Rasberry Pi 3 - 'X264 Encode' Video Writer Grayed out

[mailych]

I have installed Ubuntu 16.04 Mate on Rasberry Pi 3 B+ board.
I have also installed ZoneMinder 1.32.3 on it (Followed instructions here https://bkjaya.wordpress.com/2018/05/22 ... 18-04-lts/)

ZoneMinder is working fine and connected to Foscam IP camera. Motion detection is working and events are generated as expected.
My issues is, its not recording videos. I can only see images when events are generated.

In settings for the camera/Monitor (Monitor->Storage->Video Writer), I see Video Writer is set to "Disabled". I cannot select "X264 Encode" or "H264 Camera Passthrough" because they are grayed out.

I have another Ubuntu 16.04 laptop on which ZoneMinder is installed and configured to same camera. From this machine, video recording is working fine. Here Monitor->Storage->Video Writer is set to "X264 Encode".

How can I have video recording working on Rasberry Pi 3 ?
Any help is appreciated.

[knight-of-ni]

Couple of things.

1.32.3 has not been released yet. It will be soon, but today it does not exist.

When in doubt, the authoritative source for our releases can be seen here:
https://github.com/ZoneMinder/zoneminder/releases

Second, compare what you see to the screenshot. Only x264 Encode, is dimmed on arm architecture because 264 encode support for arm is not done yet. The only reason x264 passthrough can appear dimmed is if you have not selected "ffmpeg" as your source type.

Relevant code the shows the conditions each option can be dimmed is here:
https://github.com/ZoneMinder/zoneminde ... r.php#L934

[mailych]

Thanks for quick response.

Sorry for the incorrect version info. Its running 1.32.2
I have HTTP as my source type.

Is there a version of ZM I can use which support x264 Encode on arm?

Thanks again.

[knight-of-ni]

Sorry for the incorrect version info. Its running 1.32.2

No problem. I wanted to say something to avoid confusing others who might read this thread.

Is there a version of ZM I can use which support x264 Encode on arm?

No, like I said the code to do that is not finished. When using Arm architecture, today your only choice is to use the ffmpeg source type and h264 passthrough (and a camera that is compatible with this mode) if you want to write to mp4. h264 passthrough is more cpu efficient anyway, which is what you want on a pi.

[mailych]

I have 2 IP cameras. Both foscam.
Model FI8910W
Model FI8909W

I am trying to find what source path to give for these cameras when using ffmpeg. Any ideas?

[knight-of-ni]

I am not sure there is one.
Both of those old cameras are VGA resolution that stream mjpg.
When using the ffmpeg source type, one typically is recording an h264 stream over RTSP.

Since those cameras are such low resolution, I'd recommend you just stick with legacy jpeg storage. That is what I am doing at my parent's home.
I've got three analog cameras, tied to an ip video encoder. The encoder sends three vga, mjpeg streams to a raspberry pi 3 running ZoneMinder. It works quite well, with plenty of cpu & memory resources to spare.

[iconnor]

ffmpeg can be used to stream mjpeg. You just give the url as http instead of rtsp.

Looks like something like http://username:password@ip/videostream.cgi might work.

I think x264 encode on arm may work in 1.33. I have a branch that goes in that direction (including using other codecs like mpeg2 in .mkv) but it still needs a lot of work.This branch also support h264 hardware encoding on pi3. So very exciting stuff.

[bbunge]

This is what I'm using for ffmpeg:

rtsp://user:user@192.168.1.243:88/videoMain

Edit: the above may not be for your cameras

See: https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Foscam_FI8918W

[mailych]

I think x264 encode on arm may work in 1.33. I have a branch that goes in that direction (including using other codecs like mpeg2 in .mkv) but it still needs a lot of work.This branch also support h264 hardware encoding on pi3. So very exciting stuff.

Very exciting. Keenly waiting for it. I will also try your http suggestion.

[mailych]

This is what I'm using for ffmpeg:

rtsp://user:user@192.168.1.243:88/videoMain

This didn't work for my camera.

[mailych]

I am not sure there is one.
Both of those old cameras are VGA resolution that stream mjpg.
When using the ffmpeg source type, one typically is recording an h264 stream over RTSP.

Since those cameras are such low resolution, I'd recommend you just stick with legacy jpeg storage. That is what I am doing at my parent's home.
I've got three analog cameras, tied to an ip video encoder. The encoder sends three vga, mjpeg streams to a raspberry pi 3 running ZoneMinder. It works quite well, with plenty of cpu & memory resources to spare.

Thanks for detailed info. I have them in jpg mode now. I am also in the market for new ip camera. I was looking at bulb models(easy to install). I was looking one below. Do you know this or any similar that works with zoneminder?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1-3MP-3 ... 56522.html