Hooking up old CVBS/AHD camera with frigates?

[TimedPing]

First of all, Happy holiday/Merry christmas and happy new year for all the member of LTT forum!

 

I have about 10 decommisioned CCTV camera that use CVBS-AHD (multiprotocol) stream via the BNC output, and I wonder can I stream the video to frigate (or other open source software) for recording? I dont want to buy a dedicated NVR/DVR for it, so I have several idea (but I didn't really know will it work:

1. Using several dirt cheap EasyCAP (Clone) capture USB card and hooking it up to USB port on my homelab server at once?
2. Also theres 4 in one DVR capture card, I know they need some janky software in windows, is there a software in linux that can just stream those video feed somehow?
3. More janky one, using composite to HDMI and capture it to cheap HDMI USB capture card? (will multiple identical HDMI capture card work simultaneously, at least on linux?)
4. Or I just gave it up and put the CCTV camera into storage bin in the attic?

What can I confirm so far is all the camera is working when I adapt the BNC to standard coaxial AV output hooked to my LCD TV (via the AV in jack). Have anyone have tried the same thing? I already crawled the internet and find very little information about this (especially on linux)... any response will be very appreciated!

[TimedPing]

Another weird side quest for the long weekend lol @Kanzaki Makoto

[Avebreaker]

On 12/28/2023 at 2:09 AM, TimedPing said:

First of all, Happy holiday/Merry christmas and happy new year for all the member of LTT forum!

 

I have about 10 decommisioned CCTV camera that use CVBS-AHD (multiprotocol) stream via the BNC output, and I wonder can I stream the video to frigate (or other open source software) for recording? I dont want to buy a dedicated NVR/DVR for it, so I have several idea (but I didn't really know will it work:

1. Using several dirt cheap EasyCAP (Clone) capture USB card and hooking it up to USB port on my homelab server at once?
2. Also theres 4 in one DVR capture card, I know they need some janky software in windows, is there a software in linux that can just stream those video feed somehow?
3. More janky one, using composite to HDMI and capture it to cheap HDMI USB capture card? (will multiple identical HDMI capture card work simultaneously, at least on linux?)
4. Or I just gave it up and put the CCTV camera into storage bin in the attic?

What can I confirm so far is all the camera is working when I adapt the BNC to standard coaxial AV output hooked to my LCD TV (via the AV in jack). Have anyone have tried the same thing? I already crawled the internet and find very little information about this (especially on linux)... any response will be very appreciated!

Last time i used that ezcap clone it tends to get really hot so easily, it was like 7 years ago. I'm afraid if one of the channel got something happening it could fried the chip. 

 

If im not wrong u can stream rtsp the cameras in dvr, u can test it with vlc stream. As it is in the onvif standard, the janky software is just that onvif compliance software. U can use it without the app, and frigate it self can stream from it. 

 

i believe there is some protection circuit in dvr at least if something happening not all of the channel goes bad. 

 

Cheers

  

[TimedPing]

3 hours ago, Avebreaker said:

Last time i used that ezcap clone it tends to get really hot so easily, it was like 7 years ago. I'm afraid if one of the channel got something happening it could fried the chip. 

 

If im not wrong u can stream rtsp the cameras in dvr, u can test it with vlc stream. As it is in the onvif standard, the janky software is just that onvif compliance software. U can use it without the app, and frigate it self can stream from it. 

 

i believe there is some protection circuit in dvr at least if something happening not all of the channel goes bad. 

 

Cheers

  

Thank you for your input!

Sadly I have 3 DVRs (2 of which can function as NVR) is all being software lock by the vendor, and is just basically a paperweight atm, well I can take onboard 6TB hdd inside each of them of course .

 

Yup, I think I will be forced to go with DVR route with RTSP stream capabilities, atleast for now, I'm not ready yet to spend $70 or more just for trying 1st and 2nd option

 

Anyway, welcome to the forum!

