ZoneMinder Forums

I'm stumped by this one. I have one computer and I've set up two different hard drives, the first one Fedora FC3 with Zone Minder 1.21.4 (I think thats the version), the other one has Fedora FC4 with Zone Minder 1.22.0. All the other hardware is the same. I just swap connectors on the hard drives when I want to try something. So here's the problem:

I initially set things up on the computer using the drive with FC3 and a generic video board. The system works pretty good, the Modect feature works great but it was a small hard drive and I wanted more space. Once in a while I'd get a bogus alarm both nothing to worry about since I hadn't really tuned the system yet.

So, I installed FC4 on the new drive and figured to use the latest ZM. Everything is all set up and the image on the screen pulsates like someone is slowly dimming the lights ever so slightly in a random fashion. This effect is causing continues alarm triggering and saving of events that are totally meaningless.

I don't have a clue as to what could be causing this. I did set the Reference blend image from the default 7% to 10% to see if that would cure the problem with no change. All other parameters are the same as near as I can tell.

So, where is my problem? Have I done something wrong or is here an interesting bug in the new ZM ?!

I can upload images from either version if that would help.

Thanks,

Brad

Are you syaing the live image pulsates? Does it only do that in ZM or do you get the same effect in xawtv? Is it a quick flicker (ie. possibly mains related) or a slow one?

Phil,

I hadn't checked using a different source until you mentioned it. I just used tvtime to check the image and under fc3 that has zm version 1.21.4 (I think) its rock steady. When I plug in the other hard drive with fc4 and version 1.22.0 when using tvtime the image is flickering up and down pretty rapidly. Its apparently not a matter of the image fading in and out its a matter of the image moving up and down. Its not very apparent in looking at the stills through zm but when looking at a live feed on tvtime its amazing how much the image is moving.

This obviously leaves out zm as the source of the problem. Any ideas as to what the problem could be? I'm a neophite at linux and can barely make my way around. But you have to start somewhere...

is this a local Bttv cam and if so how local as this sounds like a sync problem to me. can you make a small video?

jameswilson wrote:is this a local Bttv cam and if so how local as this sounds like a sync problem to me. can you make a small video?

It doesn't appear to be a hardware issue. I unplugged the camera from the video board and the text that shows up on the blue image is flickering up and down. That tells me it has to be a software issue of some kind, totally unrelated to zm. Its either the OS, one of the drivers and/or associated libraries. I'm going to dig through all of the modules installed and see if I can see which ones have different rev levels. Also, all of the modules (such as ffmpeg) were installed from RPMs for FC4. I might try using the tar.gz versions instead to see if that makes any difference.

One thing does come to mind however. When I was installing the RPMs most of them were the i386 versions for FC4 but I know I installed at least one that was an i686 version for FC4. The machine is an intel pentium 850 mhz with only 256 meg memory (for now anyway). I don't see how it could be a memory problem since it works just fine in FC3.

If anyone has any thoughts that would be great.

Thanks,

Brad

i can only assume its a bttv issue

Do you have the same card type etc in modules.conf?

zoneminder wrote:Do you have the same card type etc in modules.conf?

On the FC4 drive I looked for modules.conf in the /etc directory and its not there. Nor is it in the /etc directory of the FC3 drive.

On the FC3 drive I did look in the modprobe.conf file and I had placed the statement "options bttv card=121" at the end of the file but I think I did that while playing around trying to get the picolo card to work.

Should there be a modules.conf file and if so where is it?

Thanks,

Brad

i dont know but if it were me id do a search for it?

jameswilson wrote:i dont know but if it were me id do a search for it?

I did, modules.conf does not exist on my computer.

i have read on here mate about different versions of linux being modules based and non modules based. Now as far as i can remeber the modules based distro's use a modprobe and the others dont. But how they do it i have no idea. Dont suppose you have tried creating one in /etc have you? Mind i have no idea what would happen

jameswilson wrote:i have read on here mate about different versions of linux being modules based and non modules based. Now as far as i can remeber the modules based distro's use a modprobe and the others dont. But how they do it i have no idea. Dont suppose you have tried creating one in /etc have you? Mind i have no idea what would happen

I doubt that would make a difference, mainly because my FC3 version doesn't have a modules.conf and it works fine. You're probably right that it is a bttv related issue. I might have to uninstall those rpms and find the tar.gz files and give it a go that way and see what happens.

Just wish I had more time!

Brad

oh right fc3 didnt have a modprobe.conf either? i have no clue then. I think Corey is the only one that can answer this.

I missed you stating you didnt have it on your fx3 box. But i edit my modprobe.conf (mandrake based distro) not a modules.conf not sure if its relevant

jameswilson wrote:oh right fc3 didnt have a modprobe.conf either? i have no clue then. I think Corey is the only one that can answer this.

I missed you stating you didnt have it on your fx3 box. But i edit my modprobe.conf (mandrake based distro) not a modules.conf not sure if its relevant

I'm hoping Corey chimes in on this one!

I'll keep looking around but needless to say its got me baffled.

Brad

Yep i think we need saving on this one lol