Newbie question, 4 port card with 4 878A

river · Post by **river** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 7:15 am

Hello, all.

1. I want to use zm to monitor my comany's warehouse. Is zm suitable for 7/24 operation ?

2. What is the hw required for a 4/8 camera server ? Is zm require a faster CPU ?

3. I found some very low cost 4 port card with 4 Conexant Fusion 878A chips on it. Is it the same as BT878/BT848 ? What is the card type in modules.conf ?

Sorry for too many questions. Any comment is welcome.

river · Post by **river** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:48 am

The name of the card :
Digital Video Witness (Kodicom) 4400R DVR Boards.

The picture of the card:
http://www.dvrsecuritysystems.com/digit ... odicom.htm

Post by **zoneminder** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 12:42 am

I can only answer (1) really. Yes, ZM is fine for 24/7 operation, that's pretymuch what it was designed for.

The answer to (2) depends on what you want to do with ZM, have a search around the forums for some suggested specifications.

I've not heard of the card in (3) I'm afraid.

Phil

us5we · Post by **us5we** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 8:53 am

I wonder if Kodicom KMC4400R 16 port/4x878 card really works with ZM?
I've a local source of these Kodicom cards at affordable price and using them with W2K software supplied by the manufacturer since 2001.
But NO MORE GATES for me!
I tried it once with LiveCD installation but had no luck getting the image although all video0-video3 were configured.
Are there any tricks?

Post by **zoneminder** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 12:18 pm

I would try seeing if you can (a) view video and (b) grab frames with something simple like xawtv before using them with ZM. If xawtv works fine then chances are that ZM will too.

Phil

hrabe · Post by **hrabe** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 3:50 pm

us5we: how many Multimedia video controllers (Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture) you will see when type lspci command?

Martin

krzys31337 · Post by **krzys31337** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 6:59 pm

Hi guys

Enyone with 4400R card working? i've put some 2.6.11 kernel and all i can see is blue/black screen on every video input.

Maybe some hints?

krzys31337 · Post by **krzys31337** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 10:22 pm

With kernel 2.6.12 it seems it works

But. Remember to card=133,132,133,133.
Consult: http://www.linuxtv.org/v4lwiki/index.php/Kodicom_4400R

And see that problem:

The output is:
3 1
2 3

It should be:
0 1
2 3

Afer runnig some tv-app like xawtv or tvtime, selectin input0 and input3, restarting zm, i've my desiriable:
0 1
2 3.
Maybe somewhere in ZoneMinder code is "if subvideo==0 then don't select 0 else select subvideo ?".

krzys31337 · Post by **krzys31337** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:23 am

Doing:

Code: Select all

[root@localhost root]#  /etc/rc.d/init.d/zm stop
[root@localhost root]# streamer -c /dev/video0 -i 0 -f jpeg -o video.jpeg
files / video: JPEG (JFIF) / audio: none
[root@localhost root]# file video.jpeg
video.jpeg: JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.01
[root@localhost root]#  /etc/rc.d/init.d/zm start

Solves the "0 1 2 3" problem, so it's proably zm_local_camera.cpp not selecting proper input channel from given device, when channel is "==0". Phil, could you see into that?

Post by **zoneminder** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 4:26 pm

I'll have a look but I've not heard of this problem before. I've also not used this card though.

Normally you would either select a channel from 0 to 3 or the device from 0 3 but I notice you are doing both. This normally implies you have 16 inputs and would be using input 0, 5, 10 and 15. Is this correct or is there somethign strange about the card?

Phil

krzys31337 · Post by **krzys31337** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:33 pm

Yeap, your are missing this card's magic:

You have inputs 0..15 (0-3 are on the card, 4-15 on expansion [how do you call "śledź" (herring) in english/computer slang? --] thing

The inputs are "shared" i.e. I could say to _any_ /dev/videoX to grab _any_ channel/input.

So I use: /dev/video0 for channel 0 and so on ( 1 for 1, 2nd for 2nd, 3rd for 3rd). It's the most common setup while not using expansion cables (btw: the expansion doesn't fit into my cute small boxes).

And saying both channel/video dev gives me one bt878a for one input, while using /dev/video0 with 0..3 inputs whould have made one chip with shared/switched input.

And on the other hand using /dev/video0..3 and input "0" means: you get ONE input, from first connected camra (counting from audio input/top of card).

krzys31337 · Post by **krzys31337** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 6:12 pm

Problem still exists:

Tried: 3 diffrent cards (of the same type obviouslly) and _very_ diffrent 3 boxes. Still using "streamer" hack does the trick.

stuorguk · Post by **stuorguk** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 10:20 am

Anyone know of a supplier of the Kodicom KMC4400R in the UK/EU? I'm trying to find a reasonably priced 4 port card.

Stuart.

JimNoble · Post by **JimNoble** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 9:05 pm

http://www.simplyautomate.com/productDi ... rodId=5462

(I've not tried this type of card mind, so best ask simplyautomate if linux drivers are available for it...)

Jim

stuorguk · Post by **stuorguk** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 9:16 pm

I managed to get a 16-channel Kodicom card shipped from Hong Kong (to the UK) for £60. Simply Automate want £122 (all inc) for their 4-port card.