Page 1 of 1

FFMPEG passthrough can not play video & what are best libraries?

Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2020 8:46 pm
by mlw19mlw91
I can not play back a camera's video for which live video works. It worked when setup as RTSP stream but I wanted to try to set it up as ffmpeg to see the effect of using 264 passthrough had on cpu load. I am using an android with IPwebcam software as the camera
so yeah I can view it live, but I can not watch any events.

I do not have this problem with RTSP stream in the Source: Remote option.

Also, are the best libraries installed by default with the zoneminder setup for the raspberry pi? I am curious to see the effect on CPU load of every option as I hope to get a frew cameras on one raspberry pi

Re: FFMPEG passthrough can not play video & what are best libraries?

Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2020 12:10 am
by bbunge
Get the stream to work in VLC and use that source string in Zoneminder. And get the resolution right!

Re: FFMPEG passthrough can not play video & what are best libraries?

Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2020 6:15 am
by tommisgr
After you get it working on VLC look into the tools menu -> codec (Ctrl+J)
to get the exact resolution especially Android IP webcam have some "interesting" resolutions.
u can change that from the android app (video options)

Re: FFMPEG passthrough can not play video & what are best libraries?

Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2020 1:53 pm
by knight-of-ni
If the camera is streaming H265, rather than H264, you will get these symptoms. Check the camera.
Most browsers do not (yet?) support H265 playback.

Re: FFMPEG passthrough can not play video & what are best libraries?

Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2020 2:47 pm
by mlw19mlw91
ah thanks for the tips guys I got it working. Heres what it was:
Screen Shot 10-04-20 at 10.42 AM 06.JPG
Screen Shot 10-04-20 at 10.42 AM 06.JPG (79.44 KiB) Viewed 10746 times
the IP webcam software for android by Pavel Khlebovich 2013 version has a different area to set the resolution for JPEG's.

Hope this helps someone else!

Also I didn't always find that the CPU load is lower, although the max seems lower and the min seems lower, it seems to mostly stay around the same load give or take. I didn't really do any "scientific" test but yeah no huge noticeable improvement switching from rtsp to ffmpeg so far even with the passthrough. I'm going to try both in different conditions and see.

Re: FFMPEG passthrough can not play video & what are best libraries?

Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2020 4:32 pm
by tommisgr
Also you cannot change the FPS of the camera from the web interface of the IPCam App but u can directly from the phone inside the settings of the app.