Security cameras

[kjaerligkatt]

WhatÔÇÖs the recommended way to intergrate security cams into CQC? ┬áI seem to remember a discussion ┬áa while back about integration with some camera server, but cannot find it now. Maybe a dreamt that?

Also, any recommendations for both internal and external cameras, preferable wireless. 

The wife would go with Nest cams, but I just know thatÔÇÖs not going to be a good, or even supported option┬á

Thx

[Dean Roddey]

A lot of folks use Blue Iris. But, if they put out some reasonably well supported stream format, you can view them directly within CQC as well. Blue Iris will do transcoding and re-transmission of streams as well I think.

[sic0048]

I just loaded up Shinobi and started using it with my cameras.  Shinobi is just a couple of years old, but I think it has finally hit the point where it is stable enough to use.  The Pro version is free for personal home use.

That being said, I don't try to integrate Shinobi into CQC.  I simply use a web camera widget in my IV that points to the RTSP stream of the camera.  I have buttons for each camera that will load the web camera widget with the applicable stream.  The downside is that it is a little slow to load a stream initially (probably 8-10 seconds), so I may look into trying to integrate a stream from Shinobi to see if it will load any faster.  SEE UPDATE BELOW

On a side note, Shinobi will accept GET messages, so it would be super easy to use CQC as a trigger in Shinobi.  For example, if I wanted to record interior cameras feeds on a motion event (motion being triggered in Shinobi, not by a stand alone motion detector) when the alarm is set to away or vacation mode but not when the alarm is in disarmed/home/night modes, it would be easy to accomplish this using CQC and Shinobi.

EDIT - this post motivated me to see if the Shinobi stream would be any faster to load than the RTSP camera stream, so I played with it some.  I have to report that the Shinobi stream does load into the web camera widget a little faster than the raw RTSP stream (probably 4-6 seconds instead of 8-10).  There is no noticeable difference in the quality.  So for the time being, I'm going to have the Shinobi stream load into CQC.

[Shaky]

This looks interesting.  I think I may try and give this a go over the holidays if I can make time.  Looks to be Mac or Linux based OS I think.  Works for me (currently run Zoneminder using RTSP feeds in CQC via the VLC helper) . Or did I miss that it has Windows compatibility too?  Thanks for posting I hadn't heard of this.  You should start another thread with how you got the streams directly in vs RTSP and any other tips maybe.

[znelbok]

BI also supports GET commands etc. An API has been written for BI and I currently have CQC telling it which mode to go into when the alarm is armed and disarmed.

BI also suports MQTT now as well - so movement can send a MQTT or HTTP GET request. CQC can only work with the GET request currently but MQTT would be so much more flexible.

I also stream the images from BI to my interfaces (slow update rate) and I can trigger any camera to record from CQC.

I cant see what else is needed from BI at the moment

[kjaerligkatt]

Thank you for both suggestions - I'll have a play with both over the holidays.

[sic0048]

You should start another thread with how you got the streams directly in vs RTSP and any other tips maybe.

If you are asking about how to get them into CQC, it's easy. Now that Dean has created a "Web Camera" widget, you simply point it at the same rtsp address that you use for vlc. If you are asking about Shinobi, they have a unique http address for each stream (called a monitor in Shinobi) that I can use with the web camera widget. I'm not sure how you were using the vlc helper, but with the web camera wdget you don't need to use it.

[Shaky]

If you are asking about how to get them into CQC, it's easy.  Now that Dean has created a "Web Camera" widget, you simply point it at the same rtsp address that you use for vlc.  If you are asking about Shinobi, they have a unique http address for each stream (called a monitor in Shinobi) that I can use with the web camera widget.  I'm not sure how you were using the vlc helper, but with the web camera wdget you don't need to use it.

Yeah I guess I was meaning the web camera widget, that's what I'm using too with Zoneminder.  Sounds easy enough with the Shinobi unique address then.  I'm sure I can figure it out.

[sic0048]

If you are asking about how to get them into CQC, it's easy.  Now that Dean has created a "Web Camera" widget, you simply point it at the same rtsp address that you use for vlc.  If you are asking about Shinobi, they have a unique http address for each stream (called a monitor in Shinobi) that I can use with the web camera widget.  I'm not sure how you were using the vlc helper, but with the web camera wdget you don't need to use it.

Yeah I guess I was meaning the web camera widget, that's what I'm using too with Zoneminder.  Sounds easy enough with the Shinobi unique address then.  I'm sure I can figure it out.

Just follow this shinobi article.  It talks about using vlc, but the address will work exactly the same in CQC with the web camera widget.

https://shinobi.video/articles/2018-05-1...eam-in-vlc

[znelbok]

how do you add a username and password to the url needed for CQC. The help file talks about parameters and then goes not to say that there is only one parameter available - CustAR

"The currently available values are as listed below, but of course not all of them may be applicable for any given camera:

CustAR - This allows you to set a custom aspect ratio, so something like CustAR=4:3 and so forth. Otherwise you get the aspect ratio of the actual incoming video content. Typically you'd want to use the actual AR, but in some cases you might want to force it."