ZoneMinder Forums

Hello, I installed 1.32.3 on Ubuntu 18.04 and as a test added one of my UVC G3 cameras as an RTSP source. It works, but spottily. I can set it up and the stream will record and I can preview, but then if I leave the system alone for a few hours it eventually just stops pulling frames. The camera itself is still capturing and I can see the rtsp stream by URI in VLC media player, so it's still working. Just for some reason after some unknown period of time ZM loses the ability to capture from the camera.

Generally this can be temporarily fixed by deleting and setting up the source again, but this eventually fails as well.

This is just a test scenario and I will actually be using ZM with a couple of HIK cameras (4k or better quality, to capture petty theft on our street). But I'm just curious if anyone knows what is going on with my Unifi cameras. Everything seems to be fine camera-side. It just stops pulling frames.

Posting your hardware information would help.

However, according to the developers, 1.33x will move to stable shortly. It is already more stable than 1.32x for many of us. Suggest that you try 1.33x since you are just testing right now. Instructions at https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Welcome.

The host machine is an Intel NUC5CPYH, running Ubuntu 18.04 and ZM 1.32.3. The camera is a Unifi UVC G3. I'll try updating when it's marked as stable.

How much RAM is in the NUC5CPYH?
Are you running WIFI or Ethernet on the NUC5CPYH?
Mariadb or MySQL?
Drive type and size?
Server or Desktop version of Bionic?
Camera resolution set in Zoneminder and number of cameras? Camera FPS?
Instructions used to install Zoneminder?
Lastly... free shared memory (/dev/shm)?
And the 1.33.x version recommendation is strongly recommended again! 1.34.x will be out soon and will not have many changes from the current 1.33.x.

I'll honestly be amazed if this information leads to any kind of an answer, but it's something to do I guess:

RAM: Crucial 8GB Single DDR3L 1600 MT/s (PC3L-12800) SODIMM 204-Pin Laptop Memory (CT102464BF160B)
Network: WiFi
DB: MySQL (the default)
HDD: Toshiba 1TB 5400RPM SATA3/SATA 6.0 GB/s 8MB Notebook Hard Drive (2.5 inch)- MQ01ABD100
Bionic version: Desktop
Camera resolution: 1920x1080
Number of cameras: 1
Camera FPS: 30 (default)
ZoneMinder installed via apt-get using ZoneMinder team's PPA
ZM status shows /dev/shm at 16%

Possible the wifi may be the issue.
RAM and shared memory OK
Try lowering the resolution in zm by half and lower the frame rate by half at the camera.
Consider using a minimal server version on the box and Mariadb vs. mysql.
Use the Bionic install instructions on the wiki

I have found that the newer firmware on the UVC G3 series borks the rtsp feeds! I reset my cams back to the earliest firmware, 4.2.59 and they work just fine and never drop! It's odd as on the newer firmwares from mid-2020, VLC pulls the rtsp feed just fine, but zoneminder does not, the video is heavily jumbled and unreadable and it does not detect the proper FPS. It's as if it can't translate the frames on the rtsp feed?

Will need debug logs to have any clue what is going on.