You can use pretty much any camera with ZoneMinder as long as it supports ONVIF or RTSP and has the right connectivity and power inputs for you. I did something similar with some cheap TP-link cameras with pretty good results. With motion activated recording, I have just shy of 12 month of recordings stored on a 500G SSD.
this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
92 points (97.9% liked)
Selfhosted
39931 readers
463 users here now
A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.
Rules:
-
Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.
-
No spam posting.
-
Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it's not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.
-
Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.
-
Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).
-
No trolling.
Resources:
- selfh.st Newsletter and index of selfhosted software and apps
- awesome-selfhosted software
- awesome-sysadmin resources
- Self-Hosted Podcast from Jupiter Broadcasting
Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.
Questions? DM the mods!
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
How did you get 12 months onto just 500 Gb? I only have a couple weeks worth on a 1 Tb ☹️ I'm using wyze cams w/ agent i-spy. I assume I need to upgrade my compression skills here.
Motion activated recordings.
Continuouse, even h265 recordings, can only 2 weeks or so per terabyte.
Motion activated means he is probably recording 30 minutes per day vs 24 hours.
Ahhh that makes sense. Yea I'm on continuous.
I use Reolink cams with BlueIris software. None of it has access to the internet. Works fine.
Reolink looks like a solid answer, thanks.
Do additional research on the models you’re interested in. Unfortunately they don’t all play nice with 3rd party software but the ones that use open standards are good bang for the buck.
Can vouch for this. Been using a bunch of Reolink cameras with BI for years. Be careful with Reolink, though. Some cameras work fine and some don't at all, unless you use some middleman software, which is still hit or miss. Ran into this recently with a camera I got for my garage.
Edit: The Reolink Lumus line is NOT compatible. They don't broadcast rtsp.
The wireless wifi Reolink cameras won't work the way OP wants, only the poe ones have rtsp
I have a mix of wifi and POE cameras and they all work for me.
2 of my Reolinks are on Wi-Fi and work fine. It depends on the model.
I also use this exact setup, works great!
Most cameras are self hosted but they are not marketed to consumers because they require running cables to them either for power and/or data.
Reolink camera with onvif so support can be connected to Frigate or Shinobi.
Hikvison and Dahua are common Chinese brands that have lots of options across lots of prices points but are treated as insecure or hostile iot devices required closed networks.
Costco often has camera and NVR packages that are passable.
Whenever possible make sure any camera you get is onvif so you can use it with any NVR or software.
HIkvision is great. Good value for money. Just do not use the app to configure them, use web gui. And yes, they need to be isolated from rest of network and the internet ( as pretty much any cameras).
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| AP | WiFi Access Point |
| IP | Internet Protocol |
| IoT | Internet of Things for device controllers |
| NAS | Network-Attached Storage |
| NVR | Network Video Recorder (generally for CCTV) |
| PoE | Power over Ethernet |
| SSD | Solid State Drive mass storage |
| SSH | Secure Shell for remote terminal access |
| Unifi | Ubiquiti WiFi hardware brand |
| VPN | Virtual Private Network |
[Thread #289 for this sub, first seen 18th Nov 2023, 23:15] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
Missed at least two of the more important ones:
| Fewer Letters | More Letter |
|---|---|
| RTSP | Real Time Streaming Protocol |
| ONVIF | Open Network Video Interface Forum |
Still a pretty cool bit idea though. Keep at it!
UniFi
I personally recommend against UniFi for security now. Their software just isn't great anymore, and you can't really "selfhost" the protect. You have to have one of their proprietary boxes hosting the protect software. I'm not 100% against that - but I was not aware of that when I bought the first camera and had to buy the box.
As for the software, it's honestly just buggy and laggy. I'm in their system now, but if I could do it all again I'd look at others.
I'm somewhat stuck on Unifi for wifi APs and Routers, because all the other consumer-grade devices can't handle the number of small IoT devices I've got. Netgear and Asus just lose connections with ESP devices and refuse to let them connect after about a dozen. The commercial grade stuff, in addition to being too expensive, is all rack mounted, high power draw and noisy af.
Aside from the fact that my stuff seems stable on the Ubiquiti hardware, I hate the products. The interface is terrible, Unifi insists on hiding the advanced networking behind a halfass gui, the SSH console lacks half the features of even that terrible gui, and every time i try to create a new routed network, the wifi devices stop connecting.
I use unifi for wifi because honestly I like the dashboard.
But.. for anything layer 3, I'm using MikroTik. It's extremely powerful without actually running your own router, and many are Poe as well. I'm running a RB5009 which is overkill for me.
I chose RB5009 because it runs DoH, ZeroTier, sub interfaces, it's rack mountable, passively cooled, poe capable, and can handle up to 2.5gb symmetrical. I just wish they had 2 x SFPs so I can use a full 10gb WAN
Was about to mention Mikrotik. They even have a 100GBit switch for under $800 (CRS504-4XQ-IN).
You have to have one of their proprietary boxes hosting the protect software
This was the biggest bummer for me that convinced me not to get into the Unify ecosystem. I already have a robust storage solution at home, I just want to point the cameras to a docker container running on my host with all the storage.
Nah, their software is so infuriating to work with. Even when an SSD it falls to load video clips. Often I have to restart unifi protect on the console or even ssh into it to do and apt update/upgrade to get it working again.
Self hosted might be a little better, but I'm not holding my breath.
Look for something that can do rtsp streaming. Reolink, amcrest, ect. Its all cheap Chinese cameras that almost definitely dial out to some Chinese server.