[Avebreaker]

2 hours ago, TimedPing said:

Thank you for your input!

Sadly I have 3 DVRs (2 of which can function as NVR) is all being software lock by the vendor, and is just basically a paperweight atm, well I can take onboard 6TB hdd inside each of them of course .

 

Yup, I think I will be forced to go with DVR route with RTSP stream capabilities, atleast for now, I'm not ready yet to spend $70 or more just for trying 1st and 2nd option

 

Anyway, welcome to the forum!

i think that's the best option to go, easy cap can only handle up to 720p . i used ez cap for my fpv drone camera back in 2017-2018. when i hooked it up to my ahd 1080p cctv camera it didnt show anything.  u should try with what you already have and see how it goes. 

 

The cool thing about frigate is that it has home assistant integration which can do a lot of things. sadly i dont have good server,  google coral tpu is really expensive and hard to get in my country. i used the cpu detector and the detection capabilty  is bad. my setup is 8 analog cameras and 4 ip camera, and my server can only handle the  ip cameras. i leave the analog cameras to my dvr, havent touch it for 3 years(installed it when covid happen)

 

Analog cctv camera is really cheap, now u can get a bundle of 4 cameras, dvr and hdd for less than 200 usd. Much cheaper than ip camera. the thing with analog camera is its prone to electrical noise and it does need some maintenance from time to time. really need to pay attention with the cable and electrical stuff, i think that's the most frustrating part, i wasted too much money and my time in that part.

 

[Needfuldoer]

Depending on the quality you're looking for, you may be better off buying used PoE cameras off eBay instead of adapting old analog cameras. Then you'd at least get native HD RTSP streams.

[TimedPing]

1 hour ago, Needfuldoer said:

Depending on the quality you're looking for, you may be better off buying used PoE cameras off eBay instead of adapting old analog cameras. Then you'd at least get native HD RTSP streams.

this solution just circles off the whole point of this question... well, I dont really need it right now, but I still want to know if its work. Currently I use ESP32 CAM with IR filter remove for survelliance, connected to Frigate in my homelab as NVR-DVR

[Kanzaki Makoto]

On 12/28/2023 at 2:11 AM, TimedPing said:

Another weird side quest for the long weekend lol @Kanzaki Makoto

Uh.. I'm not sure if I can help with this I don't think I've ever messed with CCTV cameras before

[Avebreaker]

On 1/3/2024 at 5:35 PM, Avebreaker said:

i think that's the best option to go, easy cap can only handle up to 720p . i used ez cap for my fpv drone camera back in 2017-2018. when i hooked it up to my ahd 1080p cctv camera it didnt show anything.  u should try with what you already have and see how it goes. 

 

The cool thing about frigate is that it has home assistant integration which can do a lot of things. sadly i dont have good server,  google coral tpu is really expensive and hard to get in my country. i used the cpu detector and the detection capabilty  is bad. my setup is 8 analog cameras and 4 ip camera, and my server can only handle the  ip cameras. i leave the analog cameras to my dvr, havent touch it for 3 years(installed it when covid happen)

 

Analog cctv camera is really cheap, now u can get a bundle of 4 cameras, dvr and hdd for less than 200 usd. Much cheaper than ip camera. the thing with analog camera is its prone to electrical noise and it does need some maintenance from time to time. really need to pay attention with the cable and electrical stuff, i think that's the most frustrating part, i wasted too much money and my time in that part.

 

i tried this in my yaml conf

 back:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://admin:mypass@192.168..:554/Streaming/Channels/102
          roles:
            - detect
            - rtmp
  gate:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://admin:mypass@192.168..:554/Streaming/Channels/102
          roles:
            - detect
            - rtmp

  dvr1:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://admin:mypass@192.168../Streaming/Channels/201
          roles:
            - rtmp
  dvr2:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://admin:mypass@192.168../Streaming/Channels/301
          roles:
            - rtmp
etc etc