Windows or Linux app for montage

[BobLaske]

I mostly use montage to view the cameras but using a browser, this always brings the PC down after a while.
I also find that every time I pick a saved montage setting, it's broken and I have to move the cameras around every time I start the browser/montage.

This happens on Windows 7,8, 10 and Linux desktops so I know this is not a PC problem but that the web based monitoring method is simply hard on resources after a while.

I was wondering if anyone knows of a software package, app, what ever you call it that would be less resource intensive, run on either Windows or Linux and just works. I'm talking about a PC, not a phone or tablet.

Thank you for any help you might provide.

[dougmccrary]

I take it you refer to an edited layout getting trashed? I don't use that myself, so no help there.
On ubuntu with 1.36, both firefox and chrome work OK for me with 21 cameras and multi-port.
Interestingly, neither of those work well on an old samsung tablet i have, but their own browser works fine.
On 1.37, firefox on ubuntu sometimes gets hung up, duplicating the tab gets it working again (on the new tab).

[BobLaske]

Yes, I can create montage layouts and every time I fire up a browser to go use that, the camera's are all messed up, all over the place, not where I saved them.

[dougmccrary]

I just played around with that a bit, and it's not working as intended. I think
But depending on what you’re doing, you realize you can change camera order from the console?
And if you need more than that, you might try 1.37. It behaves better as far as how I'd expect it to work.

[BobLaske]

Yes, I know I can move the cameras in the console but when you use montage, you set them up in columns and rows. That's what never sticks, the columns and rows that I've saved.

Upgrading might be an option but only if this is something the devs knew about and is fixed otherwise, it's a headache sometimes for nothing .

[iconnor]

Just did a little testing and montage layouts are working for me. Can you go into a little more detail and maybe show some screenshots of what is happening/not happening?

[BobLaske]

Hi,

Can't really show anything since it's all personal locations in the house.
When you go to Montage, you have pre-set options, 2, 3, 4 across etc.
Depending on the width of the camera image, this works or doesn't work. Not only might only two images show up in the 3 columns but some of the images are outside the edge of the browser for example. If I select a Width, then it might work but it might not again, with images showing up all over the place, not lined up.Even if I save a custom montage layout, it never shows up as I saved it.

[BobLaske]

What I'm really looking for is an app so that I don't have to use browsers to view the cameras.

[makers_mark]

Hi,

Can't really show anything since it's all personal locations in the house.

Hey Bob, for future reference, you can blur your cameras temporarily for a screenshot or video capture, if needed.

Hit F12 to open the Development Console
Click on 'Console' tab (if it's not already selected)
Click inside it towards the bottom (cursor is probably in there already and you can just Ctrl-V to paste the following)

Paste this in and hit enter (refresh to undo):

Code: Select all

const images=[...document.getElementsByTagName('img')].forEach( image => { image.setAttribute('style', 'filter:blur(20px) !important;')});

Edit:
Really that doesn't actually set the 'images' variable where it could be used again, it's the same as:

Code: Select all

[...document.getElementsByTagName('img')].forEach( image => { image.setAttribute('style', 'filter:blur(20px) !important;')});

But if you want to actually to save it to a variable that could be further altered, like blurring all and then un-blurring certain ones (this also only selects img tags from the monitors div, instead of every img tag in the document):

Code: Select all

const images = [...document.getElementById('monitors').getElementsByTagName('img')].map((image, idx, array) => { image.setAttribute('style', 'filter:blur(5px) !important;'); return array[idx]=image});

Then if you wanted the third monitor to be shown (it is a zero based array, so 0 is the first, 1 is the second, 2 is the third...):

Code: Select all

images[2].setAttribute('style', 'filter:blur(0px) !important;');

[iconnor]

You can run zmNinja as a desktop app.

I also know someone working on a windows forms based UI.

There are also some other ancient zm ui's in java etc but they havn't been maintained in 10 years.

[BobLaske]

Well, I wanted to try zmNinja on my Manjaro desktop but;

zmninja.png (18.26 KiB) Viewed 39026 times

As for the montage, In this case, I had a 3 row layout but when I click on it, it's always broken. I have to use Edit and even if I save it, it's broken the next time I use the layout.

3-wide.png (942.83 KiB) Viewed 39026 times

By the way, there are six cameras but they are all over the place which is why I have to edit each time to bring them back together.


This happens on my Linux desktop, Windows 10, 8 and 7.

[BobLaske]

It seems impossible that others aren't seeing the same issue. This happens no matter which PC or browser I use.

[dougmccrary]

I notice some kind of funny interaction when switching layouts - a reload sets it right. Seemingly.

[BobLaske]

I just got done with yet another 30 minutes of messing around with this and no matter what, cannot get it to work.

[BobLaske]

ZoneMinder is great at what it does but not for directly viewing the cameras which is why I'd like to find a stand alone app that would do that.