ZoneMinder Forums

Searched and read forum and have gathered:

- Easiest distro's seem to be Mandrake and Ubuntu (lot of different answers found). I have heard the most about Ubuntu being easy for the first go around.

Ubuntu live CD requires 256 RAM. My Computer ~1.2GHz AMD. Planning on USB cameras (maybe).

Longest USB cable specification found (5 meters?):
http://www.usb.org/about/faq/ans5

So I need to go Ethernet? IP cams are too expensive. What's a good solution for webcams that are long distances from the host machine? Has anyone done a Beagleboard or something to make the transfer to Ethernet?

I saw this link:
http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13555

Seems that it is a deb package (?). This seems to explain deb packages:
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/ubuntu-lin ... -packages/

SO Am I on the right track??? Any help greatly appreciated

I am doing this for work and my boss is expecting me to have this done 3 days ago (was having problems getting multiple webcams to work on Windows using OpenCV).

USB with active USB hubs/cables can extend much further than 5 meters. There are also wireless USB hubs.

Network cameras are NOT expensive anymore.

Take a look at this one, just went on sale this week!

TrendNet TV-IP100-N Wired Network Camera
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6881102021

I am using one on my system right now and it works great!

mitch:
thanks. I am trying to find some way to type "I didn't know a/b wireless USB" and not feel like a moron. I knew there were wireless solutions, but ANYWAY, thanks. I went and looked at prices and wireless webcams that would link up to them.

MrEvoMan:
Thanks a lot for that link. I did a quick search and they were usually around $100.00 so this is nice, plus another software system. ZoneMinder seems to have more features. I like that the camera hardware encodes the video. When I was messing around in OpenCV(still don't really know what I am doing) it seemed that the encoding process just bogged things down even more.

I have Ubuntu 9,04 now, am searching the forums to see if I can find a package installer. Compiling from source or what not seems too much for my I-just-got-linux-this-morning skills.

Thanks for all your help!

Try this out, it just works...

http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1353

Everything has been tested and just about every extra application that has anything to do with Zoneminder is installed and working.

Have fun!

did you get more than one webcam to work at the same time? i am trying to do so but have not succeded, please help, using ubuntu 8.04.

Vandrian wrote: I have Ubuntu 9,04 now, am searching the forums to see if I can find a package installer. Compiling from source or what not seems too much for my I-just-got-linux-this-morning skills.

Thanks for all your help!

The instructions in the Wiki would probably work for your 9.04 version... just follow the 8.04 vanilla walkthrough. it's VERY well written, even if it is compiling from source.

Again, I would strongly recommend the use of IP cams, like the TrendNet ones I listed. Inexpensive and they work well.

There are four liveCD's available which is the easiest route and freely downloadable. I don't recommend usb cams as the drivers in the kernel sometimes get fussy with multiple cams.

The cheapest possible way is usually cctv cams. You can get baluns to send the video over twisted pair ( ie CAT3 or better) or a translator to send video and power over rg59 coax ( or an 75 ohm coax really).

IP cams are the best way to go as you can use POE if the cam is capable of it but your limited to the limits of Ethernet and would have to have an active device every 350 feet or so. IP cams are also not restricted to the NTSC, PAL, or any of the analog video standards.