[HN Gopher] Managing and using ONVIF IP cameras with Linux
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Managing and using ONVIF IP cameras with Linux
Author : pabs3
Score : 40 points
Date : 2022-10-19 11:26 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (people.skolelinux.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (people.skolelinux.org)
| geijoenr wrote:
| The market for security cameras is very old fashioned and plagued
| with proprietary implementations. ONVIF is the standard that
| allows interoperability with desktop Video Management Systems and
| other devices, is the protocol that allows to glue together end
| to end systems.
|
| Some alternatives are starting to appear, but this is an industry
| that moves really slow. Things only seem to happen when a new
| player disrupts the market and starts taking market share, as
| AXIS did with cheap IP cameras back in the day.
| jsight wrote:
| I'm surprised to see zoneminder mentioned, but no mention of
| shinobi.
| kfghjkfhjgjkl wrote:
| rubenbe wrote:
| I'd choose Home Assistant to use these ONVIF cameras on Linux.
| It's arguably less elegant, but will probably be better
| maintained.
|
| https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/onvif/
| kfghjkfhjgjkl wrote:
| The ONVIF component in hasio is likely to be better maintained
| than Zoneminder's?. This seems like a bold statement to make in
| either direction.
|
| ZM has been alive and actively maintained for nearly twice as
| long as Hasio..
| nickstinemates wrote:
| Are there any hackers out there making custom ones? I was
| designing one recently and it ended up looking a lot like an
| Android phone in the end. Maybe a better 3d printed case and
| powered by PoE instead of battery.
|
| How hard could it be?
| acidburnNSA wrote:
| I used this to get a USB gamepad joystick to control a amcrest
| camera. Super fun. Then I hooked it up to my roofcam, but that's
| another story.
|
| https://partofthething.com/thoughts/controlling-a-amcrest-pt...
| patchtopic wrote:
| I have been setting up a low cost home IP camera solution
| recently as well. I have also found like others mention, although
| some of the hardware is OK, on the software side all IP cameras
| that I have looked at are garbage. hacky linux firmware, needing
| apps and cloud accounts to config, etc. I also found zoneminder
| and shinobi not that great either, I've ended up with a "simpler"
| setup using the basic "motion" Linux motion detect program, and
| using Jellyfin to view the video files created.
|
| So far the "least worst" of the low cost IP cameras I have tried
| have been TPLINK TAPO.. once they are configured for onvif and IP
| set by tying to mac address, they can be blocked from the
| internet access at the firewall and work fine standalone. The
| only non-TPLINK app I have found that can work with the PTZ mode
| of the TAPO C210 is the proprietry ONVIER android app.
| devnulll wrote:
| I have high-end security camera's all over the exterior of my
| house. They all run a Linux 2.6 Kernel that is froom 2011. There
| are no firmware updates available from the manufacture, and even
| their new camera's run this kernel.
|
| If I could find a brand that actually did regular maintenance and
| wasn't a walled garden (such as Ubiquity), I would replace all of
| my camera's.
|
| Security comes from networking tricks (VLAN's, etc), which is far
| from ideal.
| willis936 wrote:
| Well, raspberry pis have a CSI port and is based off a recent
| debian release. If you want something newer than raspberry pi
| os then you can run debian or arch with a cron job to update
| and reboot.
|
| Not pretty, not reliable, but surely more secure. Though the
| best thing is to air-gap or at the least firewall.
| pedrocr wrote:
| IP cameras need their WRT54G moment. It would be amazing to have
| an openwrt like project for them. The software is a complete mess
| full of bugs and security issues.
| ajsnigrutin wrote:
| Yep... the only alternative I know is a raspberrypi zero with a
| motioneye os, but this makes a good camera software-wise but a
| shitty one regarding the sensor (high megapixel but shitty
| night quality) and a shitty one regarding accessories
| (waterproof casings, poe, ir lightning, microphones,
| speakers,...).
| invalidator wrote:
| The RasPi kinda is that, at least when they're in stock. There
| are several IP camera software loads for them, whether it's for
| local storage, or streaming over the network.
| ranger_danger wrote:
| My experience so far with every wifi ONVIF camera I have
| purchased (at least half a dozen different brands) has been
| absolutely terrible. Not sure if it's all related to the hardware
| or just FOSS software support somehow.
|
| They seem to all use the same generic/white label Chinese
| firmware with barely anything changed about it. Their
| advertisements of "up to X viewers" really only ever means max of
| 1 or maybe 2 if you want a decent/max resolution or framerate.
|
| The devices and their video streams are often quite unstable
| (needing a daily reboot or restart of the stream), jittery and
| not smooth.
|
| The cost of the device does not seem to make a difference either,
| whether it's a $50 device or $300+.
|
| Anyone have recommendations or tips on either better brands or
| maybe some idea of what I might possibly be doing wrong?
| convivialdingo wrote:
| Hanwha makes a ton of different makes and models, I highly
| recommend them. I tested several cameras to use them in a
| campus-wide AI project and Hanwha was always rock solid. We
| originally looked at Chinese cameras, but with security and
| international trade disruptions we needed better assurances
| that orders would get filled.
| jonathanberger wrote:
| Have you tried Amcrest?
| ranger_danger wrote:
| Yes that is what I am currently using. Every couple days the
| stream stops functioning and I have to reboot it. Stream
| playback with every conceivable FOSS video player I have
| tried is never 100% smooth and always has some kind of
| microstutter, regardless of the codec, resolution, framerate,
| bitrate, stream protocol etc. or number of viewers (and I
| have tried every combination of them all).
| reassembled wrote:
| I can't comment on max viewers per stream, as I only ever had 1
| connection to the device and then used an FFMPEG/nginx-rtmp
| setup to replicate, but the reliability of Axis cameras was
| good in my experience. The price tags are a bit steep as they
| are really marketed at enterprise.
| ranger_danger wrote:
| I tried Axis around 10 years ago, and yes it was very
| expensive, $300 for a tiny 802.11b/g-only device when N had
| already been around for a while was a hard pill to swallow,
| but I was assured by gstreamer devs that they do in fact use
| gstreamer itself, write their own firmware, and that they're
| supposed to be better than the Chinese stuff... however my
| own experience with them was just as bad if not worse... with
| all 3 units I purchased. Needless to say I have no desire to
| try them again.
| user3939382 wrote:
| If you're not familiar with this technology, do yourself a favor
| and be 100% sure any cameras you buy use this protocol.
| jeffdubin wrote:
| Also check that the camera doesn't rely upon a proprietary
| configuration tool, e.g. a Windows-only IE plugin, and that the
| camera doesn't need internet connectivity to function. Some
| cameras will stop streaming, even locally, if they can't hit
| the manufacturer's cloud-based platform.
| jancsika wrote:
| That sounds great. But I'm having trouble finding the "No
| such file or directory" model you describe. Is it still
| available on Amazon?
| brnt wrote:
| My problem is that this protocol is only for video. These
| camera's are used for motion detection, and I know of no way of
| receiving that signal unless you mimick it by setting up your
| own software monitoring the stream 24/7. I think we can agree
| that this is a huge complication compared to installing 'the
| app'.
|
| For the two way voice chat, alarm and in some cases flood light
| and pan/zoom controls there is no substitute at all.
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