| From: James Knott via talk <talk@gtalug.org> | The cameras work fine with Linux, you can use any browser to access | them. I would assume that you are talking about cameras that talk IP. Often WiFi or wired with Power over Ethernet. The wires are usually the hard part of installation. There are non-IP cameras, I think. | Incidentally, security cameras are normally used with a DVR and | those DVRs usually run Linux. Yeah, but I think that they are also usually closed source. Even for the GPLed parts. And we know how much of a pain it is to deal with closed source drivers. ====================================== Change of topic: my security camera problems. I have a system, installed, that I leave off because of fan noise. If the software/hardware were documented, I'd migrate it to a quiet box. - six IP PoE cameras - the "NVR" box is hard to move because it has 6 PoE lines coming in. - I don't trust the cameras so I don't want them on my LAN (and they are not) - I don't trust the NVR so I don't want it on my LAN (it isn't). One direction I could go: - I could disect the NVR box and see if a quieter fan would work. But I still would not trust it on my LAN. Another direction, replacing the NVR: - I have a spare quiet small PC with two ethernet interfaces (one for the camera LAN, one for the house LAN). I use boxes like that as my network gateways: Zotac ZBoxes. - I have an unallocated PoE switch that I could use (not quite good enough since only 4 ports of the 8 are PoE). I have not grappled with this problem because I've always got more rewarding things to work on.

Some of those cheaper Chinese cameras their web interface require flash to play the videos. Or ActiveX plugin (ie browser). But as long as it's supports rtsp you can use something like VLC to stream the video. On Sat., Feb. 9, 2019, 11:21 a.m. Scott Sullivan via talk <talk@gtalug.org wrote:

On 2/9/19 8:25 AM, o1bigtenor via talk wrote:

...

Greetings

I am looking into using a security cam to observe animal behavior in an area.

So I would like to use a camera that is IR capable to 30 m but what I'm not finding is anything that I can run on Linux - - - just M$ is listed.

Has anyone out there played with security cams that might be able to help?

TIA

Dee

You've not given us a lot of information to work with, and I see folks are making a lot of educated guesses to try and help you. Could you help us by adding some additional information?

What's your budget?

What is some example software / hardware you've looked at (links please)?

What kind of data do you expect to have at the end?

Video, time lapse photos, other?

Do you want this recording all the time, or just on motion detection?

-- Scott Sullivan --- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk

On Sat, 9 Feb 2019 at 12:15, o1bigtenor via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:

...

What is some example software / hardware you've looked at (links please)?

http://cowcams.com/store/p1/Outdoor_10x_zoom_PTZ_camera.html

above has no real mention of software just talks about hardware.

I have no experience with CowCams cameras, thus cannot comment. I do have some experience with other cameras. The one I currently use is Lorex 4K Ultra HD Outdoor PoE camera: https://www.lorextechnology.com/4k-security-camera/nocturnal-4k-ultrahd-audi... It is not a PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) camera, but if you are considering non-PTZ cameras, read on. For occasional observation of wildlife, the resolution makes a tremendous difference. 1080p does not cut it, unless animals appear right in front of your camera. My camera recently captured a video of a squirrel making tunnels in a fresh new snow, occasionally popping up its head from the snow. It was fun to watch -- my daughter said it was a snow gopher. (Let me know if you would like to see the video and I'll send you a private link) However, the area of interest was rather small compared to the overall video frame. I had to cut out and enlarge the area of interest, otherwise the object was looking too small on a TV screen. If the original video were only 1080p, the result would have been too blurry to see any significant details. The hardware of my Lorex camera is good. I cannot complain about it. PoE appears solid, the camera is easy to mount and it works just fine at -20 C. The software is not so good. On the scale from 0 (worst) to 10 (best), I would give it 5. The web interface requires an installation of a Chrome app, which sometimes works sometimes doesn't. The Windows interface, FLIR Cloud Client, which I use to connect to the NVR, is reasonably good for viewing live stream and recordings, but not as good for configuration (at least in my own experience). The camera can be used either as standalone or with an NVR. I use totem for viewing RTSP stream from the camera. VLC sometimes does work, sometimes does not. I still have not figured out why VLC has problems with the RTSP from this Lorex camera. It is possible that VLC does not like the H.265 codec I configured to use for video broadcast and recording. There is a H.264 codec option, but I found that it consumes substantially more bandwidth that H.265 and for this reason only I use H.265. If the bandwidth is not an issue, you probably will have more reliable results with H.264. It is possible to get a JPEG snapshot from the camera, although only at the main stream's resolution. The product documentation says that the camera has 200 ft night vision. Like with all other cameras with IR capability I have used before, it is hype. At dark, you get reasonably good video/picture within 30-50 ft from the camera in IR light. 50-70ft is not so good, and you can barely discern objects within 70-100 ft. More than 100 ft: forget it. However, I should reiterate that in my experience, the exaggeration of the night vision distance is the norm in this industry. Lorex has a 2K (4MP) PTZ camera within your price range, but I have no experience with that model. I suspect however that its software will be similar to the one on my camera. This camera also has colour night vision, which is what my camera is missing. I have no idea how good or bad this colour night vision will be. https://www.lorextechnology.com/4k-security-camera/weatherproof-hd-motorized...