Anyone building any Linux based DVR Systems???

[TechJunkies 0]

I was wondering if anyone here had any experience building linux based systems and how well they have been working for you. Any info regarding the type of motherboards, video cards, and DVR cards used would be greatly apprecitaed. I am considering building one myself but thought I would ask if anyone had already done so.

 

Thanks Guys

[CollinR 0]

ZoneMinder is the only open source I know of.

 

The others are usually on some RTOS so they are very hardware dependent, usually on an intergrated board.

[TechJunkies 0]

thanks man, anyone here ever used it or are most people using windows based systems

[CollinR 0]

Most use Windows XP some have XP/XPe hybrids and some are straight up XPe.

 

If you have a lot of *nix experience I am sure the zoneminder community would appreciate your help.

[sinbad 0]

honestly i think it's kinda funny we install security system on unstable OS, let alone opening it for remote connections etc.

if I had the ass to learn *nix I would go ZoneMinder. think of the saving of the DVR card (zone minder will run on $150 card..-compare that with AverMedia/GV...)and also the license for MS.

 

also would be pretty easy I believe to brand it with u'r company if you know what you doing, and IMHO will be easier for me to sell if I could also mention that it's runs on stabler OS, think OpenBSD/FreeBSD server with DVR

now thats what I call security

[Kumba 0]

ZoneMinder will only run on Linux as it uses the Video 4 Linux driver-model. The popular thing to do is use BT878 cards since this is a very mature and stable chipset. But you can use any capture card that supports a V4L Driver.

 

ZoneMinder also stores it's recording as MJPEG.

 

You can configure ffmpeg to stream the MJPEG files (basically each frame = jpeg) as SWF or AVI or H.264 or whatever you feel like compiling. Also keep in mind the amount of CPU power needed to stream H.264 in realtime.

 

You do need to have a solid grasp on linux to install a reliable system. The generic RedHat or Fedora Core install will not lead to a stable linux system. It typically never has. Also the Microsoft update mentality is your enemy. Just because an update exists, doesn't mean you need it. Newer is not always better.

 

The bad news is there is no "Client Application" which means you are locked into whatever browser they use and the BS antispyware/antivirus/anti-anti-anti-friendly browser programs they use. I dont know how many services calls i've had because the computer they were using had "Norton Internet Security" on it and norton figured that all java was bad.

 

There is also no voice-recording (yet). It's in the words with the next major release.

[rory 0]

XP is only unstable if left in default installation mode.

In other words, with some minor setup you can make it as stable (near enough) as any other, with a decent DVR software application that is.

 

If you run it on XP without any tweaking, other 3rd party apps, bad drivers/hardware, bad DVR software, automatic updates, and all ports wide open .. expect the worse.

 

If you want something theoretically more stable than that (out of the box), look into embedded RTOS systems. Though even with them, they can have issues.