ONVIF Support

[skydiverscott]

Does the new version of ZM support ONVIF cameras?

[knight-of-ni]

It depends what you mean. Technically speaking all versions of zoneminder support acquiring a stream from an onvif camera as long as the camera does not require digest authentication. However, there are no plans that I am aware of to explicitly support any of the other features laid out in the onvif specification.

[skydiverscott]

I am getting a review version of a Plustek VS 540I video encoder
http://plusteksecurity.com/products/video-servers/vs-540i/specs.html. 4
ports for 200, 120 fps. They have an open API for the device. If I get
this to test who can help to craft a device plugin?

Scott R. Morgan
512-762-7675 Cell
skydiver@srmservices.com
www.scottrobertmorgan.com

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It depends what you mean. Technically speaking all versions of zoneminder
support acquiring a stream from an onvif camera as long as the camera does
not require digest authentication. However, there are no plans that I am
aware of to explicitly support any of the other features laid out in the
onvif specification.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[skydiverscott]

The ONVIF specification also provides for functionality like PTZ, setting configuration of the ONVIF devices, etc. I primarily want to try to get the very low cost ($275 USD) 8 port/120fps analog to IP based encoder to work so we can upgrade several sites to IP based monitors running the Zoneminder instance in a VM. This device supports RS485 for PTZ control, video out, etc. It has a very complete set of high end functionality at a price that is unbeatable.
If I can get the API documentation for the device, how do I go about getting the code implemented like the Axis devices are implemented?

[knight-of-ni]

Generally speaking, Zoneminder is already capable of supporting devices like the one described. It doesn't matter if the device is ONVIF compliant or not.

The caveats one must look out for are:

1. Devices that will only work with IE running an ActiveX module (zoneminder will never support these)
2. Devices that require digest authentication (a valid deficiency that will be addressed in the future)

To go about getting your device to work with Zoneminder, you must determine the:

1. video stream url
2. ptz control url for each and every command accepted by the device

The API documentation is a valuable tool to figuring these out, as is looking directly at the html source of the device's web page and running a good ole' Wireshark session to see what is being sent to the camera.

Once you know the url's, enter the video stream url into your monitor configuration. The ptz control url's are a bit more complicated, however. You must write a ptz control script, in perl, to support the camera commands. This is often done by editing an existing ptz control script.

Lastly, if you do get this device working and post the programming steps into the forum, I will be glad to add this into the zoneminder source tree as a camera preset.

[skydiverscott]

I have the rtsp stream urls from eh manufacturer and have posted a support question on the forums but haven't been able to elicit any help yet. With the new git repository, where is the best place to seek assistance?

[knight-of-ni]

Yes, the best place for that kind of help is the forums. Care to post the link to the thread?

[skydiverscott]

http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=21447&p=81430#p81430

[kylejohnson]

@skydiverscott As @knnniggett mentioned, try using port 554. Also try using RTP/RTSP as the Source Method instead of RTP/RTSP/HTTP. I would try both Source Methods with port 554.

With that said, once #174 is merged, you may have better success with these cameras.

[skydiverscott]

I actually have the manufacturer/developers of this device working to get it to work with Zoneminder:
"I got feedbacks from our developers:
Both ZoneMinder v1.24.2 and 1.25.0, tested with rtsp and ffmpeg, all failed.
It seems that ZoneMinder does not allow user to use user id and password to connect IP cam or video encoder. We also tested Axis camera by using RTSP, it also need to use anonymous to get connected. We also try to follow the discussions over at the forum, tried to add user id and password for the ffmpeg and rtsp but still not working.
rtsp://username:password@serverip/v1m
If we use VLC, everything is working as expected. Do you know if there is any other way to connect with Zoneminder? Or any technical person in Zoneminder who we can contact to address this issue?
Another possibility is that our developer can create a commandline for link with Zoneminder, but this will also need to know Zoneminder syntax to follow…"

I think it is great that we have a manufacturer looking to be able to natively support Zoneminder. Anybody here that can assist with this product manufacturer with some troubleshooting?

[knight-of-ni]

Translation:
The device's video stream is trying to use digest authentication, which zoneminder doesn't support.

That's why I suggested earlier to try and turn off authentication altogether during the testing process so we could see if there were any other issues.

As a workaround, I suggest you ask the manufacturer if they can release a firmware that allows you to turn off authentication. Yes, that means anyone can get into it (so make sure it is behind a firewall).

I acknowledge that this is an issue that ultimately should be addressed in zoneminder, but at the moment I am not aware of anyone who is working on it.

Labelling this a duplicate of issue #30

[kylejohnson]

Another user recommended that we switch over to use libcurl for authentication, which does support digest. This is a good idea (tm) howeer as @knnniggett said, no one is currently working on it. Feel free to contribute. ;)

[mastertheknife]

Adding libcurl is on my todo list. We definitely need it.

[kylejohnson]

So what exactly needs to be implemented in ZoneMinder to say that we support ONVIF cameras?

Referencing #238