to a Axis camera
ffplay rtsp://192.168.0.90/mpeg4/media.amp
I do not get a delay at all.

Is this because of this direct access to mpeg4 stream?