video storage (h264)

Forum for questions and support relating to the 1.25.x releases only.
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macropin
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri May 18, 2012 12:40 am

video storage (h264)

Post by macropin »

Is it possible to record / store in h264 (or mpeg etc) rather than individual jpeg frames?

I've just built out a ZM install with 5 high res Geovision cams. The cams generate highly optimised h264 (via RTSP) which then gets blown out when zoneminder converts each frame into a single jpeg image, resulting in a massive waste of disk space and a waste of CPU as the frames are converted. FWIW, we're not even using ZM for motion detection (in any case our cams could do that in hardware), but it's not required as there is always motion. We just need a robust solution that can store 3-4 days worth of video. Am I right in thinking that ZM is not really designed for this? It seems ZM is better suited to 'dumb' low resolution cams, and scenarios where you *need* modect done in software.

TIA
N2UAD
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue May 15, 2012 8:14 pm

Re: video storage (h264)

Post by N2UAD »

This may not work for you but...

This is how I get a video from the individual jpg files. First I uncheck "USE_DEEP_STORAGE" in the Paths options. This way I can easily get all the jpg files for each event in 1 directory.
Then I use ffmpeg (seems to be called avconv now) to make a video. Replace the shell vars with what you need.

avconv -f image2 -i /tmp/%03d$$.jpg $VIDEO_SIZE -r $FPS -loglevel error $mpg_fpath|tee -a $LOG_FILE
-i is where the jpg file are located
-r for frames per second
Video size is -svga

Perhaps you would be better off using the manufacturers PC software - if they provide one. If it's Windows software then use VirtualBox to run Windows on your Linux machine.
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