Oh man I didn't realize that when I last ran into this project.
I wonder how hard it would be to run your own streamer pipeline or whatnot on these things? How far a starting place do we get when we install our own Linux; do peripherals (camera networking) work or is there a bunch of special sauce in userland running half the hardware?
That's the problem right there: the Linux kernel situtation. As OP noted they just use the vendor's (long outdated) Linux kernel, with the vendor's (typically crap) kernel drivers. They just don't clean up that situation in that project, let alone try to mainline the drivers. It's where I thought I could help, but... see my other post on why that didn't work out.
With mainline-supported cameras using a standard API, a userland application that does streaming and all kinds of neat stuff is just much more doable IMHO.
They're not the only project that builds a ton of userland stuff on top of a rotten kernel foundation: oe-alliance has nine distros downstream from it, and hundreds of supported hardware platforms. As far as I can tell it's all ancient vendor kernels with un-upstreamable drivers.
> I wonder how hard it would be to run your own streamer pipeline or whatnot on these things?
Agree with the_biot: The actual streaming component is not too hard. If this were the biggest problem, I'd be thrilled to contribute to (or just write) an open source streaming server to complement my open source NVR. [1] The driver situation is indeed a bit harder—these things don't just have mainline Linux support with v4l2 for the video capture and encoding. Or open source drivers of any kind to crib from AFAIK.
The biggest problem IMHO is that there just aren't any good cameras to buy, even completely ignoring the software aspect. I want a camera that:
1. doesn't support genocide. Nothing that involves Dahua, Hikvision, or Huawei. See IPVM articles on the subject. And a lot of available cameras are relabeled Dahua/Hikvision stuff and/or use Huawei components.
2. is legal for sale / authorized for use in the US. (See the Secure Equipment Act of 2021.) Mostly this excludes the same companies.
3. has good night mode performance: IR/day switch, a sensor that is at least 1/1.8", reasonable resolution (somewhere from HD to 4k).
4. has an "eyeball" or "turret" form factor rather than "bullet". The latter seems to really attract spiders, so you end up with a really nice video of a web...
5. supports PoE.
6. is weatherized (IP54 or so).
7. is reasonably priced.
If you ignore #1 and #2, there's some nice hardware out there, but I'm not willing to do that. If you ignore #3, there are a few options (GeoVision, maybe Reolink, maybe Hanwha.) If you ignore #4 and #7, there might be a couple (Axis, maybe Hanwha.) Nothing that ticks all the boxes.
Hard to get excited about investing a lot in the software when the hardware isn't there.
jauntywundrkind|2 years ago
I wonder how hard it would be to run your own streamer pipeline or whatnot on these things? How far a starting place do we get when we install our own Linux; do peripherals (camera networking) work or is there a bunch of special sauce in userland running half the hardware?
the_biot|2 years ago
With mainline-supported cameras using a standard API, a userland application that does streaming and all kinds of neat stuff is just much more doable IMHO.
They're not the only project that builds a ton of userland stuff on top of a rotten kernel foundation: oe-alliance has nine distros downstream from it, and hundreds of supported hardware platforms. As far as I can tell it's all ancient vendor kernels with un-upstreamable drivers.
scottlamb|2 years ago
Agree with the_biot: The actual streaming component is not too hard. If this were the biggest problem, I'd be thrilled to contribute to (or just write) an open source streaming server to complement my open source NVR. [1] The driver situation is indeed a bit harder—these things don't just have mainline Linux support with v4l2 for the video capture and encoding. Or open source drivers of any kind to crib from AFAIK.
The biggest problem IMHO is that there just aren't any good cameras to buy, even completely ignoring the software aspect. I want a camera that:
1. doesn't support genocide. Nothing that involves Dahua, Hikvision, or Huawei. See IPVM articles on the subject. And a lot of available cameras are relabeled Dahua/Hikvision stuff and/or use Huawei components.
2. is legal for sale / authorized for use in the US. (See the Secure Equipment Act of 2021.) Mostly this excludes the same companies.
3. has good night mode performance: IR/day switch, a sensor that is at least 1/1.8", reasonable resolution (somewhere from HD to 4k).
4. has an "eyeball" or "turret" form factor rather than "bullet". The latter seems to really attract spiders, so you end up with a really nice video of a web...
5. supports PoE.
6. is weatherized (IP54 or so).
7. is reasonably priced.
If you ignore #1 and #2, there's some nice hardware out there, but I'm not willing to do that. If you ignore #3, there are a few options (GeoVision, maybe Reolink, maybe Hanwha.) If you ignore #4 and #7, there might be a couple (Axis, maybe Hanwha.) Nothing that ticks all the boxes.
Hard to get excited about investing a lot in the software when the hardware isn't there.
[1] https://github.com/scottlamb/moonfire-nvr