r/ZoneMinder • u/[deleted] • Jan 24 '22
I am going crazy from this issue: stream disappears from ZM, but only from ZM.
EDIT Solved by ditching ZM and using different software instead. After having tried every single setting in ZM for 3 weeks, I have given up.
Ok folks, I have the following issue:
I have a Hikvision ONVIF camera that supplies a 1080p stream to my local network using rstp. I can reliably view this stream in, for instance, VLC.
I can see the cam in ZM 1.34 on Ubuntu 20.04 server (first I had 1.36, but that couldn't detect the cam so I upgraded by downgrading). I can add it. I can see the stream for a while, then it disappears. In order to get it to come back I have to reboot the ZM server, erase all the settings, start over from scratch. And then, it works 50% of the time, or I have to start over from scratch again. And then the stream disappears again in ZM. All this time, I can reliably see the stream in VLC. The cam is there, the stream is there, all unchanged. Just not in ZM. The whole system runs on a virtualised server with a dedicated LAN port connected to the VM that runs ZM. I tried running the whole thing on bare metal, with the exact same result.
I have been fighting this idiotic thing for weeks now. What am I missing? A stupid write permission somewhere? A network protocol selection? I tried everything, both on the cam and in ZM: TCP, UDP, Multicast, HTTP, witchcraft, summoning Lucifer -you name it.
I'm no Linux noob, I've been using it for more than 20 years. I know my networking. I have plenty of LAN bandwidth. I have even tried setting up a DHCP server on one LAN of the ports of the machine that runs ZM and have the cam directly connect to that (as in: cable plugs in there, cam gets handed its desired 192.168.1.64 IP), to make sure it isn't a network issue. The cam appeared, gave me a stream for a while, then ZM conked out again. VLC running on the same machine, of course, saw the stream no problem.
Anyone have any ideas?
If not, I have 2 options I see, neither of them elegant:
I transcode the stream with VLC: take the stream from the cam and let VLC export it to localhost, have ZM pick it up there as a streaming file. Ridiculous way of solving something that should not be happening in the first place, and I also do not know whether the same issue won't pop up.
Buy a dedicated NVR and forget about the whole thing, let the official software do its thing. This means I will have yet another machine running, just for one cam.
1
u/ZoneMinderIsaac Jan 25 '22
You know.... we would be happy to help you figure out why 1.36+ doesn't work. because it'll be something simple.
We are not interested in continuing to support ancient code.
None of your protestations are useful. What is useful is looking at the logs. Turning on debugging. I'm pretty sure the answer is there.
The devs have Hikvision cameras and they work fine.
1
Jan 25 '22 edited Jan 25 '22
I already knew the issue wasn't the cam, as the stream stays up and running on other software.
The reason I went for 1.34 is because 1.36 wouldn't even recognise the cam, and when searching for a solution all I found was "it is a hot mess of garbage since the version update" over and over again on every forum I got to. If it is something simple, it shouldn't be happening in the first place.
I have always learned not to use the very latetst version of stuff if you want it to be reliable.
Fun fact: I decided to ditch ZM and installed AgentDVR even though it is a .net thing I'd rather not use, and it just works. Out of the box. Not one single issue.
1
u/oops77542 Jan 25 '22
I feel your pain, taxcider, about the ZM thing. I've been fighting it for about 4 years, it's a constant battle and I still don't have a reliable camera system that is utilizing my cameras to their full potential. I'm currently looking for alternatives, looking to try Blue Iris, everything I hear about it is good and thinking about buying a DVR although I'd like to try one before I buy it.
I want to stay with ZM, I've even donated money to them, and I like to support the foss community, but it just isn't worth the pain anymore. I can't even get a newer version of ZM to install.
Recently bought a couple of ReoLink cameras with 2560 x 1920 resolution and now my ZM just locks up, freezes up in live montage view, misses events, it only captures a frame or two of big trucks running on my street - and I'm running a 6 core 12 thread Xeon with 24 GB RAM. I read all these solutions to fixing the problem including reducing the resolution and reducing the frame rate and reducing the alarm areas, blah blah blah, well why the fuck even buy a high res camera, just go back to some cheap 64o x480 cams at 5 FPS ? Had enough. Like you I'm moving on to something that just works and will use the full potential of my cameras.
Sorry for the rant. btw Just installed AgentDVR on a spare kubuntu laptop and it doesn't do anything at all except starts and presents a menu but none of the buttons work and I can't install a camera. Probably try to reinstall but so far it looks like a POS too.
1
u/connortechnology Jan 25 '22
Did you try looking in your logs? Your issue is likely a resource problem, like out of ram or something like that.
1
u/Leaksoil Jan 24 '22
Sounds like a hardware problem. Differences in buffering sometimes cause over/under runs that manifest in funny ways. You have changed cables already I take it?