ZoneMinder on a NAS, Plus Camera Suggestions?

[m00dawg]

I'm wanting to deploy some IP + PoE cameras around the outside of my house. I'm actually trying to use a local security camera installer, but haven't found one I've been super happy with yet. Since I'm wanting to go with ZoneMinder, most either won't let me do that level of customization (I need to buy their garbage NVR) or just don't know enough about the technology to know what I'm wanting.

So I'm pondering doing my own install entirely or maybe finding a more basic contractor to handle mounting of the cameras and running of wires (which is all I really need). If I do, what tends to be good outdoor cameras for a typical residential setup? Axis cameras seem great but seems like they don't do direct to consumer and are super expensive.

Likewise, motion capture aside (I read on other posts that takes quite a bit of CPU), I have a custom Linux NAS which is running on an AMD E-350 dual core proc (sort of AMD's answer to Intel Atom's) with 8GB RAM and a btrfs RAID10 equivalent. I have at least 5TB on the thing available so I'd like to use it if I can. Curious if anyone has run Zone Minder on a similar setup?

[jaybo]

The AMD E-350 scores a rating of ~750 on passmark cou rating website. That is an extremely low score.
Where an intel i5 would be 4000-6000.

I would think you would almost instantly max out the cpu utilization with 2 cameras.

Im doing pre-install queries myself, but from what Im reading , if you will use any time of motion detection or high res capturing, then that cpu is too slow.


Jay

[m00dawg]

Indeed it's not a powerhouse. At the time I wanted a passively cooled low power solution. I've run into a few issues with it but overall not many. I noticed folks are running ZM on Raspberry Pi2's now. Motion detection might be a nice feature but turning it off should considerably lower CPU?

For cameras that have motion detection is it possible to just leverage that when recording or will I always need to do any motion detection on ZoneMinder itself for it to be useful?

[m00dawg]

As an update, I bought a Foscam FI9821P and set things up with my NAS. With it not doing much else other than ZoneMinder, the load is around .3 using the Modetect option. I used Fast - Low Sensitivity for the zone and draw a parallelogram that covers about 60% or the screen or so (basically over both windows and our front door). I'm assuming that causes less overhead when doing motion detection over just trying to detect movement over the entire frame? This is using a 6.25% image blend as well. If I just go to raw recording with no motion detection, load was more around .15 as I recall. This is recording 1280x720 resolution at 5fps (I think - can't remember what I set the fps to on the camera itself and you have to configure that setting, annoyingly, on Windows).

That's decent enough for my needs as a proof of concept test. It does indicate 4 cameras might put a strain on resources if I'm doing motion detection along with all the other things the NAS does. I'll have to ponder what the best route to go there is (probably upgrading the NAS with an ITX board that can support a more capable CPU, albeit one that's still reasonable on power/heat).

Anyways just thought I'd share my findings should anyone find them helpful!