ZoneMinder Forums

Hi,

another question regarding zoneminder ( I have posted a generic bttv question to the non-zm chat )

when I finally get the camera image feed displayed through a monitor function ( need to run xawtv before the image will actually display )

then I add another monitor - this time function is morecord, from the same source - then the display stops working.

Q1: can you only have one monitor defined for one camera source. ( /dev/video0, channel 1 )

Q2: using the morecord on its own, capturing from within my office, I am getting alerts raised all the time

I have edited the 'zone all' and bumped up min pixel threhold to 25%,but still getting alarms, even though it is capturing a static wall, with nothing moving.

Can somebody provide a working zone parameter setting, so I can test a real motion event.

Regards

Doug.

BTW: Awsesome project, just trying to get my head around all the various parameter settings.

Uncheck "ZM_STRICT_VIDEO_CONFIG" in options - config. that takes care of the xawtv "problem".

Thanks for the reply Kim - I have my test system at work - so will find out on Monday, if you are correct - I REALLY hope it will elimiate having to start xawtv manually, just to get the zmc ( capture ) app working. ( I was thinking that xawtv was doing some extra configuration, that zmc/ bttv kernel module wasn't.

Further to one of my other questions, say I have one camera only system ( connected to my 4 port clone 878a card ) - can multiple monitors be defined to use the same physical camera feed.

Why I ask, say I wish to have a 'detect only' monitor which calls a bash script, to send a sms text message ( gnokki package - smsd ) to my mobile phone and a second monitor set as 'morecord' which does the footage archive and I can query after the event.

Q: Can you have multiple monitors defined for the same camera feed, which have different functions.


Regards

Doug.

Yes i think you can have several monitors to one source. i saw a post about that somwhere here just recent.

I just tried this on my system, which has four multiplexed inputs on the video capture card going to a single BT878 chip. Normally I have a different zm monitor defined for each input (channel), but I edited all the monitors to point to the same channel.

With one monitor set to Modect, one set to Mocord, and two set to Monitor, I was able to see the same video (live tennis match from cable TV feed) on all four monitors in montage. And this is on a 200MHz Pentium Pro! (Only 1 fps though )

So yes, you can definitely drive more than one zm monitor from the same video source.

Thanks for the confirmation - at least I know it works ( for someone else, not me )

this chipset ( conexant fusion 878a ) has been mentioned in previous posts, where it has been confirmed as working fine.

http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3591

Kim's suggestion about turning off the ZM_STRICT_VIDEO_CONFIG option did not help.

Still after a fresh reboot, zm will not display any image feed ( just a blue screen ) until I run xawtv.

I have run a 'zmu -d 0 -q -v' before and after the event, and the only difference reported is :

The working palette is defined as 'Palette: 7 - YUV422 capture'

where before it is defined as 'Palette: 4 - 24bit RGB' - when a blue screen is displayed. Immediately xawtv is started, zm displays the video feed also.

I have also tried the zm config of 'Palette: 13 - YUV 4:2:2 Planar' but that made no difference. running xawtv again, chaned the settings to 'Palette: 7 - YUV422 capture'

( I am using version 1.19.1 of zm, from the live cd install, mandrake 10.0 )

/etc/modprobe.conf :

options i2c-algo-bit bit_test=1
options bttv card=77 bttv_debug=0

in /var/log/messages I notice ( when video isn't working )

zmc-d0[12720]: ERR [Failed to set window attributes: Invalid argument]
zma-m16[12725]: ERR [Shared memory not initialised by capture daemon]

( I assume the zma error is the result of zmc error )

Window settings tried are 320x240 - this seems to make no difference if I try 352x288 or 384x288 - just always require xawtv to be started first.


And as above, if 2 monitors are 'connected' to the same video source, both images stop working.

Anyone else with thoughts ?

Regards

Doug.

ok, still investigating how xawtv configures the palette correctly. ( where zmc doesn't )

options available in zm are ( grey, rgb24, YUV422P, etc )

now if I use any of the 3 listed above, I get a blue whiteout screen ( solid black for the grey option )

when I run xawtv, the picture appears.

checking the differences, using v4l-info util ( before xawtv is run and after xawtv is run), the palette changes to a depth of 16 and palette is set to YUV422 ( note: no 'P' ) - from either RGB24 or YUV422P

How does the zmc daemon set the palette behind the scene ? Is it possible to add a new palette within zm, so I can configure zm to use YUV422 ?

Thanks

Doug.