ZoneMinder Forums

Hi All,

I am using an i3, 24gb ram, FreeNAS 11.3-U5 jail that has the zonemider plugin 1.34.21

Cameras : Amcrest 851b:1 and Amcrest 1050b:2 - 720p UDP H264 Camera PassThrough

Is the GeForce GT 730 video card good enough to use? I know it shows up on FreebSD as I key in "ffmpeg -hwaccels" I see it is detected

Do I just add this to Source/DecoderHWAccelName "vdpau" or do I need more?

Do I need to populate : DecoderHWAccelDevice as well? what is the typical value I should look for winth Linux/FreeBSD?

root@zm3:~ # ffmpeg -hwaccels
ffmpeg version 4.3.1 Copyright (c) 2000-2020 the FFmpeg developers
built with FreeBSD clang version 10.0.0 (git@github.com:llvm/llvm-project.git llvmorg-10.0.0-0-gd32170dbd5b)
configuration: --prefix=/usr/local --mandir=/usr/local/man --datadir=/usr/local/share/ffmpeg --pkgconfigdir=/usr/local/libdata/pkgconfig --enable-shared --enable-pic --enable-gpl --enable-avresample --cc=cc --cxx=c++ --disable-alsa --disable-libopencore-amrnb --disable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libaom --disable-libaribb24 --enable-asm --enable-libass --disable-libbs2b --disable-libcaca --disable-libcdio --disable-libcelt --disable-libcodec2 --enable-libdav1d --disable-libdavs2 --disable-libdc1394 --disable-debug --enable-htmlpages --enable-libdrm --disable-libfdk-aac --disable-libflite --enable-fontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-frei0r --disable-libfribidi --disable-gcrypt --disable-libglslang --disable-libgme --enable-gmp --enable-gnutls --enable-version3 --disable-libgsm --enable-iconv --disable-libilbc --disable-libjack --disable-libklvanc --disable-libkvazaar --disable-ladspa --enable-libmp3lame --disable-liblensfun --disable-libbluray --disable-librsvg --disable-librtmp --enable-libxml2 --disable-lto --disable-lv2 --disable-mbedtls --disable-libmfx --disable-libmodplug --disable-libmysofa --disable-nonfree --disable-openal --disable-opencl --enable-libopencv --disable-opengl --disable-libopenh264 --disable-libopenjpeg --disable-libopenmpt --disable-openssl --enable-optimizations --enable-libopus --disable-pocketsphinx --disable-libpulse --disable-librabbitmq --disable-librav1e --enable-runtime-cpudetect --disable-librubberband --disable-sdl2 --disable-libsmbclient --disable-libsnappy --disable-sndio --disable-libsoxr --disable-libspeex --disable-libsrt --disable-libssh --disable-libtensorflow --disable-libtesseract --enable-libtheora --disable-libtwolame --enable-libv4l2 --enable-vaapi --disable-vapoursynth --enable-vdpau --disable-libvidstab --disable-libvmaf --enable-libvorbis --disable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvpx --disable-vulkan --disable-libwavpack --disable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --disable-libxavs2 --enable-libxcb --enable-libxvid --disable-outdev=xv --disable-libzimg --disable-libzmq --disable-libzvbi
libavutil 56. 51.100 / 56. 51.100
libavcodec 58. 91.100 / 58. 91.100
libavformat 58. 45.100 / 58. 45.100
libavdevice 58. 10.100 / 58. 10.100
libavfilter 7. 85.100 / 7. 85.100
libavresample 4. 0. 0 / 4. 0. 0
libswscale 5. 7.100 / 5. 7.100
libswresample 3. 7.100 / 3. 7.100
libpostproc 55. 7.100 / 55. 7.100
Hardware acceleration methods:
vdpau
vaapi
drm

Well, I think I have it working...

I just added this to Source/DecoderHWAccelName "vdpau"

I had to disable UDP multicast and switch to UDP on this 841b over a 10/100 connection. I don't like the way it conencts as it does NOT directly connect to my cisco switches. The other two 1050b cameras could not do UDP multicast over my WIFI system so they were already set to UDP.

