Timestamp in events are not there when using passthrough

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swolsen
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Location: Schenectady, NY, USA

Timestamp in events are not there when using passthrough

Post by swolsen »

Is it normal for the Zoneminder's timestamp to be missing in stored events when using [Video Writer = X264 Camera Passthrough] vs [Video Writer = X264 Encode]?
mikb
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Joined: Mon Mar 25, 2013 12:34 pm

Re: Timestamp in events are not there when using passthrough

Post by mikb »

Yes, normal.

Pass through shovels data from the camera into a file. Fast and dirty. The re-encode option takes the data from the camera, decompresses it, overlays time/date etc. and re-compresses it back to disk, which takes more work.

You could get the camera to add timestamps, it it supports that sort of thing, and it's important to you.
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swolsen
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Location: Schenectady, NY, USA

Re: Timestamp in events are not there when using passthrough

Post by swolsen »

I just found it odd that Zoneminder puts the timestamp on the live preview and not the stored events.
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Andyrh
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Re: Timestamp in events are not there when using passthrough

Post by Andyrh »

Because ZM can put the timestamp on the thumbnail, could it not put the timestamp on the replay and the export? It seems the information is there.

This could be done "on-demand" to not change the upside of pass-through. Just a thought.
Andy
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Ubuntu 22.04
ZM 1.36.33
E5-1650-v4 Xeon
16 GB RAM
6 cameras -> 54 FPS modect
ZoneMindingFinding
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Re: Timestamp in events are not there when using passthrough

Post by ZoneMindingFinding »

Is there a good manual way to add timestamps via a re-encode, only for videos that on rare occasion need exported?

When I store as jpeg frames only, ZoneMinder uses up space way too quickly unless I lower resolution or turn down JPEG_FILE_QUALITY. But if I turn those down I lose quality.

When I use X264 encode, I get the timestamps in the video. But, it is too much for the CPU to handle with all my cameras.

When I use H264 passthrough, I get to keep the quality and low file size, and stay within system CPU and RAM limits... but I have no timestamp on exported video.

The timestamp added to passthrough video via the ZoneMinder GUI is fine for occasional reviewing if export is not needed. But for an occasional event that needs exported, it is a problem to have no timestamp.

If there is no way to add the timestamp during exporting in the ZoneMinder GUI via a re-encode (my old NUUO software did this via a checkbox labeled OSD [On Screen Display I believe]), is there a good way to manually re-encode just occasional desired events to add the timestamp on using ffmpeg, but not do it to every camera event during capture as X264 encode option does?

Edit: Also note, I tried using the NTP function on the cameras... and it works for a bit... but then after a while they start drifting off from each other despite the NTP server!
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Andyrh
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Re: Timestamp in events are not there when using passthrough

Post by Andyrh »

I have Amcrest cameras and for the money they are good, but the OS is not so good. Amcrest does not release security updates for the many years they will be in service. Because of the possible security issues they (really any camera) are not allowed to talk to the internet. I point them to the NTP server on my firewall. I also restart them once a week. This combination seems to keep the OSD within 1 sec of real time. YMMV

I would also like to see the the export function add the time stamp. My guess is that is difficult.
Andy
o||||o

Ubuntu 22.04
ZM 1.36.33
E5-1650-v4 Xeon
16 GB RAM
6 cameras -> 54 FPS modect
ZoneMindingFinding
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Joined: Fri May 21, 2021 4:28 pm

Re: Timestamp in events are not there when using passthrough

Post by ZoneMindingFinding »

Mine are also not exposed to the internet. But I can tell that the NTP sync to the local server works initially because the cameras pull down the correct time from it. I haven't tried setting the maintenance weekly restart to on, because my previous experience with some camera brands is that the cameras don't always come back up after the maintenance restart. Maybe I'll try that though. I don't want to hijack OPs topic. Just adding on that what he was questioning would be a useful feature for me, and seemingly for you too.
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