Camera Image Rolls (like an old TV w/ vsync issues)

[chiefchief]

OS: OpenSUSE
Version: 1.24.1
Installed using OpenSUSE instructions from Wiki, used repositories w/ Yum, installed the packages that included FFMPEG

I just upgraded my ZM machine to a AMD X2 4000+ and did a fresh install of the OS and of ZM. Everything is working peachy, with the exception of video0(0) through video0(3) having jumpy video, which sets off alarms and generally renders modetect worthless. This same card was working fine when running it on Ubuntu 8.04 w/ the deb package.

Running lspci gives me this info about my 4 port bnc capture card:

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01:08.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture (rev 11)
01:08.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture (rev 11)

Running cat '/var/log/zm/zmdc.log | grep ERR' I get:

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04/16/09 10:58:03.518598 zmdc[4517].ERR ['zmc -d /dev/video0' exited abnormally, exit status 255]
04/16/09 13:05:27.645997 zmdc[11820].ERR ['zmc -d /dev/video0' exited abnormally, exit status 255]
04/16/09 13:24:55.536139 zmdc[4606].ERR ['zmc -d /dev/video0' exited abnormally, exit status 255]

There's a lot more of these errors, but I believe they only occur during reboot.

Running xawtv let's me watch any of the cameras without image distortion.

I am using vflv1 on all cameras, configured as NTSC.

I would be grateful for any help on further troubleshooting this issue. Thanks so much!

EDIT: I'm looking around in all the logs for errors. In zmwatch I get this, possibly unrelated error:

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04/15/09 17:43:11.010558 zmwatch[4568].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0001', 1: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 17:51:31.058298 zmwatch[4568].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0003', 3: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 17:51:41.059605 zmwatch[4568].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0003', 3: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 17:51:51.061231 zmwatch[4568].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0003', 3: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 17:52:21.065614 zmwatch[4568].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0004', 4: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 17:53:11.073126 zmwatch[4568].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0005', 5: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 17:53:21.074925 zmwatch[4568].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0005', 5: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 17:53:31.076601 zmwatch[4568].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0005', 5: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 17:53:41.078340 zmwatch[4568].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0005', 5: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 18:09:20.829287 zmwatch[4607].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0001', 1: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 18:09:20.829823 zmwatch[4607].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0003', 3: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 18:09:20.830011 zmwatch[4607].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0004', 4: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 18:09:20.830190 zmwatch[4607].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0005', 5: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 18:12:00.853095 zmwatch[4607].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0001', 1: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 18:12:00.853358 zmwatch[4607].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0003', 3: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 18:12:00.853518 zmwatch[4607].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0004', 4: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 18:12:00.853675 zmwatch[4607].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0005', 5: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 18:12:10.854581 zmwatch[4607].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0001', 1: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 18:12:10.854839 zmwatch[4607].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0003', 3: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 18:12:10.854998 zmwatch[4607].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0004', 4: No such file or directory]
04/15/09 18:12:10.855153 zmwatch[4607].ERR [Can't get shared memory id '7a6d0005', 5: No such file or directory]

Also, here's some ERR from my /var/log/messages:

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Apr 15 20:15:47 hank-zm zmdc[4517]: ERR ['zma -m 4' exited abnormally, exit status 255]
Apr 15 20:16:07 hank-zm zmc_dvideo0[6212]: ERR [Sync failure for frame 3 buffer 1: Interrupted system call]
Apr 15 20:16:07 hank-zm zmc_dvideo0[6212]: ERR [Failed to capture image from monitor 5 (3/4)]
Apr 15 20:16:08 hank-zm zmdc[4517]: ERR ['zmc -d /dev/video0' exited abnormally, exit status 255]
Apr 15 20:16:23 hank-zm zmc_dvideo0[6230]: ERR [Sync failure for frame 1 buffer 1: Interrupted system call]

And finally, the apache error log:

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Thu Apr 16 13:24:38 2009] [error] [client 192.168.1.56] File does not exist: /srv/www/htdocs/am
[Thu Apr 16 13:24:38 2009] [error] [client 192.168.1.56] File does not exist: /srv/www/htdocs/favicon.ico
[Thu Apr 16 13:24:41 2009] [error] [client 192.168.1.56] File does not exist: /srv/www/htdocs/favicon.ico
[Thu Apr 16 13:24:54 2009] [error] [client 192.168.1.56] PHP Notice:  Undefined index:  newEnabled in /srv/www/htdocs/zm/includes/actions.php on line 969, referer: http://192.168.1.58/zm/?view=function&mid=1
[Thu Apr 16 13:55:27 2009] [error] [client 192.168.1.56] PHP Notice:  Undefined index:  Enabled in /srv/www/htdocs/zm/skins/classic/views/monitor.php on line 386, referer: http://192.168.1.58/zm/index.php?view=monitor&mid=5

[johngc]

I have been having a similar problem but found this post:

http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewto ... 9955c7f9dd

which helped a bit and allowed me to go from two worthless video feeds to two full size colour ones with the occasional flicker.

I have had to drop the fps to get rid of the flicker and am in the process of experimenting to find the best fps for my system (I have even found that at some fps I get the same footage from both cameras! - I assume that it is a shortcoming of my card)

I am using Ubuntu 8.04 server and a Generic BT878 capture card (4 ports one chip and only 2 in use)

[johngc]

Oh and I also found that by going Options > Config and disabling the V4L_MULTI_BUFFER option helped and meant that I could leave my fps at the default setting

[chiefchief]

Thank you so much! That worked perfectly!