ZoneMinder Forums

Hi all,

In an effort to make my recordings from my camera more efficient, I was wondering what is the point of hooking into a cameras MPEG4/H.264 stream?

It seems ZM operates on in individual JPEGS, so selecting MPEG4/H264 is forcing ZM to grab that video stream and convert it back to JPEGs.

Wouldn't going for the MJPEG stream demand less work from the ZM host as there is not conversion needed?

Thanks

Note: It's entirely possible I've misunderstood this completely and am about to make an arse of myself. If that's so, please let me down gently...

Do you mean MPEG4 instead of RTSP? RTSP is an alternative to HTTP for transport but afaik, still delivers an MPEG4 instead of MJPEG or JPG. You can get mpeg4 via http too.

If that's the case, then I can answer that. A whole lotta ip cameras only do MPEG4 and although you could still do an mpeg4 by first converting it to jpg with ffmpeg externally, it was a lot of faff and the new system is much easier.

And yes, mpeg4 is more processor intensive for the reason you give, so if your camera does have the choice, better to pick mjpg or jpg.

Ahhh thanks Flash_

Yes I think I had a typo in there. I will fix it.

But yes, you have answered that. I made the assumption that an MPEG4/H.264 stream over RTSP is a newer feature in ZM and thus must be the better way to go. But you have agreed I am right in my thinking.

I will have ZM hook into the MJPEG stream and save the MPEG4 stream for ad-hoc viewing in VLC.

Thank you.