how to get started

kroiz · Post by **kroiz** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 11:25 am

Hi
I want to start playing with zoneminder.

can I use my machine and still be able to work with it like before?
What kind of hardware do I need to buy (except camera of course)? do I need a capture card?

Thanks

bb99 · Post by **bb99** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 6:27 pm

Go to Linuxtracker.org and get a copy of one of RDMelin's live CD's and play with that first. These are mostly preconfigured and will help you determine what you ultimately want to do for hardware, scale, and whether you want to do a dedicated machine.

kroiz · Post by **kroiz** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 9:15 pm

bb99 wrote:Go to Linuxtracker.org and get a copy of one of RDMelin's live CD's and play with that first. These are mostly preconfigured and will help you determine what you ultimately want to do for hardware, scale, and whether you want to do a dedicated machine.

Thanks for your reply.
I do not want a dedicated machine cause that is out of my budget.
I just want the minimum: to have one camera (low frame rate is fine) and for the stream to be recorded on my ubuntu.

in the wiki there there is a list of compatible hardware:
# 1 Capture Cards
# 2 bt8x8 Cards
# 3 Analog Cameras
# 4 Network Cameras
# 5 Network Digitizers
# 6 USB Cameras
# 7 X10 Devices
but I don't understand, from that list, what should I buy ....

also I cannot find in linux tracker that distro: RDMelin.
and I don't understand exactly what its intent.

bb99 · Post by **bb99** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 11:38 pm

He's a guy not a distro. He puts together Zoneminder Live CD's that work. Category is Zoneminder at Linuxtracker.org; several Live CD's there to choose from but maybe I'm pushing you too far too fast. You can try building ZM against your current box and using a USB cam to play with that's getting by on the cheap. The other options will cost you a lot more.