ZoneMinder Forums

Something i've been trying to figure out...


I've seen for sale those impossibly cheap chinese security DVR's, which to be honest I trust about as far as I can throw them. (since I keep hearing of stories of like shipping with backdoors, sending packets to china if you try to use their "stream to phone" options, and other things) Yet they seem a great source of very inexpensive cameras - namely 1280x720p rated analog cameras, which are designed to use standard/common CCTV BNC type wiring and cables apparently.

What I can't figure out is how would I connect one of those cameras to a computer, such as for use with zoneminder, let alone any other capture or security system? Either for single frame grabs or for higher frame rate motion?

Component cables use three, obviously the BNC connection is one, I don't know if adapters are made or if it's deliberately noncompatible or what capture card would support it or anything... when I see whole DVR sets with cameras (for less than the cost of a single IP camera) it seems like something I might want to get, while planning to later possibly toss out the DVR (or replace it with a PC in the future) but that obviously requires getting the signal into the computer first.

You need a capture card.

Most of those dvr's actually are running linux. A little googling will often provide you with the root password for them. Hacking them to do something useful may be more trouble than it is worth though. The capture card in them is normally driven using a binary blob.

Given the price of network cameras, I'd say just stick with network cameras.

Well yes I know I need a capture card, but either i'm searching for the wrong terms or am not sure where to look. Could you suggest some that capture full resolution stills and video?


Are there linux based DVR's known to be more hackable than others in the sense of being able to run nonproprietary software (I dont trust the chinese stuff with all the backdoors i hear about https://www.rt.com/news/393206-chinese- ... k-webcams/ as today's example) or to be networked somehow into other systems? (maybe even including zone alarm in some future feature, like to let it motion flag itself and trigger it to record but record to the DVR instead of over the ethernet, and only process some images of its own for further inspection or something) Or hacks to make it easy to export the recorded video files since I dont know if most will export esp on lower end?


All the network HD cameras i've seen are like $200 for one, that buys a complete DVR with four 720p cameras from what I recall...

My current project is using TrendNet IP-314PI cameras, 4mp for $129.

diesel wrote: ↑Sun Jun 18, 2017 3:37 am What I can't figure out is how would I connect one of those cameras to a computer, such as for use with zoneminder, let alone any other capture or security system?

Typically analog or HD analog cameras connect via coaxial cable to a video encoder box. That encoder box will record by itself. It will usually also offer the video over the LAN via an ethernet port.

There are used video encoders available for cheap now that do this, but they are analog or RTSP only. I don't know of any HD analog ones.

For an analog HD video encoder you want to read the datasheet and see what it offers on the network and whether it's compatible with 3rd party systems such as ZM. If it's ONVIF compliant and or offers a JPEG stream, chances are good it will work with ZM or other camera systems. Not guaranteed, but good.

Honestly, I'm not at all sure what analog baseband video format a 720p analog camera would use, but I'd bet dinner at a decent steak joint you're going to end up spending more on the combination of cams and capture than you would just buying IP cams -- which can go up to 4MP.

"Freeze... and enhance."

i use to use a kodicom capture card (or was it a clone?). The compatiblility zoneminder page describes them and other cards. They are cheap on ebay. Also they require pci slot meaning you will need a tower / desktop like computer. However, a cheap laptop using standard ethernet has a much smaller footprint. 6300 dell latitude i7 systems have plenty of power to run 7 full HD ip cameras and are cheap as heck on ebay.

For security, limit the ip camera so it can't talk out through the lan. This is configured through the administration interface of your router. So no one can hack your camera and if its already hacked, it can't communicate out into the world.

latency is incredibly high for network camera based zoneminder. Analog is fast. Case in point are first person view drones that use the old technology.