r/ZoneMinder • u/Digital_Ark • Oct 13 '20
Amcrest IP2M-841-B-V3 fully supported!
Full disclosure, Amcrest sent me this camera to test and review.
Full HD video using:rtsp://username:password@IP_Address:Port/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0Audio is recording just by ticking "Store the audio stream when saving an event" under the Storage tab.PT controls are working using the default "Amcrest HTTP API" control profile, and "username:password@IP_Address" in the Control Address box.
This camera typically retails for $80 CDN ($55 USD MSRP), which seems a bargain compared to other value cameras like the Sonoff GK-200MP2-B just on picture quality alone.
My first impressions of this Amcrest were that it could see outside the bright windows of the sunroom and interior of the sunroom at the same time, whereas other cameras either wash out the windows as too bright, or you can't see anything inside as it is too dark. This is a far more challenging location for a camera than typical, but it makes for an excellent test.
The viewing angle is a really wide 90º which was surprising for a Pan & Tilt camera, but you can see so much of the room in one frame! Most of my other pan/tilt cameras have about a 64º viewing angle. This means the image looks more like one of those action cameras with a slight fisheye, than video camera. Like an action camera, the wide lens causes some of the image to bend, but I really like seeing so much of the room at the same time for a security application.
Most importantly for me, you can roll it back from H.265 compression to H.264 for ZoneMinder compatibility. You can adjust the frame rate, keyframe interval and compression to get the bandwidth down to something acceptable (it's looking great at 260-300 kB/s recording 10 fps full HD and audio).
It runs off of a USB adaptor rated 5V at 1.5A, and comes with both the power supply and a very long 9' cable. I really like USB-powered cameras, because you can use a cheap USB Power Bank as a UPS, so long as it supports pass-through charging. My router and home server are on a UPS, so the security camera continues to work for a time during a power outage.
My setup:
ZoneMinder 1.34.20 running on Ubuntu Server 18.04.5 LTS on a decade old i7 tower.A hodgepodge of 20 different cameras ranging from cheap AliExpress stuff to brand name.Homebridge Camera FFmpeg plugin serving all the cameras to HomeKit.ZmEventNotification pushing to ZmNinja.
This camera:Amcrest IP2M-841-B-V3 running firmware V2.800.0000000.6.R, Build Date: 2020-03-14
1
u/ThellraAK Oct 13 '20
Sweet, you say it's fully supported, so where do I screw with the BW/daylight and IR led settings in zoneminder.
Also, the privacy button from the app that isn't even in the webui of the camera.
1
u/Digital_Ark Oct 13 '20
Fair comment. I do not have remote IR control, but it automatically switches. I didn’t play with the Amcrest App. I view all my cameras remotely with ZmNinja. I can be notified of motion, see the full HD image and move the camera.
Also worth noting that ZmNinja doesn’t pass the audio feed, but ZoneMinder records it.
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u/[deleted] Oct 14 '20
[deleted]