Windows/Linux hybride | Security | Video

[swat]

I would like to ZoneMinder to be available to Windows-systems too. So that one can hook up webcams to Windows-systems AND Linux-systems, and afterwards can look at in 1 program.

I would also like to see a beef up in security on the streaming media, if it is possible. So that one can look 'through' the internet and know that no-one is looking with you!

Maybe you can add an option to use an alternative 'codec' to encrypt movies, like Xvid, Divx? It works faster & better than MPEG.

What are the system requirements for 1 and/or 2 USB camera's with MPEG compression? (bare Linux system with Debian, minimum install)

[zoneminder]

Hi Sebastian,

Porting ZM to Windows is not likely to be very simple as there's quite a bit of very Linux specific stuff in there concerning process management and shared memory etc. As I mentioned in another thread I see Windows boxes perhaps as an adjunct and performing certain specialised functions (for instance monitoring the event file system and recoding videos as they appear as you have suggested).

Regarding securing streaming media I would think that the easiest way to do this is just by running the whole thing though a secure site just by using https unless I misunderstand what you are saying.

Your suggestion regarding alternative codecs is something I've tried to accomodate by having the whole movie making process encapsulated in the zmvideo.pl file. As and when I hear of alternative methods of creating mpegs or other video types I'll try and add them in but in the meantime it should be fairly easy for you to modify this file to try things out.

Finally, I would think you could easily accomodate two USB cams on an old P133 or so. It depends on how many USB buses you will be using as two cameras on the same bus will just share the bandwidth. It also depends on how much memory you put in there and what size of image you are capturing. I would suggest putting in lots of RAM just to allow for large buffers and the larger your image the more processing power is required to process it though the frame rate is likely to be limited by the USB bandwidth anyway.

Regards,

Phil,

[tech_fixer]

I bet there must be a program out there that can turn a camera connected to a Windows system into a streaming webcam. Something a la Axis netcam, through an http server, maybe supporting multiple cameras with different URLs. That way, the output can then be put into Zoneminder, just like an ordinary network camera.

Happy hunting.

Regards,
Jose Rodriguez

[swat]

Thanks for your advice/help.
I have an old Compaq deskpro 2000 (166Mhz, 32MB EDO RAM, 1GB HD, Cirrus graphicscard) with I want to equip with an PCI-USB card. The computer is so old, it doesn't have USB yet.
I want to install a DHCP server (doesn't need much resources) and a Debian3.0 distro together with 2 USBwebcams. I want a resolution of 640*480 with all colors and a high framerate......... Do you think the PC would be able to do this???
I ask you all of these questions because I still have to buy the webcams, and those are pretty expensive (about 40 - 60 euro's each!)

I thank you in advance

[heathpitts]

There is a program for windows that lets you make it into an http camera. It is from icode. http://www.i-catcher.co.uk

The program is about 20 dollars called i-Catcher video server. it let's you use all four inputs on an osprey video card as a network cam.

I am in the process of setting up zoneminder and this program to upload images to my website using ftp every 2 minutes.