Take RTP video from an alternative source

[kmliu]

Hi, I'm new to ZoneMinder and I'm considering it for a new project. This is a device that would stream from many (e.g. 24) IP cameras at the same time. I want a single entity on the device to stream from the cameras and "feed" the streams to multiple processing modules with ZM being one of them. I need ZM to store, search, and play back the videos and maybe accept external triggers from other modules to start/stop recording. I don't want/need ZM to decode the streams. I also don't want ZM to directly stream from the cameras either because there is already a centralized entity streaming from the cameras. I don't want multiple entities to stream from the camera the same video at the same time.

My initial question is whether there is a way to define a monitor such that it gets a RTP stream from another process in the system. The centralized entity would stream from a camera over RTSP and then direct a copy of the RTP video stream to a ZM monitor.

BTW, configuring the camera to stream over multicast UDP is a possibility. In this case, multiple entities would receive its own copy of the same stream and network traffic won't increase. However, I may have to ultimately rule out multicast UDP and embed the RTP stream inside the RTSP connection.

[iconnor]

At this time ZM always decodes. It is on the todo list to change this but since no one is funding the work... it is slow going.