I’m planing on purchasin a licence but not till I can figure out if the cameras I’ll be using are compatible. Acording to your list one of the cameras I need isn’t compatible, Zmodo ZP-IBH13-W. Is it possible that the camera is compatible in some way but it’s not updated in the list, is it possible to manualy configure the camera or that you add supoort for that model?
Thanks.
Hi again!
I see that you have considered the model of camera. From the specifications of the cam this will be a good one. The million dollar question is how to connect to NCS or any other software. This is your lucky day since the camera comply to ONVIF. according to the specs. ONVIF is a standard that more and more of the IP cameras comply to for communication between surveillance software and the camera. The number of cameras have increased very quickly on the market and every manufacturer have their own protocol so it have become very difficult for users to use them . Therefore, the ONVIF standard was developed. It is primarily the URL that you enter in NCS that ONVIF helps you with. Since it comply to ONVIF there is no need for a predetermined template.
Do the following in NCS:
when you Add a new source use the tab ONVIF Source. Search for the cameras, provide username and password, Select profile and Save. Now you should have the video running. Now you can go to the tab Custom URL and there you see the URL how NCS communicates with the cam.
If NCS do not find the cam in the ONVIF tab you can still add it using the tab Custom URL, but it is a little bit more tricky to get it correct. The camera is rather well documented and I suggest the following settings:
Set Stream type to rtsp_tcp.
As URL use
rtsp://username:password@ipnumbertocamera:10554/tcp/av0_0
You might need to change 10554 to 554 . 554 is the standard port for rtsp, but sometimes they use 10554 so test.
av0_0 is a way to select channel and resolution. 0_0 is probably the best one to get 720p. In the manual or in the configuration of the camera you can find more information.
If you are using 5 of these cams in 720p and a high FPS, frame per second, in motion detection you must also think about the power of your computer. It is a lot of data to process and therefore a CPU that can handle that. It is difficult to say exactly which CPU since it depends on several parameters. If you already have a computer add one camera and see what happens with the CPU load, then add the next one and … to be able to monitor how the system reacts. This is also a good way to learn how motion detection and NCS works to get the most out of it.
Good luck and you know where to find me ;).,
-Henrik
Hi Henrik!
Thank you for your response. I’ll be using only one Zmodo ZP-IBH13-W—since it’ll be outdoors—and 6 D-Link DCS-930L—inside the house. I haven’t bought any of them actually but it’s the cameras that I think suits me best. It’s great news the Zmodo is also compatible.
With regards with the CPU, I haven’t a cumputer either—just yet—but my idea is to use motion detection in all 7 sources—maybe only in 5 to free the computer a bit. From what I can see it puts my personal computer to work quite a lot but it’s hard to measure as I’m using NCS in a virtual machine—running over my Mac. What can be considered enought CPU and RAM for what I need?
Thanks.
Even if I am a big fan of Mac running NCS on a virtual machine is nothing I would recommend. NCS need CPU power and RAM. 4 GB of RAM is probably ok and an i5 depending on what you do. With the VM you will certainly loos power and the Mac CPU must work a lot. However, it is very difficult to say so you have to test.
-Henrik