Security Camera-to-DVR Setup on Linux?

mrperkins asks: "I have been asked to help a friend setup a Linux DVR (Digital Video Recording) system for security cameras. Previously this has been done on Windows XP using Avermedia video capture cards from the MP3000 and MP5000 series, and using their bundled software. They have a Linux version but the software is horribly broken. The Windows software allows playback/recording/backup from 4-16 cameras. This works reasonably well but certainly has it's share of problems - the PC's hardware being only one. Can this be done on Linux using Free Software and compatible hardware? I have heard that the frame rates achievable under video4linux are simply too slow, but I would like to prove otherwise! Are there any software packages that can do this kind of thing (not just a single stream but a fully featured package)? Also, what cards (pref. up to max $200US) would you recommend? If anyone is already doing this kind of thing please let me know what you're using!"

Comments

Motion

[angst_ridden_hipster]

Try Motion.

I have a security system for my house running on an older version of Motion. This is what can happen when a gadget-freak has a paranoid girlfriend...

The system has more than three and fewer than nine cameras, some obvious, some concealed in and around the house. Each camera goes into a BT878-compatible card (some dedicated cards, some multiport).

When motion is detected, I can capture on the order of 10-15 fps (not at stunning resolution, admittedly, but 320x240 pixels is good enough for me). If there is motion on two or more cameras, the frame rate decreases. Captured images are saved as timestamped JPEGs in a hierarchical directory structure, along with MPEGs that are assembled of each incident. This is not a particularly mighty machine; it's an Athlon 1800+ with 512MB memory. The limiting factor tends to be the PCI bus when you have a lot of cameras.

Motion supports some nice features. You can set noise and motion detection threshholds on a per-camera basis. You can use a 256-level grayscale image for a sensitivity map, so you can mask certain regions out or decrease their contribution to triggering the recording (useful if plants sway in the breeze). You can label individual cameras with descriptive text ("Front Door"), and all frames are time and date stamped.

I have some custom scripts that manage disk space consumption, deleting the oldest data when drive capacity goes below a set level. I can maintain several week's worth of data in normal conditions. I monitor my setup with a secured Apache setup that groks the file layout, and provides some additional telemetry.

If you need to view data in realtime (normally, I don't), you can use something like Cambozola. If you look at the Motion email archives, you'll find postings on how to run multiple Cambozola applets in a single browser window.

You can do cool stuff, like linking motion detection alarms to scripts. When a known burglary suspect was seen casing the joint, I had some of the cameras send an email to page my phone when they detected motion. Some of the images captured were useful for the police in an ongoing investigation.

Also noteworthy, Motion has one of the friendliest and most helpful communities of any OS project I've been involved with. The mailing list is a great resource, and the maintainers will often go out of their way to help on even the most bone-headed newbie configuration questions on unsupported hardware.

Use the windows product

[np_bernstein]

I'm a unix administrator. I believe in unix's flexibility and open architecture allows for better system administration, and thus better service/uptime/etc. However, I also firmly believe in using the best tool for the job. If a windows system will allow you to do what you need to do with a minimal amount of work, and a linux solution is not available, or will require a lot of work, use the windows program. That's just common sense.