What I do is have all cameras connected on a wireless router with no internet, use zoneminder on a Linux that is connected to my home network via Ethernet and the camera network via WiFi, and allow https into my home network from my VPN
I do the same but with Blue Iris and Windows but yeah I keep those cheap China cams off the Internet.
If you’re looking for something more or less in the same footprint, I understand those cheap Wyze cameras can be used. There are alternative firmwares available that can be flashed to them to open up the rtsp stream to whatever self-hosted recorder you’d like. Haven’t tried it, but have heard it mentioned on the Self Hosted podcast.
Frigate is amazing, that's what I'd recommend. I'm using a 5MP Amcrest camera, works very well. The dev doesn't recommend Reolink.
Hikvision are also just rebranded amcrest sold cheaper for consumers. You have to isolate them from the internet, but that goes for pretty much every IP camera.
I've been running https://demo.scrypted.app for a few months. It's pretty slick.
Yeah it looks pretty slick but not so much slicker than Frigate that I will pay to be in the beta. :)
One of the easier options is going to be Ubiquiti's ecosystem. You'll be tied into it, but the video data is local. You can self-host the Unifi software yourself or grab a Cloud Key G2 Plus, which is a tiny ARM box running Ubiquiti's software. Then you buy Ubiquiti's cameras. At least as of a couple years ago, you could not pair this with any standard camera though.
If you want a fair bit more effort but more flexibility, Zoneminder is an option. Most Amcrest cameras stream a feed over RTSP. You just need to configure Zoneminder to stream the feed.
I already hate Ubiquiti's Unifi networking that I got myself stuck with. I won't do any of their other products.
Whys that? Stability has improved the last few years, and the value cant be beat with UDM pro and even their lowest cost camera options.
Then there’s the second option I provided with Zoneminder and Amcrest cameras.
Does Ubiquiti qualify?
They do but are a poor value next to most other options.
They are an excellent value next to most other otpions if youve ever actually implemented more than one solution.
I have and I have done unifi. I don't like being restricted to their NVR or software solutions because it means I to toss the cameras if I want to extend solution with things like ptz or verifocal cameras. Want to add ai/ml detection sorry can't do...
Unifi is good for some people but it's not the solution for everyone. Reolink can also offer similar ecosystem experiences but also while letting you expand your system if wanted.
You can use Zoneminder with pretty much any cameras that work with Linux.
Not sure about wifi cameras, I have a mix of Trendnet and Hikivision POE, sitting on a Vlan with no internet access. For the software I use Blue Iris. Where I have a need for cameras I have only a Windows server and I have found this software to be the best for me.
Many selfhosted NVRs have been suggested. Personally ive tried:
iSpy
Frigate
Zoneminder
Shinobi
Ended up settling on zoneminder at this stage.
For cameras themselves i just want to point out the OpenIPC project - opensource firmware if youre technically inclined
Edit: I'm hesitant to recomment OpenIPC now since the main streamer is closed source. Thingino is fully open and developed by some of the devs who didn't agree with the closed source portion
What do you mean "self-hosted security camera" exactly? Open source camera? DIY camera?
Or are you looking for self-hosted NVR software? If so, many people already gave you suggestions. My recommendation - don't focus on ZoneMinder. It's ugly software. Instead, use Shinobi for more classic software or Frigate with Google TPU accelerator. Both lightweight enough.
Myself I have a mix of HikVision and Dahua, recorded/analyzed by Frugate. Everything works like a charm.
And also, I've disabled internet access for all the cameras, so they couldn't call home. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I had no real idea how to phrase it, but all these posts have helped. What I was actually focused on when I posted was mainly hardware that can do what the Arlo cameras do:
- Wifi + battery/solar my house is old and hardwires are a pain in the ass.
- High def, preferably 4k, but 1080 is ok.
- Night vision, color or not doesn't matter
- Motion-activated, and preferably some way to filter out and not trigger on things like passing traffic cars.
- As small a form-factor as possible.
The Reolink hardware mentioned below seems to fit the bill hardware-wise.
I hadn't even really considered the software, as I don't need a lot of features. All I need is to use motion-activated capture to stream to some local storage, and an ability to view a live-stream when I want one. But it looks like there's a lot of options I need to consider.
You're looking for a self-hosted NVR (Network Video Recorder). The best I've found and use in a number of customer's is Blue Iris, and it'll work with any ONVIF-enabled cameras, but it costs 100/yr and only runs on a windows machine. I have desperately tried open-source NVRs that will work on Linux but none of them are even in the same universe as Blue Iris for functionality and ease of use.
Wireless cameras are generally terrible so if you can hardwire them in any way, I would go with that. People have had fairly good luck with Wyse cameras for wireless, I can't speak to it. See the Selfhosted Podcast for various discussions on cameras to use with NVRs, with a focus on Blue Iris.
I have desperately tried open-source NVRs that will work on Linux but none of them are even in the same universe as Blue Iris for functionality and ease of use.
Have you tried Shinobi? I've used it for quite some time until I switched to Frigate. It isn't broken tho.
Also, anything special with Blue Iris? Note that it can be ran on Linux because there is Docker image that uses wine.
I did have it working under Wine myself, not with docker. The docker image is news to me, I might have to give it a try. What I did notice about running under Wine was that the web interface wouldn't load the good quality version, just the basic HTML version with the sad camera controls and interface. It worked, but wasn't great.
I did try Shinobi, it had a really odd interface. While it worked, I did not find it enjoyable to use and it was pretty rudimentary compared to BI.
For NVR - it looks like you are after Frigate with object detection.
For cameras - as long as it has RTSP support, then you should be fine. Doesn't really matter of what kind of brand it is. You can always block internet access for a camera in your router.
view more: next ›