Surveillance Cameras

Also see: Cameras Category

Introduction

Admin Website -- Surveillance Cameras Page

Some cameras require the use of an additional interface. Others can be used as standalone devices. The interface can be a proprietary interface, or can be the motion wrapper.

IP Cameras

The best surveillance cameras are the IP based models, such as those by Panasonic. These cameras are Plug&Play (just plug them into any network jack). They do not require configuration. Many of these cameras support pan/tilt and zoom so you can control them through the Orbiter.

Using Analog cameras

• If you have regular analog cameras you will need to add a Linux-compatible video capture board to your Core,
  • Then attach the cameras to it. Add the video capture board on the LinuxMCE Admin Website-->Wizard-->Devices-->Interfaces page.
    • Then add each surveillance camera, specifying that they are 'controlled by' the Motion device wrapper (which monitors the video capture board). For more detailed info see here.

Camera settings

There are several settings for each camera.

• You can save video "All the time", meaning LinuxMCE will constantly record the video from the camera and save it on the Core. This can take up quite a bit of hard disk space, though.
• Alternatively you can save video "Only when motion is detected". LinuxMCE will only save the video when it detects movement. If you choose "Don't capture", then you will still be able to view the cameras live, but LinuxMCE will not keep an archive.

Archive retention

If you do want an archive, be sure to indicate how many days you want LinuxMCE to keep the archive. The default is 10 (days), meaning LinuxMCE will erase any video archive that is more than 10 days old. If you are running out of disk space on the Core you can reduce this number (so not so much disk space is taken up with video archives).

A rudimentary discussion of this ability is found in the forums.