I haven't used ZM for a while, so I thought I'd install the latest version to see how development is going.
It took me a few minutes to work out how to add a web site web cam (something I do to test performance and setup.)
I used the 'Website' source type (issues encountered detailed in 1(a), below), but when I found out that it doesn't record and generally behaves differently compared to what I expected, I selected ffmpeg (2).
Hare are just a couple of issues I've been getting with the new version 1.34.5 - Installed from the repo on Debian 10, as per bbunge's instructions.
1. Adding a 'Website' source is problematic.
a) When adding, the log indicates that 'Orientation' was not specified and the SQL data could not be inserted into the table:
Code: Select all
SQL-ERR 'SQLSTATE[23000]: Integrity constraint violation: 1048 Column 'Orientation' cannot be null', statement was 'INSERT INTO Monitors (`Id`, `Name`, `Notes`, `ServerId`, `StorageId`, `Type`, `Function`, `Enabled`, `LinkedMonitors`, `Triggers`, `Device`, `Channel`, `Format`, `V4LMultiBuffer`, `V4LCapturesPerFrame`, `Protocol`, `Method`, `Host`, `Port`, `SubPath`, `Path`, `Options`, `User`, `Pass`, `Width`, `Height`, `Colours`, `Palette`, `Orientation`, `Deinterlacing`, `DecoderHWAccelName`, `DecoderHWAccelDevice`, `SaveJPEGs`, `VideoWriter`, `OutputCodec`, `OutputContainer`, `EncoderParameters`, `RecordAudio`, `RTSPDescribe`, `Brightness`, `Contrast`, `Hue`, `Colour`, `EventPrefix`, `LabelFormat`, `LabelX`, `LabelY`, `LabelSize`, `ImageBufferCount`, `WarmupCount`, `PreEventCount`, `PostEventCount`, `StreamReplayBuffer`, `AlarmFrameCount`, `SectionLength`, `MinSectionLength`, `FrameSkip`, `MotionFrameSkip`, `AnalysisFPSLimit`, `AnalysisUpdateDelay`, `MaxFPS`, `AlarmMaxFPS`, `FPSReportInterval`, `RefBlendPerc`, `AlarmRefBlendPerc`, `Controllable`, `ControlId`, `ControlDevice`, `ControlAddress`, `AutoStopTimeout`, `TrackMotion`, `TrackDelay`, `ReturnLocation`, `ReturnDelay`, `DefaultRate`, `DefaultScale`, `SignalCheckPoints`, `SignalCheckColour`, `WebColour`, `Exif`, `Sequence`, `ZoneCount`, `Refresh`, `DefaultCodec`) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)' params:,Monitor-7,,0,0,WebSite,Monitor,1,,,,0,0,,1,,,,,,https://trafficcameras.uk/cameras/2188.jpg,,,,352,288,4,0,,0,,,3,0,,,# Lines beginning with # are a comment # For changing quality, use the crf option# 1 is best, 51 is worst quality#crf=23,0,0,-1,-1,-1,-1,Event-,%N - %d/%m/%y %H:%M:%S,0,0,1,20,0,5,5,0,1,600,10,0,0,,0,,,100,6,6,0,,,,,0,,-1,,100,100,0,#0000BE,#654d0e,0,4,0,10,auto
b) The 'maintain aspect ratio' option for the monitor seems to be completely ignored in montage view (The height is not changed as a ratio of the width, creating image previews which are ~50% the width of the page (2-wide view), yet a fixed number of pixels high.) Not sure why. Could be another bug or I could be missing something obvious;
2. The montage view of the website 'cams' stopped working at some point last night with no errors in my error log, yet the status of the monitors remained green. I changed the monitor type to ffmpeg and now I get previews in montage OK (eventually), but the log and cams are in a permanent error state (red), although the monitors are previewing fine. Though, I have noticed that they flick between 'Record' and 'Idle' randomly. Conversely, when the log & cams showed no errors (green) I had no cams working and no montage. Is this a bug? I mean it seems a tad backwards, in my opinion.
3. The 'FORCE ALARM' button on the right of the single monitor preview keeps disappearing and reappearing randomly, which moves the control buttons under the live image, making me miss my intended button in the interface. Could be linked to the uncertain state of the monitor;
4. Less important, but still part of the whole user experience, is a variety of HTML controls (namely on the console page) are badly laid out, clashing or just look visually awkward. In particular, the drop-down fields and the text fields appear to be different heights and the monitor list has no whitespace to separate it from the 'ADD', 'EDIT', 'DELETE' & 'SELECT' buttons just above, creating a cramped, awkward feel to the interface. Also, the page headers collapse/respond in a rather clumsy way, knocking things out of alignment and wrapping blocks awkwardly creating an overabundance of whitespace and wasting screen space;
IMHO, I would say ZM still needs more work on solidifying the web interface and on reliable error detection and reporting.
The first time I used ZM, I had installed it at a friend's house capturing images from some awfully cheap Chinese 'security' cameras, and it did it admirably well given the cheap desktop PC it was running on. I mean, it's always been rather peculiar to get working, but once it is set up, it's usually OK, only needing the occasional reboot to start it recording again. It did, however, fail to record for a few important events which included a theft, but I never told him it would be perfect, just inexpensive.
I hope this sheds some light on how things are going and helps you improve things. If you need any of logs and configurations, just let me know.
Do you need someone to work on the web interface for you? I will help if I can.
Best regards.