Best and cheapest option to run zoneminder

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topcat
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2020 9:48 am

Best and cheapest option to run zoneminder

Post by topcat »

Hello,

Im looking for a good and cheap option to run zoneminder smootly with 4 - 8 cameras.

Can i use a raspberry pi 4 or banana pi for this? or maybe older models? Or other hardware is better?

I want to order 5mp cameras for a good resolution and record quality.
peaples already recording 4k quality?

Thanks
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burger
Posts: 390
Joined: Mon May 11, 2020 4:32 pm

Re: Best and cheapest option to run zoneminder

Post by burger »

Going to depend upon FPS, Resolution, etc... Generally you want x86-64 for high CPU processing. ARM is limited in that respect.
fastest way to test streams:
ffmpeg -i rtsp://<user>:<pass>@<ipaddress>:554/path ./output.mp4 (if terminal only)
ffplay rtsp://<user>:<pass>@<ipaddress>:554/path (gui)
find paths on ispydb or in zm hcl

If you are new to security software, read:
https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Dummies_Guide
sfritz
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2020 4:14 am

Re: Best and cheapest option to run zoneminder

Post by sfritz »

For 4 - 8 5 MP cameras you will need multiple Raspberry Pi 4 8 GB models, likely 3 - 4 cameras per Pi, depending on frame and bit rates.

My original setup is here:

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=29853

However, the SD Card was a bottleneck, so I updated the Raspberry Pi 4 firmware and set it to boot from USB with Ubuntu 20.04 installed to a USB 3.0 thumb drive and recording to a USB 3.0 hard disk. Your will need a multiserver Zoneminder setup, which is not hard to do.
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