Now I am just going to let it run and see how well it does, if the CPU is reduced and RAM.

is there a program like HTOP or TOP that would show how much RAM on the video card is being used? To use the video card does it have to be the primary display or should I have my monitor plugged into the onboard INTEL Graphics?

not sure why I am getting these errors in the logs, looks like no hardware acceleration:

root@zm:/var/log # cat /var/log/messages | grep -i hwaccel
Feb 19 01:04:21 zm zmc_m2[88484]: ERR [zmc_m2] [Failed to create hwaccel device. Unknown error occurred]
Feb 19 01:04:25 zm zmc_m1[88478]: ERR [zmc_m1] [Failed to create hwaccel device. Unknown error occurred]
Feb 19 02:06:49 zm zmc_m6[83279]: ERR [zmc_m6] [Failed to create hwaccel device. Unknown error occurred]
Feb 19 02:06:54 zm zmc_m5[84146]: ERR [zmc_m5] [Failed to create hwaccel device. Unknown error occurred]
Feb 19 07:29:28 zm zmc_m2[99117]: ERR [zmc_m2] [Failed to create hwaccel device. Unknown error occurred]
Feb 19 07:29:29 zm zmc_m4[99145]: ERR [zmc_m4] [Failed to create hwaccel device. Unknown error occurred]
Feb 19 07:29:31 zm zmc_m1[99105]: ERR [zmc_m1] [Failed to create hwaccel device. Unknown error occurred]
Feb 19 07:29:32 zm zmc_m6[99171]: ERR [zmc_m6] [Failed to create hwaccel device. Unknown error occurred]
Feb 19 07:29:33 zm zmc_m3[99131]: ERR [zmc_m3] [Failed to create hwaccel device. Unknown error occurred]
Feb 19 07:29:35 zm zmc_m5[99159]: ERR [zmc_m5] [Failed to create hwaccel device. Unknown error occurred]
root@zm:/var/log #

I have the same issue, what I have done is use upper case:
Source/DecoderHWAccelName "VDPAU" or "VAAPI"

There are no errors but also not sure if it's working

ffmpeg will silently fall back to a working config, so if it is not working you kindof don't know. Cuda you can run an app that tells you how much RAM is used for your gpu apps. I will try your suggestion on uppercase but I doubt that matters. What I have found is that a FreeNAS jail has to have the devices from the OS sent to the jail or you don't get the device even to use.

https://github.com/ZoneMinder/zoneminder/issues/3063

so it seems that there are issues trying to get hardware acceleration to work. My issue might be related to getting the video card as a PCIe deivce passed into the jail and then installing/configuring the nvidia drivers for FreeBSD in my jail.

I need to turn up debugging to see what is really happening. There are times I get this :

root@zm:/var/log # tail -n 99 /var/log/messages | grep -i hwaccel
Feb 20 01:04:19 zm zmc_m2[8095]: ERR [zmc_m2] [Failed to create hwaccel device. Unknown error occurred]
Feb 20 01:04:23 zm zmc_m1[8089]: ERR [zmc_m1] [Failed to create hwaccel device. Unknown error occurred]
Feb 20 02:06:55 zm zmc_m6[3867]: ERR [zmc_m6] [Failed to create hwaccel device. Unknown error occurred]
Feb 20 02:06:59 zm zmc_m5[3854]: ERR [zmc_m5] [Failed to create hwaccel device. Unknown error occurred]
Feb 20 05:57:13 zm zmc_m6[13755]: ERR [zmc_m6] [Failed to create hwaccel device. Unknown error occurred]
Feb 20 05:57:23 zm zmc_m4[13781]: ERR [zmc_m4] [Failed to create hwaccel device. Unknown error occurred]
Feb 20 05:57:33 zm zmc_m2[13804]: ERR [zmc_m2] [Failed to create hwaccel device. Unknown error occurred]
root@zm:/var/log #

hardware acceleration with zoneminder 1.34 and FreeNAS/TrueNAS is possible to get working with the onboard Intel graphics and ATI. Nvidia is like a curse to opensource and very difficult to get to do anything EXCEPT what the propietary drivers are written for, games or CAD software and a single desktop application.

I have given up on the GeForce 730 until I get can FreeNAS Scale to work with a container and pass thru the device.

This issue is closed and impossible to get working with the current FreeBSD based FreeNAS/TrueNAS Core.

It's great that you're exploring hardware options for your setup. The GeForce GT 730 video card seems like a reasonable choice, especially if it's being detected and supports hardware acceleration methods like vdpau. Adding "vdpau" to Source/DecoderHWAccelName could be a good step to take. If you're still looking for advice on the best graphics cards, you might want to check out resources which discuss the best RTX 4090 GPUs. Remember that compatibility and performance can vary based on your specific needs and configuration. Best of luck with your setup and happy computing!