Almost There

[volantis]

I am new to Ubuntu and Zoneminder. As a former VB programmer and hack from the 1980s I am making a lot of progress in learning the system.

I am running 64 bit Ubuntu 12.10 with ZM 1.25, and installed the Java plugin. My machine is a Quad Core Q8200 with 8GB RAM.

I cannot remember the exact brand of my camera card, but it is an 8 port BT878 setup. The card worked well for several years under my former Windows XP system.

I can see the ZM page in my browser. I have tried to setup a camera but no video stream is coming in. Can someone help me understand the final tweaks needed to get the video working?

Thanks, Dave

[PatMcLJr]

maybe you could try and put a usb cam on the box and see if that will give you a stream?
you can watch and see if the cam shows up when you plug it in with

watch 'ls /dev -al | grep video' -n 5 -d

use Ctl-c to quit

you need to be careful with hardware selection and linux distros, there are really few options when it comes to usb cams and these TV cards

[volantis]

Below is information on my capture card. It looks like it is only registering 4 cameras when I have 8 on this one card. do I need to do a tweak to get it to register the full 8 cameras?

Video Device: /dev/video0
General Capabilities
Driver: bttv
Card: BT878 video ( *** UNKNOWN/GENER
Bus: PCI:0000:02:08.0
Version: 3.5.7
Type: 0x5000015
Supports video capture (X)
Does not support video output
Supports frame buffer overlay
Supports VBI capture
Does not support VBI output
Does not support sliced VBI capture
Does not support sliced VBI output
Does not support video output overlay
Does not have tuner
Does not have audio in and/or out
Does not have radio
Supports read/write i/o (X)
Does not support async i/o
Supports streaming i/o (X)
Standards:
NTSC
NTSC-M
NTSC-M-JP
NTSC-M-KR
PAL
PAL-BG
PAL-H
PAL-I
PAL-DK
PAL-M
PAL-N
PAL-Nc
PAL-60
SECAM
SECAM-B
SECAM-G
SECAM-H
SECAM-DK
SECAM-L
SECAM-Lc
Formats:
8 bpp, gray (GREY)
8 bpp, dithered color (HI24)
15 bpp RGB, le (RGBO)
15 bpp RGB, be (RGBQ)
16 bpp RGB, le (RGBP)
16 bpp RGB, be (RGBR)
24 bpp RGB, le (BGR3)
32 bpp RGB, le (BGR4)
32 bpp RGB, be (RGB4)
4:2:2, packed, YUYV (YUYV)
4:2:2, packed, YUYV (YUYV)
4:2:2, packed, UYVY (UYVY)
4:2:2, planar, Y-Cb-Cr (422P)
4:2:0, planar, Y-Cb-Cr (YU12)
4:2:0, planar, Y-Cr-Cb (YV12)
4:1:1, planar, Y-Cb-Cr (411P)
4:1:0, planar, Y-Cb-Cr (YUV9)
4:1:0, planar, Y-Cr-Cb (YVU9)
Crop Capabilities
Bounds: 1063 x 608
Default: 924 x 576
Current: 924 x 576
Inputs: 4
Input 0
Name: Composite0
Type: Camera
Audioset: 00000001
Standards: 0xffbfff
Power on (X)
Signal detected (X)
Colour Signal detected
Horizontal Lock not detected
Input 1
Name: Composite1
Type: Camera
Audioset: 00000001
Standards: 0xffbfff
Power on (X)
Signal detected (X)
Colour Signal detected
Horizontal Lock detected
Input 2
Name: S-Video
Type: Camera
Audioset: 00000001
Standards: 0xffbfff
Power on (X)
Signal detected (X)
Colour Signal detected
Horizontal Lock detected
Input 3
Name: Composite3
Type: Camera
Audioset: 00000001
Standards: 0xffbfff
Power on (X)
Signal detected (X)
Colour Signal detected
Horizontal Lock detected

[volantis]

maybe you could try and put a usb cam on the box and see if that will give you a stream?

I just installed Cheese and have a good stream from a USB camera.

[volantis]

I now have one of my cctv cameras online. However, if I try to setup a second camera it interferes with the first camera even though I have them set for different channels. Do I need to create a device for each of my cameras or do they all work off video0?

[PatMcLJr]

yea, probably
my card only has one chip and it shows up as /dev/video0 and /dev/video1 with each haveing two channels 0 and 1 so it looks like this in zoneminder source column

/dev/video0 (0)
/dev/video0 (1)
/dev/video1 (0)
/dev/video1 (1)

if you know what /dev/videoX your usb cam is on you can add that too
a small caution with the usb cameras, they move around so the /dev/videoX depends on when it is detected by the OS. On my box it I boot with it plugged it the usb camera is /dev/video0 if I plug it in after the box is booted it goes to the next highest /dev/videoX This can bork all your settings in zoneminder.

also, you might need to turn off, uncheck the setting for V4L_MULTI_BUFFER under options>config this really messes with my card if I leave it on.

[volantis]

yea, probably
my card only has one chip and it shows up as /dev/video0 and /dev/video1 with each haveing two channels 0 and 1 so it looks like this in zoneminder source column

/dev/video0 (0)
/dev/video0 (1)
/dev/video1 (0)
/dev/video1 (1)

I got all my cameras working. I had to use:
/dev/video0 (0)
/dev/video1 (0)
/dev/video2 (0)
/dev/video3 (0)
/dev/video4 (0)
/dev/video5 (0)
/dev/video6 (0)
/dev/video7 (0)

There must be a program I can run to tell me what the device characteristics of the USB camera are. I have not found it, yet.

Is there some way to have all the camera images display on a single web page? Right now, I am viewing them in individual windows.

[volantis]

I found the "montage" link. This is a good quality cctv software.